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


  •  Anti-Police Activists are Doing Post-Slavery “Wake Work”
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Anti-Police Activists are Doing Post-Slavery “Wake Work”
    15 Feb 2021
    Today’s Black Americans are living in “the wake” of centuries of slavery, said Dr Corey Miles, a professor of sociology and anthropology at Morgan State University.
  • Neoliberals Seek to Establish Their Own Brand of Fascism
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Neoliberals Seek to Establish Their Own Brand of Fascism
    15 Feb 2021
    The US State “is using the so-called insurrection at the Capitol…to impose an ideological conformity that supports and sustains the neoliberal project” at home and abroad, said Ajamu Baraka
  • The Kidnapping Club
    David Rosen
    The Kidnapping Club
    10 Feb 2021
    Northern free Blacks as well as self-liberated former slaves lived in fear of being kidnapped by organized slave catchers in New York City.
  • The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
    Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies
    The Decline and Fall of the American Empire
    10 Feb 2021
    The United States is a decadent, declining empire stumbling blindly into an agonizing death spiral.
  • Freedom Rider: Forced Labor in the U.S.
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Forced Labor in the U.S.
    10 Feb 2021
    Forced labor of Uyghurs in China is questionable, but there is absolute proof that incarcerated people in this country are forced to work for little or no pay.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us