Something About Blackness Spreading Across The Land

New Jersey was a shocker. It was one of the original Union states. They were on the right side of the Civil War. However, the state has a controversial past when it comes to race relations. They were the last of the northern states to abolish slavery. They were dragged kicking and screaming into the Civil Rights Era.

Despite the fact that New Jersey’s African-American population represents only about 13% of the state, 64% of the prison population is black. Illinois is the only other northern state to reach those numbers. Maryland, which isn’t part of the deep south, has prisons filled with more than 3/4 African-Americans, but its African-American population is more than double New Jersey’s, at 28%.