State Capitation Tax receipts [poll tax receipts]

State Capitation Tax receipts [poll tax receipts]

Virginia State Capitation Tax receipts from the various years. 

Note: Names and addresses have been removed from these receipts. 

Poll taxes have a long and contentious history in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Payment of the tax first became a requirement for voting in 1876, as part of an effort to make it more difficult for African Americans and poor whites to participate in elections. Beginning in 1904, Virginians could not register to vote without presenting proof of having paid the poll tax for each of the three years preceding an election.

In March of 1966, in the case of Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the poll tax was unconstitutional. In 1970, the Virginia Constitution omitted authorization of the General Assembly to make payment of a poll tax a prerequisite for voting.

Commonwealth of Virginia

M 68, Box 11, Edward H. Peeples, Jr. Papers, n.d., 1910, 1943-1994. Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library

Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, VCU Libraries

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Learn more: 
Tarter, B. Poll Tax. Encyclopedia Virginia 
Poll tax, Social Welfare History Image Portal 
Suffrage in the South: The Poll Tax (1940), Social Welfare History Project 
Nurturing the Roots: 90for90 and Black Political Power. The Progressive, July 15, 2016.