Please join us upstairs in the dining room of the First Congregational Church, 38 S. Winooski Avenue, in Burlington.

13th is a 2016 American documentary by director Ava DuVernay. The film explores the "intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States" It is titled after the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, adopted in 1865, which abolished slavery throughout the United States and ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for conviction of a crime.

DuVernay contends that slavery has been perpetuated since the end of the American Civil War through criminalizing behavior and enabling police to arrest poor freedmen and force them to work for the state under convict leasing; suppression of African Americans by disenfranchisement, lynchings and Jim Crow; politicians declaring a war on drugs that weigh more heavily on minority communities and, by the late 20th century, mass incarceration of people of color in the United States. She examines the prison-industrial complex and the emerging detention-industrial complex, discussing how much money is being made by corporations from such incarcerations

The 2019 Vermont Senate passed a proposal for a constitutional amendment (PR.2) to clarify that slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited. The proposal must pass the house in 2020 to advance. After the film we will discuss the proposal to amend the Vermont constitution and the direct and indirect implications.

Light snacks and child care provided.