Poll Tax Score: Study

Read the instructions for the following activities and type in your responses. At the end of the lesson, click the link on the Summary screen to open the

This law gave blacks more power politically and gave them a say in powerful

Despite what many might think, the voting rights act of 1965 is well known across hundreds of nations all over the world. The voting rights act of 1965 has been around for several centuries and has a very important meaning in the lives of many. This act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on August 6, 1965. He aimed to overcome legal barriers at the state and local levels that prevented African Americans from exercising their right to vote under the 15th amendment to the Constitution of the United States. It is a landmark piece of federal legislation that prohibits this racial discrimination. This document is just as big and important as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. It would be safe to assume that voting rights act of 1965 is going to be around for a long time and will have an enormous impact on the lives of many people in times to come. The voting acts of 1965 created positive and negative changes for America. But, why was this law created, when was it put into effect, and what effect did it have on the U.S.?

During the era of Andrew Jackson’s presidency, the nation seemed to be split down the middle in terms of its citizens. Obviously this is not meant to be taken literally, as the citizens of the United States were divided in terms of political views, morals, and other very important topics. One of these topics happened to be the act of expanding suffrage to people other than rich landowners. Both arguments in this debate were represented with a number of different types of evidence as to why each side was the correct way to go about shaping the way people voted in the United States and why the opposing opinion was not to be trusted. There were both pros and cons of expanding suffrage in the United States, but some were more valid than others.

The purpose of the black codes was to keep black people from voting. The result was the 15th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which prohibited using race as a reason to prevent people from voting. The emancipation of black slaves in post Civil War America did not run smoothly. Though the slaves had been freed in name, many did not feel secure about giving black people rights. The black codes prevented black Americans from voting and restricted their

It ended the reconstruction era because of the presidential election and created an attempt to compromise between parties. This lead to an unwritten withdrawal of troops from the south that was to protect African Americans. The reason for withdrawal was the Republicans effort to make amends with the Democrats. Pulling the troops from the south allowed loopholes for the south to keep African Americans from being equals. Example being, the Jim Crow laws that caused much distress to African Americans and created major segregation.

In order to limit the voting rights of African Americans, there were poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were created. The poll taxes was an annual taxes, for those who wanted to vote.

The law was put in place to end discrimination on sex, race in hiring, promoting and firing. The law also ended segregation in public places. The 35th president JFK supported the act but it was strongly opposed by southern members of congress. When JFK passed away and Lyndon Johnson took office legislation added one more piece to the bill that gave Black Americans the right vote After LBJ took office he made sure that JFK’s Civil Right bill be his first priority. The Civil Rights Acts brought about several more bills that included the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that prohibited literacy test and discriminatory voting practices. Another extension of the act was the Fair Housing Act of 1968 which banned the discrimination in the sale of rental and financing of property. With the extension of these new bills blacks finally had a chance to own a little piece of the American Dream. When blacks began to settle in their new roles in society. Blacks began going to white schools it was all still meet by race problems and scrutiny even though legal segregation was laid to rest. Throughout all the civil rights demonstrations and marches and all these new acts and bills that has been put in place America still has race issues and they continue

The right to vote for African American became difficult during the time because the northern didn’t want to consider the blacks as equal to the society. As Frederick Douglass, has once stated “Slavery is not abolished until the black man has the ballot.” African American fought their way to gain their right to vote is by coming together, free blacks and emancipated slaves, to create parades, petition drives to demand, and to organize their own “freedom ballots.” As a free African American, they except the same respect as the whites and nothing

Back then, many African Americans suffered from unfair treatment in the society due to their race, but this Amendment prohibited this from happening again. In the Amendment it stated that, “the amendment prohibited states from disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.”(US Constitution). After this rule was established, the Americans began to decrease their racism towards the African American race. Moreover,as time passes by, there has been less and less outbreaks that happened in communities due to the racial discrimination. This shows that the Fifteenth Amendment did have a positive impact on the society in terms of improving the way people were treated.

The poll tax was a regulation that charged people to vote and used to prevent blacks from voting, which was unfair since some could not afford the poll taxes. This demonstrates that African-Americans ability to vote was made more difficult for whites to prevent them from being able to participate in

The Fifteenth Amendment granted black men to vote. Put emphasis on men because at this time women still couldn't vote.This amendment would not be fully followed until almost a century. What the government did was that they made a literacy test so difficult that no slave could pass because they had no education. So no blacks could vote really for a long time. So to loop their loophole that made a rule called the Grandfather Clause. This made if your grandfather could vote you did not have to take the literacy test. So every white person's grandfather could vote since they lived in england. So this rule did not apply to blacks since their grandfathers were black and could not vote. One of the main reasons that they made this rule is because

Without black suffrage, free blacks had no way of changing these laws, which could keep them in a perpetual state of servitude. Blacks were forced to rely entirely on national republican legislation to

Those who felt threatened by the massive amount of African-Americans who would now be participating in the government criticized this Amendment, which allowed all male citizens the right to vote regardless of race. Ex-Confederates, many of which were not allowed to vote after bitterly losing to the north, argued that African-Americans were not ready to vote because they were ignorant to the political system of the U.S. The political power of the south would be in the hands of the formerly oppressed, as opposed to their oppressors, who would be practically powerless. The debate on this topic would cause more tension in southern society, which was already undergoing a difficult period of adaptation. Another problem which arose in the south were laws which would further the oppression of the African-American population. Commonly called Black Codes, these laws also punished white persons who supported emancipation during the Civil War. These Black Codes were often unreasonable or unneeded to keep order within society. They were simply created as bitter retaliation by the ex-Confederates who were not pleased by the integration, which had just taken place. Black Codes were created and enforced on a State level which became superior to the Fourteenth Amendment. The laws would be psychologically damaging to the African-American population, who would be forced to feel

Poll tax is a tax which is assigned to an individual based on the state election. Poll taxes are addressed by other names: soul taxes, hut taxes, capitation taxes, and head taxes. Poll taxes are well-known in European countries such as Russia, Britain and France. The poll tax is no longer an important basis of income for any state or country.