National Black Law Journal

While recognizing intersectionality and its importance to critical race thinking, this Article begins in Part I with a discussion of the national efforts to suppress learning about race and law. Part II discusses the historical silencing of enslaved people and the origins of Thirteenth Amendment doctrine outlawing badges of slavery. Part III explores the new badges of slavery, and Part IV outlines the utility of Thirteenth Amendment doctrine in stopping legislation that suppresses learning about race. The Article provides a historical analysis of the Thirteenth Amendment and its application to both judicial doctrine and legislative power. This Article proposes that the Thirteenth Amendment is a source of both juridical and legislative remedies available today as a counter to the new attempt at badges of slavery.

This Article overall will discuss war against African Americans implicated in this legislation, including its linkage to other race-based suppression, such as denial of voting rights, which have been recognized as a basis for judicial intervention. Additionally, it will argue that not only is this attack motivated by current resistance and response to racial inequity, but it is also linked to the historical suppression of people who were enslaved and their descendants. The maintenance of a mindset built around the silencing of Black cries of injustice is a continuation of a “Plantation Mentality” that is part and parcel of the badges of slavery specifically denounced by the Thirteenth Amendment.