November 18, 2009

The Twenty Fourth Amendment.

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.


The twenty fourth amendment eliminates the poll taxes. I think this is a VERY important amendment because many people could not afford to pay a poll tax but that does not mean that they should not have the right to vote. This also goes into play with the civil rights movement because poll taxes were often used as a way to discriminate against African Americans and not allow them to vote-- by requiring such a high poll tax that only well to do white people could vote.




This is a video from MSNBC talking about a "new" poll tax. There are many of these videos coming around comparing various things to the old poll taxes...kind of interesting.





This is just a random video I found of a high school history project. It was pretty much the only one I could find on this amendment!

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