The sound of gunshots is almost as frequent as the train’s horn. The dim streetlight marks the shift from a city into a warzone. No one is safe, no one is sorry, but every mother begins to worry. Children and adults alike work the streets in a land where success is measured by how much one consumes. A land with little hope, no jobs, and no stores, left with just drugs, and destruction. Police officers patrol every street, hoping to catch a fly in this obvious world of honey. What has brought Black communities to such a precarious position, and how can we get ourselves out of it?

American history has starved Black communities for centuries. Our contribution has been the determining factor for American success. Whether we sacrificed our labor, our lives, or our pride, we have worked tirelessly to prove Black excellence. Despite this, Black people have been forced into slums, beaten and prodded, and branded dangerous criminals. Black people must acknowledge that the system that uses us as its stepping stone will never be able to create equality. The moment we stop pushing forward, the system pushes us back. The challenge we face now is covert oppression and mass imprisonment, not lynchings and scientific experiments. In modern America, Black injustice is manifested in the country’s prison system. The violence and brutality we have experienced for centuries has never ceased–it simply changed form.  

Every American should know the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. It states “Neither slavery nor indentured servitude, except as punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist in the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” In 1865, after 250 years of chattel slavery, our country put a condition on the abolition of slavery. If you are a criminal, we are allowed to make you society’s slave. It would be naive to think that this nation would not turn that loophole into a black hole. 

Abolition introduced a new era of American history. Instead of slavery being embedded in the country’s constitution, it became de facto, or cultural. States had to discover new ways to acquire the labor of freedmen. The southern states were the first to do just that. Immediately following the ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865, many states passed Black Codes. These laws made congregation, unemployment (vagrancy), employment by non-white persons, homelessness, and property ownership illegal for Black people.

What was the punishment for the heinous crime of being Black and existing in society? Imprisonment, fines, and corporal punishment.  Black people were required to pay between $50 and $200. While this sounds miniscule, these fines would be approximately equal to $1,000–$3,000 today. If Black people in 1872 could not pay these fines within 10 days, they were leased out to work for white men. Thus fulfilling the need for free labor after abolition, and effectively keeping our people in chains.

Corporal punishment was the cruelest punishment of all. Corporal punishment is the infliction of bodily harm as a punishment for committing a crime, and it is still legal to this very day. Public hangings, massacres, rape, and beatings were common during Reconstruction and onward. This period embedded in American culture that Black people were criminals who deserved to be punished. Any person who prided themselves in their American identity accepted this as fact or incurred the same punishments. In the end, Black people were still working on southern plantations and rebuilding war-torn southern infrastructure without pay.

Using the 13th Amendment to criminalize and enslave Black Americans became common practice in this country. Its effects are written in the scars of Black men. The Scottsboro Boys’ were accused of assaulting two white women in 1931. One of the women admitting she lied about the incident was not enough to prove Black innocence. These young men collectively served over 100 years in prison. 50 years and 1 Civil Rights Act later, another group of black boys were publicly excoriated. The Central Park 5 were not saved by the legislation that was supposed to free Black people from oppression. 

How many other stories have been ignored or forgotten? How many Black men are dead, or still in prison for crimes they did not commit? I am sure Emmitt Till thought he had freedom too, before he was beaten to death by a mob of white men. 3 examples, 15 young Black lives, and the same old story. None of them avoided being leased out for their labor, or brutalized in prison. These are intentionally well-known occurrences. If these behaviors were happening with the whole world watching, we can not possibly imagine the horrors that occurred in private.

Black Destruction Continued 

Black communities from Reconstruction until the Civil Rights movement were riddled with poverty and violence. In 1945, 80 years after the abolition of slavery, the majority of Black employment was still in agriculture. If we weren’t working in agriculture, we were working in the service industry. Employment discrimination was explicit and frequent during the mid-twentieth century. Black people worked where they could, and were lucky to get paid a wage at all.   

The conclusion of World War Two in 1945 sent wives back into their homes, leaving a huge gap in the supply of low-skilled manufacturers. The industry, desperate for employees, was willing to hire Black people, and Black people were happy to find steady pay. It took less than a decade for the industry to become dependent on cheap, immutable, Black labor. We worked long hours in the most dangerous, low-paying jobs in the nation. During this period, our families only earned 54% of the income of our white counterparts. We didn’t even receive the minimum wage. Despite this, Black families were still homeowners. We built families with 2 parent households even during the height of our discrimination. 

Throughout this period, Black people were being thrown in prison left and right. We often received long sentences for minor crimes. In the 1950s, Black people had to battle the Boggs Act and the Narcotics Control Act.  The Boggs Act of 1951 established a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years and a $2,000 fine for a first offense of intent to sell marijuana. During the height of the Jim Crow South, we can assume that any amount of weed in the hands of a Black person would have been considered an intent to sell. The penalty for subsequent offenses was a mandatory consideration of between 10-40 years imprisonment, and a $20,000 fine with no possibility of probation, parole, or suspension of sentence. 

If a person could not pay the fines incurred by criminal activity they were forced to work for the state or a private company in prison. Their compensation was between 1 and 25 cents per day. With fines between $2,000 and $20,000, it would take anywhere from 3 to 30 years to pay back the fines owed. Not considering that their pennies were needed to buy food, hygiene products, and comfort items. These fines forced them into indefinite labor. 

Post-Civil Rights Era

The Civil Rights Movement changed a lot for Black people, but its effect was not wholly positive. Our people united to face their oppressors and were extremely successful. We finally viewed our Black counterparts as advocates for our cause and not detriments to it.  The Civil Rights Movement meant, that Black people must be treated equally. The United States government introduced the 1966 Fair Labor Standards Act, which extended minimum wage requirements to industries where Black workers were heavily represented. The laborers that used to be paid pennies and dimes now demanded their dollars. If businesses had to pay Black people the same amount they paid white people, why would racist segregationists hire Black people at all? 

By the 1970s these wages proved too much for American manufacturers to sustain regardless of race. Industries needed to find their labor elsewhere, and China seemed like the perfect place to go. In 1971, the U.S. government put down its longstanding distaste for Communist China in order to form a U.S.-China trade organization. The organization was composed almost entirely of manufacturing companies, who immediately shifted their production to the foreign nation. The impact of this decision can not be understated. Black unemployment increased dramatically, and reemployment was at a steep decline. In the 1960s, China’s GDP was among the lowest in the world, with a GDP of only $89 per capita. In only 55 years, America’s manufacturing investment made it one of the richest nations in the world, with a GDP of $12,500 per capita. This was the type of exponential growth that could have brought Black people out of poverty. 

The rapid flight of manufacturing jobs in the 1970s left many Black Americans unemployed. We were angry, impoverished, and desperate to escape poverty in a country that had never given us a way out. The hope we had in the impact of the Civil Rights Movement was quickly depleting, as our conditions began to stagnate or deteriorate. This turmoil, centuries of overt violence, rampant unemployment, and a feeling of hopelessness resulted in a crime boom. From 1965 to 1975, the number of violent crimes per year increased by 652,000. 

Manufacturers fleeing to China stole from Black Americans the bootstraps by which they were supposed to pull themselves up. With nothing to do, our people turned to crime and drugs.  The massive increase in violent crimes gave our government the perfect opportunity to demonize us for our poverty. Richard Nixon was the first to bat. From 1969 to 1974 he facilitated a trade organization between the U.S. and China, established the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), passed the Controlled Substance Act, and initiated the War on Drugs. 

Nixon equipped his newly formed Drug Enforcement Administration with the Controlled Substance Act and created a perfect storm to funnel Black men into prisons.  The Controlled Substance Act ranked drugs based on their ability to cause harm; the rankings were called “Schedules.” Schedule 1 drugs were considered the most dangerous because they posed a high risk for addiction but had little evidence of medical benefits. Weed, shrooms, and heroin were just a few of the drugs considered Schedule 1. Possession of any of these drugs with the intent to sell was considered a felony. The penalty for conviction was no less than 10 years in federal prison and a fine of no more than $10,000. 

Nixon’s Controlled Substance policy laid the foundation for the numbers we now see in our prison system. In 1968, the year before Nixon’s inauguration, there were only 187,274 people incarcerated. By 1978, the number had grown to 301,470 people, an increase of 60%. To provide context, the number of incarcerated people had never grown by more than 60,000 people in a single decade in the entire history of the United States. This decade saw almost double that. Let us not forget the fact that many of the people who were incarcerated in the 50s, 60s, and 70s were getting very long sentences for minor drug possessions. This period saw longer prison sentences for non-violent crimes, more police and law enforcement funding, and a massive shift of Black populations from communities into prisons. 

Nixon’s domestic policy was the beginning of the end for Black men. According to a member of his cabinet, it was Nixon’s intention to initiate lawful imprisonment of a whole group of the population, to mass incarcerate Black men. His presidency started the process we now term “mass incarceration,” but Black people were thrown in prison by the masses since the Black Codes in 1866. 

Nixon’s presidency paled in comparison to Regan’s. Ronald Reagan was president from 1981 to 1989. In the intervening years, the prison population doubled from 315,000 to 680,000. The justice system’s shift in focus from violent criminals to non-violent drug offenders marked millions of young Black men as potential prisoners. Regans equipped the DEA and FBI with the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act. A piece of legislation that set minimum sentences for drug possession, established the 3 strikes clause for drug offenses, imposed fines on drug offenders that were equivalent to the cost of the state’s investigation, and provided billions of dollars to the criminal justice system. States followed suit with similar “tough-on-crime” policies, which only fueled the growth of mass incarceration.

This is not the extent of Reagan’s targeted policy. It was under Reagan’s presidency that the first private prison was established. It is almost as if he knew he would facilitate the largest influx of prisoners in American history. His most effective policy to criminalize his citizens established that possession of  5 grams of crack would incur a penalty 100 times greater than the possession of 5 grams of cocaine. This policy was in place until 2010 when the ratio was decreased to 18-to-1 times greater sentence for crack possession. Crack is a drug that is derived from cocaine, formed by mixing powder cocaine with water and baking soda. Crack and Cocaine are the same drug, but somehow our use of it was met with harsher penalties. Manufacturing cocaine into crack made it much more cost-effective. It was well known that Black Americans disproportionately used crack because it was cheaper. Consequently, our communities bore the majority of the consequences of the war on drugs. 

Black incarceration was an untapped gold mine to the trained eye. The Corrections Corporation of America, now CoreCivic was the country’s first private prison corporation. It was established in 1984. They tapped into the seemingly infinite resource of prisoners. Now the profits that come from leasing out prisoners and paying them next to nothing could be shared between the state and private companies. A private company is responsible for prisoner rehabilitation, when has anyone ever heard of a company putting anything over their profit motive?  The incarceration of Black people has become so normal, that CoreCivic stock is traded on the public stock market. Our lives have been reduced to an investment for our country’s commonwealth.   

Inferring Ronald Regan enacted these policies simply to destroy Black communities would be naive. The Black experience in this country is a byproduct of American expansion. Reagan was just another president who chose to project American influence at the cost of Black lives. His eyes were set on Nicaragua. A country with 2 major exports–sugar, and cocaine–that was run by a communist government. America could not allow Nicaragua to nationalize the production of resources our country needed. 

Therefore, we funded and supplied men for a coup-d’etat. What do you need to overthrow a government in an unstable impoverished country? Guns and Money. We gifted both to the Contras of Nicaragua. When Congress told Reagan he could not supply guns and public funds to the Contras, Reagan decided to generate his own. His administration sold our military weapons to Iran and funneled the money from the sales to the Contras. This is what we now know as the Iran-Contra scandal. 

The money generated from this was not enough to overthrow the Nicaraguan government, causing Ronald Reagan to take a much more sinister approach to generate money for the coup. His administration facilitated the distribution of Nicaraguan cocaine in America. The result of this was an increase in addiction and crime that did not go unnoticed by the American public. To curb people’s anxieties about the rapid increase in violent crimes and addiction, Regan criminalized crack users with the Anti-Drug Abuse Act and locked them in prison. Out of sight, out of mind. 

The Final Blow

Unfortunately, the American government wasn’t done with us in 1989. Bill Clinton gave the third devastating blow to Black communities.  The 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. This piece of legislation sanctioned over-policing, provided military training to police officers, and granted money for new policing technologies. Further, it required that any state that wanted a grant from the federal government had to enact specific laws to keep incarcerated people incarcerated. The state must have laws that require persons convicted of violent crimes, or serious drug offenses to serve at least 85% of their sentence. Further, the state must increase the number of people convicted of violent crimes or serious drug offenses. It also must increase the amount of time a person is sentenced if they are convicted of a violent crime or serious drug offense. The bill also made some drug offenses eligible for the death penalty. A major section of the 1994 Crime Bill was the explicit requirement that states increase the number of people in prison. 

The section of the 1994 Crime Bill we hear about the most is the three-strikes clause. This clause established that if any person with 2 prior felony convictions is convicted of a third felony they are given an automatic life sentence. Sentencing anyone to a life sentence for a crime that does not include brutal murder should be considered cruel and unusual punishment. This bill was chock-full of provisions like this one. Another example is the super-predator clause. This provision enforced harsher penalties for juveniles with prior convictions. It had the effect of increasing the number of minors sentenced to life without parole by 7%.

Over-policing, lethal police training, increased incarceration, longer sentences, the three strikes clause, and the super-predator clause were all put into place by the Clinton administration, and drafted by Former President Joe Biden. Millions of lives were destroyed by this law and it is still dismantling our communities. 

When the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was passed 1,000,000 people were already in prison. Black people were still dealing with the effect of the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act that stole 500,000 people from their communities in just 8 years. The 1994 legislation caused the prison population to skyrocket. Its effects are felt in our communities to this very day. 

Our experiences are not one-offs and they are not a matter of chance. Our oppression has caused desperation, our communities have become more violent. In the end, we were penalized for crimes we committed, but the history that got us there was vastly ignored. Now we face disenfranchisement, single-parent families, police brutality, poverty, and violence. Although the political system has shifted, we are still being killed in the streets, thrown in jail, and used for our labor. The only difference between then and now is how much the public is allowed to see.

Most people who are blessed with their freedom will tell you that criminals do not deserve to have the same protections as “lawful” persons. After all, they committed a crime. What does it mean to be a criminal in America? In 1808, it meant running away from your master’s plantation. In 1868, it meant being unemployed. In 1905, it was looking a white man in the eye. In 1950, it was being in the same room with a white person who didn’t want you there. During Jim Crow, the legal penalty for all of these crimes was torture and eventually being hanged in the street. Today, it’s being tortured and forgotten in a prison. In the eyes of the law, to be Black is to be a criminal. 

But, why is America so hell-bent on painting us out to be criminals? The short answer is cheap labor and maintain the status quo. Without access to cheap labor, this country crumbles. Even in 2025, prisoners are not paid more than 55 cents per hour. Whether or not a prisoner has to work is not up to the individual. Often, criminals convicted of violent crimes are mandated to pay restitution. Restitution is when the court fines the convict for emotional damage, medical expenses, and lost income of the victim of their crimes. If the person can not pay, they must work in prison for 55 cents an hour. 

The Black Family

Half of all Black men in America have been arrested at least once by age 23. 8.2 out of the 20 million Black men in this country do not graduate high school. That is almost half (41%) of our men. Those forgotten brothers now face a 69% risk of being incarcerated. Although the Black community is deeply divided on the causes of such daunting statistics, we can not ignore how domestic policy has changed the culture of Black Americans. 

In the 1940s, four out of five black families were headed by two parents. By 1994, that number had dropped to 34%, 1.5 out of every 5 black families. Between 1960 and 1980 the percentage of single-parent Black households more than doubled, from 19% to 39%. Jumps like these were unprecedented in American history. Many Black people have first-hand experience with single-parent households. Children of single parents have lower physical and emotional health, are expected to earn less in their lifetime, and are more likely to commit violent crimes. The effect of mass incarceration is not just felt by Black men, it is felt by the entire Black family.

Moving Forward

Our experiences are not one-offs and they are not a matter of chance. As a nation, we must acknowledge how dehumanization is still very much present in American society. We were never second-class citizens–we were criminals, super predators, and rapists. Our freedom has existed under strict monitoring and frightening conditionality. As long as we did not build anything for ourselves, as long as we did not look them in the eye, as long as we were not unemployed, as long as we were fearful of what they could do to us, only then could they guarantee our “freedom.” Even this guarantee is dependent on them not being able to slap the label of “criminal” on our foreheads. 

Our people have yet to understand the power of our position. It seems so obvious when explicitly stated, but staying out of jail is one of the largest forms of resistance we can accomplish. The economic prosperity of this country has become so heavily intertwined with prison labor that simply keeping our men out of prisons could transform the national economy and the Black family alike. We need our men in our homes, not in the system. 

Truthfully, the best way to keep our men out of jail is to invest in them. Often, successful Black people grow up in the hood, just to reject the community once they have money.  We go to college, get our degrees, and define success by our proximity to successful white people. The Black middle class must change their priorities. We are no longer in a situation where anything we build will be destroyed. We now have the freedom, resources, and manpower necessary to bring our people out of misery. 

In order to change the realities of Black life in America, college students and graduates must dedicate themselves to uplifting their race. We must use our degrees to build institutions, so Kroger or Walmart can no longer create food deserts in our communities. We have the power to ensure corporations are punished when they pump poison into our air and water, and violence and death are not the only things our children see. We need to reestablish hope in Black communities, and we need to do it together. Only then, will our people finally maintain their freedom. Go read, connect, and build, our people need you.