THE WEEKLY REVEAL

Hello! In this issue:

• We investigate the history of a racist practice known as convict leasing.
• An Alabama man has been on death row for decades based on the testimony of one “earwitness.”
• Start your holiday shopping with a *discount* on a Reveal T-shirt!

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST

Locked Up: The Prison Labor That Built Business Empires

After the Civil War, a new form of slavery took hold in the U.S. and lasted more than 60 years.

Southern states imprisoned mainly Black men, often for minor crimes, and then leased them out to private companies – for years, even decades, at a time. In this week’s episode, which originally aired in September 2022, Associated Press reporters Margie Mason and Robin McDowell talk with the descendant of a man imprisoned in the Lone Rock stockade in Tennessee nearly 140 years ago, where people as young as 12 worked under inhumane conditions in coal mines and inferno-like ovens used to produce iron.

This system of forced prison labor enriched the Tennessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co. – at the cost of prisoners’ lives.

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One Number to Know

Toforest Johnson was convicted of murder and put on Alabama’s death row based on the strength of one “earwitness,” who said she overheard Johnson talking about committing the murder. Many years later, Johnson’s lawyers learned she was paid $5,000 for her testimony by the state. Reveal partnered with the Earwitness podcast to unravel the weak links in the case against Johnson.

Listen: In Bondage to the Law

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