The poll tax was struck down by the 24th Amendment to the U. S. Constitution in 1964, I think.  Yet York County, where I lived briefly after college graduation and before my Navy service, was still assessing it in 1969-70 when I worked for the National Park Service.  I paid my county tax, which had a pie chart breaking down the various components, one of which was a poll tax.  When I told my late father, he said, "You idiot.  They can't do that.  It's now illegal."  But they did do it.  How long they continued to do so I don't know; maybe they still are.
 
Michael B. Chesson
Founding Professor
American College of History
   & Legal Studies

________________________________

From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history on behalf of Dale Dulaney
Sent: Wed 6/9/2010 9:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] New Blog Entry



Take a look at the Out of the Box blog by the Library of Virginia's archival
staff.  This week's entry is about two letters by Virginius Dabney, a Richmond
journalist, author, and historian. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1948 for editorials
opposing segregation and the poll tax but the letters illustrate the
predicament  many progressives in the South faced in the 1950s on issues of
race.

Access it at http://www.virginiamemory.com/blogs/out_of_the_box/

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