Thursday, January 23, 1964: 24th 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 poll tax or other tax.
Section 2.
      The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
-- Passed by Congress August 27, 1962. Ratified January 23, 1964.

An amendment banning the poll tax as a condition for voting in elections for federal office was added to the Consititution yesterday when the South Dakota Senate ratified it by a vote of 34 to 0. It is the 24th Amendment. South Dakota was the 38th state to approve the amendment. Ratification by three-fourths of the 50 states was required.
     -- Associated Press, January 24 (full story: @)
     -- "Abolishment of Poll Tax Approved" (New York Times): @
     -- Images of Texas poll tax receipts from www.studythepast.com

* Annotated amendment (from Legal Information Institute, Cornell University Law School): @
* Certification by General Services Administration: @
* "Civil Rights in America: Racial Voting Rights" (National Park Service, 2009): @
* "Democracy's Turnstile" (Dr. Seuss, PM newspaper, October 1942): @
* "You Have the Right to Vote Free" (Huey P. Long, 1934): @
* "ABC's on the Poll Tax" (Associated Press, July 1948): @
* "Poll Tax Time" (Delta Democrat Times, January 1959): @
* Poll tax entry from Encyclopedia of Virginia: @
* "Voting in Mississippi" (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1965): @

* "Poll Tax Voided in Mississippi" (April 1966): @ 

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