Group Activity: Critical Thinking Activity: 13th and The New Jim Crow by Hector Jimenez

The History of Slavery throughout time

hj5281584 — 2025-10-01 19:03:36 UTC

This sources reminds us that understanding the history of slavery is crucial to building a more just future. It’s a valuable resource that encourages reflection, education, and dialogue about a difficult but important part of our shared past.

Impact of the 13th Amendment

aidenherman6643 — 2025-10-01 19:08:09 UTC

The Reagan Library’s article explains how the 13th Amendment, ratified in 1865, abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the U.S.

Prison labor under the 13th Amendment

aidenherman6643 — 2025-10-01 19:15:37 UTC

The University of Chicago article explains how the 13th Amendment’s “Except Clause” enables forced prison labor, which legal scholar Adam A. Davidson calls “administrative enslavement.”

The Impact on Voter rights

hgebrezghi — 2025-10-01 19:18:16 UTC

Even after civil rights were gained, voter suppression still targets communities of color. The article shows how ID laws, and closed polling places make it harder for colored voters to cast votes. These examples like making people take a written test to vote and removing Sunday voting mirror old Jim Crow strategies, just formed around today's society. "The Voting Rights Act of 1965 arguably had even greater scope, as it rendered illegal numerous discriminatory barriers to effective political participation by African Americans and mandated federal review of all new voting regulations so that it would be possible to determine whether their use would perpetuate voting discrimination."

b3t600 — 2025-10-01 19:22:45 UTC

Even though the 13th Amendment legally abolished slavery, it set up new battles including voting rights, citizenship and equality. Essentially, the 13th Amendment both aided people of color by freeing them form slavery but also created room for further social control. This article displays how racial systems can adapt to any solutions we provide, which was a big talking point in the first chapter of Jim Crows Laws. It stated, "Any candid observer of American racial history must acknowledge that racism is highly adaptable"(Jim Crow). This article is a clear example of how racism adapted to our solution. Society found ways to oppress people of color right after the 13th amendment, which gave rise to this new racial system.

Death Penalty & the 13th Amendment

hgebrezghi — 2025-10-01 19:44:09 UTC

This law review article argues that the death penalty is a leftover from slavery. It uses the 13th Amendment to show how capital punishment still harms Black Americans by continuing racial discrimination, and inequality. Connecting the death penalty to slavery and lynching and introduces a test to prove it violates the Amendment’s promise of equality. "Since the nation’s founding, African Americans repeatedly have been controlled through institutions such as slavery and Jim Crow, which appear to die, but then are reborn in new form, tailored to the needs and constraints of the time".

b3t600 — 2025-10-01 19:58:27 UTC

Although the 13th amendment abolished slavery, it made an exception for criminal convicts which led to the practice of unlawful arrests that suppressed people of color. The article states, "The convict leasing system helped the act of arresting freed man and women by charging them with crimes"(CNN). This illustrates how techniques were developed to work around the amendments exception and maintain social injustices. These techniques are still used today such as "forced bondage" is used to suppress criminals. The first chapter of Jim Crow illustrates how the racial systems change to become more resilient to change, "Moreover, as the systems of control have evolved, they have become perfected, arguably more resilient to challenge, and thus capable of enduring for generations to

come."(Jim Crow Chapter 1). The CNN article is simply stating what new forms racial systems have taken. By disguising itself as justice against criminals, it enables the oppression of people of color.

"It is during this period of uncertainty that the backlash intensifies and a new form of racialized social control begins to take hold."

aidenherman6643 — 2025-10-01 19:59:00 UTC

The quote shows that when old systems of racial control weaken, backlash emerges, creating new ways to enforce racial hierarchy.

Redlining / Potential Gentrification effect of the 13th Amendment

hj5281584 — 2025-10-01 20:07:25 UTC

This sources shows how laws and economic interests have kept this cycle going, affecting communities of color and shaping today’s prison system. Most Americans agree that change is needed, This is a reminder that clear we must rethink and reform a system that still burdens many while claiming to be just.