Of the 130 men who paid poll taxes in Taylors township, Wilson County, in 1902, I can identify forty-four as African-American. North Carolina’s 1900 constitutional amendment added literacy requirements to paying poll taxes as prerequisites to voter eligibility. Thus, despite having paid their taxes, most of the men here — except those descended from free men who had voted prior to 1867 — had been recently disenfranchised.

Page one of the 1902 poll tax list for Taylors township.

• Tobe Barnes
• Wm. Barnes
• Ernest Barnes
• Wm. Blackwell
• Eddie Coleman
• Henry Deans
• Thos. Dew
• Henry Dudley
• Peter Eatman
• McGuire Eatman
• Henry Eatman
• Dock Eatman
• Wiley Ethridge
• Robt. Eatman
• Kenyon Eatman
• Pharo Farmer
• Thos. Farmer
• Swift Ford
• Alford Green
• Charlie Howard
• Zealous Howard [Jr.]
• Richard Howard
• Wm. Hardy
• Jas. Hagan
• Chas. Hagan
• Jno. High
• Jas. Howard
• Ira Howard
• Henry Locus
• Kinyon Locus
• Bosa [Boaz] Locus
• Asa Locus
• John Norfleet
• Ennis Pearson
• Wiley Rountree
• Alex Rountree
• Willie Rountree
• Stephen Ruffin
• Andrew Rann
• Haywood Taylor
• Turner Taylor
• Geo. Taylor
• Haywood Winstead
• Reubin White

Poll Tax Lists (1902), Tax Records, Wilson County Records, North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh.