In short, while the poll tax may have read as race-neutral—seemingly applicable to all—its reality was anything but, as the disparities in wealth, education, and relations with law enforcement had everything to do with the disparities in access between blacks and whites. Moreover, the registrars’ discretion, as with the literacy test, inevitably undermined any sense of fairness or nondiscrimination, as they “thwarted black aspirants by not showing up at the office or by simply refusing to register blacks to vote when they did.”
