Poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were discriminatory practices used primarily in the Southern United States to disenfranchise African American voters after the Reconstruction era. Poll taxes required individuals to pay a fee to vote, which many African Americans could not afford. Literacy tests were often unfairly administered, targeting Black voters with complex questions designed to confuse and disqualify them. Grandfather clauses allowed individuals to bypass these restrictions only if their ancestors had voted before the Civil War, effectively excluding descendants of enslaved people from voting.
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