Would the Green Mile be segregated?

[justplanestuff]

I was watching The Green Mile the other day. It occurred to me that in 1935 in Louisiana would prisons be segregated? Of course, what would be the chances of John Koffee (I don't recall how it was spelled in the book) making it to prison?

[oylovesjake]

I was watching The Green Mile the other day. It occurred to me that in 1935 in Louisiana would prisons be segregated? Of course, what would be the chances of John Koffee (I don't recall how it was spelled in the book) making it to prison?

I am currently in a re-read of The Green Mile - remember how big John Coffey was? That would stop a lot of mischief from occurring before his appointed time with Old Sparky . . .

[bobledrew]

I don't have the books with me, but I believe there's something in there about the green mile itself not being segregated because there weren't enough death-row inmates. This 1943 article suggests that there were separate "camps" for white and black inmates. By all accounts, Angola (the inspiration for Cold Mountain in The Green Mile) might well have been an inspiration for Shawshank as well. It appears it was VERY corrupt there back in the day.

[king family fan]

I believe the Green Mile and shawshank were both great reads. Iam not sure either of these were segregated. Curious what everyone else has to say here.

[Pucker]

It's an interesting question. I would imagine that Jim Crow would have been keeping general populations apart well into the '60s in some parts of the country, but it's possible to assume -- for the purposes of the story -- that such distinctions might not be observed on "Death Row." In any case, I'm more inclined to agree that, at that particular period in American history -- particularly in the deep south -- John Coffey would have been tried, convicted and dispatched at the nearest oak tree. It's true enough, as oylovesjake points out, that Coffey might have made such a "party" difficult, had he been so inclined, but he was painted as very docile (for reasons that become clear later on) and, either way, it's hard to argue with a shotgun.

There's a certain amount of suspension of disbelief required in the enjoyment of most fiction, and if you look hard enough you can find inconsistency just about anywhere. Even a glaring, "smack-you-right-in-the-face" (portential) error like this can be excused in the name of dramatic license. It seems to me that if you're going to buy the premise that a guy can heal folks with the power of his kiss, it's not so much of a stretch to imagine that a black fella could be imprisoned with a Frenchman and some white trash in backwater Louisiana in the '30s.

[justplanestuff]

I gotta agree with the suspension of disbelief statement and I don't feel that it harms the story either way. The question just popped into my head. If anything I would think that the Mile would have been more minorities than whites. While doing a bit of searching on the subject, historically a very disproportionate amount of death row inmates are not white. If you include Bitterbuck the Mile was 50/50.

Thanks for your thoughts folks it is just an idle question.

[bobledrew]

I still don't think it's unlikely that black and white would be housed together in death row. Even with a 3,000 inmate population (currently Angola's around 5,000), I don't know that the death row would be that big. Let's say that 1% would be on death row -- that's just 30 people. If it's 20 black and 10 white, that's still not enough for two death rows.

[GNTLGNT]

KId, you saved me a bunch of typing...you are spot on...and quite frankly, in my institution-I wish they WOULD segregate the races-it would cut down dramatically on our gang violence....