Except as a Punishment for Crime: Senato r Jeff Merkley Discusses New Bill to Redress the 13th Amendment For The Movement

On this episode, we are joined by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR), who currently serves on the Senate Committees on Appropriations, Foreign Relations, Budget, and Environment and Public Works. The senator explains that the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution abolished most—but not all—slavery, permitting slavery or involuntary servitude “as a punishment for crime.” The punishment clause exception has led to the incarceration of millions of Black Americans since Reconstruction and continues to feed the current mass incarceration of people of color. Senator Jeff Merkley and Representative William Lacy Clay (D-MO-1) have introduced bicameral legislation to strike this clause in order to finally abolish slavey in the United States.
The hosts for this episode are Clint Odom, NUL Senior Vice President of Policy & Advocacy, and Toni Wiley, NUL Director of Advocacy.
From the National Urban League, For The Movement discusses persistent policy, social, and civil rights issues affecting communities of color.


Discussed in this episode:
National Urban League
Black
Black America
African-American
News
Information
Advocacy
Politics
13th Amendment
Constitution
Ratify
Slavery
Imprisonment
Civil War
Black Codes
Reconstruction
14th Amendment
15th Amendment
Exploitation
Racism
Crime
Criminal Justice System
Mass Incarceration
Injustice
Families
Bigotry
Work conditions
Confederate monuments
Black Exclusionary Zone
Due Process
Voting Rights Restoration
Voter Suppression
For the People Act
Private Prison Industrial Complex
First Step Act
Ava DuVernay
13th
 
Twitter: @senjeffmerkley
Instagram: @senjeffmerkley