Evelyn T. Butts

The Norfolk native filed a lawsuit in November 1963 challenging the constitutionality of Virginia's $1.50 poll tax, a fee required of voters. In interviews before her death, Butts, who was an unemployed seamstress when she filed the suit, said she could not afford to pay the tax. Her husband, the late Charles H. Butts, was a disabled veteran.

In December 1963 a three-judge panel was appointed to hear the case, Butts vs. Harrison. In March 1964, the judges ordered that the lawsuit be combined with similar lawsuits filed by other plaintiffs. The case was dismissed in May 1964, but that same month Butts filed another lawsuit. The case was again heard by a three-judge panel, who upheld the poll tax in November 1964.

In October 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Butts' appeal.

Her attorney, the late Joseph A. Jordan Jr. was joined in arguing the case by U.S. Solicitor General Thurgood Marshall, who was to become a U.S. Supreme Court justice. The Supreme Court voted 6-3 to eliminate the poll tax in March 1966, two and one-half years after Butts sued.

After the decision, Butts said the victory was an accomplishment not just for poor blacks, but also for poor whites who could not afford to pay the tax.

Butts became active in numerous civic, community and political organizations and received dozens of awards for her service.

Among her many accomplishments was her appointment as the first black woman commissioner to the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority in 1975. In November, the city of Norfolk named a street in her honor.

Butts was born May 22, 1924, the second of six children. Her father was a laborer. Her mother died when she was 10, and Butts was raised by an aunt, who passed on her interest in politics to Butts.

Butts, the mother of three daughters, also took great interest in public school and fought against in injustices in the Norfolk school system.

She died March 11, 1993.