Final answer:
Southern states used poll taxes to suppress African American voting rights, which were eventually prohibited by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment and further protected by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Step-by-step explanation:
Many Southern states required African Americans to pay a poll tax before voting, a practice that was ultimately eradicated by the Twenty-Fourth Amendment. This amendment, ratified in January 1964, explicitly outlawed the requirement to pay a fee to vote in national elections. Despite the Fifteenth Amendment's guarantee of voting rights regardless of race, the imposition of poll taxes alongside literacy tests and property requirements were mechanisms used to suppress the African American vote.
The Voting Rights Act of 1965 further reinforced voting freedoms by prohibiting literacy tests and enabling federal examiners to register black voters in Southern states. Collectively, these measures were instrumental in protecting the right to vote for African Americans, which was a vital aspect of ending racial inequality in the United States.