After the right to vote was extended to all races by the enactment of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a number of states enacted poll tax laws as a device for restricting voting rights. ... The poll tax requirements applied to whites as well as blacks, and also adversely affected poor citizens.
What did the poll tax replace?
It provided for a single flat-rate, per-capita tax on every adult, at a rate set by the local authority. The charge was replaced by Council Tax in 1993, two years after its abolition was announced.
What was a poll tax and its purpose?
In the United States, voting poll taxes (whose payment was a precondition to voting in an election) have been used to disenfranchise impoverished and minority voters (especially under Reconstruction).
What was the purpose of the poll tax quizlet?
Ex: the purpose of the poll tax was to prevent African-Americans from voting . This was because many of them were sharecroppers and thus were poor. Ex: With poll taxes, poor people were discriminated because they were too poor to pay.
Why did some states adopt a poll tax after the Fifteenth Amendment was adopted?
After Reconstruction (1865–1877)—the twelve-year period of rebuilding that followed the American Civil War (1861–1865)—many southern states passed poll taxes in an effort to keep African Americans from voting .
Does poll tax still exist?
Not long ago, citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in a national election. This fee was called a poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the United States ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials.
How much did poll tax cost?
| State Cost Repeal | Alabama $1.50 1966 | Arkansas $1.00 1964 | California $2.00 1914 | Connecticut ? 1947 |
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What is the difference between an excise tax and a sales tax?
Excise taxes are sales taxes that apply to particular products. ... Unlike general sales taxes, excise taxes are usually applied on a per-unit basis instead of as a percentage of the purchase price. For instance, cigarette excise taxes are calculated in cents per pack.
Why did the poll tax ordinance fail?
One of the causes of the failure of the Poll Tax was the diversion of the fund for purposes other than were slated for in the Ordinance . The funds were meant to provide social amenities for the people of the Southern states but part of it was rather being diverted to pay salaries for the Civil Servants.
Who invented council tax?
Over 25 years after John Major introduced council tax as a quick fix to replace the poll tax, Margaret Thatcher’s greatest political miscalculation, it has become a permanent fixture in England.
What was the significance of the Plessy v Ferguson case quizlet?
Plessy v. Ferguson was a landmark 1896 U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld the constitutionality of racial segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine . The case stemmed from an 1892 incident in which African-American train passenger Homer Plessy refused to sit in a car for blacks.
What was the grandfather clause quizlet?
The Grandfather Clause was a provision that allowed a voter to avoid a literacy test if his father or grandfather had been eligible to vote on January 1st, 1867 . This allowed illiterate white males to vote because they didn’t have to pass the literacy test.
What was the white primary quizlet?
A policy in educational admissions or job hiring that gives special attention or compensatory treatment to traditionally disadvantaged groups in an effort to overcome present effects of past discrimination.
What stipulates that poll taxes are illegal quizlet?
Poll taxes were declared void by the Twenty-fourth Amendment in 1964 . It outlawed taxing voters, i.e. poll taxes, at presidential or congressional elections, as an effort to remove barriers to Black voters.
What is the 14th Amendment in simple terms?
The 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ratified in 1868, granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States—including former enslaved people—and guaranteed all citizens “equal protection of the laws .” One of three amendments passed during the Reconstruction era to abolish slavery and ...
What does the 26 Amendment say?
The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.
