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.
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