Poll Tax receipt, 1957. Even if they were able to overcome the numerous hurdles designed to deny them the right to vote, African Americans were required to pay back poll taxes. The sum was often beyond the means of the poor to pay. Rosa Parks secured the right to vote in the 1940s after at least two failed attempts to register. This receipt is for her annual poll tax in 1957

Photograph: Rosa Parks Papers, Manuscript Division/Library of Congress