White southerners toiled in rage after learning they no longer had the benefit of our free labor and expertise. But the law was on their side, so they passed numerous pieces of legislation intended to make it illegal for us to do almost anything except breathe.
To name a few.…
They waged a national intimidation campaign against us using the media to inflame racial hatred. They forced us to work off jailhouse debts on plantations for years at a time. Jails even sold us to large steel corporations, lumber camps, quarries, and factories!
This was “neo-slavery,” and it forced millions of us to remain involuntarily enslaved. The federal government found out and investigated, but claimed they could do nothing because it was not illegal to own a person, only UNCONSTITUTIONAL! What?
Neoslavery finally officially ended when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. That’s when the feds decided to aggressively prosecute instances of this newfound system of slavery. But why such a change of heart?
Certainly, not out of moral obligation! The government made these drastic changes to avoid international embarrassment as we entered World War II. Regardless of the government’s lackluster support of our rights, our lives have always mattered and they always will!