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Interesting US History
A Website Devoted to Interesting Events in U.S. History

 

 
 

 

ON THIS DAY IN UNITED STATES HISTORY

January 23, 1964

The Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United
States Constitution is Ratified

On this day in 1964, the Twenty-fourth Amendment was ratified prohibiting the poll tax for federal elections. The poll tax was initiated after Reconstruction (the period after the American Civil War), to prevent African Americans from voting.
At the time of the amendment, only five states still retained the poll tax. Since the amendment only included federal elections, it wasn't until 1966 that all state poll taxes were officially declared unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Harber v. Virginia Board of Elections.