An envelope allergan bimatoprost patent We all know why there's a VRA: states of the former confederacy (and some other jurisdictions, as well) spent a century after the end of the Civil War finding every way to keep black Americans from voting and from achieving representation in the halls of government. To end this, Congress enacted the VRA in 1965. Congress' authority to do so was based on the power granted it under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, enacted in the wake of the Civil War.