Poll Tax Research Articles

A White Liberal College President in the Jim Crow South: Guy Herbert Wells and the YWCA at Georgia State College for Women, 1934–1953 by Sandra E. Godwin

Reviewed by: A White Liberal College President in the Jim Crow South: Guy Herbert Wells and the YWCA at Georgia State College for Women, 1934–1953 by Sandra E. Godwin Leah LaGrone A White Liberal College President in the Jim Crow South: Guy Herbert Wells and the YWCA at Georgia State College for Women, 1934–1953. By Sandra E. Godwin with Helen Matthews Lewis. (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 2021. Pp. xviii, 238. $35.00, ISBN 978-0-88146-790-1.) What began as a project to explore the history of the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) at Georgia State College for Women (GSCW) was transformed into a story about college leadership in the Deep South during the 1930s and 1940s. Author Sandra E. Godwin, a professor of sociology at Georgia College and State University, examines the racial politics of conservative Georgia and the liberal leanings of a white college president. She shows that GSCW president Guy Herbert Wells was determined to balance student demands for racial tolerance, which matched his own politics, with pressures from the racist Georgia politicians who held his job in their hands. [End Page 797] Godwin begins with a focus on the progressive politics of several YWCA chapter leaders at GSCW in the 1930s and 1940s. For example, she shows how Marguerite Jernigan, YWCA president in 1938–1939, wrote an article for the student newspaper, The Colonnade, calling attention to white supremacy. Jernigan observed that Georgia's poll tax "arose not immediately following the Civil War as many people think, but rather . . . was a result of white supremacy conventions that came in the late 1890s and early 1900s" (p. 31). Several other YWCA leaders on the GSCW campus similarly pushed "beyond the boundaries of the status quo" regarding racist politics in the South, examining connections between racism, capitalism, and poverty (p. 31). YWCA members also visited Black institutions and attended interracial conferences, sometimes staying overnight in the same venues as Black students. Their actions blatantly subverted the norms of southern segregation. That is, until President Wells demanded that the organization proceed with caution so that he would not have to contend with the wrath of racist politicians. The book intersperses the history of the college's radically progressive chapter of the YWCA with analysis of Wells's responses to its activism. Godwin argues that focusing on his balancing act gives us a clearer picture of complex southern politics. She examines how a white liberal in the Deep South allowed YWCA leaders to challenge the demands of Georgia politicians with the power to fire him. Godwin describes a comment made after Wells supported the YWCA chapter's attendance at an integrated conference in the 1940s. Georgia House Speaker Roy Harris, who had been appointed to the University System of Georgia Board of Regents by the vocal segregationist and staunchly anti–civil rights governor Herman E. Talmadge, reportedly said, "If ever there was a traitor to the white people of Georgia, it is Guy Wells" (p. 159). Wells, however, did sometimes succumb to the political pressure and forced the YWCA to curb its participation in interracial politics. Godwin shows that whatever Wells's personal politics, he strained to play the middle so that he could remain in his position at the university. The histories of white liberalism and white radical progressivism in a deeply segregated state revealed here are fascinating. Godwin argues that the book is primarily about college leadership. Nevertheless, it is the story of a racially progressive YWCA that called to task systemic racism in the 1930s and 1940s that really stands out. The book provides rich historical context for interracial politics by showing how groups like the YWCA spoke out against white supremacy. Although a white man is on the cover of the book, A White Liberal College President in the Jim Crow South: Guy Herbert Wells and the YWCA at Georgia State College for Women, 1934–1953 reveals a new history in the actions of white women subverting a racist and patriarchal system. Godwin's book is an excellent starting point for a needed history on the politics of the YWCA in the South. Historians can also build on stories of interracial...

علاقة الرسول مع أهل الذمة

The study endeavor to knowing how Prophet Muhammad laborer owners of of other monotheistic religions, I started the definition Dhimmis, and then I talked about poll tax ration And why I took then so I studied relationship of the Apostle to the Jews sought the Apostle to the annexation of the Jews the state Islamic and the treaties Signed the Apostle in Yathri and how repeal Jewish conventions and their attempts to kill the Prophet, which have resulted evacuate them of Yathrib also I studied the Apostle relationship with Christians, the Apostles sent to Kings and the relation the Prophet Najashi and Immigration companions of the Prophet to Abyssinia,so have adopted to a large of a number of books Related the auctioneer.

A novel aggregation strategy for producing population density surfaces using poll tax data: the case of Vyborg in 1880

In Historical GIS or spatial history, the lack of data is a common problem. In particular, high-resolution population surface models are needed for detailed analyses of segregation and population change. Combining highly accurate poll tax registers with spatial data allows the creation of accurate high-resolution population grid models. However, geolocating data for individual households is time-consuming. This paper presents a novel method for a data aggregation based on page sums recorded in original documents. The study inspected the accuracy of the aggregation method based on the effect on the spatial segregation index (S). Since the effect of the aggregation on the index is consistently around 10 per cent, the method allows diachronic research on the changing levels of segregation. This facilitates the study of spatial history of the segregation in urban space.

Constitutional Orphan: Gender Equality and the Nineteenth Amendment

In 1922 over 250 women from Albany, Georgia, voted in a local election. The mayor sought to purge their votes because the women did not pay a poll tax, and only those citizens who were blind or had lost limbs fighting for the Confederacy were exempt from the tax. The case advanced to the Georgia Supreme Court, where the justices considered the reach and enforceability of the Nineteenth Amendment. The court affirmed the validity of the women's votes, but the case demonstrated gaps in how the Nineteenth Amendment was understood and implemented. Ambiguities about women's right to vote, which persisted in the years following the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, are expertly detailed in Paula A. Monopoli's Constitutional Orphan. As Monopoli shows, ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment did not, in one fell swoop, guarantee women's full citizenship. Rather, a legal vacuum greeted the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, rendering...

The social profitability of rural roads in a small open economy: Do urban agglomeration economies matter?

AbstractThe effects of a rural roads programme depend on labour mobility, how the programme is financed, and agglomeration economies. If financed by a rural poll tax and cross‐price effects and agglomeration economies are sufficiently small, the wage will rise, with some return migration. Taxes on trade act as countervailing distortions, yielding urban households some relief. Rural‐urban commuting promotes the exploitation of agglomeration economies; taxes on international trade are then inferior to a poll tax. The change in the value, at producer prices, of the rural sector's net supply vector can be a poor measure of the programme's social profitability.

Cecil Rhodes: Racial Segregation in the Cape Colony and Violence in Zimbabwe

This article focuses on two key questions that have been central in debates following the Rhodes Must Fall protests at the University of Oxford in 2015–16: whether Rhodes supported and contributed to racial segregation in the Cape Colony, and how to characterise the violence in the conquest of Zimbabwe in the 1890s. With respect to the Cape, the evidence shows that Rhodes supported developments that intensified racial segregation in the late 19th century, including restrictions on the franchise, punitive racially based masters and servants legislation and a labour (poll) tax for African people only. He was involved as an employer in the beginning of coercive compounds for black workers and other racially restrictive practices. In respect of Zimbabwe, 1890–97, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company were responsible for extreme violence against African people. Unbridled use was made of the Maxim gun; cattle were looted by the Company and its agents on a large scale; grain stores and crops were appropriated or destroyed over a sustained period as a deliberate strategy; over a period of nine months in 1896–97, African men (including armed men), women and children sheltering in caves were blown up with dynamite. Rhodes was aware of these practices, at times participating or present while they were taking place and involved in strategic discussions. The article is based on published sources, and some of this is established in the historiography, but I do not know of an attempt to assess and quantify deaths in Zimbabwe. The material supports the argument that a celebratory statue of Rhodes at Oriel College is inappropriate and that it should be moved.

Book Review

Book Review

Social norms and elections: How elected rules can make behavior (in)appropriate

Can elections change people’s ideas about what is ethically right and what is wrong? A number of recent observations suggest that social norms can change rapidly as a result of election outcomes. We explore this conjecture using a controlled online experiment. In our experiment, participants rate the social appropriateness of sharing income with poorer individuals. We compare the ratings for situations in which a rule has been elected that asks people to share with ratings when the elected rule asks people not to share. We also compare both situations with ratings in a decision environment in which there is no official rule at all. In the absence of an elected rule, sharing is widely considered socially appropriate, while not sharing is considered socially inappropriate. We show that elections can change this social norm: They shift the modal appropriateness perception of actions and, depending on the elected rule, increase their dispersion, i.e. erode previously existing consensus. As a result, actions previously judged socially inappropriate (not sharing) can become socially appropriate. This power prevails, albeit in a weakened form, even if the election process is flawed (introducing a voting fee or “poll tax”, bribing voters, disenfranchising poorer voters). An additional treatment suggests that both the social information contained in election results and the social appropriateness of following rules per se play a role in shifting social norms.

A török defterek topográfiai adatainak felhasználása, mint a településhálózat rekonstruálásának eszköze

The National Archives of Hungary, the Research Centre for the Humanities and the Katona József Museum of Kecskemét have collaborated with the aim of reconstructing the medieval and early modern period settlement network and administration of the southern part of the Danube–Tisza Interfluve region. During the works all available medieval sources and Ottoman tax registers (including four sanjak surveys, four poll tax defters, three timar defters, and about eighty daybook registers) were processed. In parallel, a profound analysis of the medieval charters was carried out, as well as the topographic identification of the settlements with the help of historical maps and satellite images. The selected sample area was the Nahiye of Zombor and the Nahiye of Baja, which existed in the western part of the Sanjak of Szeged, roughly covering the territory of the medieval Bodrog county. Research has shown that mass analysis of defters results in far more topographic data than examination of individual defters. Using both medieval charters and Ottoman sources, we can reconstruct a more accurate picture of the settlement network of the sample area.

The “Flip Side” of Peter the Great’s Reforms

Under discussion the question if Peter the Greats reforms were truly revolutionary. The author focuses on two aspects: the extent to which his innovations altered the patrimonial system that had dominated Muscovy over the previous three centuries, and the role arbitrariness, bribery, embezzlement and other kinds of corruption played during his reign. She examines the first Russian emperors changes that most affected Russias various estates, including the introduction of a poll tax, the conversion of peasants on state lands into state serfs, as well as the intensification of the nobilitys service obligations and the reduction of its privileges. The author concludes that Peter not only did not destroy Muscovys traditional patrimonial system, but intensified it and even used it to impose his reforms on a reluctant population. Meanwhile, although the emperors initiatives in the sciences, arts and secular education were important, they only affected the upper class. In other respects, Peters efforts to westernize his realm were only superficial. The author also considers how Russians regarded the notion of freedom. She argues that there is a connection between seemingly opposite phenomena - the popular desire for freedom and arbitrariness of the service nobility. The author pays particular attention to corruption, which she considers to have had a major impact on the governments relationship with the elite, and was tolerated both to maintain the latters loyalty but also to manipulate it.

Peter the Great and the “modernisation” of serfdom in Russia

The article examines the transformations of Peter the Great in the context of the evolution of serfdom in Russia. The author substantiates the thesis that during the Peter’s transformations, the so-called “second edition of serfdom” took place, replacing its original, forced by objective conditions of survival and development of the country, estate-legal grounds. The substitution of the serfdom’s grounds is seen primarily in the rejection by the state of the conditionality principle of noble rights to the estate by compulsory lifelong service in the army, namely, this followed from the extension to estates of the patrimony’s possessory format. The analysis of the decree on single inheritance and its interpretations in historiography allowed us to conclude that the liberation of noble land ownership from the encumbrance of compulsory service created a legal basis for the subsequent “freedom of the nobility”, the rapid expansion of the privileges of the “noble estate” and, mainly, the ownership rights to land and peasants. The tax reform of Peter led to the fact that landlords began to assimilate the view of peasants as serfs, completely dependent on them, especially in the conditions of the responsibility imposed by the state on the owner of the estate for the payment of poll taxes and the supply of recruits.

Henry A. Wallace as Presidential Candidate: “Am I in America?”

Henry A. Wallace challenged the bipartisan foreign policy of President Truman in 1948. The Progressive Citizens of America opposed Truman’s “get-tough policy” (the Truman Doctrine, loyalty investigations, Universal Military Training, and the Marshall Plan) and founded the Progressive Party. Other “liberals” formed Americans for Democratic Action and supported Truman, who claimed that the Progressive Party was a Soviet construction. Wallace refused to participate in segregated meetings during his campaign in the South and was violently attacked. He advocated the need for federal measures to prohibit segregation, discrimination, the poll tax, and lynching. Wallace was resoundingly defeated but proved right in the long run: military means could not solve social problems. Instead, it spread hatred of the United States in many countries. The 1948 election determined U.S. foreign policy for over 50 years, resulting in missed opportunities to improve housing, education, and social security at home, which still has repercussions today. JEL Classifications: N42, F50

Фискальные функции воеводской канцелярии Прикамья в 1720–1780-х годах

Introduction. The article discusses the fiscal policy of the voivodship office of Prikamye in the 1720s – 1780s. The financial aspects of the activities of local institutions in the Russian state in the 18th century were considered by historians from different points of view (a poll tax reform, the impact of taxes on the development of economy, an increase in the arrears). The problem of the functioning of the voivodship office of Prikamye in the collection of tax arrears in this territory has not yet received consideration in historiography. Methods and materials. The problematic chronological method made it possible to identify the main problems in the process of implementing the fiscal functions of the voivodship power and administration and to trace them in dynamics. The method of comparative analysis was used when comparing the information on income books. Analysis. During the study period, the local office was experiencing a shortage of personnel and faced resistance from the local population in performing its tax functions. The author analyzed such methods of collecting taxes on core fees, such as sending decrees and reminders of debts, maintaining soldiers and staff to work with taxpayers in different parts of the study area, as well as pressure on worldly elected people to collect arrears. Results. Despite the shortage of personnel in the staff of the office, local governors actively collected taxes and arrears, and also participated in the increase in the number of taxpayers (recorded salary) and, accordingly, state revenues. Analyzing the materials of the funds of the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts and the State Archive of Perm Region, the author of the article comes to the conclusion that the voivodship office of Prikamye effectively performed its fiscal functions as a whole.

Landrat Books: Characterising a Source and Its Potential

This article considers Landrat books compiled between 1715 and 1720, which contain the results of the last census of homesteads carried out by the Russian state. Even though a comprehensive study of the Landrat books has not been conducted, scepticism prevails when it comes to the reliability of their results. The author argues that there are no grounds for such scholarly scepticism. The materials of the Landrat census have great potential. The reason for distrust of the Landrat data is that they are often compared with the 1710 census, which was badly conducted. Historians also often point out that the transition to the poll tax was caused by the authorities’ lack of confidence in the work of the Landrats. However, this was not the case. This transition was due to the fact that the 1715–1720 census made it clear to the government that it had to change the principle and methods of tax collection (to increase taxes). The article focuses on the potential of the Landrat books as a valuable historical source. Particular attention is paid to social and economic information. The author refers to the Landrat book of Tula. As a result, the article concludes that, regardless of the extent to which the Landrat books may be considered complete and accurate, they reflect real socio-economic processes taking place in Russia under Peter the Great. The practical purpose of the Landrat books is very significant; although these documents were not dedicated specifically to the service population, they inevitably tell the story of this large social group; also, they contain a lot of data on the history of the Russian nobility. As a result, the Landrat censuses, together with “fairytales,” register extracts, and other documents of this kind, can help recreate the overall picture of important changes in the lives of the provincial service elite in the time of Peter the Great.

Moving Forward with Hope

Even if you don't live in the United States, you are likely well aware of the recent US Presidential election. A record number voted; 66.5% of eligible voters cast ballots, the highest turnout rate since 1900. 1 NPRPresident-elect Joe Biden hits 80 million votes in year of record turnout. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/25/937248659/president-elect-biden-hits-80-million-votes-in-year-of-record-turnoutDate accessed: November 27, 2020 Google Scholar Of course in 1900, eligible voters included only men. African Americans and other people of color faced barriers at the polls, including poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation. 2 Library of Congress: Voting rights for African Americans. https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/elections/right-to-vote/voting-rights-for-african-americansDate accessed: November 27, 2020 Google Scholar It has only been since 1920 that women finally won the right to vote. As I am learning new realities of history beyond what I was taught in elementary school, I have learned that Native American women were not granted citizenship and the right to vote until 1924, with the Indian Citizenship Act, although some state laws still barred Native Americans from voting long after this date. Lyndon Johnson's Voting Rights Act was signed into law in 1965 (within my memory of current events), only belatedly outlawing discriminatory prerequisites to voting. My husband has his Texas poll tax receipt from 1964.

The Boundary Problem of Rights Restoration

By conditioning the restoration of felons’ political rights on the repayment of legal financial obligations, states have kept millions of potential voters from participating politically—profoundly altering the shape of the American electorate. Courts have upheld the practice by treating the conferral of political rights to non-members of the political community as an exercise of legislative grace subject to few constraints. Critics argue that the practice conditions political participation on wealth status and is therefore subject to heightened review. This Essay traces the disagreement back to a first-order question overlooked by both sides: how should the juridical status of a disenfranchised citizen’s “lost” rights be understood? The conventional position, which I call the “expulsion” view, imagines that a sentence of disenfranchisement casts a citizen outside the democratic community, thereby voiding all prospective constitutional interests predicated on political membership. However, disenfranchisement is better characterized as the subordination—not the wholesale elimination—of a citizen’s constitutional interests in voting or otherwise participating politically, just as incarceration suppresses but does not eliminate a person’s constitutional interest in physical liberty. From this it follows that disenfranchised citizens retain a stake in political participation and suffer cognizable harm when return to full political membership is inflected by wealth status. Redescribing the disenfranchisement-to-restoration process in this way aligns with the Richardson Court’s reading of Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment and sharpens the constitutional symmetry between fee-based restoration and paradigmatic forms of wealth discrimination like poll taxes. By framing re-enfranchisement as a constitutional default and drawing attention to disenfranchised citizens’ enduring claim to political presence, this account may also be of use in popular restoration efforts currently underway outside the courts.

Democracy's Destiny

From its beginning, America has had a paradoxical democracy, where all men are created equal while simultaneously denying the right to vote to anyone who was not White, male, or owned property. The pandemic exposed the fault lines of our democratic form of government. Those imposing barriers to the ballot are facing off against the advocates of access. It is not a new battle. In America, we seek ways to limit who can participate instead of expanding opportunities. We have dedicated our resources to dancing around the edges of democracy-by advocating for vote by mail or automatic voter registration, for example-while allowing states to develop blockades to the ballot that are confusing and quite effective. Without a doubt, America is at a crossroads. The shenanigans that this country has used to prevent access to the ballot box, such as the poll tax, grandfather clause, restrictive voter ID laws, voter purges, and felon disenfranchisement, are antidemocratic and harmful to our system. COVID-19 exposed the fault lines. We must repair them. A free, fair, inclusive, nondiscriminatory right to vote is essential to a healthy democracy. We are in the position to craft a true democratic system of government. Will this country live up to its democratic destiny or continue to deny our journey to a more perfect union?

Review: Gerrymanders: How Redistricting Has Protected Slavery, White Supremacy, and Partisan Minorities in Virginia, by Brent Tarter

Review: <i>Gerrymanders: How Redistricting Has Protected Slavery, White Supremacy, and Partisan Minorities in Virginia</i>, by Brent Tarter

Discourse of the father with his son about the water of life in the masnavi “Ilahi-Nameh” by (Farid ad-Din)

This is the line-by-line commented translation into Russian of the chapter (maqaleh) 14 from the masnavi “Ilāhī-nāme” by Abū Ḥamīd bin Abū Bakr Ibrāhīm (Farīd ad- Dīn, ʿAṭṭār), the Persian Sufi poet (1145–1220 AD). The chapters in the Ilahi-name are in fact answers given by the King to his six sons. Chapter 14 deals with the water of life, which, according to the legend, Alexander the Great once unsuccessfully tried to find. The answer to the King’s son includes 24 stories about historical and legendary characters, such as Iskandar (Alexander the Great), Namrud (the Biblical Nimrod), the righteous caliph ‘Umar, Majnun (in love with Layli), Sultan Mahmud and his beloved slave Ayaz, as well as nameless ones, including a collector of the poll tax from the Jews, a beautiful youth and an old man in love with him, a fox caught in a trap, a rogue salesman and a thief at the foot of the gallows. These stories are used to discuss and illustrate the key issues of Sufism. Among them: the desires of the nafs (“lower self” or “animal soul”), material and spiritual immortality, independence of divine actions from material causes, love, which requires the renunciation of one’s “self”, and knowledge as the true water of life. The stories are not related to each other, however, the set of Sufi ideas illustrated forms a conceptual unity.

The Impact of Health Sector Development on Tourism Development

Background: One of the most common mistakes in tourism policy is to focus solely on the tourist attractions without considering the environmental conditions and facilities in the community. Access to quality health services in the destination country is one of the most important facilities for tourists. The present study investigated the effect of improving the health sector on attracting foreign tourists. Methods: The present study was a descriptive-analytical study. To conduct the study, the data of global development indicators (published by the World Bank) from 1996 to 2016 were used. The study sample included 82 developing and developed countries. In order to analyze the data, the test methods based on panel data and the generalized torque regression were applied using Stata 14 software. Results: Findings from the estimates of all 4 models show that development of health and treatment increased the amount of tourist attraction in the world. The 2 indices of health developer for both groups of countries had a significant positive effect on tourism development index (tourist attraction). The findings also showed that other independent variables of the model such as air transport development, poll tax income, improvement of information and communication technology, and business development had a positive and significant effect on attracting foreign tourists. Conclusion: On the one hand, provision of the necessary health facilities and improvement of the health indicators provide one of the most essential facilities needed by tourists. On the other hand, application of these facilities is the goal of tourism. From a social point of view, improving health indicators is a positive aspect for society. Therefore, development of health is one of the essentials of tourism development.