86R9739 CLE-D
By: Reynolds H.C.R. No. 55
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The convict leasing system that flourished in Texas
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries began soon after the
passage of the Thirteenth Amendment, which ended slavery or
indentured servitude in the United States except as a punishment
for a crime; and
WHEREAS, Faced with housing and feeding an exploding number
of new prisoners due to laws that were used to unjustly incarcerate
free blacks after the Civil War, the State of Texas began leasing
state prisoners to private businesses in 1867; the state took a
negligent role in ensuring that the prisoners were treated
appropriately, and working conditions at the sugar cane
plantations, stone quarries, iron foundries, and other dangerous
places were inhumane; and
WHEREAS, The men and women who were victims of the state's
convict leasing system suffered grievously, as shown in the remains
of 95 African Americans that were discovered in 2018 on the grounds
of the former Imperial Sugar Company State Prison Farm in Sugar
Land; the remains indicate that amputations, bone breaks, extreme
dehydration, mosquito-borne epidemics, frequent beatings, and a
lack of medical care were common; and
WHEREAS, For more than 30 years, the state's convict leasing
system, an offshoot of slavery, provided revenue to the State of
Texas and allowed the state to largely avoid the cost of housing and
feeding state prisoners; for the businesses that employed the
prisoners, the convict leasing system was also profitable, allowing
the businesses to hire labor at a fraction of the appropriate cost;
and
WHEREAS, By the time the Texas Legislature passed S.B. 10,
Acts of the 31st Legislature, 4th Called Session, 1910, to end
convict leasing, the Capitol, officially completed in 1888, had
already been built with convict labor; records show that the red
granite and limestone used to construct the building were quarried
by state prisoners and that all of the iron works, including the
dome, columns, gates, and interior decorative features, were
fabricated by state prisoners; and
WHEREAS, It is in the public's interest to create a plaque to
inform visitors to the Capitol that the Capitol was built with
convict labor and to show that the men and women who were victims of
the state's convict leasing system played an important role in the
history and economic development of Texas; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the 86th Legislature of the State of Texas
hereby direct the State Preservation Board to initiate steps to
provide for the replacement of the Children of the Confederacy
plaque with a plaque to honor victims of the state's convict leasing
system; and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the Texas secretary of state forward an
official copy of this resolution to the executive director of the
State Preservation Board.