On August 27, 1962, Congress approved the Twenty-fourth Amendment, which banned poll taxes, a type of fee that people were required to pay before they could vote in elections. The amendment was ratified on January 23, 1964.
The 24th Amendment states:
Section 1
The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
Section 2
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
In the wake of the Civil War, a handful of southern states introduced poll taxes to raise revenue – and to make it difficult if not impossible for poor Americans, especially blacks, to vote. When the House passed the amendment by a vote of 295 to 86, five states still had poll taxes: Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia.
Critics of the 24th Amendment argued it failed to protect black voters because it technically only applied to federal elections. “If we’re going to have a constitutional amendment, let’s have a meaningful one,” New York Rep. John Lindsay said at the time.
After the amendment was ratified, President Lyndon B. Johnson said it was evidence that the American people believe “nothing is so valuable as liberty, and nothing is so necessary to liberty as the freedom to vote without bans or barriers.”
“There can now be no one too poor to vote. There is no longer a tax on his rights. The only enemy to voting that we face today is indifference,” he continued. “Too many of our citizens treat casually what other people in other lands are ready to die for.”
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