Nikole Hannah-Jones: In the South, Certain Parts of the Northeast, Policing ‘Evolved out of the Slave Patrols’

EXCERPT:

HANNAH-JONES: "So, I think what many people don't understand is modern policing, particularly in the south, as you said, and in certain parts of the northeast, actually evolved out of the slave patrols. Slave patrols were put in place to deputize white Americans, to police enslaved communities, to ensure that enslaved people were only in the places they were allowed, to put down slave insurrections, and these slave patrols had the right to stop and question any black person, enslaved or free, whom they deemed to be suspicious. We saw laws in the colonies and the states that allowed execution of enslaved people, it was perfectly legal. If an enslaved person ran away, you could execute an enslaved person. In certain colonies like Virginia and South Carolina, any white person was allowed to kill an enslaved person who was resisting capture. So we have a long history of devaluing black lives, of allowing white police to kill black Americans, enslaved people, and then following Reconstruction, even if we’re being accused of minor crimes. I know we, in this country, want to always say the slavery was a long time ago and what does that have to do with today. But what we see today is a direct lineage from that idea that black lives are worth less than white lives, that black people are innately suspicious, and that you have to use violence in order to control this population.”