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Meridian, Miss. (AP) — With America roiling over questions of racial justice and a divisive election just days away, the AP Road Trip team made its way to Mississippi, and the scene of an infamous 1964 triple murder of civil rights workers fighting for Black voting rights.

Almost no Black people could vote in Mississippi until well into the 1960s, with a white power structure that feared their empowerment.

  • A portrait of James Chaney is seen on the headstone of his grave in Meridian, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020. Chaney was one of three civil rights activists that was kidnapped by a deputy sheriff and local Klansmen, and driven to a narrow country road and shot at close range. Their bodies, buried in an earthen dam, were found 44 days later. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Gregory Blanchard, 53, a carpenter and painter relaxes with his cigarette on the front porch of his friend’s home in Meridian, Miss. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. Distrust of the government runs deep in the Black community in Mississippi, where harsh voter suppression tactics – voting fees, tests on the state constitution, even guessing the number of beans in a jar – kept all but about 6% of Black residents from voting into the 1960s. As a result, Black politicians have been fighting an apathy born of generations of frustration. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A water tower is framed by electrical wires and traffic lights at sunset in Philadelphia, Miss., Monday, Oct. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A house is dwarfed against a cotton field in Yazoo City, Miss., Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A family sits on their front porch seen through a vehicle in Meridian Miss., Monday, Oct. 5, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Davonta Oliver, 18, poses for a portrait, outside his home in Meridian, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. Oliver, who decided not to vote, says that he believes in voting but it “sounds too good to be true.” He worries that people in power have simply rigged the system to ensure his vote won’t count. He worries that the candidates are simply echoes of one another, and that power ensures a spot in office whether someone deserves it or not. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A dog kicks up dirt outside a home in Meridian, Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • People wait to cross a street in Cleveland, Miss., Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. Distrust of the government runs deep in the Black community in Mississippi, where harsh voter suppression tactics – voting fees, tests on the state constitution, even guessing the number of beans in a jar – kept all but about 6% of Black residents from voting into the 1960s. Today, voters in Mississippi face a series of government-created barriers that make it, according to a study in the Election Law Journal in 2018, far and away the most difficult state in which to vote. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A liquor store is illuminated against the dusk sky in Cleveland, Miss., Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Davonta Oliver, 18, exercises by boxing outside his home in Meridian, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. Oliver, who decided not to vote, says that he believes in voting but it “sounds too good to be true.” He worries that people in power have simply rigged the system to ensure his vote won’t count. He worries that the candidates are simply echoes of one another, and that power ensures a spot in office whether someone deserves it or not. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A man walks past a gas station in Anguilla, Miss., Friday, Oct. 9, 2020. Today, voters in Mississippi face a series of government-created barriers that make it, according to a study in the Election Law Journal in 2018, far and away the most difficult state in which to vote. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A banner urging citizens to vote is displayed on the side of a street in Jackson Miss., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. The opposition to Black votes in Mississippi has changed since the 1960s, but it hasn’t ended. There are no poll taxes anymore, no tests on the state constitution. But on the eve of the most divisive presidential election in decades, voters face obstacles such as state-mandated ID laws that mostly affect poor and minority communities and the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of former prisoners. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A sign that reads “Warning. Protected by 2nd amendment. Warning” is displayed on the front porch of a home in Meridian, Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Kim Houston, president of the Meridian City Council pauses in between answering questions during an interview with The Associated Press in Meridian, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020. Houston said that among voters in Mississippi, “There’s this mindset that voting doesn’t matter, that nothing is going to change, that the election system is rigged.” (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A vehicle travels down a road along Mt. Zion United Methodist Church at dusk in Philadelphia, Miss. on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. In the summer of 1964 the church had been burned down and its parishioners beaten by a group of Klansmen. After civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman drove to the church to meet with witnesses to the KKK attack, the trio were later kidnapped and driven to a narrow country road where they were shot at close range. Their bodies were found in an earthen dam 44 days later. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Mannequins are illuminated in a shop window in Philadelphia, Miss., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. Today, voters in Mississippi face a series of government-created barriers that make it, according to a study in the Election Law Journal in 2018, far and away the most difficult state in which to vote. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • A man sits outside a store selling vintage furniture and home decorations in Meridian Miss., Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. Today, voters in Mississippi face a series of government-created barriers that make it, according to a study in the Election Law Journal in 2018, far and away the most difficult state in which to vote. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • People sit in a bar decorated with an American flag and confederate flags before noon in Meridian, Miss., Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2020. Today, voters in Mississippi face a series of government-created barriers that make it, according to a study in the Election Law Journal in 2018, far and away the most difficult state in which to vote. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Pictured from left to right, Gregory Blanchard, 53, Clyde Lewis, 59, Tommy McCoy, 48 and Anthony Boggan, 49, pose for a group portrait on McCoy’s front porch, in Meridian, Miss., on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020. Distrust of the government runs deep in the Black community in Mississippi, where harsh voter suppression tactics – voting fees, tests on the state constitution, even guessing the number of beans in a jar – kept all but about 6% of Black residents from voting into the 1960s. Boggan sometimes votes, but is sitting it out this year, disgusted at the choices. “They’re all going to tell you the same thing,” he said. “Anything to get elected.” (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Rev. Charles Johnson, 82, points to an old photo of a gathering after the death of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., during an interview with The Associated Press, in Meridian, Miss., Monday, Oct. 5, 2020. The old civil rights worker worries that Mississippi is drifting into its past. “I would never have thought we’d be where we’re at now, with Blacks still fighting for the vote,” said Johnson. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Mt. Zion United Methodist Church is pictured at dusk, in Philadelphia, Miss., on Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. In the summer of 1964 the church had been burned down and its parishioners beaten by a group of Klansmen. After civil rights activists Michael Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman drove to the church to meet with witnesses to the KKK attack, the trio were later kidnapped and driven to a narrow country road where they were shot at close range. Their bodies were found in an earthen dam 44 days later. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Road signs showing the exit route to James Chaney Drive and Philadelphia Mississippi are illuminated by car headlights in Meridian, Miss., on Saturday, Oct. 3, 2020. In the summer of 1964, Chaney and two fellow civil rights activists were kidnapped by a deputy sheriff and local Klansmen, and driven to a narrow country road and shot at close range. Their bodies, buried in an earthen dam, were found 44 days later. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Rev. Charles Johnson, 82, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at a church where he’s been a pastor for over 60 years, in Meridian, Miss., Monday, Oct. 5, 2020. The old civil rights worker was sure the struggle would be over by now. He’d fought so hard back in the ’60s. He’d seen the wreckage of burned churches, and the injuries of people who had been beaten. He’d seen men in white hoods. At its worst, he’d mourned three young men who were fighting for Black Mississippians to gain the right to vote, and who were kidnapped and executed on a country road just north of here. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
  • Demarkio Pritchett, 29, stands with his daughter Mariah Pritchett 8, playing in the background outside his grandmother’s home, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2020, in Meridian, Miss. Pritchett, who said he was convicted as a teenager of drug possession “and some other stuff,” can’t vote in Mississippi for the rest of his life. Anyone convicted here of one of 22 crimes, from murder to felony shoplifting has their voting rights permanently revoked. Pritchett’s only chance: getting a pardon from the governor, or convincing two-thirds of the state’s lawmakers to pass a bill written just for him. (AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

That changed with the 1965 Voting Rights Act, but it hasn’t ended. There are no poll taxes anymore, no tests on the state constitution.

But voters face obstacles such as state-mandated ID laws that mostly affect poor and minority communities and the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of former prisoners.