13th amendment
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9 Years a Slave: Black Combat Veteran Freed After Being Legally Enslaved Over $30 Worth of Weed
This headline is clickbait. To be clear, Derrick Harris is Black. He is also a combat veteran who served in the Army during Operation Desert Storm. And, although the Constitution outlaws slavery and involuntary servitude, the 13th Amendment made a special exception for people who commit a “crime whereof the party shall have been duly…
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Ohio Lawmakers Seek to Remove Slavery as a Punishment From State Constitution
Slavery, for the most part, has been abolished in this country. I say for the most part because the 13th Amendment allows for slavery to be used as a form of punishment. Some states have already elected to remove that clause from their local constitutions and Ohio is working to be next on the list.…
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Today Is Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday—and a Good Time to Remind You He Did Not Free the Slaves
Monday is the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, who was born Feb. 12, 1809, in Kentucky. He was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. Lauded as one of this nation’s best and brightest leaders, Lincoln is often credited with freeing the slaves through his Emancipation Proclamation.…
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Justice Department Announces Investigation Into Ala. Prison Conditions
The U.S. Department of Justice will be conducting an investigation into the conditions at Alabama’s prisons for men, it announced in a statement Thursday. “The investigation will focus on whether prisoners are adequately protected from physical harm and sexual abuse at the hands of other prisoners; whether prisoners are adequately protected from use of excessive…
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Watch: Ava DuVernay on Mass Incarceration, White Fear and Black Joy
White fear exists. It has been manufactured, encouraged and proliferated through the centuries. From it spawned a damning system based on inequality: the prison-industrial complex. “The reason that we have mass incarceration is because of white fear,” Ava DuVernay told The Root. DuVernay is a prolific director, and her latest project is 13th. The sobering documentary…