Louisiana Political Ephemera in the
Special Collections Vertical Files

"One-third democracy for one-sixth of the nation."

1938, actual size, 5.5 x 8.5

NOTICE!

You Can Not Vote From
Age 21 to 60 Years
Without Your Poll Tax

Go Sign Your Name and
Get Your Poll Tax Free

Many Southern states adopted a poll tax in the late 1800s. A poll tax was a fee or tax to vote. This meant that even though the 15th Amendment gave former slaves the right to vote, many poor people, black and white, did not have enough money to vote. By 1940, less than one percent of Louisiana African-Americans voted and two thirds of the voting population in the South were barred from the polls by the poll tax. Opponents labeled this "one third democracy for one sixth of the nation.”

By 1940, Louisiana had replaced its poll tax with a receipt system. As part of their “get out the vote” efforts, political parties would often pay their supporters’ poll tax. When Huey Long became governor, he considered this too large a drain on party resources and had the state legislature abolish the one-dollar poll tax and instead require that persons show poll "receipts" (given out free by the sheriff) for the two years preceding, in order to cast a ballot.

The receipt system was less expensive, and, for a political machine, easier to control. People who did not register every year, did not vote in the last election, or mislaid their poll receipts could not vote, but the machine managed the poll receipts of its supports and made sure they got to the polls with receipts in hand.

It was not until 1964 that poll taxes were banned, and it took a US constitutional amendment to do so. At the ceremony in 1964 formalizing the 24th Amendment, President Lyndon Johnson declared:

"There can be no one too poor to vote."

 

1968	1879	1938
1942	1954

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
Howard-Tilton Memorial Library
Tulane University