Convict leasing symposium draws an all-day crowd to campus

A panel discussion on the memorialization of convict leasing and the “Sugar Land 95” — the remains of 95 former Imperial State Prison Farm laborers discovered last year in Fort Bend County — closed out a daylong symposium on the topic of convict leasing April 12 at Rice. The conference featured lectures by leading experts on the history of convict leasing in the South and opening remarks from activist Reginald Moore, founder of the Convict Leasing and Labor Project (CLLP).

Moore, whose archives of the convict leasing system in Fort Bend County reside at Rice’s Woodson Research Center, also participated on the day’s closing panel. Moderated by Rice’s associate dean of humanities, Lora Wildenthal, the panel featured Moore and his fellow CLLP members, who addressed the crowd inside the Anderson-Clarke Center’s Hudspeth Auditorium. (Photos by Jeff Fitlow)