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Abolish Slavery National Network

About

No Slavery, No Exceptions

We are a national coalition fighting to abolish constitutional slavery and involuntary servitude in all forms, for all people.


We envision a United States where all people, without exception, are free from slavery and involuntary servitude and where all people are protected by their state and federal constitution. 

For more than a century, our federal and state constitutions have preserved the right to enslave people as punishment for a crime.

In the very act of passing the 13th Amendment, they created a loophole to allow the practice of slavery to continue, albeit in another form.

Fast forward to our era of mass incarceration and many states have this clause, or a version of it, in their state constitutions, allowing slavery and involuntary servitude to continue.

Today, we are organizing in more than 20 states to abolish slavery from state constitutions. Several states are expecting ballot initiatives in 2022.

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Meet Our National ASNN Team

Max Parthas Headshot
MAX PARTHAS
Co-Director of State Operations, South Carolina
Kamau Allen, Headshot
KAMAU ALLEN
Lead Organizer, Colorado
JAMILIA LAND
Network Coordinator – California
Nathan Woodliff-Stanley Headshot
NATHAN WOODLIFF-STANLEY
Director of Finance – South Carolina
Melina Cohen Headshot
MELINA COHEN
Administrative Coordinator – Nebraska
Dennis Febo - Headshot
DENNIS FEBO
Co-Director of State Operations – New Jersey
SARAH CHASE
Director of Communications – Washington
Bianca Tylek Headshot
BIANCA TYLEK
Director of Federal Operations – New York
Savannah Eldridge Headshot
SAVANNAH ELDRIDGE
Co-Director of State Operations – Texas
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Why Now

In the last four years, three states have abolished slavery in their state constitutions. In 2018, Colorado became the first state since Rhode Island — the only state to have fully abolished slavery prior to the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment — to end the exception and abolish slavery. Following in its footsteps, Utah and Nebraska also led successful campaigns to abolish slavery in 2020. In all three states, the ballot initiatives were the result of unanimous, bipartisan legislative votes.


In the wake of the murder of George Floyd and awakening of so many to the visceral reality of anti-Black racism, more than 20 states are organizing to abolish slavery in their state constitutions. Several are expecting ballot initiatives in 2022.


We have momentum!


Map showing states that have abolished slavery

NO SLAVERY, NO EXCEPTIONS

Celebrating One Year of the Abolish Slavery National Network

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PARTNER WITH ASNN

More than 20 states are organizing to abolish slavery in their state constitutions. Several are expecting ballot initiatives in 2022. Contact us for partnership opportunities.

CONTACT US 

Join the fight to abolish slavery today!

Max Parthas, Co-Director of State Operations, South Carolina

Max Parthas is an internationally recognized Spoken Word Artist and American Slavery Abolitionist. In addition to numerous awards for his art, he is the recipient of the Missouri CURE Marc Taylor Activism Award, the Will Bell Humanitarian Award, and the “In The Spirit of Malcom X” award from MX Media. 

Max is the current Acting Director for the Paul Cuffee Abolitionist Center in Sumpter, SC., Co-Director of State Operations for the Abolish Slavery National Network. Abolishslavery.us. and Co-host/Executive producer of Abolition Today (a unique online modern- slavery abolition episodic master class with an international audience.) abolitiontoday.org

Kamau Allen, Lead Organizer, Colorado

Kamau Allen graduated from Howard University in 2017.  During his time as a student he participated in Freedom-rides to Ferguson and Baltimore during the 2014-2015 period of civil resistance where he supported community-led efforts to address police brutality. Since then, he has dedicated his life to transforming our Nation’s criminal legal system.

Shortly after graduating from Howard, Kamau pursued his career as a professional community organizer where he has worked to help communities achieve police accountability and criminal legal reform. Through his work with Together Colorado, a faith based community organization, Kamau helped to lead a local organizing effort that began with the wrongful arrest of one of Together Colorado’s members. After nearly two years he was able to help secure that member’s freedom, organized public actions, and worked with legislators to sponsor a bill (HB-1142) that would address the identification procedure that was used to misidentify that member. At the end of the 2021 legislative session that bill was signed into law.  

From his position as a Community Organizer in Together Colorado, Kamau led the steering committee of the 2018 ballot measure initiative that abolished the loophole for slavery and involuntary servitude from Colorado’s constitution. This grassroots effort was successful and made Colorado the first state in the nation to accomplish this. Shortly after, Kamau left Together Colorado to be a Co-Founder and Lead Organizer of the Abolish Slavery National Network (ASNN).

Kamau’s passion for racial justice has also driven him to become an anti-racism trainer with the Equity Consulting Network (ECN). Founded by Annie Rodriguez in 2020, ECN offers training and resources to organizations, community based groups, and individuals who are passionate about anti-racism organizing. 

Lastly, Kamau serves as the Director of Equity and Social Justice at the Institute for Racial Equity and Excellence (IREE). Through this position, Kamau is supporting IREE’s goal to end the preschool to prison pipeline by pursuing meaningful reform of school disciplinary methods. 



Jamilia Land, Network Coordinator – California

Jamilia Land is a wife, mother, criminal and restorative justice activist, public speaker, and co-founder of A.S.A.P (Anti-Violence, Safety and Accountability Project) a 501(c)(3) organization centered on the mental health and well being of children and families impacted by police and community gun violence as well as incarceration. Jamilia is a member of several legislative coalitions including serving as chair for ACA3 The California Abolition Act, which will remove involuntary servitude from California’s constitution; AB392 California Act To Saves Live, deadly use of force legislation; SB1437 Accomplice Liability For Felony Murder; SB1421 Peace Officers Release of Records.

Jamilia is an executive board member for March On which is responsible for the historic 2018 election of women to the U.S.Congress. Jamilia currently serves as the policy board chair for The Women’s Civic Improvement Club, as a policy board member for SETA/Head Start and serves as the Sacramento California chapter coordinator for CSSJ (Californians for Safety and Justice) Jamilia has made it her life’s work to be the voice of the unheard, the voice of the forgotten, and the voice of the voiceless.

Nathan Woodliff-Stanley, Director of Finance, South Carolina

Rev. Nathan Woodliff-Stanley is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and Finance Lead for the Leadership Team of the Abolish Slavery National Network. Nathan is the former Executive Director of the ACLU of Colorado, and he worked on the campaigns to abolish slavery from the Colorado constitution in 2016 and 2018, which succeeded with the 2018 passage of Amendment A.

Melina Cohen, Administrative Coordinator, Nebraska

Melina is a Co-Founder of the Abolish Slavery National Network. In 2020, she volunteered to establish Vote YES: End Slavery in Nebraska, a ballot question committee and campaign in support of Amendment One to remove the constitutional clause allowing slavery and involuntary servitude as punishment for a crime. Her leadership, steady activism, and voter education efforts guided the ballot measure to a landmark and landslide victory on Election Day, making Nebraska one of the very first states to prohibit—without exception—slavery and involuntary servitude.

 

Still a proud and active member of ASNN, Melina also works as the Director of Communications at a nonprofit dedicated to advancing public education in Nebraska. She holds a Bachelor in Multidisciplinary Studies from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a concentration in Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Dennis Febo, Co-Director of State Operations, New Jersey

Dennis Febo, MAH, is a speaker, community organizer, artist, abolitionist, and CEO and founder Guazabara Insights, LLC.  Dennis is a native of Brooklyn, NY, raised in many different parts of the US and Puerto Rico.  He attained his master’s degree from the Universities of Buffalo, Havana, Cuba, and Bahia, Brazil.  Dennis has been working with thousands of our incarcerated community members and juveniles for the past 10 years.  By devising a curriculum on Cultural and Social Consciousness Education, he has been able to educate thousands around the country on self-knowledge and self-actualization. Guazabara now provides many educational/recreational services and events for the community at large, with a focus on success for youth.  Dennis also founded the New Jersey Credible Messenger movement and the the Amend the 13th movement in NJ, a lobbying strategy to remove the “exception clause” and add anti-slavery language to the New Jersey constitution.  Mr. Febo is also a professor of graduate and undergraduate studies in Health Sciences at New Jersey City University.

Sarah Chase, Director of Communications, Washington

Sarah is a communications professional with extensive experience in media relations and communications in national and international markets. She joined ASNN in June 2021 after working in Colorado to advance additional reforms post Amendment A. 

Sarah’s advocacy work ranges from community initiatives advancing environmental causes to embedding in and supporting refugee communities abroad. The communications director position supports the state and federal campaigns as well as internal communications for the national leadership team.

Bianca Tylek, Director of Federal Operations, New York

Bianca is the Founder and Executive Director of Worth Rises, a national criminal justice organization working to dismantle the prison industry and end the exploitation of those it targets. Bianca is one of the nation’s leading experts on and advocates against the prison industry. She led the first successful campaign in the country to make jail phone calls free, blocked a major merger in the prison telecom market, and denied prison profiteers millions of investment dollars.

 

Every year, under her leadership, Worth Rises publishes innovative research about the prison industry, including the nation’s largest dataset of corporate prison profiteers. In just three years, her work has cost the industry and its investors over a billion dollars, and saved communities tormented by incarceration millions.


Savannah Eldridge, Co-Director State Operations, Texas

Savannah Eldridge is a registered nurse and founder of Be Frank 4 Justice. She formed Be Frank 4 Justice to help ensure access to justice, after realizing obstacles while assisting her brother Frank appeal the egregious life sentence that he received under the outdated habitual offender statute. Through the organization, she advocates for meaningful changes in the criminal legal system and the empowerment of system impacted families.

 

In 2020, she formed the Coalition to Abolish Slavery-Texas, working to end the practice of slavery in Texas prison system. She also serves as a steering committee member for the Statewide Leadership Council, Board of Directors for Texas Inmate Families Association (TIFA), as Co-Director of State Operations for the Abolish Slavery National Network; and Chair of the Criminal Justice Committee for NAACP 6304.

Recently Savannah became a member of the Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health, where she hopes to promote positive health initiatives and outcomes for incarcerated people in Texas and across the nation.

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Max Parthas, Co-Director of State Operations

Max Parthas is an internationally recognized Spoken Word Artist and American Slavery Abolitionist. In addition to numerous awards for his art, he is the recipient of the Missouri CURE Marc Taylor Activism Award, the Will Bell Humanitarian Award, and the “In The Spirit of Malcom X'' award from MX Media. 

Max is the current Acting Director for the Paul Cuffee Abolitionist Center in Sumpter, SC., Co-Director of State Operations for the Abolish Slavery National Network. Abolishslavery.us. and Co-host/Executive producer of Abolition Today (a unique online modern- slavery abolition episodic master class with an international audience.) abolitiontoday.org