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Primary Source Sets
The Fifteenth Amendment
Robert S. Anderson’s poll tax receipt, Memphis, Tennessee, April 25, 1940.

Robert S. Anderson’s poll tax receipt, Memphis, Tennessee, April 25, 1940.

Poll taxes were laws that required payment of a fee in order to vote, and were implemented in southern states like Tennessee in order to restrict the political power of African American communities. By the 1880s, Tennessee began enforcing poll taxes, which remained active until the 1960s. In many places, poll taxes were combined with other voting restrictions such as literacy tests.

Citation Information
“Poll tax receipt,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/52e43e971fc50b7156093b3ecbda347d.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of Tennessee State Library and Archives via Tennessee Digital Library.

Tips for Students

For this source, consider:

  • the author's point of view
  • the author's purpose
  • historical context
  • audience

Item 14 of 15 in the Primary Source Set The Fifteenth Amendment

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The joint resolution of the United States Congress proposing the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, December 7, 1868.
A resolution by the Georgia state legislature to ratify the Fifteenth Amendment, February 2, 1870.
An 1870 print depicting the celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment as well as vignettes that represent the significance of the amendment.
An 1870 print depicting the celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment as well as vignettes that represent the significance of the amendment.
Lyrics for “The Fifteenth Amendment” by African American songwriter Joshua McCarter Simpson.
An excerpt from a speech by Henry McNeal Turner in Macon, Georgia on April 19, 1870 regarding the benefits of the Fifteenth Amendment.
A portrait of Henry McNeal Turner, Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, ca.1880s.
A letter from April 1870, written by Samuel May to Richard Davis Webb, mentioning Boston’s celebration of the Fifteenth Amendment.
A portrait of Octavius Catto, an African American activist, educator, and political organizer, ca.1871.
An excerpt from a pamphlet called The Trial of Frank Kelly For The Assassination and Murder of Octavius V. Catto, on October 10, 1871.
An 1869 broadside in response to the proposed Fifteenth Amendment, titled “Republicans! Democrats! A Word with you about Negro Suffrage.”
A print depicting the first African American senator and representatives, who served in the Forty-First and Forty-Second Congresses, 1872.
An excerpt from a 1905 essay by A. H. Grimké called “The Meaning and Need of the Movement to Reduce Southern Representation.”
Robert S. Anderson’s poll tax receipt, Memphis, Tennessee, April 25, 1940.
An article titled “Free the Ballot,” about voting rights during the civil rights movement, from Memphis World newspaper, February 13, 1960.

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