Michelle Alexander: More Black Men Are In Prison Today Than Were Enslaved In 1850
“…Alexander, the author of “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” reportedly claimed there are more African American men in prison and jail, or on probation and parole, than were slaves before the start of the Civil War.
More than 846,000 black men were incarcerated in 2008, according to U.S. Bureau of Justice estimates reported by NewsOne. African Americans make up 13.6 percent of the U.S. population according to census data, but black men reportedly make up 40.2 percent of all prison inmates…”