Final answer:
Southern states deprived African Americans of their voting rights through literacy tests and poll taxes.
Step-by-step explanation:
In order to prevent African Americans from voting without violating the Fifteenth Amendment, southern states implemented various discriminatory tactics including literacy tests and poll taxes.
Literacy tests involved requiring prospective voters to pass a reading and writing examination, which disproportionately affected African Americans who had been denied access to education.
Poll taxes required individuals to pay a fee in order to vote, effectively disenfranchising many African Americans who could not afford to pay.
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