‘Know your history’: Alabama native goes viral using poll tax certificate to inspire young people to vote in Tuesday’s election

By Magdala Louissaint

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    Alabama (WVTM) — Loretta Green is a walking history lesson, and she’s gone viral because of it.

The 89-year-old is taking her Alabama poll tax exempt certificate from 1960 to voting rallies and telling young voters why she doesn’t miss an opportunity to cast her ballot. Green, an Air Force veteran, was exempt from paying the poll tax because she joined the military.

“What I was explaining to them is that, at that time, we didn’t make a lot of money. And so, it was a choice; that was voter suppression because you had to make a choice between paying the poll tax or feeding your family,” Green said.

The Mobile native now lives in Georgia. Green spoke with WVTM 13 Magdala Louissaint via Zoom after Magdala saw the viral TikTok video of her explaining that, at one time in history, Black people had to pay to vote in elections.

“I just like to keep trying to encourage them to check [and] know your history because they’re not teaching at it school anymore,” Green said.

The video below explains how Green’s efforts have changed the minds of some undecided young people to register for the upcoming election.

Louissaint also spoke with historian Barry McNealy, who serves as the historical context expert for the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

“The poll tax was used to discourage Black people from voting after the passing of the 15th Amendment in 1870,” McNealy said, “What you [they] would do, you [they] made it cumulative. Say it was $2. If you didn’t pay it, then the next year it was $4, and so forth and so on.”

McNealy says from 1870 to 1915, poll taxes kept poor white and Black people from voting. He says the grandfather clause would allow white people to vote, but Black people were still suppressed.

“Her being able to have that card is evidence of the sacrifice that people have been able to make for generations for us to be a more perfect union,” McNealy said.

The sacrifices of countless people in American history would ultimately pay off in 1965 when the Voting Rights Act passed. McNealy says that’s when poll taxes were deemed unconstitutional. And that would be five years after Green got her exempt certificate.

Green said, “Know your history and pass it on, and like I said, this is a crucial election. Whoever win on Tuesday, it’s going to affect their lifetime for the next four years. So, I’m encouraging everyone to vote, but especially our young people.”

Green says she doesn’t remember a time she hasn’t voted unless she was sick. She says she does her research on all candidates and issues, then votes all the way down the ballot.

On Nov. 20, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute will celebrate its 32nd anniversary. McNealy says they will be looking at reimagining the institute and getting people to come back to the museum to recapture and inspire people on history like the Voting Rights era.

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