The Twenty-fourth Amendment | US House Of Representatives

United States House of Representatives: History, Art, & Archives

• Map
• Blog
• Multimedia
• About

Search the website

• Institution
• People
• Exhibitions & Publications
• Collections
• Oral History
• Education
• Records & Research

• Congressional Profiles
• Historical Highlights
• Origins & Development: From the Constitution to the Modern House
• Elections & Vacancies
• House Service & Seniority
• Congressional Apportionment
• Electoral College Fast Facts
• Firsts & Milestones

• Party Divisions
• Session Dates of Congress
• Saturday & Sunday Legislative Days
• Joint Meetings, Joint Sessions, & Inaugurations
• Presidents, Vice Presidents, & Coinciding Sessions of Congress
• Presidential Vetoes
• The Power of the Purse

• Congressional Gold Medal Recipients
• Individuals Who Have Lain in State or Honor
• Funerals in the House Chamber
• Foreign Leaders and Dignitaries Who Have Addressed the U.S. Congress
• State of the Union
• Calendars of the House of Representatives
• Résumés Of Congressional Activitity

Featured

Search Historical Highlights of the House

Learn about Foreign Leader Addresses

• People Search
• Mapping Congress
• Continental and Confederation Congresses
• Officers of the House
• Appointed Officials of the House
• Freshman Class Leaders

• Speakers of the House
• Majority Leaders
• Minority Leaders
• Democratic Whips
• Republican Whips
• Democratic Caucus Chairs
• Republican Conference Chairs

• House Members Who Became U.S. Supreme Court Justices
• House Members Who Received Electoral College Votes
• House Members Who Served in the Cabinet
• John W. McCormack Annual Award of Excellence to Congressional Employees
• Named Rooms of the House

Featured

Search the People of the House

Majority Leaders

• America250
• “A Chair Made Illustrious”: A Concise History of the U.S. House Speakership
• Asian and Pacific Islander Americans in Congress
• Black Americans in Congress
• Hispanic Americans in Congress
• Women in Congress

• How the House Works
• The Capitol and the Golden Age of Postcards
• Portraits in the House of Representatives
• What’s in the Capitol?
• House Office Buildings
• Campaign Collectibles: Running for Congress
• The Tourist’s Capitol
• The First Women in Congress
• On Display: Exhibitions from the House Collection

• The House and Civil Rights
• Impeachment: President Andrew Johnson
• The People’s House: A Guide to Its History, Spaces, and Traditions
• Electronic Technology in the House of Representatives
• History of the House Page Program
• The 1954 Shooting
• Congressional Sporting Events
• Florence Kahn: Congressional Widow to Trailblazing Lawmaker

Featured

Black Americans in Congress

The People’s House

• Collections Search
• Events
• Furniture & Decorative Arts
• Historical Artifacts

• Life in the House
• Painting & Sculpture
• People
• Photographs

• Places
• Popular Culture
• Prints & Drawings

Featured

Mace of the U.S. House of Represen- tatives

• Oral History Search
• List of Interviewees
• Projects

• The Long Struggle for Representation: Oral Histories of African Americans in Congress
• 1954 Shooting in the House Chamber
• A Century of Women in Congress
• Civil Rights
• Documentaries
• House Collection Objects

• House Pages
• Institutional Interviews
• September 11, 2001
• Watergate
• World War II

Featured

Search All Oral History Media

• National History Day 2026: Revolution, Reaction, Reform in History
• Kids in the House
• Download or Request our Publications
• Primary Source Sets

• Student Guides
• Tools for Teaching with Primary Sources
• Lesson Plans

• Education Fact Sheets
• Time for a Tour: Visiting the People’s House
• Glossary
• Timeline

Featured

Resources for National History Day

• Records Search
• Researching the House: Official Records

• Researching the House: Other Primary Sources
• Researching the House: Bibliographies

• Researching the House: Secondary Sources
• Finding Aids for Official House Records

Featured

Records Search: Explore Primary Sources

• About

• Home >
• Institution >
• Historical Highlights

• Vote to feature this on the home page
• Cite
• Print

Historical Highlights The Twenty-fourth Amendment August 27, 1962 Image courtesy of Library of Congress One of the longest-serving House Members in history, Congressman Emanuel Celler of New York dedicated nearly 50 years of service to his Brooklyn-area constituents. On this date in 1962, the House passed the Twenty-fourth Amendment, outlawing the poll tax as a voting requirement in federal elections, by a vote of 295 to 86. At the time, five states maintained poll taxes which disproportionately affected African-American voters: Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. The poll tax exemplified “Jim Crow” laws, developed in the post-Reconstruction South, which aimed to disenfranchise black voters and institute segregation. Some critics of the legislation thought the amendment did not go far enough to protect black voting rights in state and local elections. Representative John Lindsay of New York contended, “If we’re going to have a constitutional amendment, let’s have a meaningful one.” Judiciary Chairman Emanuel Celler of New York dismissed the criticism and proceeded with the bill as introduced. On January 23, 1964, the Twenty-fourth Amendment became part of the Constitution when South Dakota ratified it.

Related Highlight Subjects

• Celler, Emanuel
• Committee on Judiciary
• Constitution
• Jim Crow
• Legislation

Related Links

• Black Americans in Congress, 1870 to Present

Related Links

• Explore Official House Records Related to Constitutional Amendments

For more constitutional history, see "Constitution Annotated: Analysis and Interpretation of the U.S. Constitution" from Congress.gov.

Office of the Historian: [email protected] Office of Art & Archives, Office of the Clerk: [email protected], [email protected]

• Contact
• Privacy
• YouTube

Close

Cite This Page

History, Art & Archives, U.S. House of Representatives, “The Twenty-fourth Amendment,” https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1951-2000/The-24th-Amendment/ (March 02, 2026)

For Additional Information

Office of the HistorianOffice of Art and Archives Attic, Thomas Jefferson BuildingWashington, D.C. 20515(202) 226-1300

• [email protected]
• [email protected]
• [email protected]