The Daily Populous Sunday February 2nd, 2025 evening edition
Authored by freedomunited.org and submitted by Jojuj

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the U.S. with one exception. Slavery is still allowed as punishment for a crime at the federal level. But Kentucky and Arkansas have joined the list of those states considering fully banning slavery at the state level, report Yahoo and Axios. If the measures are voted on and passed, these two states would join seven others who have outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude in their constitutions over recent years.

Kentucky has never been a state without slaver y

Just like most states, Kentucky’s current constitution, while banning most forms of slavery, still contains the “exception clause.” That’s the clause that allows “slavery and involuntary servitude in this state are forbidden, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” But after spending six and half years incarcerated in a Kentucky prison, Savvy Shabazz wants to change that. He, like many others, feels the exception clause is dehumanizing, perpetuates a painful legacy of oppression and has many negative effects.

Patricia Gailey with Abolish Slavery Kentucky said:

“We’ve never been in a state without slavery… without involuntary servitude. From day one, prior to our first Constitution, this state has been a slave state. We need to change that.”

Working for as little as 63 cents a day doing demolition work while imprisoned, Shabazz couldn’t agree more, stating:

“Pay us a livable wage…if we’re really talking about reentry, we have to remove that involuntary servitude and slavery clause and do what’s right in Kentucky.”

Lawmakers are being urged by proponents of the change to take the Constitution’s wording seriously. Advocates say until the clause is removed, everyone in the state is complicit in crimes against humanity.

“They don’t want you to see the slave labor going on inside”

There is also a bill moving through the Arkansas legislature. If passed, the bill would give citizens the opportunity to vote whether to fully ban slavery in their state. Rep. Jay Richardson, the bill’s sponsor, feels incarcerated people should not be treated as indentured servants. Incarcerated or not, people should be paid fairly for their work. Prisoners interviewed as part of recent documentary, “The Alabama Solution” went even further.

“This ain’t fit for human society. They don’t want you to see the slave labor going on inside. We’re at a humanitarian crisis level.”

Advocates of removing the exception clause say it also enables the continued exploitation of people Black people. That’s because Black people are imprisoned at nearly five times the rate of white people as revealed in a report by The Sentencing Project.

Giving everything we have in “the struggle for freedom”

To date, Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont have all removed the exception clause or put in place legislation that bans all forms of slavery in their state. Time and again prisoners with lived experience recount how violent conditions are allowed to flourish in U.S. prisons. Thus officers have a huge amount of leverage over the inmates.

Jarecki, the film’s director said at a Q&A following the film’s premiere:

“Forced labor is coerced because of these violent conditions”

The film’s producer Alex Duran said that while the film focused on Alabama, it’s a gut-wrenching reminder that such exploitation is not just an Alabama problem. “What you see in this film is going on all over the nation,”.

Two of the survivor voices featured in the film, Melvin “Bennu Hannibal Ra-Sun” Ray and Robert Earl “Kinetik Justice” Council, said in a recorded message for the film’s premier:

“We don’t know what tomorrow might bring. But what we do know about today is that we’re going to give everything that we have in the struggle for freedom.”

Freedom United stands passionately behind the removal of the “exception clause” from state and federal constitutions. Join us in demanding the outlaw of ALL forms of slavery, including involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. You can write directly to your legislature urging them to support the Abolishment Amendment here. Because slavery in any form should NEVER be legal.

wwarnout on February 2nd, 2025 at 15:23 UTC »

The fact that there are still some states that haven't done so is a condemnation of our country as a whole.

Burnsidhe on February 2nd, 2025 at 14:38 UTC »

If only. No, these are proposals to put a ballot measure before voters. This is two steps away from actually outlawing the slavery clause.

wwarnout on February 2nd, 2025 at 14:27 UTC »

If you're unclear about this, watch https://www.pbs.org/show/slavery-another-name/