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


  • Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    ICE Exposes Democratic Party Irrelevance
    28 Jan 2026
    The Democratic Party is useful only to the oligarch class, who give them their marching orders. Doing anything that serves the people is never on their agenda. They will not address the ICE…
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EXCERPT: The Palmer Raids, Labor Research Association, 1948
    28 Jan 2026
    “We forget easily in America. We have forgotten the story of the Palmer Raids.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Trump Defends the Dollar in Venezuela and Democrats Are Glad
    28 Jan 2026
    The US invaded Venezuela and kidnapped Nicólas Maduro to defend the dominance of the US dollar. Venezuela had been selling oil to China in China’s currency, the yuan.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    For an ICU VA Nurse
    28 Jan 2026
    "For an ICU VA Nurse" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Austin Cole
    Data Center Boom, Corporate Extraction, and the Obfuscation of the Land Question in the U.S.
    28 Jan 2026
    The grassroots resistance against data centers is about more than zoning and community benefit agreements. It is the latest front in America’s war against the people over land, sovereignty, and who…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us