The history of felony disenfranchisement laws stinks. In the South to keep blacks from voting. Harmless acts like quitting a job, being unemployed or simply congregating allowed blacks to be arrested/convicted/stripped of their right to vote

Martin Luther King, Jr., once in a jail said to his jailer: You are White and poor; you will never benefit from Jim Crow, never be able, except psychologically, to derive benefit from white skin. You are more like me than you are like them.