A Day’s Wages for a Ballot
In January 1955, Leo Carr paid $1.50 to vote in Hardin County, Texas. At the time, this was the cost of a poll tax—a fee required by law to cast a ballot. Adjusted for inflation, Carr effectively paid about $13. His poll tax receipt is now housed in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Widespread and Legal
Poll taxes were first introduced in the late 19th century as part of a broader effort to suppress Black voting in the American South. By 1902, every former Confederate state had enacted the tax. The system remained in place for decades, despite legal challenges and civil rights protests.
The End of the Poll Tax
In 1964, the 24th Amendment barred poll taxes in federal elections, but several states still imposed them locally. That changed in 1966, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections that all poll taxes were unconstitutional.
Found in a Suitcase
Carr’s family found the 1955 receipt after his mother died. In 2012, they donated it to the Smithsonian as a preserved example of the once-legal fee required to vote.
In 1955, Leo Carr paid $1.50 to vote in Hardin County, Texas—a full day’s wages for many at the time.
Decades later, his family found the receipt tucked in a suitcase.
That small slip of paper now sits in the collections of the Smithsonian as a record of a voter fee…🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/O4z9DHvvTy
— Detective Tiger's Stories (@TigerDetective) May 19, 2025