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How did the twenty-fourth amendment affect African American voting rights?

How did the twenty-fourth amendment affect African American voting rights?

In 1964 the Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibited the use of poll taxes. In 1965, the Voting Rights Act directed the Attorney General to enforce the right to vote for African Americans. The 1965 Voting Rights Act created a significant change in the status of African Americans throughout the South.

What did the twenty-fourth amendment accomplish?

Not long ago, citizens in some states had to pay a fee to vote in a national election. This fee was called a poll tax. On January 23, 1964, the United States ratified the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting any poll tax in elections for federal officials.

How did the twenty-fourth amendment affect African American voting rights quizlet?

How did the Twenty-Fourth Amendment affect the voting rights of African Americans? It prevented states from collecting a poll tax that discouraged poor African Americans from voting.

What did the twenty-fourth amendment to the Constitution change about voting?

On this date in 1962, the House passed the 24th Amendment, outlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86. Some critics of the legislation thought the amendment did not go far enough to protect black voting rights in state and local elections.

What was the purpose of the Twenty Fourth Amendment?

The Twenty-fourth Amendment was designed to address one particular injustice, the poll tax. The requirement to pay a fee in order to vote kept low-income citizens, both white and black, from taking part in elections. The Twenty-fourth Amendment made it illegal to charge any voter for the right to cast a ballot in any federal election.

What was the Twenty Fourth Amendment in 1965?

In 1965, African American citizens of Virginia had hope that the recently passed Voting Rights Act would finally guarantee them the right to vote. Literacy tests were now illegal, and the Twenty-fourth Amendment had eliminated the poll tax as a voting requirement. Virginia was one of the last five states to maintain the poll tax as late as 1964.

What did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 do?

Believing the social gains that African Americans achieved by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 can best be protected by exercising the right to vote, Congress writes a comprehensive voting rights law. It temporarily suspends literacy tests and provides for the appointment of federal examiners with the power to register qualified citizens to vote.

When was Virginia found in violation of the Twenty-Fourth Amendment?

In Harman v. Forssenius (1965), the U.S. Supreme Court found the Virginia statute to be in violation of the Twenty-fourth Amendment.