Vito Marcantonio, ALP-N.Y., the sponsor of the 1943 poll tax ban.

On May 25, 1943, the House overwhelmingly passed the Marcantonio Anti-Poll Tax Bill on a vote of 265-110 (D 92-93, R 169-17, Prog. 2-0, ALP 1-0, FL 1-0). This isn’t the first anti-poll tax bill. That was the 1942 Geyer (D-Calif.)-Pepper (D-Fla.) Anti-Poll Tax bill, which only prohibited poll taxes in general elections. The trouble with Geyer-Pepper’s scope was that most of the time the Democratic primary was the real election in states with poll taxes. The Marcantonio bill covers primaries as well, which attracts more opposition to the measure than Geyer-Pepper, including a cadre of conservative Republicans. Marcantonio himself attracted controversy as he was a member of the American Labor Party and openly pro-communist, so Southern Democrats could tar the bill as “communistic” by his leadership on the matter. I have included the vote in the bottom link, as well as MC-Index scores for that session of Congress.

KEY

Y – “Yea”

N – “Nay”

✓ – Paired or announced for.

X – Paired or announced against.

? – No known opinion.

Republicans are in italics.

Democrats are in plain text.

1943 Anti-Poll Tax Bill