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- Poll Tax Eliminated 24th Amendment
- By Jonah Steinberg-Vigil
- My name is Bill and I will be your guide as we explore the 24th Amendment.
- The 24th Amendment states that "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 poll tax or other tax. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation" (constiutioncenter.org). Follow me.
- Now let us go back in time to see why the 24th Amendment was added to the Constitution.
- The Fifteenth Amendment gave black people the right to vote and freed all black slaves. It was ratified in 1870 after the Civil War. But did it really give them the right to vote?
- You are free and can vote. What?!
- 15th amendment
- To prevent black people from voting, some states rewrote their constitutions to add obstacles to the voting process which made it harder for them to vote.
- Please let me vote.
- NO!
- Law, blacks can't vote.
- NO!
- Jim Crow laws were a collection of state and local laws that legalized racial segregation and started to appear around 1865. These laws enforced segregation between blacks and whites in public places such as restaurants, restrooms, transportation, and schools. They also made it difficult for black people to vote by enforcing literacy tests, enforcing grandfather clauses, having white-only elections, and requiring the poll taxes.
- I here by declare that Jim Crow Laws are put into effect.
- Some states had poll taxes, which were basically fees charging people to vote. Poor people were affected the most, prohibiting them from voting. Many blacks could not afford to vote. This even affected low-income women.
- The Nineteenth Amendment gave women the right to vote, and it was ratified in 1920.
- 19th Amendment
- The poll tax was so effective at keeping black people from voting because they often didn’t have the money and couldn't pay the tax.
- Vote
- No votes for you.
- poll taxes
- voting place
- Senator Spessard Lindsey Holland of Florida proposed the 24th Amendment and many people were not happy.
- I just proposed the 24th Amendment. I'm going to make sure it doesn't pass the Senate!
- Some people wanted the 24th Amendment to become law while others preferred that the poll taxes stayed in place. Many of the people who wanted the poll tax in place were ex-confederate soldiers. They believed in segregation. The people who wanted the 24th Amendment to become law were mostly from the former Union states.
- Get rid of the poll tax. No, keep the poll tax.
- President Johnson signed the 24th Amendment on Jan. 23, 1964. Martin Luther King Junior, along with many other civil rights leaders, was present for the signing of the 24th Amendment.
- “Nothing is so valuable as liberty and nothing is so necessary to liberty as the freedom to vote without bans or barriers. There can be no one too poor to vote.” (nytimes.com)
- Thank you, sir.
- 24th Amendment
- NO!
- When the poll taxes were declared illegal, people who supported the poll taxes were disappointed and angry.
- I here by declare that poll taxes are illegal.
- In Mobile Alabama, white democrats who supported the poll tax went so far as aiming a cannon at black citizens who were lined up to vote forcing them to flee for their safety.
- voting place
- NO VOTES!
- Even though requiring a poll tax is illegal, some states found ways to prevent people from voting. In present-day Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that required felons to pay a fee if they wanted their voting rights restored. Many consider this a modern poll tax. It was signed on June 28th, 2019.
- REMOVE THAT BILL! NO!
- When this was signed into law many civil rights groups were not happy.
- YOU MADE A POLL TAX! NO I DID NOT!
- Some voting rights groups filed lawsuits challenging the new law SB7066. One of these civil rights groups was the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida. In 2020, a federal court declared this law unconstitutional.
- Law SB7066 IS a poll tax! Law SB7066 is NOT a poll tax!
- I feel that the 24th Amendment should always be in the Constitution because the right to vote is a God-given right. It is a right that all people should have and it should not be taken away because you can't pay a poll tax. Also, you should not be able to tax the right to vote that's just wrong. You should not have to pay for one of your rights and it also gives power to the wealthy.
- Jonah why do you feel this amendment is sacred?
- Now do you see why the 24th amendment is so important to this country?
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