We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Slavery By Another Name: The Convict Lease System

Click here to access article by Devon Douglas-Bowers from The Hampton Institute. 

The author provides another piece of American history which likely was not covered in your schools. 
After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Constitutional amendments were passed with the intention of establishing equality under the law for newly freed slaves, or so the story goes. The fact of the matter is that slavery was - and still is - completely legal in the United States, only in a much different form.
There is also an excellent PBS 1:24:56m video by the same title based on a book by this title authored by Douglas A. Blackmon who Douglas-Bowers also references.
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