What was the purpose of a poll tax?

Question

A. to prevent African Americans from voting in elections
B. to keep Republican governments out of southern states
C. to prevent sharecroppers from leaving their farms with unpaid debts
D. to ensure that disenfranchised voters can vote in elections

Answer 1

The purpose of a poll tax was primarily:

A. to prevent African Americans from voting in elections.

Poll taxes were often used in the Southern United States as a means to create financial barriers to voting, effectively disenfranchising many African Americans and poor whites after the Reconstruction era.