The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

by Jemar Tisby

Jim Crow proved devastating for black people. White racial terrorism during Jim Crow resulted in horrific atrocities like the development of the convict-lease system, reproducing what is often called “slavery by another name.” The Civil War led to the elimination of America’s most traditional form of forced labor—slavery—but the Thirteenth Amendment allowed for an exception. Those who were “duly convicted” of a crime could be forced to labor as part of their punishment. After the Civil War and emancipation, convict-leasing developed as a “legal” way for corporations to gain cheap labor and for state and county governments to get money. The process of convict-leasing began by entrapping black people, usually men but occasionally women, for minor offenses such as vagrancy, gambling, or riding a freight car without a ticket, and then saddling them with jail time and court fees. If the person could not pay the fee, as was often the case, they could have their sentence increased. A company, or even an independent employer, would then contract with a prison for inmate labor, putting them to work in mines, factories, or fields. In return the company would pay the local government entity a certain fee per worker. The workers themselves, as prison inmates, were never paid for their labor. They worked in appalling conditions that bred disease and violence. Many died and were dumped into unmarked graves.