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