Black Codes inverted Alabama’s prison population from white to black in years.
Evidence
Mary Ellen Curtin’s study of Alabama prisoners during the decades following emancipation discloses that before the four hundred thousand black slaves in that state were set free, ninety-nine percent of prisoners in Alabama’s penitentiaries were white. As a consequence of the shifts provoked by the institution of the Black Codes, within a short period of time, the overwhelming majority of Alabama’s convicts were black. She further observes: Although the vast majority of Alabama’s antebellum prisoners were white, the popular perception was that the South’s true criminals were its black slaves. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 72
Categorization
- QUESTION: The 99-percent-white antebellum prison figure is striking and worth chasing — what does it say about Northern vs Southern reliance on prison?
- XREF: connects to: Alabama’s prison population flipped from ninety-nine percent white to majority black after emancipation
Related
- Alabama’s prison population flipped from ninety-nine percent white to majority black after emancipation (similarity 0.91)
- Nearly one in three young black men were under correctional supervision by 1995 (similarity 0.80)
- Black Codes directly continued the slave codes’ function of racial control. (similarity 0.79)
- Prison is an ordinary life dimension in poor communities of color (similarity 0.79)