 Welcome everyone to the launch of the 2.0 of the Body Slavery VT Campaign. This is a joint effort of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, as well as the Interfaith Action. My name is Reverend Mark Hughes. I'm the Executive Director of Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. So I'm going to be your MC this evening. You know, we've been at this for quite some time. It's, you know, the background on this thing is amazing. Just so you know, some of this stuff started coming up in 2015, 2016, when then the the organization called Justice for All, which I was the executive, which I am the Executive Director of, it's a C4, I was doing work in our legislature here in Vermont. One of the things that came to my attention was, is it seemed as though we were always trying to win, we're always trying to figure out how to change policies that were, that were causing us challenges or trying to figure out how do we create new policies. And so the research led us to the Constitution. We began to ask one another, where in the Constitution are we protected? And not too long in that, in that research began to see in the Constitution that the, that the Constitution did in fact here in Vermont have three exception clauses, three exception clauses to that that actually permits slavery. So that's kind of where some of this work started. Just want to let you know that, you know, along the way, it's just been amazing how, you know, there's just been a divine appointment how Reverend Ingram, Debbie Ingram was positioned right at the right time and in the right place when, when we were preparing to get this work happening. Every step along the way, there's been, you know, and I'll tell you more about, you know, we'll tell you more about the history and the background in the story later. But every step along the way, it's just been interesting. It's been twisty and turning. It's been fun. It's been challenging. It's been frustrating. But now here we are, and we're in the fourth quarter. I'm excited. I'm also excited, you know, where my faith intersects with truth and justice and to be in a place like this and at a time like this. I don't think that at any other time in history that anybody has been in a place in a time that we are in today together right now. Let me tell you what I mean by that. What we know is that the Constitution of the state of Vermont has been in place for 245 years. How many people would agree on that? What we also know is is that we are at a place in history at an unprecedented time when we're not going to talk about all of the other things that are going on around us. The things, you know, please turn the TV off right now. Don't pay any attention to that because we'll get to that later. You can handle that later. But there are so many things that are happening right now. And I think I heard somebody saying, what a time to be alive. What a time to be alive, right now, the likelihood, Earl, of somebody being alive at this time. If you think about all of our children, their children, their children, if you think about our parents, our grandparents, their parents, and all that other stuff, I'm trying to get you fired up, but I shouldn't have to work very hard. What a time to be alive right now. We are on a precipice of something that is so amazing right now. We are doing things right now that are so unprecedented. We are making changes right now as people right now. What we're doing is we're affecting policy. We're affecting things that are going to have generational change that happen. There's going to be something that's cascading from the work that we're doing. Not just this work alone, but this right here, I mean, what more can you do if you want to create systemic and institutional change, then go after the Constitution. So this is incredibly powerful, the work that we're doing. And it's probably not well-wired by some, probably not well-received. And you're probably going to get some pushback from time to time. You're probably going to hear some folks saying, I don't know why you're, I mean, I know I certainly have. I don't know why you're working on that. We abolish slavery. You know, we were the first state to abolish slavery. I don't even know why you're doing that. That's just ridiculous. I don't know what it means. Why are you so excited about that, sir? Why does that bother you so much that we're having a constitution, that we're having a constitutional amendment rhetorically, a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery? Could it be that the last time this country sought to abolish slavery, that 620,000 people died over it? This is a big deal. So we can't take the institution lightly. We can't take the institution of slavery lightly. So I just want to congratulate you guys. Every single person and the folks that are not on here, I'm so proud of all of you guys who are on here tonight. The work that you've done, the work that you've committed to, the work that we're going to all have the opportunity to do together as we hold hands and as we move forward together, black, white, yellow, green, Presbyterian, Catholic, Muslim, Jew. I don't care. We're all moving together. We're all holding hands. We're moving together. This is interfaith. This is racial justice. We're doing this work together. We're learning together. We're learning the connection of the institution of slavery, its connection to this quagmire of systemic racism, the challenges that we're facing with the consistent and persistent insidious outcomes that we see of all social determinants that consistently produce racially disparate outcomes to our brothers and sisters. I think it was the Reverend William Barber. He said, somebody's hurting my brother and it's gone on far too long. Is that what they said, Earl? He said, it's gone on far too long. And he said, and we won't, Earl, can you help me? How's that? Can just take yourself off mute for a minute. And we won't be silent anymore. And we won't be silent anymore. How many people believe that tonight? How many people are ready to go? How many people are ready to move forward? If you're ready to move forward, just wave your hand tonight. If you're ready to move forward, just give a shout tonight. I don't even care if I hear you or not. Just give a shout and say, let's go. Another thing he says, forward together. And what do they say? What do they say after that, Earl? What do they say? Not one step back. Step back is what he says. So let's go folks. Let's go tonight. Let's get this done. It's credentialing time. We're a couple minutes ahead of schedule, but that's how we roll. So it's credentialing time. It's customary at Vermont Interfaith Action Events to provide credentials that just simply explain what an organization is and what its purpose is. I'd like to invite Reverend Josh Simon to give the VIA credential and Isaac Owusu to give the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance credentials. Come on, y'all. Reverend Simon. It was here a minute ago. He may have just dropped the call. Isaac, can we start with you, bud? Of course. Of course. Nice to see all you kings and queens. All right. I'm Isaac Owusu, the Director of Community Engagement and Support for the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance. Our mission is to secure sustainable power and short agency and provide security for African descendants of slavery while embracing their history and preserving their culture. And we carry out this work in four pillars. First one being platforms and initiatives, which include the reason why you guys are all here today about slavery, racism as a public health emergency, and various other works such as Champlain Parkway, and et cetera. The second being outreach and education. Our Thursday night about the slavery and calls with the Abadge Slavery Network, Max Musif, I see you in the building. Definition of systemic racism, economics of systemic racism, my personal community engagement and support. We offer first Fridays for the Black community, query forms to assist the community, grant program and rapid response, Black space, various other initiatives. Lastly, cultural empowerment. Richard Kemps, I know that we just stood up this year. We hope all you guys can join us at some point. Our wellness working group. And last but not least, August 27th, first African landing day. We hope to see some of you guys' faces. Our mission is an intentional response to systemic racism in the United States. And the reason why you're all here today is because you are aware you are the change, whether you know it now or not. This is a monumental step towards changing systemic racism. This is historic. Thank you all for being here. Thank you, Isaac. Thank you, Isaac. Is Josh in the house? Josh, make it? Yes, he is. Yes. Simon, please. Hello. My name is Josh. I'm a member of the Associated Pastoral First Congregational Church in the St. Junction. I'm also on the board of VIA and I serve as a board president. For Mount Interfaith Action is a coalition of more than 70 congregations and individual persons of faith who work together to effect systemic change around social justice issues facing our communities and our state. Altogether, we represent about 16,000 people. And the way that we affect systemic change is by being aware of our power. Each one of us that's on this call has power. Can you believe it? You actually do. You may be one of several hundred thousand people in the state, but you have power to affect change. One of the ways that we affect change is by showing up. So thank you for showing up. Another way is by advocating to our state legislatures on behalf of ourselves and on behalf of people who do not benefit from our system and in fact, probably are disadvantaged by our system. So we have the power to affect change by showing up, by advocating. And of course, most importantly, this time around a year, it is to volunteer to get more people out to vote. When we organize people to get out to vote, we increase our effectiveness and we will then win. So I'm glad you joined us. I'm glad that you have joined us so you can become more aware of the power that you have and the ways that we can affect change this year. Our goal in VA across all our issues is to improve the quality of life for all of our monitors, bringing the values of justice and compassion to the public square as our faith traditions guide us. Thank you. Josh, thank you. Isaac, thank you as well. We are going to keep it moving. Right now, we're going to take a little time and looks like we are almost right on schedule. Just tell you a little bit about proposal, too. A little bit about proposal, too. I know that there are, everybody on here is already an expert. I know you guys already done your homework and everybody has figured out what this thing is all about. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to keep it out of the bushes and tell you just a little bit about where we're coming from and what's happened here. What we know is that here within the state of Vermont, there has been quite the hoopla about who we are in our, I'm just going to say, exceptionalism. We've talked a lot about the fact that we have been the first state to abolish slavery. And I think now is time for us to change the narrative because what we've discovered along the way, and we didn't realize it before, was that that's just simply not the case. The facts just don't bear it out in the analysis that we've done. And that's what we've done is we've done our job and we've done the analysis. We know about the Constitution being written. In 1777, we know that Vermonters have been taught what they've been taught, but I don't know what's on the next slide, but I think we don't really need this slide, though, where we can keep it going. But here is the Constitution itself. And I think just to make it very clear is when we, I told you, took about, I think I've always said it takes about 23 seconds to discover that slavery was never abolished in the state. As we talk about the introduction to proposal, I just think it's important for us to stand on the fact that the language does not support the narrative that we were the first state to abolish slavery. So all we got to do is just take a look here and we see that persons born equally free and independent and have certain natural inherent and unalienable rights amongst which are to rejoin and defend of life and liberty, acquiring and possessing and protecting property and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. Therefore, no person born in this country or brought from overseas ought to be holding by law to serve any person as servant slave or apprentice after arriving to the age of 21 years, unless bound by the person's own consent after arriving to such age or bound by the law for payments of debts and damages fines and costs and the like. And the reason why we have those different colors there is just to communicate the various ways in which slavery is actually committed. I think it should also be stated at this point is that in 1777, no other state in the United States had a constitution that had any language that permitted or denied language or denied rather slavery. So Vermont was the first state in the United States to have any language concerning slavery whatsoever. And what they did with that language was created these three exception clauses to permit slavery. So just to be very, very clear, there were three states and one territory that would go on to create what we refer to as exception clauses or loopholes within their constitutions as well. They were Oregon, Ohio and I believe Alabama and then I think the Northwest Territory would come later. So these are the three exception clauses that were permitted. And the reason why we have this conversation is, you know, unlike perhaps almost half of America, we have to deal with facts in order to really create a premise upon what it is we're doing the work. The work is amend the Constitution. The work is amend the Constitution. If there's no reason to amend it, then it certainly would not have made it through the legislature two times. And it definitely would not be upper on the ballot today. So just as we introduce you to this today, just embrace the fact that yes is necessary. No, it is not just one of those feel good things that we're doing because the language which reflects the institution of slavery. And what we know about the institution of slavery is it has done a tremendous amount of harm to us as a nation. So it is imperative that we amend this Constitution to move this to prohibited slavery and indenture servitude. So just so we know, it's not symbolic. It's very, very important that we address this language because it's not just uncomfortable and inappropriate language. It is foul. And it represents an institution that has caused and continues to create damage across the United States. That 13th Amendment thing that we were talking about a moment ago has everything to do with what I'm talking about now because even 157 years ago as a nation when we decided after those 620,000 people killed one another in defense of or trying to ward off this institution called slavery, what happened was it still was not abolished. Not even in on a federal level. Now don't feel embarrassed and don't feel uncomfortable with this because our numbers tell us that 78% of people in the United States do not know what I'm about to tell you. And that is that slavery or in voluntary servitude except for the punishment for crime whereof a party shall be duly convicted shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Neither slavery nor voluntary servitude and what that means is that for the last 157 years much of many of us as a nation we believe that slavery was prohibited even on the national level and it was not. Shadow slavery was but state and prison slavery was instituted in Vermont has been silent for the last 157 years on this matter as well. So these are the facts. This is what we're here to address. It's very important for us also as we look at this information is to understand that we could be a part of a larger effort. What do you mean? Well we were already a part of a larger effort historically because we started a domino effect of other states creating exception clauses within their constitutions because those three states in that Northwestern territory that I told you about previously they were the impetus for a couple of dozen other states to begin implementing within their constitutions exception clauses as well and this can be directly traced back to convict leasing and what actually was the premise for convict leasing. So my colleague Max tells me that this is referred to in his world as the butterfly effect. In fact what we are renowned for as hard as it is for us to embrace is that we were the first state in the United States to create a domino effect that would institute exception clauses across multiple states up to 25 states wherein which this undergirded the institution of convict leasing. It started here in our state in Vermont. So this is another reason why it's so important that this work that we're doing is done because we owe this to ourselves as a state and we also owe this to a nation. It's not again it's not just symbolic and I think in closing and I don't I don't want to take this thing too far and I certainly don't want to push the time on this but I think it's very very important to understand that the proposal all it does is it just proposes that slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited that is all. So all of the bad language that we were talking about that language that's been did so much across such a long period of time 245 years we will strike and we will replace that with this this language here. Let me tell you where we're challenged before I go. See because what we're really doing is is we are we are getting in line with states at a national level to perhaps at some time at some point or another you know come to a total of 38 states so maybe we could for once in in the existence of the history of this country be a nation that prohibited slavery once and for all without exception that is the 13th amendment but in the meantime while we're here in our state what we can do is is we can abolish it here and understand that this this is this undergirds the entire conversation that we're having about the impact that systemic racism has on us here in this nation so as we have already began to disentangle many policies you've seen the health equity bill this last year you've seen the economic equity bill which stayed on the wall you saw the the joint resolution which we call our 113 the joint legislative resolution declaring racism as a public health emergency you see no racial disparities in the criminal juvenile justice system advisory panel you've seen the appointment of the racial equity executive director and other work in the city of burlington the work must go on but now we've found the foundation of it and this is where the action starts so I thank you thank you for your time what we're going to do is we're going to move on I'd like to invite right now and recognize some folks tonight for for a role for a roll call I want to recognize who's here tonight uh in conducting the role the roll call we've got a number of folks that are on the call uh Debbie you can help me out with this roll call because I've never done it before and I'm not ashamed to ask for help yeah Lucy Lucy is going to do the roll call there she is live on your screen hey Lucy you got it thank you I'm happy to help with this and uh the reason this is really important tonight is that this really important message that mark has really encapsulated for us we are representing communities to bring that message to with clarity so this is the way for us to celebrate that and make record of it so I'm going my name is Lucy Samara I'm a member of the local organizing ministry for public safety with via and a member of first congregational church of burlington united church of christ when you hear your community's name called I want you to unmute yourself and make some glorious noise some noise of commitment some noise of joy that you represent a community that you're going to really make a very aware of this issue so this passes in November uh christ church Presbyterian yay good shepherd Episcopal and berry abolish slavery now yay congregation of temple Sinai college street congregational church in Burlington christ Episcopal church of Montpelier Unitarian church of Montpelier yes the old meeting house I lost my spot I was so excited by your call out the old meeting house in East Montpelier Cathedral church of St Paul in Burlington Good Shepherd Lutheran and Jericho Greensboro United Church of Christ we're here yay new alpha missionary Baptist church yay good to see your appearance first congregational church of Essex Junction first congregational church of Burlington we can do this interested persons from other communities of faith organizations and towns in Vermont a little late hey thank you all for being here and for the work that you will be doing hey how about first you you of Burlington there you are so I don't know why that way I don't know why you're on the list so and Adam and Iris a few of us are here I also want to call out their specific congregation yes universalist Unitarian congregation of St. John'sbury beautiful church but still it's still it's great to have you all here way bridge way traditional church in waybridge UCC welcome waybridge higher welcome welcome welcome we get everybody Lucy we didn't have to mobilize every sounds like everybody's ready to go and we're still and we're still on time so I'd like to invite Reverend Debbie Ingram my partner in crime my one of my favorite people on the planet to share with us some of the background and historical information about abolishing slavery thank you David thank you so much Mark I appreciate it yes so I've done this presentation in a good many of our congregations across the state and what what it attempts to do is kind of explain a little bit about the the history of slavery in our country and and then talk about how that legacy has been carried with us really up until the present day and and the ramifications of that and then talk about the Vermont situation specifically and what we can what we can do about it going forward so this is some this is some information for you the legacy of slavery is that the first documented slaves were brought to this new continent of America or it was new for for the white people in Europe who discovered it discovered in quotes so they brought slaves in 1619 that was the first time that was documented and then we know that the British Empire brought slaves to the American colonies steadily throughout the 17th and 18th centuries so much so that by 1776 when some people were gaining their freedom in America slavery was legal in every colony for other folks so the if we look at the numbers of people who were affected the the US census started tracking slaves and free blacks beginning in 1790 and lasting up until 1860 so there's 698,000 slaves that made up 18% of the US population in 1790 and only 60,000 free blacks and then by 1860 there were 4 million slaves and they made up 12 and a half percent of the US population because the white population had grown faster but that's still a very significant portion of the population and many more were transported 12 to 13 million Africans were kidnapped and transported to America as slaves several million additional persons didn't survive the journey we've all seen the the the horror of the the ships people dying from the brutality inflicted on them from malnourishment from disease some years there was an estimated 23% of those transported who did not survive and so from the time of the Vermont Constitution being written throughout the civil war there were there was an attempt to to abolish slavery but as we've already seen as mark has already pointed out these attempts were had exceptions every every one of them the the Emancipation Proclamation only freed slaves in the southern states that were fighting against the union the 13th amendment was ratified in 1865 but as we've also already seen it had an exception for punishment of a crime so throughout this entire era of our of our history American history we have we have never really not had slavery had slavery legal in some form in this country now reconstruction there were some attempts to to bring a better status here in in America the Civil Rights Acts of 1866 and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 did affirm the equality of all all men which is brings up another problem for women later but the equality of all men before the law they prohibited racial discrimination in public places and facilities and made it a crime to deny accommodations or services on the basis of race color or previous condition of servitude but nonetheless regardless of the fact that there were some of that formalized in reconstruction there was still this insidious evil of racism and creating some way to basically enslave people even if chattel slavery no longer existed so black codes were established that imprisoned black people for vagrancy loitering and petty theft you know these were the kinds of minor crimes that white people might not even be arrested for much less imprisoned for convicts leasing became very common practice so the plantation owners or business owners could could pay the prisons to give them labor for the the convicts who were who were imprisoned black people were not able to rent housing or buy land and they were paid a pittance for their labor adults were forced into annual labor contracts and children into what were called apprenticeships so essentially folks who had quote unquote been freed from the plantation life that they had undergone really had no choice but to go back to to that same kind of work they they worked in the same kind of conditions just under a different name but it was exactly they were treated horribly so the 14th amendment also was part of reconstruction which we would have thought would have would have been a good thing it granted citizenship and equal protection under the law to all persons born or naturalized in the united states including former enslaved persons but as we've seen in our era the supreme court basically overturned this the this good amendment the rulings in 1883 stated that this amendment and the 13th amendment were not infringed by uncodified racial discrimination so essentially discrimination could not be constitutionally prohibited this is what the supreme court of the time ruled in an in an eight to one in eight to one rulings so that opened the way for the Jim Crow laws that we're all familiar with segregation in every realm parks restaurants theaters buses public pools hospital schools everywhere marriage and cohabitation among blacks and whites were prohibited and black people could not register to vote and this was prevalent this started in the south but it became prevalent in every region of the country and so this idea about convicts leasing gave way then to under underpaid or unpaid labor by prisoners and incarceration really can be argued to be a form of of slavery black people are disproportionately affected by this practice they are incarcerated at 6.4 times the rate of whites the war on drugs which took place under several presidents of both parties has led to the mass incarceration particularly black men in far greater numbers than they exist in the general population um also the private prison industry just the just the concept of some people making money off of the imprisonment of other people can certainly be argued to be a type of slavery and then sending prisoners to other states can be viewed viewed as human trafficking and Vermont does this we send some of our prisoners to the state of Mississippi to a private prison um every year another way that we have substituted another horrible institution for the institution of chattel slavery another way that essentially black people are enslaved in modern times is is through poverty this this graph shows the poverty rates by race from 1959 to 2019 and you'll see that the highest poverty rate is for is for black people at more than double what it is for for whites and then this is another way of measuring poverty this is the median household income by race and here black households are at the bottom of the household income at around 45 000 and whites Asians Hispanics all all have much higher household incomes and then a third way that um slavery uh exists today in modern times is through the racial wealth gap um and this is as opposed to income this is about accumulated wealth that most people get through uh through through the generations they inherit money from their parents and grandparents and and families build wealth over time and generations but we see in in the united states um white people have a median net worth so that would be the you know the amount of wealth that they've accumulated at very close to 200 000 uh dollars whereas black people um black households have closer to about 25 000 so there's a huge disparity there and this racial wealth gap has been caused by um by very deliberate mechanisms like a racially restrictive covenants and land and housing needs by the practice of redlining that prevented mortgages from being issued to black americans by the lack of access to the gi bill which helps people buy houses and helps them to get an education and many black people were locked out of that um it's also been called by segregation due to jim crow laws in places where people would live and in the development of white-only suburbs and has continued into the into the 21st century through the disproportionate impact of the 2008 subprime mortgage prices so those those three ways in incarceration poverty and wealth disparities are ways that that the legacy of slavery has been handed down into to modern times and this exists less do you think that as we sometimes like to try to think that vermont is an exception um that simply is not true um there there's lots and lots of data but just here's just a snippet the population percentage of blacks in vermont is only one and a half percent but the the black percentage of our prison population is 9.9 percent the percentage of the population at or below poverty level is 25.9 percent versus 10.4 percent for whites in vermont the unemployment rate is is higher 4.4 compared to 3.5 and this is housing data if you just look at the two bars on the far left you'll see that it's just about reversed in terms of ability to own homes in vermont white people 72 percent of white people white vermonters are able to own their own home whereas only 24 percent of black vermonters are so what are we going to do about this and what are we trying to do well there is as as mark mentioned there the idea of the 13th amendment and closing that that loophole is being addressed at the national level um but it's just just slowly getting off the ground in in june 2021 um two legislators introduced what would be the 28th amendment to the u.s constitution which would take out the the slavery clause but in the meantime uh as as is so often the case when things can't move the national level the states are beginning to create momentum um at you know at at our level so um this is a map of talking about uh states that have slavery or some mention of slavery in their in their constitution um you'll see it's widespread um you know all over the country and the abolished slavery national network has uh has been at the forefront of this movement uh to help states and to bring states together uh to address this four states have already abolished slavery in their constitutions rid island colorado nebraska and utah uh other states besides vermont are in in process of this um oregon tennessee louisiana california um and there are others also that are trying to get uh measures like this on their ballots so they're there truly is a movement and then um in terms of talking about uh the other ramifications and impact of um of our legacy of slavery uh the un has has made statements about um about systemic racism that systemic racism exists in the united states uh and that we remain a chronically segregated society and there's there's uh there's proof there uh in many different many different forms and their concluding statement then is that these shameful statistics can only be explained by longstanding structural discrimination on the basis of race reflecting the enduring legacy of slavery so the good news is vermont has been uh a state that has begun to acknowledge that systemic racism exists um uh we have at least released some reports and some statements that um we we know that there is such a thing as systemic racism uh mark uh worked really hard uh and the vermont racial justice alliance um to make sure that we have a uh an executive director of racial equity uh whose job is to identify and work to eradicate systemic racism within state government so there there is some progress on that front we're glad to say and but what we would be doing with amending our constitution would be really moving that bar even higher and and and continuing to to really push the idea that we need to we acknowledge that there is great inequity uh to acknowledge that there is uh systemic racism by by implication uh and uh that we really want to try to try to do something about that and uh so uh this outlines the process the the amendment has had to be approved by both chambers of the general assembly uh twice and that has already happened and then the way our amendment process works uh it goes straight to the people and the people vote on whether to ultimately on whether to amend the constitution so that's where we are now we are uh at the at the stage of you know we're launching this campaign to make sure that people know and uh are on board with the idea that slavery is morally important and it should be unambiguously prohibited that and then to to we're trying to do education to to help people to understand you know the broader picture that I've just laid out to you that you know chattel slavery is the precursor of slavery in other forms that systemic racism exists today and we have to acknowledge it came from the legacy of slavery and then you know also any system of oppression harms the oppressed and the oppressor vermont is mostly a white state a lot of us here tonight are white people but even as the as the oppressor um even if we haven't actively taken that kind of role we have benefited in this system in some ways we have been uh advantaged um you know financially economically but we have been hurt in in terms of our humanity in terms of our dignity in terms of our spirituality many of us are you know we're from communities of faith and to to keep other people down to to make it so that we don't recognize the common humanity of all of us does something harmful to us uh and so you know we need to recognize that as well and we will all have a better quality of life if we uh if we address and get rid of this this abhorrent and shameful practice of slavery so thanks very much for listening and mark i will turn it back over to you thank you debbie and thank you for just such a rich and incredibly informative research report now the time has come for our stories and this is um it's a great opportunity for me uh to introduce you to a few folks who've come to share some stories every day folks is like what we like to say uh not to diminish or demean anyone but we're all everyday folks aren't aren't we um to support the abolish slavery campaign so i think first we'd like to introduce uh if you're here uh carla kelly are you here actually uh mark we're we had a little change of plans and and uh barbara tomson is is uh gonna be our first uh speaker just barb can't say thank you thanks i have to be down to amtrack pretty soon um i at one of our meetings melissa uh mentioned a comment by someone that it's time to move from comfort into action and um i guess that's really the essence of my story as a white person uh i'm very uh happy to support this campaign partly because it's sponsored it's it's a cross racial campaign it's sponsored by two organizations uh one a black led organization vermont racial justice alliance and the other a white led organization under debbie's uh leadership vermont interfaith action and i think that is uh to me that was really important that we don't have that many opportunities for a joint action and i think in the future we're going to increasingly need that as we fight against some of these forces of oppression in our society so you know i i'm not going to repeat all the things that debbie said they're really important and things that we've all been learning um i'm just very happy to be part of this campaign and i want to say moving from comfort to action is not an easy thing uh it's you know it's been hard and it was really scary for me but by gosh i did it and i'm going to do it again and uh the tabling is is really an interesting opportunity to meet so many people and to hear their points of view so i encourage everyone to join in thank you so much barbra it is good to see you and thank you for your uh for your story and i know you're gonna have to take off and stay as long as you can please i think we want to go now am i right to go to carl and kelly i'm i'm all i'm almost afraid to do it now because i feel like i didn't get the memo last time yeah sure let's go to carla hey carla well hello good evening everybody uh i kind of honored and privileged to be among you guys um new to vermont but i'm not estranged when it comes to fighting certain things for social justice in regards to this situation um i was a young lady that helped out on the juneteenth and some of the uh broadcasters had questioned me yeah you're always mark i'm good trouble i'm good trouble across the board um i'm grateful to be here fighting a good cause um in the northern new jersey we don't hear about that too much because we insomnia go everybody with everybody you know and also in bridgeboard we don't hear about this because everybody is with somebody insubstitially and we all are connected by one thing by the color of blood which is red so we're all not colorblind to this situation but i think at this time we are making moves in this direction um i had to educate my children my daughter's now 15 and my son is nine and they don't see it as a racial issue at times but they're like confused because they were not brought up hating anyone that didn't look like them um they make friends with pretty much anybody so you figure okay everybody knows and i believe anywhere beyond going down towards massachusetts on down except for maybe maryland it's no education boundaries that's being presented to our children at my kids ages um or even in the public school system and it's it's sad but it's good but it's good and it's not it's kind of bad because in these situations they were questioning me and they were asked how do i do it or why is there racism why are they saying black lives matter why are they saying this they ask these questions because once again they're not taught how to hate anybody because of the color of their skin or any of that sort but they know we have the color rainbow in our family so it's like i don't have time to fight and argue with anyone about you know anything about that but when it comes to slavery i remember my mom and my dad telling me stories how our great greats and aunties and uncles were in fact slaves and still it went in one ear out the other and we never picked up the conversation again but my father you know was a farmer you know born and raised in North Carolina and said hey i need to migrate and do something better so those conversations never made it to the dinner table um across the board grown up so it was like okay it's normal but now to be in a state that we are in Vermont um we are aware there's slavery there should be some slavery still in United States that we may or may not be aware of but to be a part of a campaign and to watch my two children that are here to listen and to be a part of like okay this still exists why doesn't it exist when what what timeline was it and it's important me as a mom as a single mom to teach it to them and to bring these conversations up to them as a part of nature if your home school never says it you heard it first at home i'm a believer of ministry starts at home so you have to be able to tell your children at home so in case you have a kid that may or may not understand hey why are you playing with me because i was taught not to do it well i was taught to respect you so which one i'm supposed to do and they have these conversations like well why do they act different than me and you have to open up the dialogue to your children your god children nieces nephews now not even because we are in vermont wherever they are because a lot of them are colorblind or confused to what the history books have said and even like now they're homeschooled they're aware of the things but it's good to bring them a part of different historic moments like this and i'm happy that i follow god's needs to move up here so they could know hey it's okay to ask questions about why is slavery why is this being about what does that mean that's a big word i don't understand and to i i i said it during june uh the weekend in june 10th as well educate your children educate them because you'll be it will be a world of hate all over again going back to 1960s 1950s and then and so on and so on so my model is to educate as much as i can whether it be men women children alike and when my children are mature enough to hold it down they say mom i got this because you showed us how to do you showed us how to deal with it and to even go to prop two it's important because their great greats don't haven't lived to see it they have not they're not living to see it unfortunately so now to be a part of history at this point of 2022 like you said mark it's a great day to be alive so i'm grateful to be a part of it as i always say as the bible say anything i find my hands to do it's already going to be blessed and thank you isaac thank you mark and some of you are mad debbie i'm mad and a couple others i'm free should say for all of you hey i'm here and thank you for having me thank you so much for being a part of this uh 2.0 it's the remix so i'm definitely just thrilled to have you uh with us we've got one more speaker we're gonna just a little bit behind but i think we got this uh we do have one more speaker with us and i believe it was max parthas wasn't it uh peace brother mark greetings to everybody that is here my name is max parthas i am the national campaign coordinator for the abolished slavery national network i'm also the acting director for the paul cuffie abolitionist center in sumter south carolina and a member of the paul cuffie worship group uh among the friends there's so much to say it's a little time uh so i was asked to give some of a personal testimony and i'd like to do that and then i want to give you an update on where we are today in the national efforts first of all i do want to acknowledge uh that vermont in 1777 did not abolish slavery what they did was define the conditions under which a human being and a u.s citizen could be turned into profit property uh with vermont there were three exceptions but as mark has pointed out that those initial conditions of creation the vermont butterfly effect spread out across the rest of the country and some of those states had very nefarious purposes to use within states like alabama and tennessee and louisiana uh who truly exploited for convict leasing purposes we also know that it was even adopted by the federal arm with the 13th amendment who felt that they had refined the language to limit it to the instead of the three that vermont had just the one as a punishment for a crime for those who have been duly convicted and we know that slavery is illegal globally it's uh what we're doing even simply by having it in your constitution the federal constitution in the other states that have it in their constitution is a violation of the declaration of human rights in article four which abolishes slavery in all its forms it has no exception for america to use it as a punishment for a crime on a personal note i would like to put a face as some reality on to the statistics when we say that black people are incarcerated at a higher rate the poverty is at a higher rate and on and on and on the brutality of the police the mass incarceration my family was at the heart of that it always has been i am a descendant of african slaves here in the united states i was raised by my great aunt who in turn was raised by former slaves who had left georgia to come to new jersey where i grew up so i'm one generation away from a couple that were enslaved in the united states uh we suffered the barbs and stings of what we call the badges and incidents of slavery which include the racism the brutality the mass incarceration the gentrification stealing our homes using us as property to fill prison cells in order to create a revenue for the city and its residents who were not black i watched my entire community of paterson new jersey being destroyed under these policies that were enabled through the badges and incidents of slavery during these periods i did not know about the 13th amendment like many americans i had simply assumed that it did what it said people said it had done it ended slavery and uh and not until i actually read it the 47 words and saw that exception with my own eyes did it really click i know that over the course of several presidencies that this thing has escalated more and more beginning with uh nixon's war and drugs in 1971 was my family and my community among those others who were uh drastically affected by that then the same thing with reagan's war and drugs where he turned it into a literal war during the reagan years in the 1980s again uh we suffered through all of that and then in the 1990s 94 with the click and biden crime bill we saw the prison industry and the prison population go from in the 1970s less than 200 000 people nationwide to 2.4 million people today and the racial and control aspects of it are very blatant we have more black men who are in cages right now in the united states than the top five populated african nations do combined and they have nearly 600 million africans we only have 47 million people who define themselves as african-american or black and we still have more black men in prisons and cages today than all of they they have combined uh one in eight black prisoners throughout the world are right here in the united states there are more black men in prison than there are women of any race creed or color globally combined so it is definitely affecting the black population at a rate that is astounding and i as i said was right at the heart of that i remember in 1995 only a year after the clinton crime bill where they incentivized incarceration uh for states that would adopt these new policies of zero drug tolerance three strike laws mandatory minimums uh during that period only a year later there was a young man by the name of laurence mires who was shot in the back of the head by a rookie policeman uh rookie policeman because that was the clinton's deal and biden is that a hundred thousand new cops would be hired just like they're asking for right now and one of them murdered a 16-year-old boy shot him right in the back of his head as he was laying face down on the ground uh in downtown paterson and that began my journey because i knew that boy i knew his family 30 seconds left okay thank you very much debbie i knew that family and that began my process of asking questions and i found some answers and the answer is this is all rooted in badges of incidents of slavery stemming from the exception clauses of the 13th amendment as well as the 25 states that have been mentioned who adopted this as a replacement for chattel slavery but i'd like to give you some good news as of our anniversary on august 28th with the abolish slavery national network we have abolished slavery in three states and adding to that brood island which was already done for a total of four there are five states on the ballot right now where the citizens can vote to end slavery that's of course vermont orgon tennessee and alabama and louisian all five of them this year can have slavery removed from their state constitutions if the voters decide that's what they want to do and in the coming uh year we have up as many as 24 other states that are following suit to do the same thing uh so supporting prop two uh here and now in vermont is the right thing to do is the moral thing to do and it's the ethical thing to do and it reminds me of scripture uh i believe it was uh john 941 where jesus was speaking to the Pharisees and they asked him if he thought they were blind and he said if you were truly blind i would hold you blameless but because you claim to see so well i hold you at blame for every fault and failure and that drives me every day because i do see well just as well as you do and you may decide to turn the other cheek or look the other way but you can never again say that you did not know thank you very much thank you very much for all of you who have uh told your stories thank you all after all of that folks ought to be fired up right now ready to play an active role in this work that we're doing to so we can get this campaign done so we can win so to tell you more about how you can get involved we've got melissa batta in the house hey melissa hey there mark thanks so much uh for those of you who don't know me my name is melissa batta i'm the deputy director of vermont interfaith action and i live in um central vermont outside of the capital in berry town um yeah so we we're i'm excited i'm excited because as of today we have a 191 volunteer signed up to do this work and that is amazing our goal is 300 but i believe that we can do it with 191 if we need to um so we're gonna keep on going out and uh seeing if we can drum up some more support um find more volunteers and and get this moving um so yeah ryan thanks for putting that up on the um on the screen there we um as you can see we have a campaign timeline that we've been working on and um what i want to just kind of point out is uh down in the the far uh left hand corner there down at the bottom that's where we're at right now right we're we're in august we have we have 12 weeks so three months from um from now uh we will have an election again and this will be on the ballot and so right now what we're doing is kind of being a little low key right i mean folks kind of we just had the primaries they're not really wanting to see political signs up so much they're not really wanting to talk with folks they just want to kind of enjoy their summer so we're taking advantage of the opportunities that we have um in our state for the summertime we're tabling and outdoor events i was just there um in downtown berry city at the farmer's market on wednesday with a couple of volunteers and mark stopped by um had some great conversations with folks a lot of folks were like i did not know that we have exceptions to slavery in the state constitution and that's horrible that that our constitution has now paved the way for other states in our federal government to also make exceptions and they're saying yes of course we want to pledge um to vote yes on prop um on prop two um with a few new volunteers we'll also be um ryan here who has been helping us with all of our tech this evening um we'll be helping us get some social media posts that we can start posting out and kind of ramp up that um to to have more social media posts going out and we could share those with friends we can share those with our um our faith communities our neighbors um and and have that going ryan are you trying to pull up one right now or um i don't know who's i i need the screen back y'all but i have to go into august um or after we close out august when you go into september um we will be starting to do um what we like to call relational organizing and um just kind of want to explain that and impact that because i think sometimes it's hard for folks to understand relational organizing is just that it's about the relationships that we already have um going on those relationships and those ties and telling folks about prop two letting our neighbors know letting our family members who are who are vermoners and can vote in vermont letting them know letting our congregation members know telling other people about prop two i mean you don't know what happens you go to the ballot you see something or you go to the polls to vote you see something on the ballot that you don't really understand and you just skip it or you want to say one thing and you end up voting something else that's that's what happened to our friends out in colorado when they were trying to to abolish slavery from their state constitution is that people were thought they were voting one way but they were actually voting against them they voted it down without even knowing it and then they had to do the process all over again so we're just trying to to stop that and we're trying to educate our friends and neighbors as we go so we'll be doing we'll be doing some training on how we can have these one-on-one conversations with our friends and family reaching out to them we'll be training we'll be doing some kitchen table talks where we can do some small group talks whether that be at our congregations with co-workers inviting folks over for for a chat that sort of thing and in five of our urban areas we decided we're going to do some door knocking where we can go door to door easily while the weather's still nice hopefully it will be continue this cooler trend and not like what you had last weekend but we'll be doing some of that as well on September 26 ballots will be mailed and we'll start launching our get out the vote work that's what GOTV stands for and that kind of work is just following up with folks and making sure that they remember that they pledged to vote yes on Prop 2 we'll do that through phone banking following up with those that vote have filled out the pledge cards maybe with some postcards maybe with some text messages maybe with some emails some phone calls however is the best way to reach folks just to remind them that it's time to get out time to vote and make sure that we get this passed and and we put this on the books in in Vermont and then on November 8th you know we're we're thinking of having an election night watch party we want to celebrate this win right we want to get around with others and say this is amazing this is historic you know and and where do we go from here so we're looking forward to that as well one other piece that I want to let folks know is we need all hands on deck and we understand I understand everybody has a lot going on some of you probably have some vacation that you're still planning on taking while the weather's still nice maybe some camping some traveling but what we're going to be doing is we have had a standing Monday evening call from 730 to 8 we're going to shift it up just a little bit as the days get a little bit shorter and it gets darker out it's harder to stay up that late at least for me I'm ready to go to bed at six o'clock some nights when when when it starts getting darker but so we're going to be shifting our calls up from 7 to 8 we're going to extend it a little bit because in some of these calls we're actually going to be doing some training so the first half hour is going to be the same that we've been doing which is is just doing kind of our basic checking in hearing stories sharing some best practices with one another and then and hearing what's what's up for the week like what kind of activities are we doing for the week and then the last half hour sometimes 20 minutes maybe 45 minutes depending on how long that first part takes we'll be doing some training on some of these weeks if you've already been trained on what we're training on you don't have to stick around you'll just be there for the first part of it but we want to just make sure that we can bring more folks in and that as people come in they can come in at any time and just be ready to go with us on this campaign so you have questions feel free to reach out to any of the staff that are on the call tonight you have myself Debbie Ryan and Mike with Vermont Interfaith Actions you have Mark Maya Isaac and Vincent with Vermont Racial Justice Alliance who are more than happy to answer questions and to follow up with you all and just you know are excited to be working with you all together on this historic campaign so thanks so much oh and let me put the in the chat box I will put the link for our Monday night call so if you want to register tonight you can go ahead and register jump on when you can you know if you miss that's fine we might follow up with you but we'd be happy to have you there with us on Monday evenings thank you for that Melissa thank you for that very comprehensive overview of how to get involved you guys have heard everything you've heard everything you need to know you you've got all the information you got all the background the only thing you didn't get is excuses because we're getting it done I'm telling you this is this thing is on fire right now I think everybody ought to be pretty stoked but just in case you didn't get enough I got Earl Cooper camp up right now don't forget by the way on Thursdays we're also gonna Maya will drop in the chat something about Thursdays or maybe somebody can drop in the chat I don't know how that's gonna work about how to catch up with us on Thursdays because we have a deeper God Earl Cooper camp can you give it to us get us wind up a little bit brother it's good to see you brother mark so good evening my sister's brothers and siblings I'm Earl Cooper camp as mark said from the Episcopal church of the Good Shepherd and Barry now when was the last time you made history how many times in our lives do we get to do something that is truly of historic importance well tonight now and over the next few months we have the opportunity to do something historic both for our own times and for our legacy for the future generations of the moderates of people in our nation and people around the globe now I recall that about five years ago I was in an airport lounge with my brother Mark Hughes and we're traveling to Nashville for training with the poor people's campaign a national call for a moral revival and mark now mentioned to me that slavery yeah slavery is still permitted in the Vermont Constitution and I was just floored I'd heard years ago from many proud Vermonters who'd learned it as an article of faith in their elementary school that Vermont was the first state to abolish slavery well mark pulled out his phone brought up the article one of the state constitution and there it was the exception the people under 21 could be slaves and I was like I said I was just floored and I said mark we got to get those damn 36 words out of the Constitution well tonight to my my sisters and brothers and siblings we can do that just like those early Vermonters gathered in that tavern in Windsor in 1777 we can do something historic and abolish slavery for good in our time we can finish that historic work begun 245 years ago in this brave little state now this historic work is not only something that we can do it is something that we must do we not only have the opportunity to act now we also have the moral duty to act and that's the historic nature of our call this evening that knowing the past pain the injustices of slavery its genocidal effect on the African American and indigenous communities in our nation knowing of slavery's foundations in the sin of white supremacy this is our moral duty now to strike out those damn 36 words abolish slavery in Vermont once and for all now some might say even members of my own family but there's no slavery in Vermont we have more important things to do don't you believe it the call to act this call to act is in accord with our moral duty in these times to set right the historical legacy of our state to acknowledge the past wrongs and then to seek now to live in a deeper justice that's the most important thing that we can do now this is an historic opportunity for our time and as I said for generations yet to come now as Dr. King famously said the arc of the universe is long but it bends towards justice it is our moral duty together to make that bend a little more pronounced now moving towards justice in this campaign to abolish slavery in Vermont we've heard this evening what we need to know indeed I think Mark and Melissa and Debbie and everybody has really talked about what it is that we need to do to accomplish this goal each one of us needs to enlist our families and as Miss Kelly said as Melissa said we need to educate our children whether they're eight years old or 88 years old each one of us needs to enlist our families our friends our co-workers and especially our fellow congregation members in this effort and it's not going to be easy but together finding that strength and inspiration in each other together we can accomplish this historic task together we can open the door a little bit wider to that promise of liberty and justice for all so my sisters my brothers my siblings will you join me will you join with Vermont Racial Justice Alliance will you join with Vermont Interfaith Action in this historic work in this moral duty to abolish slavery in Vermont and I want to hear you will you join me we are about that life here yes thank you so much thank you amen amen I felt the spirit on that one wow that was amazing thank you so much Earl for being here with us everybody just go like this yeah all the way thank you so much so um yeah I was getting ready to jump up and just run across the room as it is my tradition in my faith you can do the happy dance that's good that's good let the spirit take you thank you so much um and um you know there's so many reflections that I have uh to you know to be able to just to express about the times that I've had with uh brother Earl Cooper camp in the love that I have for him but uh I'm not going to do that uh because we actually have my brother Winters uh coming with a reflection uh come on brother Winters where are you at I'm still I'm still here in Greensboro uh just to kind of offer offer words uh for us to take with us as we go um first of all just to pause and remember uh generations of enslaved people some of you can remember names maybe even faces from family stories some of you can maybe not remember a name or a face but you can remember places places in our country that were built with stolen labor let's remember those generations of enslaved people who built so much of this country and let's also remember that every time our country has started to give those enslaved people just a little bit of freedom it seems like there's always a a brand new mechanism to continue the oppression and to re-enslave folks in some new and insidious way but not this time we pray not this time and so for that reason we pray with open eyes and open hands and feet ready to walk and march even still to do the work that will need to be done again because of what's going to happen in response to this thing that we are going to do because that's the way evil is it never rests and neither can we and so as we go from this place we go with glad heart for all the work that has been done for all the truth that has been spoken for for all the effort that has been marshaled into this pause but we go knowing that the work is not finished till it's finished and even when we think it's finished there'll be more for us to do and what a joy it is to be able to do it in the company of such good folk and so we pray to the god of those that we remember for strength and for courage for peace in these troubled times for hope when we seem at times to be surrounded by despair and we go to live in love amen man hopefully that was a valuable experience for for all of you who come in the tradition of my faith in what is known as the the international standard version of the bible does in scripture that says that the spirit of the lord is upon me he is anointed me to tell the good news to the poor he has sent me to announce to the prisoners and recovery of the site to the blind to set the oppressed people free so as we go forth from this place let us carry forward with us the words in our hearts are moral responsibilities our moral responsibilities to set the captives free so let's go forward from this place thank you all who have attended tonight this thanks for sponsoring this event Vermont racial justice alliance for my interfaith action all of you have a wonderful night