after passage of the civil rights act of 1964, most southerners accepted the integration of most institutions (except public schools). with the old barrier to becoming a republican removed, southerners joined the new middle class and the northern transplants in moving toward the republican party. integration thus liberated southern politics from the old racial issues. in 1963, the federal courts declared unconstitutional the practice of excluding african-american voters from the democratic primaries, which had been the only elections that mattered in most of the south. meanwhile, the newly enfranchised black voters supported democratic candidates at the 85–90% level, a shift which further convinced many white segregationists that the republicans were no longer the black party.