Final answer:
In the post-Civil War southern states, the white ruling class sought to consolidate power by disenfranchising black voters and upholding racial divisions.
Step-by-step explanation:
After the Civil War, southern states like Virginia sought to reassert control over local governance by disenfranchising black voters and redefining the social order. The ruling elite attempted to preserve their power by introducing property qualifications for voting, reducing taxes, and pursuing policies that would continue to enforce racial divisions.
Notable efforts to resist this power consolidation came from figures such as William Mahone, who led the Readjuster Movement in an alliance of poor whites and blacks against the planter elite.
Furthermore, governments during the Reconstruction era focused on rehabilitating infrastructure and establishing public education and social welfare systems, funded by taxing land and property.
However, these measures heightened resentment among white landowners, paving the way for a backlash that would solidify white supremacy via mechanisms like literacy tests, poll taxes, and grandfather clauses to impede African American voting rights. The failure to enforce black suffrage rights post-Reconstruction led to the burgeoning of Jim Crow laws and a deeply segregated society.
The struggle between federal enforcement of civil rights and state-supported white supremacy was encapsulated in incidents requiring federal intervention, such as the White League's violent actions in Louisiana. The late 19th century was thus marked by the attempt of the South to maintain racial hierarchies and white dominance in the face of a changing political landscape.