<P> From 1890 to 1908, ten of the eleven former Confederate states, along with Oklahoma upon statehood, passed disfranchising constitutions or amendments that introduced voter registration barriers--such as poll taxes, residency requirements and literacy tests--that were hard for many poor to meet . Most African Americans, most Mexican Americans, and tens of thousands of poor whites were disfranchised, losing the vote for decades . In some states, grandfather clauses temporarily exempted white illiterates from literacy tests . The numbers of voters dropped drastically throughout the former Confederacy as a result . This can be seen via the feature "Turnout in Presidential and Midterm Elections" at the University of Texas' Politics: Barriers to Voting . Alabama, which had established universal white suffrage in 1819 when it became a state, also substantially reduced voting by poor whites. Democrat controlled legislatures passed Jim Crow laws to segregate public facilities and services, including transportation . </P> <P> While African Americans, poor whites and civil rights groups started litigation against such provisions in the early 20th century, for decades Supreme Court decisions overturning such provisions were rapidly followed by new state laws with new devices to restrict voting . Most blacks in the former Confederacy and Oklahoma could not vote until 1965, after passage of the Voting Rights Act and Federal enforcement to ensure people could register . Despite increases in the eligible voting population with the inclusion of women, blacks, and those eighteen and over throughout this period, turnout in ex-Confederate states remained below the national average throughout the 20th century . Not until the late 1960s did all American citizens regain protected civil rights by passage of legislation following the leadership of the American Civil Rights Movement . </P> <P> At the end of the 19th century, white Democrats in the South had created state constitutions that were hostile to industry and business development, with anti-industrial laws extensive from the time new constitutions were adopted in the 1890s . Banking was limited, as was access to credit . States persisted in agricultural economies . Especially in Alabama and Florida, rural minorities held control in many state legislatures long after population had shifted to industrializing cities, and legislators resisted business and modernising interests: Alabama refused to redistrict between 1901 and 1972, long after major population and economic shifts to cities . For decades Birmingham generated the majority of revenue for the state, for instance, but received little back in services or infrastructure . </P> <P> In the late 19th century, Texas rapidly expanded its railroad network, creating a network of cities connected on a radial plan and linked to the port of Galveston . It was the first state in which urban and economic development proceeded independently of rivers, the primary transportation network of the past . A reflection of increasing industry were strikes and labor unrest: "in 1885 Texas ranked ninth among forty states in number of workers involved in strikes (4,000); for the six - year period it ranked fifteenth . Seventy - five of the one hundred strikes, chiefly interstate strikes of telegraphers and railway workers, occurred in the year 1886 ." </P>

Pictures of the southeast region of the united states