{"id":73735,"date":"2016-08-26T16:09:18","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T22:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/push-underway-to-remove-slavery-from-state-law\/"},"modified":"2016-08-26T22:09:18","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T22:09:18","slug":"push-underway-to-remove-slavery-from-state-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/push-underway-to-remove-slavery-from-state-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Push underway to remove \u2018slavery\u2019 from state law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sister
Sister Sharon Bridgeforth, an organizer with a campaign that seeks to strike an exemption to the state\u2019s prohibition on slavery, speaks at a rally Tuesday at the Colorado Capitol.<\/span>Peter Marcus\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 A campaign kicked off Tuesday to eliminate language in the state constitution that allows for slavery in some cases.<\/p>\n

The Legislature in May unanimously referred the issue to voters, and it is likely to appear on the November ballot as Amendment T.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlavery is not compatible with freedom,\u201d said Sister Sharon Bridgeforth, a member of the campaign\u2019s committee. She added, \u201cSlavery is not a Colorado value.\u201d The measure would strike language from the constitution that allows for slavery as punishment for crimes.<\/p>\n

The language is 140 years old and was never used, but it carries with it symbolism.<\/p>\n

Proponents gathered on the steps of the Capitol to launch the campaign, chanting, \u201cYes on T, no slavery!\u201d They sang gospel and African-American freedom songs, such as \u201cOh, Freedom\u201d and \u201cWoke Up This Morning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, freedom, oh, freedom, oh, freedom over me. And before I\u2019d be a slave, I\u2019d be buried in my grave,\u201d sang the diverse group of about 70 people.<\/p>\n

State Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, chimed in. \u201cIf we have any mention of slavery in the Colorado Constitution, slavery deserves to be in its grave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Proponents said they were not aware of any official opposition group formed to fight the ballot question. One observer joked, \u201cMaybe the KKK?\u201d<\/p>\n

The biggest difficulty proponents may have is confusion, as voters might vote \u201cno\u201d on the initiative, thinking they\u2019re opposing slavery. That\u2019s why proponents are careful to say, \u201cYes on T, no slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t make sense that the people of Colorado \u2026 made some type of statement that says that slavery is OK in some circumstances,\u201d said Rep. Jovan Melton, D-Aurora, who spoke of being the descendant of slaves.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re taking that archaic language out because words do matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

would strike archaic constitutional language<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[791,94,21,13,1509],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-ballot-initiatives","tag-colorado-state-government","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-state-elections"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73735"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}