A required payment imposed as a prerequisite to register or cast a ballot, primarily used in Southern states after Reconstruction to disenfranchise Black and poor white citizens. Congress barred it for federal elections via the Twenty-fourth Amendment (1964) and the Supreme Court invalidated its use in state elections in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections (1966) under the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
Topic 3.6: 3.6 Amendments: Balancing Individual Freedom with Public Order and Safety
Unit 3