Meaning & use
poll tax
A fixed tax charged equally on every adult, historically used in some places as a requirement for voting.
See it in a sentence
Many southern states used a poll tax to discourage poor and Black citizens from voting.
The poll tax was eventually banned in U.S. federal elections by a constitutional amendment.
A note on using this word
In the United States, poll taxes were used after Reconstruction to suppress Black voter turnout and were outlawed by the 24th Amendment in 1964.
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