After the Civil War, following the Compromise of 1877 and the end of Reconstruction, the Southern states moved forward with a campaign to continue segregation and disenfranchisement civilians of black Americans. The main effort was the Jim Crow laws. Separate from the Black Codes (1800-1866), Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 that enforced “de jure” (legally mandated) racial segregation in public facilities. During this period, states passed amendments that disenfranchised most blacks and thousands of poor whites through the implementation of poll taxes, literacy tests, and comprehension tests. Some illiterate whites were temporarily allowed to vote under the grandfather clauses. These laws asserted a "separate but equal status" for black Americans. In 1890, Louisiana passed a law requiring separate accommodations for colored, white, and black passengers on railroads. Homer Plessy was only one-eighth "nigger" and light-skinned, to prove it. In 1892, Plessy purchased a first-class train ticket. Upon boarding the train, he informed the conductor of his racial heritage and sat in the whites-only carriage. The driver ordered him to leave the car and instead sit in the "blacks only" car. Plessy refused and was arrested. The case was fought all the way to the Supreme Court. The case, called Plessy v Ferguson (1896), was lost and the Court ruled that "separate but equal" facilities were constitutional. The segregation of schools and public places is perhaps the best-known example of these laws. In the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education, school segregation was declared unconstitutional and desegregation became the law of the land. A decade later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 overturned the remaining Jim Crow laws. Describe what the political/legal environment was at the time the Voting Right Act was created? Who were the main supporters and opponents of the law and why? The political and legal environment at the time of the Voting Right Act's creation was characterized by a constant struggle and search for identity for Black Americans. Until the Civil Rights Act of 1964, White Democrats used their power to segregate public spaces and facilities. Segregation was increasingly questioned after World War II. Thousands of black Americans fought bravely alongside white Americans and rightly felt that their sacrifices had earned them the right to be treated as full citizens. President Truman recognized their contributions in 1948 by desegregating the military with the issuance of the executive order 9981.