BIRMINGHAM, Ala.—Is slavery back in Alabama? Adam Obernauer, organizing director for the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union—one of five organizations, including the AFL-CIO, now suing to stop it—says “yes.

We are not talking about the "New Jim Crow."

We're talking about the old one.

  • booty [he/him]43•4 months ago

    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, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

    It never went anywhere

    • buckykat [none/use name]17•4 months ago

      Colorado voted to change the state constitution to get rid of that "except as punishment for crime" loophole and then some judge ruled that of course the voters didn't mean to get rid of slavery as punishment for a crime when they voted to get rid of slavery as punishment for a crime so it changed nothing.

    • krolden@lemmy.ml12•4 months ago

      Slavery wasn't explicitly allowed in the constitution until the 13th amendment.

    • Pluto [he/him, he/him]15•4 months ago

      I somewhat agree and disagree.

      I believe that leftist forces did manage to make gains and push this rot back (though didn't utterly destroy it), but over the past decades, since the 1980s, it's been growing again with a vengeance.

      I say this because the role that socialists, communists, and anarchists played in defeating the "original" Jim Crow laws should not be under-stated, but it's a story that's not often told.

      Hell, everything is chalked up to MLK, Jr. and that's that, but that's not how it should be told.

      I upvoted you anyway.