HOW POLL TAXES AFFECTED ME

Growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, we lived a few blocks from the governor's mansion. But my parent's couldn't afford to vote. They were charged two dollars to vote. My father was a carpet, tile and linoleum worker. He worked for Steinkamp's Furniture Store. He only made fifteen dollars a week.Some of the domestic workers made nine dollars a week.

Thankfully we owned a lot of heirs property, so we didn't have to pay a mortgage or rent. In addition to buying groceries, my father would go to Helms Bakeries for their day-old bread and pastries . We had our own garden where we would get our vegetables and my father would go hunting and fishing to supply food.

We had a few chickens and rabbits.My mother was a housewife and she did ironing for the furniture store owner's wife. Poll Taxes was a tax required for voting in some parts of the U S .It was often designed to disenfranchise poor people, mostly blacks, and keep them from voter registration and voting.

The 24th amendment, ratified in 1964, outlawed poll tax as a pre-condition in voting in Federal Elections.