State Representative Dr. Alma Allen, District 131, with the help of State Senator Rodney Ellis, has placed
Texas on record against the poll tax, 45 years after ratification.
House Joint Resolution 39 (HJR 39) was approved in the Texas House on May 5th, and finally passed in the Texas Senate May 22, 2009.
HJR 39 post-ratifies 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that a person’s right to vote cannot be abridged or denied for failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.
As is well known, the poll tax was strategically aimed at suppressing the voter participation of minorities, women and poor.
Championed by President John F. Kennedy, and passed under President Lyndon B. Johnson, the 24th Amendment was fully ratified in 1964.
At that time,
Texas was one of only five states still levying a poll tax, and one of only twelve states not to ratify it.
Although the 24th Amendment has been the law of our nation since 1964, it is important nevertheless that the Texas Legislature ceremonially post-ratify it.
In 1977,
Virginia lawmakers post-ratified the 24th Amendment, followed by
North Carolina in 1989 and
Alabama in 2002, leaving
Texas one of only nine states not on record in support of the 24th Amendment.
Rep. Allen was honored to finally put
Texas on the map against the poll tax this session.
