Jim Crow

U.S. among 17 countries that practice forced labor, a form of ‘modern slavery,’ report finds
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U.S. among 17 countries that practice forced labor, a form of ‘modern slavery,’ report finds

The 13th Amendment abolished slavery in the United States in 1865, with one exception: compulsory labor in prisons. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States,” it reads. Nearly 160 years later, the United States is one of…

Why one woman plants crops to fight oppression
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Why one woman plants crops to fight oppression

Eva Dickerson has spent her life thinking about food. Not just about what to eat, but more specifically what it means to have access to food, to groceries and space to grow crops. “Food access might ask why there isn’t a grocery store in someone’s neighborhood,” Dickerson, 26, said, “but food apartheid might ask who…

They received reparations in 2022. Did it really change their lives?
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They received reparations in 2022. Did it really change their lives?

Louis Weathers didn’t know what to think when he heard he was going to receive reparations for slavery. He had listened to people talking about reparations — people such as Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton — during the two decades he’d lived in Washington DC. But it was always couched as a demand, or an aspiration:…

Lawsuit accusing private prisons in Arizona of slavery now before top appeals court
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Lawsuit accusing private prisons in Arizona of slavery now before top appeals court

A lawsuit from civil rights organizations accusing private prisons in Arizona of practicing slavery is now before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals amid a broad left-wing pushback against the use of private prisons and immigrant detention centers. The lawsuit, led by the NAACP, was initially filed in 2020 against the Arizona Department of Corrections,…

Your child’s glasses may have been made with forced prison labor
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Your child’s glasses may have been made with forced prison labor

When Sovannarie was 3 months old, her parents noticed something unusual about their daughter: white opacities in both pupils. Without cataract surgery — and soon — doctors predicted irreversible vision loss. Even if that procedure went perfectly, Sovannarie would need glasses to rehabilitate her eyes and prevent blindness. A decade and many operations later, Sovannarie…

How a Jim Crow-era strategy blocked 4.6 million people from voting in 2022
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How a Jim Crow-era strategy blocked 4.6 million people from voting in 2022

Reading Time: 8 minutes A type of law first created after the end of slavery to prohibit Black men from voting prevented more than 4.6 million Americans from participating in the 2022 midterm elections. Forty-eight states strip voting rights from people convicted of felonies, no small decision in the country with the highest incarceration rate…

More US Employers Are Trapping Workers in a New Form of Indentured Servitude – Truthout
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More US Employers Are Trapping Workers in a New Form of Indentured Servitude – Truthout

  Bosses in industries such as retail, health care and logistics are reverting to an old tactic and trapping people in miserable jobs by threatening to saddle them with debt if they quit. Workers across the United States in fields ranging from nursing to trucking have been discouraged from leaving jobs they hate or can’t…

The Perils and Promise of America’s Third Reconstruction
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The Perils and Promise of America’s Third Reconstruction

Credit – Illustration by Ajubel Studio for TIME W.E.B. Du Bois is perhaps best known for introducing the term “double consciousness” into the lexicon of the Black experience. The term described the duality of being a Black American—neither fully African nor completely American, an enduring “problem” to be fought over in times of war and…

Some States Will Have Slavery On The Ballot This Midterm Election
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Some States Will Have Slavery On The Ballot This Midterm Election

In less than 60 days, voters in Alabama, Louisiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont will decide whether to abolish slavery. But it’s not exactly what you may think. The initiative on the ballot is a part of a larger criminal justice reform movement aimed at prison labor. In an attempt address the “loophole” in the 13th Amendment—which ended slavery…