To someone who understands statistics, why is the method conducted by the researchers: " To examine the connection between historical acts of racial violence a

To someone who understands statistics, why is the method conducted by the researchers: " To examine the connection between historical acts of racial violence and modern-day voting behavior among blacks in the South, Williams examined county-level voter participation data in the six Southern states where individuals are asked to identify their race when they register to vote. " Where they basically drew connections between two sets of statistics, different from what 'spurious correlations'[1] takes aim at? Although the article doesn't mention at any greater depth as to how the research was done. [1] https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations