(January 7, 2002) The term 'poll tax' now refers to any barrier erected to selectively deny exercise of one's civil rights. In the days of Jim Crow, they ensured that only the 'right people' voted, whether by paying a fee or passing a suitable test.

Thurgood Marshall, one of Maryland's sons, was instrumental in lifting the poll tax as a weapon of social bigotry. As Solicitor General he argued against poll taxes before the US Supreme Court he would later join, in a case that resulted in poll taxes being declared unconstitutional. Marshall is honored with a statue on Lawyer's Mall, which stands before the Maryland Statehouse in Annapolis.

Justice Marshall passed away in 1993, and the memory of what he stood for faded fast in Annapolis. Maryland's General Assembly has resurrected the poll tax in the form of firearm training mandates. A prospective gun buyer must satisfy state police by showing they have taken a state reeducation class. The catch, of course, is one only a disciple of Jim Crow could love: The state has no provision for offering its course in Baltimore City, where state police have acknowledged most handgun sales in the state previously were made.

In order to lawfully buy a firearm, the test you must pass is finding where you can take the state's free class. By limiting classes to select times and locations elsewhere in Maryland, the state tells quite clearly who are the 'right people' to buy guns … and who aren't. Field hands on the Baltimore plantation will have to go elsewhere for state safety training.