Poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses were used in the South after 1890 to keep african americans from voting.
As many African Americans were poor or illiterate (being foreign slaves), they usually failed tests. The Poll tax was first instituted to keep slaves from voting, but with the poorest of the poor whites complaining, they soon changed it to the literacy test, so that they can keep slaves from using their new found right of voting.
The government allowed the money supply to decline.
The collapse of housing prices led to decreased wealth and significant problems in financial markets, as well as a decrease in expected income and a stock market crash.
