Also, the Voting Rights Act was gutted by the Supreme Court in 2013. Before its passage in 1965, Black people were virtually banned from voting in much of the South. In Mississippi, for example, Black voter registration was 6.7% beforehand, and 59.8% two years later.
With removal of the restrictions in 2013, Republican-led legislatures immediately began working to reduce opportunities to vote as described by @zenvelo. with bad-faith arguments about “election integrity”.
Their efforts were supercharged by Trump and his ilk ramping up hysteria with their lies about election fraud.
2020 and Jan 6th were just a warm-up for Republican efforts in 2024. Without a new voting rights act, they will do all they can to keep conservative whites’ disproportionate control of our lives.