HR0907LRB101 21893 MST 72855 r

1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, Since the Amendment's passage by Congress on
3January 31, 1965 and its ratification on December 6, 1865, the
413th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
5prohibited slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a
6punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
7convicted; and
 
8    WHEREAS, The 13th Amendment did not end slavery and
9involuntary servitude; it merely changed slavery and
10involuntary servitude; and
 
11    WHEREAS, The exception to the 13th Amendment led to a
12carceral system and mass incarceration that did not exist
13before its passage; and
 
14    WHEREAS, After the passage of the 13th Amendment, laws and
15practices were implemented explicitly to make it a crime to be
16black in the United States; these laws and practices included
17Jim Crow, segregation, redlining, voter suppression, Dred
18Scott, the War on Drugs, and police brutality; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Systemic racism has prevented black Americans
20from building wealth, and even when they did, it has often been
21taken from them by violent force, such as in 1921 when the

 

 

HR0907- 2 -LRB101 21893 MST 72855 r

1affluent black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma's Greenwood
2District, referred to as the Black Wall Street, was attacked by
3a white mob and burned to the ground; and
 
4    WHEREAS, The inability to build generational wealth
5relegates individuals to poverty and living without basic
6necessities; the prison industrial complex perpetuates this
7for three main reasons: (1) prison labor is slavery, (2)
8instead of paying workers, taxpayers pay for correctional
9centers to give corporations free labor, and (3) unfair justice
10systems are built to keep black inmates in prison; therefore,
11be it
 
12    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
13HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
14we urge the United States Congress to take action to amend the
1513th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States by
16striking "except as a punishment for crime whereof the party
17shall have been duly convicted" in Section 1; and be it further
 
18    RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
19delivered to all members of the United States Congress.