““The state of Mississippi eventually moved from hiring convict labor to organizing its own convict labor camp, known as Parchman Farm. It was not alone. During the decade following Redemption, the convict population grew ten times faster than the general population: 'Prisoners became younger and blacker, and the length of their sentences soared.' It was the nation's first prison boom and, as they are today, the prisoners were disproportionately black. After a a brief period of progress during Reconstruction, African Americans found themselves, once again, virtually defenseless.””
![“[T]he slave went free; stood a brief moment in the sun; then moved back again toward slavery. —W.E.B Du Bois, Black Reconstruction in America For” quote by Michelle Alexander](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/fdb/michelle-alexander-750_time_t-he-slave-went-free-stood-a-brief-momen_96485.jpg)
