For a period of nearly 80 years between the civil [war] and world war [two] black southerners were no longer slaves
But they were not yet free
What happened in that period of time was so much more terrible than anything most Americans recognize or understand today?
In one of the most shameful chapters of American history generations of Black southerners were forced to labor
Against their will free black people could be just picked up and put in jail
The sheriff Department could sell people to corporations in coal mines
He locked me up three days
After that. He said if I don't go to work he'll put me in River down there
People's lives were truly stolen from them their freedom was taken away
All the Southern States used the Criminal justice
System to put African Americans back into a position as close to slavery as they possibly could
These were real people who were deemed to be of no value
Maybe now through the telling of this history these individuals can [receive] some measure of justice
