Wilson Picks Up Baton to Remove Slavery Language From California’s Constitution

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Black

California

Samual Nathaniel Brown said he is not surprised that

Assemblymember Lori Wilson (D-Suisun City) picked up the baton to carry on the fight to eradicate the phrase “involuntary servitude except as a punishment to crime” from California’s Constitution.

Brown, who contributed to writing Assembly

Constitutional Amendment (ACA) 3, the California Abolition Act, while he was incarcerated in prison, stood on the west steps of the state Capitol in Sacramento with Wilson when she reintroduced a new iteration of the legislation that failed to pass in the State Senate last year.

This time around, Brown, Wilson and other supporters of the End Slavery in California Act say they are determined to retire the constitutional clause that allows labor imposed on felons as criminal punishment in California prisons.

“To be honest, we didn’t have to lure her in at all. She was a more-than-willing participant to pick up the baton,” Brown said on the Feb.19 edition of Abolition Today. “Championing the causes of Black people is something she has been doing for a long time and has done in almost every position she has held. It’s a no-brainer for her to continue this fight.”

Abolition Today is a weekly online radio program with specific focus on “modern-day slavery” as it is practiced through the 13th Amendment of the US constitution. It is hosted by Max Parthas and Yusuf Hassan.

California is among 16 states with an “exception clause” for involuntary servitude in its state constitution, Wilson said. Should the state legislature pass the End Slavery in California Act, voters will decide during the 2024 General Elections if it will become state law.

Three states — Colorado, Utah, and Nebraska –have voted to abolish slavery and involuntary servitude. Alabama, Oregon, Tennessee and Vermont have approved similar ballot measures.

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