Black Codes = Systematic (systemic) Racism.

Convict Leasing-In Alabama Never Went Out Of Style

In the great state of Alabama there is a legal system called convict leasing. Well they don’t call it that. But we all know what it is. Convict leasing was an essential part of the Black Codes of the old dity south. Make blacks work for less then nothing until they die.

Is that happening in 21st century America. (Yes). Since 2018, about 575 companies and more than 100 public agencies in Alabama have used incarcerated people as landscapers, janitors, drivers, metal fabricators and fast-food workers, the lawsuit states, reaping an annual benefit of $450 million.

Then Alabama got sued and it all came to light.

In their complaint, plaintiffs alleged that Alabama generates an annual $450 million from forced labor. The inmates work against their will and the ADOC takes 40% of gross earnings “purportedly ‘to assist in defraying the cost of his/her incarceration,'” asserted the complaint. Plaintiffs noted that the amount is “shocking” given that ADOC’s facilities were recently found by the Department of Justice to be significantly deficient.

One individual, Lakiera Walker, was incarcerated from 2007 to 2023. Walker said that for years, she was forced to perform long hours of uncompensated work that included housekeeping, stripping floors, providing care for mentally disabled or other ill incarcerated people, unloading chemical trucks, working inside freezers, and at Burger King. She said she was paid just $2 per day and was subjected to sexual harassment by a supervising officer.

Walker said that she was forced to work even when ill and that an ADOC job placement officer told her she must “get up and go make us our 40%.”

The Black Codes of good ole Alabama and the facts of Convict Leasing:

In 1866, one year after the 13th Amendment was ratified (the amendment that ended slavery), Alabama, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina began to lease out convicts for labor (peonage).

Convict leasing began in Alabama in 1846 and continued until July 1, 1928. During 1883, about 10% of Alabama’s total revenue came from this practice, and by 1898, nearly 73% of the state’s revenue was derived from convict leasing.

Alabama was the last state to formally outlaw this exploitative system. On paper anyway.

Its a lucrative business why stop now:

The business of arresting Blacks very lucrative, which is why hundreds of White men were hired by these states as police officers. Their primary responsibility was to search out and arrest Blacks who were in violation of Black Codes. Once arrested, these men, women and children would be leased to plantations where they would harvest cotton, tobacco, sugar cane. Or they would be leased to work at coal mines, or railroad companies. The owners of these businesses would pay the state for every prisoner who worked for them; prison labor.

It is believed that after the passing of the 13th Amendment, more than 800,000 Blacks were part of the system of peonage, or re-enslavement through the prison system. Peonage didn’t end until after World War II began, around 1940.

This is how it happened.

The 13th Amendment declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." (Ratified in 1865)

Did you catch that? It says, “neither slavery nor involuntary servitude could occur except as a punishment for a crime". Lawmakers used this phrase to make petty offenses crimes. When Blacks were found guilty of committing these crimes, they were imprisoned and then leased out to the same businesses that lost slaves after the passing of the 13th Amendment. This system of convict labor is called peonage.

The majority of White Southern farmers and business owners hated the 13th Amendment because it took away slave labor. As a way to appease them, the federal government turned a blind eye when southern states used this clause in the 13th Amendment to establish laws called Black Codes.

Here are some examples of Black Codes:

In Louisiana, it was illegal for a Black man to preach to Black congregations without special permission in writing from the president of the police. If caught, he could be arrested and fined. If he could not pay the fines, which were unbelievably high, he would be forced to work for an individual, or go to jail or prison where he would work until his debt was paid off.

If a Black person did not have a job, he or she could be arrested and imprisoned on the charge of vagrancy or loitering.

This next Black Code will make you cringe. In South Carolina, if the parent of a Black child was considered vagrant, the judicial system allowed the police and/or other government agencies to “apprentice” the child to an "employer". Males could be held until the age of 21, and females could be held until they were 18. Their owner had the legal right to inflict punishment on the child for disobedience, and to recapture them if they ran away.

In South Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi, politicians went to great lengths to define the obligations servants owed masters and masters owed servants.

According to Dan T. Carter, black workers were mandated by law to be "honest, truthful, sober, civil, and diligent." If blacks did not display these virtues when interacting with their employers, they could be prosecuted. Employers also had to be honest and committed to the best interests of their black employees.

Black people who broke labor contracts were subject to arrest, beating and forced labor, and apprenticeship laws forced many minors (either orphans or those whose parents were deemed unable to support them by a judge) into unpaid labor for white planters.

Additionally, in Mississippi and Florida, the Black Codes defined racial status. Anyone with any black blood was considered black according to the law and subject to the provisions of the Black Codes.

This (peonage) is an example of systemic racism - Racism established and perpetuated by government systems. Slavery was made legal by the U.S. Government. Segregation, Black Codes, Jim Crow and peonage were all made legal by the government, and upheld by the judicial system.

These acts of racism were built into the system. It became systematic and automatic and mutually exclusive, which is why the term “Systemic Racism” is now rooted in the vocabulary of us all.

For further readings on the American racial institution of Convict Leasing:

The writigs of "Convict Leasing" in America

This is the part of "Black History" that most of us were never told about.

CellyBlue-I Do Know This!