What We Have Done & Will Continue to Do

In early February of 2023, 17th Forward North Carolina was fortunate to have one North Carolina House Representative, Allen Buansi representing the 56th District, author and submit House Bill 822 to gain support from the legislature and the people of NC to amend our state’s constitution removing the long overdue exceptions clause currently protecting involuntary servitude as criminal punishment:

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NC HB-822 (Initial Format): “Slavery and involuntary servitude is forever prohibited.”

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Unfortunately, some lawmakers in the legislature were concerned about “unintended consequences” that would have sparred as a result of removing this major moral issue from our state’s Constitution. House Bill 822 underwent several changes to the language of the Bill in April of 2023 that negated our cause and mission to eliminate involuntary servitude across the state:

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NC HB-822 (Current Format): “Slavery and involuntary servitude are forever prohibited. Nothing in this section shall prohibit an inmate from working when the inmate has been duly convicted of a crime.”

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Because this additional language was added, if the Bill were passed by both houses and sent to the people on the ballot, the ballot question would have read the following:

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NC HB-822 (Current Format) Ballot Question: “For [or] Against [a] Constitutional amendment providing that slavery and involuntary servitude is forever prohibited and clarifying that work performed by inmates does not fall within the scope of the prohibition.”

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Because of the extra language negating the complete prohibition of involuntary servitude and its derivatives from North Carolina’s Constitution now on the filed Bill, we as an organization withdrew our support from House Bill 822.

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The goal moving forward in the 2024 legislative cycle is to get a Committee hearing and reintroduce the initial format Bill that didn’t contain the added language negating our cause.

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Whilst the Bill is being reintroduced, we are actively recruiting and educating more people across the state in joining our cause to remove this outdated language from North Carolina's Constitution, and protect 50,000(+) of the state's residents from this peril.