Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Incarcerated Workers in Alabama File Lawsuit to End Involuntary Servitude
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
10 May 2024
🖨️ Print Article

Black Agenda Radio · Incarcerated Workers in Alabama File Lawsuit to End Involuntary Servitude

Six incarcerated people in the state of Alabama have filed a lawsuit against their governor and the Commissioner of Corrections. Alabama’s prison system is the most overcrowded in the country, where Black people make up 26 percent of the population, but 53 percent of the prison population. Following a successful labor strike by incarcerated workers, Alabama voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that expanded the ban on slavery and involuntary servitude to prison. With their state court lawsuit, the plaintiffs seek enforcement of the amendment. Jessica Vosburgh is a senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights which represents the plaintiffs. She joins us from Birmingham, Alabama.

Prison Labor
Alabama prison strike
Center for Constitutional Rights

Related Podcasts

Involuntary servitude is slavery
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Ending Prison Slavery in California
14 June 2024
Dorsey Nunn recently retired as Executive Director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children (
Black Agenda Radio
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio May 10, 2024
10 May 2024
In this week’s program we discuss a lawsuit filed by incarcerated people in Alabama, asking the state to end involuntary servitude, and also a conv
Black Agenda Radio
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
Black Agenda Radio February 2, 2024
02 February 2024
In this week's segment we hear about abolishing slavery that exists in the incarceration system, and also the second part of our interview on

More Stories


  • Europe’s Greedy Lending to Africa Drives the Migration That Fuels the EU’s Xenophobic Politics
    Vijay Prashad
    Europe’s Greedy Lending to Africa Drives the Migration That Fuels the EU’s Xenophobic Politics
    06 Nov 2019
    The reasons for major flows of migration to Europe actually come from within Europe itself.
  • Chicago Teachers Score a Historic Victory
    Peoples Dispatch Staff
    Chicago Teachers Score a Historic Victory
    06 Nov 2019
    The city’s Black-led union, with potent support from the city’s Black and brown communities, faced down the new Black mayor.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 4, 2019
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of November 4, 2019
    05 Nov 2019
    Black Voters Won’t Save the Democrats
  • Mumia: Even Angela Davis Shocked by US Mass Incarceration
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Mumia: Even Angela Davis Shocked by US Mass Incarceration
    05 Nov 2019
    Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner, notes that even trailblazing prison abolition scholar Angela Davis, herself a former political prisoner, underestimated
  • Green New Deal vs White Supremacy
    Black Agenda Radio with Nellie Bailey and Glen Ford
    Green New Deal vs White Supremacy
    05 Nov 2019
    The fight for a Green New Deal is bringing together a “multiracial, multiclass coalition” that is meeting their environmental, economic and psychological needs “in a far more efficient and better w
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us