CARSON CITY — Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford’s great-great-great-great-grandfather William Berry was born into slavery in Fordyce, Arkansas. When Berry was put on the auction block, he refused to be sold and, as a result, was murdered, Ford said.
Ford shared the story during a legislative hearing on a resolution to strip outdated language from the Nevada Constitution allowing slavery and involuntary servitude as a criminal punishment.
Assembly Joint Resolution 10 would put a ballot question to voters to remove the language, a holdover from the Civil War era that allowed prisons to run chain gangs and convict-leasing programs without paying inmates. The punishments are not used today.
“This language was often used for the purpose of circumventing the abolition of slavery,” Ford said. “What is known as the ‘black codes’ were enacted throughout America to punish and incarcerate the formerly enslaved for petty purposes such as having to prove employment every year or for violating early curfews.”
Ford said such language was designed as retribution for the dissolution of formal slavery.
“In my mind, that was really a way for racists to act out vengeance for no longer having a way to own people and enslave them,” Ford said.
The resolution, sponsored by the Nevada Black Legislative Caucus, passed the Assembly unanimously in mid-April and is now making its way through the Senate. If it passes, it must pass again in the 2023 legislative session and then be approved by voters in 2025.
Many states, including California, Utah and North Dakota have similar language in their constitutions allowing slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime.
The 13th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution also allows slavery or involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. Congress would have to amend the Constitution to remove the language.
“Until that day comes, we can make sure that within the state of Nevada that our position is clear,” said Assemblyman Howard Watts, D-Las Vegas, one of the bill’s sponsors.
In December, federal lawmakers introduced a resolution dubbed the Abolition Amendment to remove the language from the U.S. Constitution, though a bill has not been brought forward again this year.
Rep. Steve Horsford, D-Nev., wrote a letter supporting the resolution in Nevada.
“It is time that Nevada’s constitution reflects the value we place on freedom by guaranteeing that nobody will ever live the horror of slavery ever again, regardless of any crime or law,” Horsford said.
While the Nevada Department of Corrections still runs inmate work programs, the programs are voluntary and inmates are paid.
According to a 2017 study from the Prison Policy Initiative, Nevada inmates make between 25 cents and $5.15 an hour.
A bill proposed this legislative session requiring inmates be paid the minimum wage died this month.
The Nevada resolution was heard in the Senate Committee on Legislative Operations and Elections on Wednesday evening but did not get a vote. The measure does not have another meeting scheduled, and lawmakers will have until May 14 to pass it out of Senate committee.