Twenty-fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution

The 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the Twenty -fourth Amendment of 1964, states that no one can lose his right to vote due to tax debts.

Wording

History

The Fifteenth Amendment (1870 ) prohibited any discrimination of blacks and other racial minorities in the electoral law. In order to favor the whites anyway, some states had introduced in the late 19th century, a so-called "poll tax" ( poll tax ). Only after payment of these usually quite high tax became one the election and voting. Crucial to the discriminatory effect was the so -called " grandfather clause " Anyone could choose whose father or grandfather in a particular ( ahead of the abolition of slavery ) year in this state may choose tax-free.

This poll tax fulfilled the letter of the Fifteenth Amendment, since both of whiteness as well as to blacks in purely formal terms, the same conditions were asked - either you pay the poll tax, or you have a relative who is a enables the use of the grandfather clause.

The poll taxes had the effect that they excluded until 1964 in some countries the vast majority of blacks and new immigrants from the elections, as they were quite often poor and thus could not afford the "luxury" named turnout. Only the old-established white families were effectively removed by the grandfather clause of the tax.