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The Black man in this jail cell has been locked up for refusing to sign a labor contract. Under the Black Codes he is considered a vagrant. Freedpeople had to sign labor contracts to work for whites, or be convicted of vagrancy and fined.
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM's home for opinion and news analysis. It was originally published at The Conversation.
In a recent development, Mississippi legislators have passed a law that is poised to reshape the judicial system in Jackson
Throughout US history, a ‘white backlash’ has worked to keep Black officeholders and their constituents out of power.
The growth of Black Codes in the South made it clear that freedpeople needed the support and protection of the federal government. On March 3, 1865 Congress established the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen’s Bureau, to provide relief and help formerly enslaved people become self-sufficient.