On February 4, 1964, Congress passed the 24th Amendment, which abolished poll taxes. Poll taxes were a fixed amount of money that citizens were required to pay when voting. Poll taxes were popular in the South after the Reconstruction era as a way of keeping blacks from voting. More recently, they were also seen as a way to keep the poor from voting. Originally, eleven states, all in the South, charged poll taxes.

At the time the 24th Amendment was passed in 1964, only five states were still using poll taxes. The United States Supreme Court found poll taxes to be unconstitutional from their inception, but it wasn’t until 1962 that an amendment to abolish them was proposed. It took two years for the amendment to be ratified by thirty-eight states. Since February 4, 1964, four more states have ratified the amendment – Virginia, North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas (who just ratified in April, 2009). Seven states still have not ratified, though poll taxes are not used in those states. Only Mississippi rejected the amendment. That rejection has stood to this day.

The passing of the 24th Amendment on February 4, 1964 was another major victory for equality in the United States. No longer could people be denied voting because of their financial situation, which opened the polls to many more people and further drove the United States towards becoming a true democracy.