At an event at Prairie View A&M University in Texas on Wednesday, Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate Beto O’Rourke agreed with the assertion that the police are “the new Jim Crow.”

The Texas Democrat began his remarks by talking about the historic injustices against African-Americans in the criminal justice system, saying it began when prisons began colluding with local business and employers to arrest African-Americans for petty crime so they could force them to work on a chain gang.

“That injustice, to many more people here than I know firsthand, continues to persist today,” Beto O’Rourke said. “That system of suspending somebody, solely based on the color of their skin, searching that person solely based on the color of their skin, stopping that person solely based on the color of their skin, shooting that person solely based on the color of their skin, throwing the book at that person and letting them rot behind bars solely based on the color of their skin, is why some have called this — I think it is an apt description — the new Jim Crow.”