Poll taxes were a form of voter suppression that targeted Black Americans in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These taxes were levied on individuals as a requirement for voting, making it difficult for many Black citizens, who were disproportionately poor, to afford to vote.

Poll taxes were implemented in southern states as a way to disenfranchise Black voters and maintain white supremacist power structures. The taxes were often accompanied by literacy tests and other discriminatory measures to further restrict African Americans' access to the ballot box.

While poll taxes were technically outlawed with the passage of the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1964, which prohibited poll taxes in federal elections, they continued to be used in state and local elections until the Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional in the 1966 case Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections.

The legacy of poll taxes is a dark chapter in Black history, representing a deliberate effort to deny African Americans their constitutional right to vote and perpetuate racial inequality and disenfranchisement. It was not until the civil rights movement and subsequent legislation, such as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, that significant progress was made in dismantling these barriers to voting rights for Black Americans.