In the Jim Crow South whites disfranchised blacks by extralegal and legal practices. The latter included the “white primary,” which allowed a political party to nominate its candidates for the general election. Blacks were excluded.  Pursuing “the Negro's right to vote,” the NAACP battled suffrage restriction in Texas. Its initial case,  Nixon v. Herndon  (1927), convinced the Supreme Court to overturn Texas’ law excluding blacks from primary elections. The legislature changed it by allowing the Democratic Party's executive committee to determine its eligible voters, but the Court disallowed the change in  Nixon v. Condon  (1932). The Texas Democratic Convention, a private body, thus restricted participation in primaries to whites-only. Enlisting black Houston dentist Dr. Lonnie Smith as plaintiff, NAACP counsel unsuccessfully contested the party's racial exclusion in state court. He appealed and the Court overturned the “white primary” in  Smith  8–1. Black voter registration and voting increased in southern states.