All over the nation, civil unrest rings out. On May 31, 2020, the city of Lake Charles, Louisiana, took to the streets to protest the killing of George Floyd at the hand of law enforcement. On October 3, 2020, the NFAC, Not F***** Around Coalition, an all-black armed militia, stood in solidarity with the citizen of Lafayette, Louisiana, in protest of the shooting death of Trayford Pellerin on August 22, 2020, by the Lafayette police department. Lake Charles activist and former Congressional candidate Verone Thomas stood with NFAC, Grandmaster Jay, and other activists and community leaders to address the protestors, media, and spectators. Thomas stressed the importance of blacks, not only registering but getting out to vote. He also emphasized supporting black candidates and those who can better represent the black community. 

In 2018, Verone Thomas ran as a Democrat for the U.S. House in Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District election. Thomas lost to the incumbent, Clay Higgins (R). Thomas later changed his original agenda and began focusing on criminal justice reform and its effects on the black community. Namely, non- unanimous jury convictions. He successfully helped to get this issue on the 2018 ballot. Under the changed statute, a jury verdict of 10-2 or 11-1 would no longer suffice to convict a defendant. On April 20, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled to banned non-unanimous jury verdicts in cases involving serious crimes. Along with The Promise of Justice Initiative, Thomas began to focus on getting the criminal law retroactive and releasing people who fell under this type of sentencing released.

Thomas is working to bring reform to a system that still operates under Jim Crow laws. Of these Jim Crow laws, the first sentence of the Thirteenth Amendment of the United Constitution gives the United States the right to justify slavery. There are over 63,000 people incarcerated in Louisiana. In 2014 a report showed the Black: White ratio as 4.0, with an alarming increase in the years since. 

The infamous Angola State Penitentiary, population of approxiametley of 6300, was once a slave plantation. The large fields are worked by many of the inmates, comprised of mostly black males. Men forced to work on a former plantation field is just one of Thomas’s issues in his quest for criminal justice reform.  

The Promise of Justice Initiative and the Equal Justice Initiative is dedicated to criminal justice reform, which includes the habitual offender law.

On November 7, 2020, the Associated Press confirmed the election results. The 46th President of the United States is Joe Biden, who has the first black female, Kamala Harris, as the Vice President. What will this new chapter in American history mean for the nation, and what will it mean for Louisiana and the fight for criminal justice reform?