One Continuous Graveyard

Merrittocracy

Following emancipation, the number of people arrested in the Deep South rose significantly as the substance and enforcement of certain laws changed considerably. In stark contrast to the antebellum period, the vast majority of those now arrested were black. To keep up with the rapid pace of arrests, cities and towns that did not have police forces before the Civil War quickly established professional, uniformed forces during early Reconstruction. Atlanta, Augusta, Nashville, Memphis, and Richmond all created formal police departments. The undeniable proportion of race-based arrests caused concern, even during the initial years of freedom. In one petition to the Georgia’s Freedmen’s Bureau, the blatant racism of a particular judge was called into question after he punished several African Americans for speaking “disrespectfully” to whites. Indeed, the petitioners lamented, “the condition of the freed people is worse than slavery.”