Poll taxes were a form of voter suppression used to disenfranchise Black Americans in the United States. Implemented in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, poll taxes required individuals to pay a fee in order to exercise their right to vote. These taxes were often used as a way to prevent Black people, as well as poor white people, from voting.

Poll taxes disproportionately affected Black voters in the South, where they were used as a tool to maintain white supremacy and political power. Many Black individuals, especially sharecroppers and farm workers, could not afford to pay the tax, effectively preventing them from participating in the electoral process.

Poll taxes were declared unconstitutional for federal elections by the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1964. However, some states continued to enforce poll taxes for state and local elections until they were outlawed by the Supreme Court in the 1966 decision in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections.

The abolition of poll taxes was a significant victory for the Civil Rights Movement and helped to pave the way for greater voting rights for all Americans, particularly minorities who had previously been disenfranchised.