From Vera Institute of Justice:
Effecting change from within the brutal, racist, and dehumanizing confines of U.S. prisons has long been a dangerous and difficult endeavor. Black people, already overrepresented in prison systems across the country as a result of racism at every stage of the criminal legal system, endure harsher punishment once incarcerated. As we celebrate Black History Month, it is worth also celebrating the stories of Black incarcerated people whose fight for human rights helped improve prison conditions for people of all races.
For much of U.S. history, incarcerated people were denied protection under the Constitution. In 1871, the Virginia Supreme Court declared that a person who had been convicted of crimes forfeited all rights: “He is for the time being the slave of the state.”
As a result, courts dismissed lawsuits from incarcerated people who complained of degrading mistreatment, saying that they deserved no protection under the law. But the persistence of people who had experienced prison and were inspired by the successes of the Civil Rights Movement refused to accept this denial of basic rights, working to effect change during the 1960s and 1970s.
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