Senator Merkley Calls for Passage of the Abolition Amendment to End Legalized Slavery; Highlight Wide Support from Across the Country
Helen Saulnier 
WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley named on Congress to go the Abolition Modification. He was joined by Truly worth Rises and MoveOn, who introduced a petition with above 200,000 signatures from throughout the place echoing the get in touch with. This celebration occurred just right before Structure Day (September 17) and 157 years after the passage of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery for most. The exception in the 13th Modification will make slavery authorized “as punishment for a crime,” forcing predominantly Black and brown people to operate for small to no pay driving jail walls. It is time to Close the Exception and abolish slavery for all.
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“This state was started on the stunning ideas of equality and justice—principles that have by no means been compatible with the horrific realities of slavery and white supremacy,” mentioned Senator Merkley). “The loophole in our Constitution’s ban on slavery not only permitted slavery to continue but launched an period of discrimination and mass incarceration that proceeds to this day. To are living up to our nation’s promise of justice for all, we should remove the Slavery Clause from our Structure. We have to pass the Abolition Amendment.”
“In states all over this region, there are folks laboring in prison—in Texas, choosing cotton at a internet decline for the state—because the cruelty is the stage. In five states, incarcerated men and women are not even paid out for their labor,” said Dyjuan Tatro, #EndTheException advocate and formerly incarcerated person. “That is an abomination in the United States of The us, and we need to have to finish slavery—fully, lastly, and devoid of exception.”
“As the state celebrates Structure Day on September 17, we have to not fail to remember that many nonetheless lack the constitutional legal rights that numerous of us maintain sacred, which includes our appropriate to be safeguarded from slavery. There are presently hundreds of countless numbers of incarcerated people today throughout the country—disproportionately Black and brown—who are forced to perform within prisons and jails for very little to no pay underneath the regular risk of torturous punishment thanks to the exception in the 13th Amendment that nonetheless makes it possible for slavery to be employed as punishment for criminal offense,” stated Truly worth Rises Govt Director Bianca Tylek. “This exception has enabled the criminalization, incarceration, and re-enslavement of Black people through background. And currently, it still will allow people who get the job done in our nation’s prisons and jails to be exploited by a rigged system—one that was built to prioritize gain in excess of persons. I hope that persons pay out interest to the tales of people who have suffered beneath the exception and that lawmakers shift urgently to go the Abolition Modification. Along with bill sponsors Senator Merkley and Congresswoman Williams, we’re contacting on Congress to consider motion this 12 months. It is way previous owing that our nation’s leaders set an unequivocal close to slavery for all. Slavery is completely wrong, all the time.”
“The actuality that prisons in most states are continue to capable to force labor on incarcerated men and women, oftentimes for the earnings of private businesses, is cruel and exploitative. Prison labor is a person of the worst factors of a felony authorized program that dehumanizes hundreds of thousands of people today every single solitary day. MoveOn users have been lobbying their customers of Congress to close this antiquated, inhumane exercise once and for all,” claimed MoveOn Campaign Supervisor Arvin Alaigh.
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