Poll taxes were a form of taxation that voters in many Southern states in the United States were required to pay in order to vote, particularly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This practice was used as a way to disenfranchise Black voters and poor white voters who could not afford to pay the tax.

Poll taxes were used as a tool to prevent African Americans from exercising their right to vote following the ratification of the 15th Amendment in 1870, which prohibited denying the right to vote based on race, color, or previous condition of servitude. Southern states implemented poll taxes along with other voter suppression tactics, such as literacy tests and grandfather clauses, to maintain white supremacy and prevent Black political participation.

The poll tax was effectively used to limit the political power of African Americans until the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited the use of poll taxes as a requirement for voting in federal elections. The Supreme Court also ruled in the case of Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections (1966) that poll taxes for state elections were unconstitutional, further dismantling this discriminatory practice.

The legacy of poll taxes in Black history is a reminder of the systemic barriers that were created to disenfranchise African Americans and suppress their political participation in the United States.