Mass Incarceration Leads To Convict Leasing

With the end of the Civil War in 1865, the passage passage of the 13th Amendment, (which only only technically ended slavery), and the South in economic shambles from losing the war and access to free enslaved labor, Southern states were at a turning point.

Who would help rebuild the broken economy? How would white supremacy survive the upward trajectory of newly freed African Americans?

The solution:

PRISON

All across the South, Black Codes were passed that prompted the arrest of African Americans for these actions:

• Walking without a purpose
• Walking at night
• Hunting on Sundays
• Settling on public or private land… and more

White supremacist regimes incarcerated African-American laborers en masse and leased them to private employers without facing a serious Thirteenth Amendment challenge

We looked at our family tree and wondered where some of the black men in our family went.

Carolyn Johnican, a relative of Ike Rhodes, whose remains have been DNA tested to match Unknown Grave #39 of the Sugar Land 95

State and local leaders in the South used the criminal justice system to both pacify the public's fear and bolster the depressed economy

American History, Race and Prison, from the Reimagining Prison Web Raport, By Ruth Delaney, Ram Subramanian, Alison Shanes and Nicolas Turner of Vera.org. October 2018

Educate. Honor. Heal. The Society of Justice & Equality for the People of Sugar Land (S.O.J.E.S.) is an independent, non-profit community organization dedicated to historic preservation and educating the community about the contributions of African Americans in the creation and progression of Sugar Land and Fort Bend County, Texas. This includes commemorating and memorializing the Sugar Land 95. sojesjustice.org