Context
Between 1877 and the mid-1960s, authorities enforced racial segregation throughout Virginia -- this was a time in history known as Jim Crow.
Virginia's 1902 State Constitute, authorized by the General Assembly, instituted poll taxes, literacy tests, and mandatory segregated schools. However, Virginia's poll taxes remained in effect until the 1960s and only ended in part due to the efforts of Evelyn Thomas Butts.
During the twentieth century several southern states removed the poll tax as a prerequisite to voting. At the time of the passage of the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution in 1964, only five states retained the poll tax: Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, and Virginia.
In November 1963, Evelyn Thomas Butts, a Black community activist from Norfolk, filed the first suit in a federal court seeking to have the poll tax declared unconstitutional. She argued that the poll tax put an unfair financial burden on citizens in the exercise of their constitutional rights of citizenship, which violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. In March 1964, Annie E. Harper and a group of people from Fairfax County filed another federal suit against the poll tax. The two cases were later combined. On March 24, 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the combined cases called Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections that the poll tax in all elections violated the U.S. Constitution. The decision ended the use of the poll tax in Virginia, and a provision of the Virginia Constitution of 1971 explicitly prohibits requiring payment of a poll tax as a prerequisite to voting.
This photograph shows both white and Black Virginians waiting in line at a registrar's office in order to register to vote on September 29, 1964.
Citation: Voter Registration, September 29, 1964. Portsmouth Public Library Collection. Prints and Photographs, Special Collections. Library of Virginia.
Virginia's 1902 State Constitute, authorized by the General Assembly, instituted poll taxes, literacy tests, and mandatory segregated schools. However, Virginia's poll taxes remained in effect until the 1960s and only ended in part due to the efforts of Evelyn Thomas Butts.
During the twentieth century several southern states removed the poll tax as a prerequisite to voting. At the time of the passage of the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the Constitution in 1964, only five states retained the poll tax: Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas, and Virginia.
In November 1963, Evelyn Thomas Butts, a Black community activist from Norfolk, filed the first suit in a federal court seeking to have the poll tax declared unconstitutional. She argued that the poll tax put an unfair financial burden on citizens in the exercise of their constitutional rights of citizenship, which violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. In March 1964, Annie E. Harper and a group of people from Fairfax County filed another federal suit against the poll tax. The two cases were later combined. On March 24, 1966, the United States Supreme Court ruled in the combined cases called Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections that the poll tax in all elections violated the U.S. Constitution. The decision ended the use of the poll tax in Virginia, and a provision of the Virginia Constitution of 1971 explicitly prohibits requiring payment of a poll tax as a prerequisite to voting.
This photograph shows both white and Black Virginians waiting in line at a registrar's office in order to register to vote on September 29, 1964.
Citation: Voter Registration, September 29, 1964. Portsmouth Public Library Collection. Prints and Photographs, Special Collections. Library of Virginia.
Standards
VS.1, VS.9, USII.1, USII.8, VUS.1, VUS.13, VUS.14
Suggested Questions
Artistic Exploration: Create a sign or banner that might have been displayed to either protest the poll tax or to celebrate its elimination.
Artistic Exploration: Look at the photograph of voters lined up for the City Registrar desk. What can you conclude about the seven people in the image? What does that tell you about the times and the restrictions on voter registration? Be specific.
Social Media Spin: Create a series of Tweets and hashtags that you would have used in the 1960s had Twitter been available.
Artistic Exploration: Look at the photograph of voters lined up for the City Registrar desk. What can you conclude about the seven people in the image? What does that tell you about the times and the restrictions on voter registration? Be specific.
Social Media Spin: Create a series of Tweets and hashtags that you would have used in the 1960s had Twitter been available.