POLL TAX CRUSADER BUTTS DIES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 13, 1993                   TAG: 9303130188
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By Associated Press
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Short
POLL TAX CRUSADER BUTTS DIES
Evelyn T. Butts, a seamstress who successfully challenged Virginia's poll tax in the 1960s, has died at the age of 68.
Funeral arrangements were not immediately available after her death Thursday.
Butts sued state officials in the early 1960s, claiming the tax required of voters denied her the right to vote because she was poor. It was the first suit against the tax in Virginia. She later was joined by four other plaintiffs from Northern Virginia.
The late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, then U.S. solicitor general, joined in arguing the case before the high court.
That court ruled 6-3 in Butts' favor.
Following the decision, Butts set about registering many blacks - 2,882 in one six-month period - to boost black political power in the white-dominated city.
"She is as much responsible for the presence of minority persons in elective offices throughout this country as anyone because of her stand on the poll tax," said Norfolk Vice Mayor Joseph Green Jr., who knew Butts for 30 years. ". . . She inspired many of us."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB