Voting In The Southern States

After the Civil war, the southern states used a tax on voting as a way to continue to control and limit the influence that African Americans, who could not afford to pay a poll tax, could have on government. Poll taxes became the main form of disenfranchisement - an effort made by the southern states of the former confederacy to prevent their African American citizens from registering to vote and from voting - by requiring that in order to vote, one must first pay a substantial fee (history.com). Such taxes greatly decreased the representation of the African American population and other poor citizens in the United States government. As a correction to the loophole that was the poll tax, the 24th amendment, proposed on August 27, 1962, prohibits

congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a tax (history.house.gov).
Starting in the late 19th century, during what is known as the reconstruction era (the period of time after the Civil War in which the states formerly part of the confederacy were brought back into the United States), many southern states had made new constitutions that included provisions to reduce voter lists, such as literacy or comprehensions tests, and laws that required a fee to vote in federal elections (constitutioncenter.com).

By 1902 all eleven former confederate states had enacted a poll tax or some other restriction on African Americans’ right to vote. Although the new restrictions were indirect - many African Americans and poor whites could not afford to vote, and thus were not fairly represented in government - they still resulted in the marginalization of African Americans from politics as much as possible without violating the 15th amendment to the constitution (history.house.gov). The 15th amendment states that voting cannot be limited by "race, color, or previous condition of servitude," and seeing as how "poll taxes exemplified Jim Crow laws," (state laws enforcing racial segregation mainly in the southern U.S.), poll taxes proved to be a rather insidious and effective power for the southern states

(constitutionfacts.com).
The 15th amendment gives former slaves the right to vote, but in the reconstruction era many poor people did not have the money to vote.

Southern states continued to prevail when poll taxes were deemed constitutional by the Supreme Court in 1937 in the case of Breedlove v. Suttles. The ruling of which concludes that the privilege of voting is not derived from the United States government, but is instead conferred by the state in which the voting is being conducted. With the exception of the restraints set forth by the 15th and the 19th amendments, suffrage was said to be conditioned by the states as deemed appropriate, which included the requirement of a tax payment (supreme.justia.com). With hopes of creating legislative opposition to poll taxes, congress made many attempts during the mid 1900s to pass a bill that would abolish them, but on each occasion the southern states managed to defeat it with one of their conquering filibusters against the bill. Fortunately, early support came from Franklin D. Roosevelt, who spoke out against taxation at the polls by labeling it as "a remnant of the revolutionary period," and suggested that congress should consider an amendment to the constitution as the best way to bypass the possibility of another filibuster, and the best chance to abolish poll taxes

(history.house.gov).
Kennedy's suggestion worked as planned, and in 1964 congress proposed the 24th amendment, which called for the requirement of a poll tax to be prohibited. During the period of ratification, Lyndon B. Johnson gave his support for the proposed amendment by sternly stating that, "there can be no one too poor to vote," and after a relatively short year-and-a-half since the proposal of the amendment, it was ratified by the thirty-eighth state on January 23, 1964 (constitutioncenter.com). Even after the 24th amendment was ratified, five states including Virginia, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi still retained a poll tax. It was not until 1966 that the Supreme Court ruled that poll taxes for any level of election were unconstitutional in the case of Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections. The ruling stated that poll taxes violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth amendment of the constitution. This subsequently set forth that any and all voting restrictions are unconstitutional under the 14th amendment with the 24th amendment being the basis of precedent (history.house.gov).
When taxation at the polls was effectively ignoring poor people’s electoral opinions, the 24th amendment was the final solution that put a stern end to poll taxes (constitutioncenter.org). On that note, President Lyndon B. Johnson called the 24th amendment a “triumph of liberty over restriction,” and a “verification of people’s rights.” Ultimately, the 24th amendment to the constitution of the United States secures the right of all U.S. citizens to freely cast their vote, prohibiting the requirements of the polling system from directly or indirectly discriminating against certain citizens by encumbering their right to vote (The New York Times).