Admin What was the purpose of poll taxes literacy test and grandfather clauses?
Signed into law 95 years after the 15th Amendment was ratified into the Constitution, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed most discriminatory voting practices in southern states such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses that had been designed by southern legislatures to suppress the African …
What is the purpose of the poll tax?
In the United States, voting poll taxes (whose payment was a precondition to voting in an election) have been used to disenfranchise impoverished and minority voters (especially under Reconstruction).
What was the purpose of poll taxes and grandfather clauses quizlet?
Most African American’s were too poor to pay the poll tax and not educated enough to pay the poll tax. The grandfather clause allowed white people to vote even after these laws were made as long as their ancestors had voted.
What was the purpose of grandfather clauses in the South?
The Grandfather Clause was a legal or constitutional mechanism passed by seven Southern states during Reconstruction to deny suffrage to Blacks. It meant that those who had enjoyed the right to vote prior to 1867, or their lineal descendants, would be exempt from educational, property, or tax requirements for voting.
What was the purpose of the literacy tests and the poll tax?
Southern state legislatures employed literacy tests as part of the voter registration process starting in the late 19th century. Literacy tests, along with poll taxes, residency and property restrictions, and extra-legal activities (violence and intimidation) were all used to deny suffrage to African Americans.
What was the purpose of the grandfather clauses quizlet?
The Grandfather Clause was a provision that allowed a voter to avoid a literacy test if his father or grandfather had been eligible to vote on January 1st, 1867. This allowed illiterate white males to vote because they didn’t have to pass the literacy test.
What was the purpose of poll taxes and literacy tests in the South?
In what regions did the poll tax exist?
On this date in 1962, the House passed the 24th Amendment, outlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86. At the time, five states maintained poll taxes which disproportionately affected African-American voters: Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.