<P> With the decline of agriculture in generating wealth, what had been one of the nation's wealthiest and most politically powerful regions became one of the poorest . But, after regaining power in the state legislatures and ending Reconstruction, at the end of the 19th century white Democrats in the former Confederate states completed disfranchising most blacks and many poor whites by passing new constitutions that provided for an array of discriminatory voter registration and electoral rules . They did not lose any seats in congressional apportionment, which was based on total state populations, despite their disfranchisement of many of their citizens . This allowed the Democrats to accumulate seniority in Congress, where they acquired important committee chairmanships and exercised outsized political power for decades . </P> <P> The South became a one - party region, and whites controlled all Congressional representation allocated for the full population, although in many areas, the majority of residents could not vote . Whites exercised political power outsize to their numbers, as Democrats continued to have a one - party system through disfranchisement of blacks through much of the 20th century . They controlled a disproportionate number of seats in Congress, gaining seniority and thereby control of important committees . In the South and elsewhere, many states suffered malapportionment of state and congressional representatives, as rural areas had retained political control when state legislatures refused to redistrict long after demographic and economic shifts increasing population in urban areas . </P> <P> Lynchings were frequent in this region as whites used violence to impose white supremacy . Rates of lynching were high at times of economic stress and, annually, when it was time to settle accounts for sharecropping . The southern states passed Jim Crow laws establishing racial segregation in public facilities . </P> <P> During the first half of the twentieth century, up until 1970, a total of 6.5 million African Americans left the South in the Great Migration, which took place in two waves . They migrated to northern and midwestern industrial cities for jobs and other opportunities . The second wave of the migration began shortly before World War II and lasted to 1970, as thousands of blacks migrated to the West Coast for jobs related to the growing defense industries . </P>

Which region of the united states was most associated with educated workers