As Anti-racism activist Jane Elliot says: “We wouldn’t have to have Black Lives Matter if we didn’t have 300 years of Black Lives Don’t matter.”
These series of quick lessons hopefully will start to explain this, one detail at a time.
Black codes were laws enacted through the South both during and after slavery that governed slaves and free people of color. They included things such as teaching or attempt to teach, any slave to read or write, he or she shall be sentenced to receive thirty-nine lashes on his or her bare back.