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The 13th amendment (published on the 31st of January 1865)

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The 13th amendment (published on the 31st of January 1865)

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AMENDMENT XIII

Section 1.
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Meaning:
In theory, it is not allowed to have/to own slaves, but if somebody committs a crime you can punish him with forced labour.

Economy and 13th amendment:
With the end of slavery, the economy collapsed so the Southerners needed these slave workers/forced labourers. As a consequence of the loophole in the 13th amendment, lots of black people were arrested to rebuild the economy.

The loophole:
It is named loophole, because it allows "slavery" as a punishment for crime, so blacks were arrested arbitrarily. So slavery was still possible and white people used this loophole to rebuild the economy.

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1970
357,292

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-in Nixons opinion movements (equal political rights for blacks/ equal rights for women, anti-war movement) are like terrorism, wants to fight against them
-uses FBI to earn respect
-“total war against the evil“

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…as a crime issue got more attention than health issues
- for a small amount of marijuana blacks got sent to jail

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Nixon wants to recruit whites to vote Republican

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Getting the public to associate the Hippies with marijuana and the blacks with heroin -> criminalising both heavily

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1980                                      1985
519,900                           759,100

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1990
1,179,200

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1. three strikes and you're out
-three committed crimes —> prison for the rest of your life
- didn‘t matter which crime it was
2. Mandatory Minimums
-judges could no longer influence the period of time you have to go to prison
3. Truth in sentencing law
-kept people in prison for 85% of their sentence
4. Federal crime Bill (1994)
-massive expansion of prison system
—> built more prisons to lock up as many people as possible

Consequences for blacks
-were oftentimes sentenced for crimes they didn‘t commit
-because of political decisions: had to stay in prison for a life time

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2000
2,015,300

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2014
2,306,200

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The ‘‘Stand your Ground Law‘‘

This is a law pushed by ALEC which states that a person is allowed to defend himself in case of an unlawful attack.

- Defendings with deadly outcome are legally allowed

What is ALEC?

ALEC stands for ‘American Legislative Exchange Council‘

-It is  an organisation made up of corporations and politicians (mostly Republicans)

-Alec members can propose political laws to their Republican colleagues

-They vote with the representatives of the Republicans about law proposals

-Alec pushed forward policies to  increase the prison population and the length of  their sentence

Connection between ALEC and the CCA

- CCA is a private organisation which supervises and runs a large number of private prisons in the US

- They need ALEC in order to get more people imprisoned, so they can make more profit(for shareholders)

- CCA made contracts with multiple states(state had to ensure to keep these prisons filled)

- Due to their contracts, this system was guaranteed to have success

What are the effects of the privatization of the prison system?

- With private organizations like the CCA, desires to make profit grows. The more people go into prison, the more profit goes to the shareholders of the organization. This, of course, pushes ALEC as well as the CCA to push laws, which increase the criminalization rate.
These laws harm the American people and particularly leads to mass incarceration of coloured people.

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Birth of a Nation:
It tells the story of the American Civil War and its aftermath.
It was so popular because it was a huge commercial success and influenced both, the film industry and American culture.

How Blacks are portrayed:
The African-American are portrayed as menacing, animal-like  criminals. They were seen as a threat of violence to white women (famous scene where a woman rather jumps off a cliff than be raped by a black man.)

Birth of a Nation in connection with the KKK:
-The "Birth of a Nation" was almost directly responsible for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan.
-Burning the cross as the idea of a cinematic image.
-The KKK gained huge popularity within the "Birth of a Nation" and led to a new wave of racism.

Effects of open terrorism by the KKK on black communities:
It caused generational trauma.
-Huge scars with the letters KKK that last forever
-Published lynching scenes caused deep fear

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- declares war on drugs in 1982, although it was not a problem for the population, Reagan made it somehow an issue
- economic crisis: lots of unemployed people —> lost their homes —> drugs as a solution for them
- Reagan used his wife, Nancy with her "Just Say No" campaign
- mid 1980s: Crack took over, black people with crack were arrested —> long sentences
Whites instead didn‘t have to fear hard punishments at all
- so called "war on drugs" was a war on Black communities
- also Latino communities were affected