Poll taxes were a discriminatory practice used primarily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the United States to prevent African Americans and other minorities from voting. These taxes required eligible voters to pay a fee in order to vote, effectively disenfranchising those who could not afford to pay.

Poll taxes were implemented in southern states following the Reconstruction era as a way to restrict African American participation in the political process. The taxes were often accompanied by stringent voter registration requirements, such as literacy tests and complex residency rules, further disenfranchising Black voters.

Poll taxes were challenged in the courts over the years, and in 1966, the Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that poll taxes in state elections were unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. This ruling effectively ended the use of poll taxes as a means of voter suppression.

The legacy of poll taxes in Black history serves as a stark reminder of the systemic barriers that African Americans have faced in exercising their right to vote and participate in the democratic process.