The cruelty of slavery, the 'black codes' that followed the Civil War, and the Jim Crow Laws these codes augured would require a mutually agreed upon panacea for Black viability. What developed -- from the weaponization of law enforcement coupled with the mandated deputization of white citizens -- was Black Americans' own code -- of silence. 'The Code' of silence dovetailed into a self-governing system that excluded outsiders, becoming a literal unspoken boon to Black progress. 'The Code' became a sieve for the morally upright against corruption.