The Poll Tax Remembered
April 29th, 2016
Author: Tom Tiede
When we are saved from electoral disaster this year, we can thank Annie E. Harper.
A long time ago she made it easier to defeat white-supremacist candidates.
Harper was a retired Virginia domestic worker who, in the 1960s, worked to forbid states from enforcing a “poll tax” on Negroes (and some others). She claimed rightly that it was a post-emancipation method of preventing blacks from voting. She thereby joined a struggling legal battle to enforce Constitutional “equal protection,” and took her case to the Supreme Court. In 1966 – 50 years ago – the court struck down this last official vestige of racial discrimination.
That act opened the ballot box to all Americans, rich or poor, whatever color.
And all these years later it doomed the election chances of D. Trump, bigot.
The poll tax was a fee that everyone in the South had to pay (about $1.50) in order to be registered to vote. Since blacks were poorer than whites, it eliminated many if not most of them from the election rolls. The white structure of the time argued that it was merely a means of identifying eligible voters and a method of paying for the cost of elections. They further argued that it had nothing to do with prejudice and everything to do with history, even biblical history.
The Bible (Exodus 30:11-16) claims Moses was told that a poll-tax was a legitimate “ransom for {one’s} soul unto the Lord.” Early Jewish law thus imposed a poll tax of a half-shekel – “the rich should not give more, and the poor shall not give less.” The money was to be used for temple upkeep, and in those days it was a tribute for Jews only. Samaritans and Gentiles were excluded; they were the unwashed of the day; only the children of Israel were taxed.
The ancient Romans also imposed a “tributum capitis” (poll tax). Ditto Imperial China, which assessed a tax so burdensome that it held down the population until its repeal (1700s). Some Muslim nations still have “jizya” laws, which force non-Islamics (Jews and Christians) to pay a poll tax. France has done away with its “capitation” levy of 1695. Meanwhile, England which enacted a poll tax in 1377 to fund its wars, now calls the poll bite “Community Charge.”
The poll tax in America had its origin in colonial times, where it was merely a device to raise revenues. But that purpose was to change with the Civil War. When the defeated South found itself with millions of newly freed Negroes, and the adult men eligible to vote, it felt it was facing cultural as well as political ruin. During reconstruction, Northern do-goods encouraged black voter registration, blacks begin running for office, and the handwriting was on the wall.
So, the southern states struck back. When they regained control over their legislatures, following Reconstruction, they began a systematic effort to blunt the Negro vote. They were forbidden by the newly enacted 14th Amendment from directly prohibiting black voters (“No state shall make...any law which shall abridge the privileges...of citizens...without due process of law”). Therefore they got around the problem (for a time anyway) with various intimidations.
One intimidation was old-hat racist strong-arming. Blacks who had the temerity to show up to vote were manhandled, sometimes worse. Blacks who complained about the treatment might go missing. When a biracial city government was elected in Wilmington, N.C. (1898), as many as 2,000 whites formed in the streets to overthrow it (a coup d’etat). The rioters also attacked a Negro newspaper, and sundry black neighborhoods. Fifteen people were killed.
As well, legislators in the southern states passed discriminatory laws meant to peacefully disenfranchise blacks by circumventing the 14th amendment (poor whites were also targeted). As example, South Carolina instituted what it called the “Eight box law,” which complicated voting for the uneducated. Voters were required to put a ballot in a box corresponding to each office selection, mayor, councilman, and so forth. If a ballot was put in the wrong box, it was rejected.
All the while, the southern election booths were secured by white militias, ostensibly to keep order but in fact to restrain Negroes. Groups such as the Red Shirts and the Knights of the White Camellia were often peopled by well-armed Confederate veterans, and they were not only effective in scaring blacks from elections but in destroying most white support for black voters. By the end of the 1800s, almost all Republicans (the party of Lincoln) were chased from office.
Combined, the Jim Crow* tactics were such as to raise federal concern and courtroom struggles. This led to the adoption of the poll tax as a way of making discrimination look more legitimate. After all, it was in the Bible. The tax was first instituted in Georgia (where else?) when the bedrock racist state rewrote its constitution. It passed federal scrutiny at the time, and so caught on throughout the region. Eventually, ten of the 11 secessionist states enacted the tax.
The law became as much a qualification for voting as citizenship. A payment receipt was needed to be registered, and in some cases receipts were necessary for several years running. The amount today (always under $2) does not seem like much, but for many in the south of a hundred years ago it was a day’s wages; and if a person decided to start voting late in life, he would have to pay a tax for every year since turning 21 (or from the time the law took effect in the state).
Some white people were also caught up in the predicament. The law was not limited to Negroes, and inability to pay was not just a Negro matter. But, often, the states helped poor whites slip through legal loopholes. Grandfather clauses might be included, for example,, which allowed any adult whose father had voted before emancipation. Or better educated whites might qualify by way of the literacy tests, which were skewed in favor of their history and customs.
And woe be anyone who objected to the system. The militias were at the ready, and there were other methods of silencing dissent. People who complained by mail might not see the postman again. Men who gathered in defense of their rights might see Ku Klux Klan robes. And even when a complaint was recognized, it would not progress further; the Supreme Court upheld the poll tax in 1937, ruling that it was up to the states to hold elections as they wished.
Then came Annie E. Harper. She is remembered only extraneously today, her personal life has been forgotten by time, but she aligned herself with history in the matter of poll taxation. In 1964, the 24th Amendment was ratified, which forbid a“poll tax or any tax” in federal elections. In 1965, The Voting Rights Act redoubled the vote guarantee for everyone. And in 1966, in the case of Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, the Supreme Court said the poll tax was unconstitutional for any of America’s public elections. Today there are 18 million blacks registered to vote. They represent more than 10 percent of ballots cast. This means, in November, they will be instrumental in denying Adolf Trump a position to further vandalize America.
----------------------
* Jim Crow law was the name given to the South’s post-war segregation efforts. The name was taken from a blackface song-and-dance characterization known as “Jump Jim Crow.” Some of the racist rules remained in effect until the 1960s.
April 29th, 2016
Author: Tom Tiede
When we are saved from electoral disaster this year, we can thank Annie E. Harper.
A long time ago she made it easier to defeat white-supremacist candidates.
Harper was a retired Virginia domestic worker who, in the 1960s, worked to forbid states from enforcing a “poll tax” on Negroes (and some others). She claimed rightly that it was a post-emancipation method of preventing blacks from voting. She thereby joined a struggling legal battle to enforce Constitutional “equal protection,” and took her case to the Supreme Court. In 1966 – 50 years ago – the court struck down this last official vestige of racial discrimination.
That act opened the ballot box to all Americans, rich or poor, whatever color.
And all these years later it doomed the election chances of D. Trump, bigot.
The poll tax was a fee that everyone in the South had to pay (about $1.50) in order to be registered to vote. Since blacks were poorer than whites, it eliminated many if not most of them from the election rolls. The white structure of the time argued that it was merely a means of identifying eligible voters and a method of paying for the cost of elections. They further argued that it had nothing to do with prejudice and everything to do with history, even biblical history.
The Bible (Exodus 30:11-16) claims Moses was told that a poll-tax was a legitimate “ransom for {one’s} soul unto the Lord.” Early Jewish law thus imposed a poll tax of a half-shekel – “the rich should not give more, and the poor shall not give less.” The money was to be used for temple upkeep, and in those days it was a tribute for Jews only. Samaritans and Gentiles were excluded; they were the unwashed of the day; only the children of Israel were taxed.
The ancient Romans also imposed a “tributum capitis” (poll tax). Ditto Imperial China, which assessed a tax so burdensome that it held down the population until its repeal (1700s). Some Muslim nations still have “jizya” laws, which force non-Islamics (Jews and Christians) to pay a poll tax. France has done away with its “capitation” levy of 1695. Meanwhile, England which enacted a poll tax in 1377 to fund its wars, now calls the poll bite “Community Charge.”
The poll tax in America had its origin in colonial times, where it was merely a device to raise revenues. But that purpose was to change with the Civil War. When the defeated South found itself with millions of newly freed Negroes, and the adult men eligible to vote, it felt it was facing cultural as well as political ruin. During reconstruction, Northern do-goods encouraged black voter registration, blacks begin running for office, and the handwriting was on the wall.
So, the southern states struck back. When they regained control over their legislatures, following Reconstruction, they began a systematic effort to blunt the Negro vote. They were forbidden by the newly enacted 14th Amendment from directly prohibiting black voters (“No state shall make...any law which shall abridge the privileges...of citizens...without due process of law”). Therefore they got around the problem (for a time anyway) with various intimidations.
One intimidation was old-hat racist strong-arming. Blacks who had the temerity to show up to vote were manhandled, sometimes worse. Blacks who complained about the treatment might go missing. When a biracial city government was elected in Wilmington, N.C. (1898), as many as 2,000 whites formed in the streets to overthrow it (a coup d’etat). The rioters also attacked a Negro newspaper, and sundry black neighborhoods. Fifteen people were killed.
As well, legislators in the southern states passed discriminatory laws meant to peacefully disenfranchise blacks by circumventing the 14th amendment (poor whites were also targeted). As example, South Carolina instituted what it called the “Eight box law,” which complicated voting for the uneducated. Voters were required to put a ballot in a box corresponding to each office selection, mayor, councilman, and so forth. If a ballot was put in the wrong box, it was rejected.
All the while, the southern election booths were secured by white militias, ostensibly to keep order but in fact to restrain Negroes. Groups such as the Red Shirts and the Knights of the White Camellia were often peopled by well-armed Confederate veterans, and they were not only effective in scaring blacks from elections but in destroying most white support for black voters. By the end of the 1800s, almost all Republicans (the party of Lincoln) were chased from office.
Combined, the Jim Crow* tactics were such as to raise federal concern and courtroom struggles. This led to the adoption of the poll tax as a way of making discrimination look more legitimate. After all, it was in the Bible. The tax was first instituted in Georgia (where else?) when the bedrock racist state rewrote its constitution. It passed federal scrutiny at the time, and so caught on throughout the region. Eventually, ten of the 11 secessionist states enacted the tax.
The law became as much a qualification for voting as citizenship. A payment receipt was needed to be registered, and in some cases receipts were necessary for several years running. The amount today (always under $2) does not seem like much, but for many in the south of a hundred years ago it was a day’s wages; and if a person decided to start voting late in life, he would have to pay a tax for every year since turning 21 (or from the time the law took effect in the state).
Some white people were also caught up in the predicament. The law was not limited to Negroes, and inability to pay was not just a Negro matter. But, often, the states helped poor whites slip through legal loopholes. Grandfather clauses might be included, for example,, which allowed any adult whose father had voted before emancipation. Or better educated whites might qualify by way of the literacy tests, which were skewed in favor of their history and customs.
And woe be anyone who objected to the system. The militias were at the ready, and there were other methods of silencing dissent. People who complained by mail might not see the postman again. Men who gathered in defense of their rights might see Ku Klux Klan robes. And even when a complaint was recognized, it would not progress further; the Supreme Court upheld the poll tax in 1937, ruling that it was up to the states to hold elections as they wished.
Then came Annie E. Harper. She is remembered only extraneously today, her personal life has been forgotten by time, but she aligned herself with history in the matter of poll taxation. In 1964, the 24th Amendment was ratified, which forbid a“poll tax or any tax” in federal elections. In 1965, The Voting Rights Act redoubled the vote guarantee for everyone. And in 1966, in the case of Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, the Supreme Court said the poll tax was unconstitutional for any of America’s public elections. Today there are 18 million blacks registered to vote. They represent more than 10 percent of ballots cast. This means, in November, they will be instrumental in denying Adolf Trump a position to further vandalize America.
----------------------
* Jim Crow law was the name given to the South’s post-war segregation efforts. The name was taken from a blackface song-and-dance characterization known as “Jump Jim Crow.” Some of the racist rules remained in effect until the 1960s.