24th Amendment

15th Amendment

1870

The 15th amendment gave black men the right to vote in 1870. That was the year it was adopted into the constitution but by the late 1870s discrimination began to be practiced to prevent them from voting.

Jim Crow Laws

1870

These laws were made to prevent blacks from voting and other citizen opportunities. When blacks tried to use their rights that the constitution gave them it went against the Jim Crow laws. If the Jim Crow laws were broken it led to arrest, fines, jail time, violence, and death. Jim Crow laws spread throughout the country causing segregation in many public settings.

Isaiah Montgomery

1887

He was convinced that blacks and whites could never live peacefully with each other. This belief was enforced by the Jim Crow laws that made it very clear to Isaiah. In 1887, Isaiah who was a former slave created Mound Bayou, Mississippi, which was an all African American town. Isaiah recruited other former slaves to help build a community by settling in the wilderness with him.

Isaiah Montgomery's Town

1887

The other former slaves and him cleared the land making a huge settlement. The settlement included an Andrew Carnegie-funded library, schools, a hospital, bank, three cotton gins, and a sawmill. The town still stands today and the residences are still almost 100 percent Black.

Ida B. Wells

1889

Ida Wells was a Memphis teacher that became a prominent activist for blacks. She had refused to leave a fist class train car reserved for only whites. The conductor forcibly removed her which lead to her seeing the railroad successfully. Though she was successful in the lawsuit a higher court reversed the outcome.

Ida B. Wells Continued

1889

Injustice made Wells devote herself to fight the Jim Crow laws. It was 1889 when she had become the co-owner of the Memphis "Free Speech and Headlight" newspaper. Using her position to bring a stop to school segregation and sexual harassment. As publicized her work throughout the south, she investigated lynching's and wrote about them. This caused a mob to destroy her newspaper and threaten death to her, forced her to move north, but she continued her work against the Jim Crow laws.

Poll Taxes

1890

It was in the 1890s that poll taxes were put as a legal way for African Americans not being able to vote in southern states. Poll taxes are a voting fee that states required to be paid before voting.

Propose

Aug 27, 1962

Proposed the 24th amendment on Aug. 27th,1962

Martian Luther King Jr.

Aug 28, 1963

He was in the march Selma to Montgomery and was one of the leaders. King was involved with a lot of the movement toward the Voting Rights Act, but his most famous march was the one on Washington. He led a march on Washington and gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Which he was rewarded with a Nobel Peace Prize. This speech and march happened on August 28, 1963.

Passed

Jan 23, 1964

It was January 23rd, 1964 when the 24th amendment was passed

March

1965

March 7, 1965, was the day that Alabama state troopers attacked peaceful participants in a Selma to Montgomery march for voting rights. These participants were attacked with nightsticks, teargas, and whips when refusing to turn back. This event caused many Americans to become outraged with how blacks were treated.

Selma to Montgomery March

1965

This march was an effort to register black voters who were in the south. Fifty-four miles protestors marched from Selma to the capital of Montgomery. Deadly violence from the local authorities and white vigilante groups were unleashed on the protestors. The world watched the difficulties the black voters faced and made it known that a national Voting Rights Act was needed.

Voting Rights Act

May 26, 1965

The U.S. Senate passed the bill with 77 to 19 votes.

House of Representatives

Jul 9, 1965

After over a month of debating over the voting rights bill the House passed the bill. The votes were 333 to 85 on July 9

24th Amendment

Aug 6, 1965

The amendment made poll taxes illegal on a federal level in 1964. August 6, 1965, was the date that Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, which banned literacy tests and provides federal oversight in areas that had less than fifty percent non-white population had not registered to vote. The U.S. Supreme Court then banned poll taxes on the state elections in 1966.

Ratified

2020

Almost all states are ratified except Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming. Mississippi rejected this amendment specifically on December 20th, 1962.