and practices. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 declared the
literacy tests, poll taxes, and other methods used for
disenfranchising southern blacks to be illegal. It also
extended a great deal of federal oversight into state
elections.
The impact of all these events was a significant change
in economic and legal institutions in the South. In
Mississippi, for example, only about 5 percent of eligible
black people were voting in 1960.