Civil rights groups have argued that forcing felons emerging from the criminal justice system to pay debilitating penalties is unconstitutional and equates simply to a poll tax.

Poll taxes belong to an ugly chapter in U.S. race relations. ... and robbed blacks and other minorities of their political and civil rights. The new voter ID laws are, ...

Poll taxes continued into the 20th century. As of 1964, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Texas and Virginia clung to poll taxes, reported the New York Times in a Jan. 24, 1964 article.

Poll taxes were fees levied at polling places from the Reconstruction Era through the Civil Rights Era. They prevented many Black and low-income voters from voting.

Poll Tax Payment Certificate from the state of Alabama African American Museum. Click to open image viewer. CC0 Usage Conditions Apply Click for more information. Click to view download files. Click ...

Louissaint also spoke with historian Barry McNealy, who serves as the historical context expert for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. “The poll tax was used to discourage Black people from ...

The Civil Rights Act was signed into law on July 2, 1964. ... It also made tactics aimed at preventing Black people from voting, such as literacy tests and poll taxes, illegal.

Poll taxes were fees levied at polling places from the Reconstruction Era through the Civil Rights Era. They prevented many Black and low-income voters from voting.

The sacrifices of countless people in American history would ultimately pay off in 1965 when the Voting Rights Act passed. McNealy says that’s when poll taxes were deemed unconstitutional.

Alabama (WVTM) — Loretta Green is a walking history lesson, and she’s gone viral because of it. The 89-year-old is taking her Alabama poll tax exempt certificate from 1960 to voting rallies ...