It’s Tax Day, and while people don't usually connect taxes with voting rights, they were once used as a form of voter suppression.

After the 15th Amendment extended the freedom to vote to Black men, Black voters in Georgia and across the South were still denied the right to vote for nearly a century. Discriminatory methods like poll taxes, literacy tests, and violent threats were used if they attempted to vote. 

A poll tax, which required voters to pay a fee in order to cast their ballots, removed Black Americans from the democratic process and silenced their voices. The use of poll taxes in national elections was abolished by the 24th Amendment, but the Voting Rights Act of 1965 led to the end of poll taxes in state and local elections. 

Modern-day anti-voting lawmakers are still trying to make it harder for Black and brown communities to vote, which means we have to keep fighting back. Let’s keep forms of voter suppression in the past where they belong — your gift today will make a real difference to protect the freedom to vote.

Thank you for your support.

The Fair Fight Team