Today on Democracy Now! we’re going to talk about an issue that
has little to do with the 1996 elections, but has a great deal
to with democracy. The issue is slavery and today we bring you
two powerful, unforgettable stories about the persistence of
slavery in this century. Later in today’s program Washington
Post freelance journalist Len Cooper will join us to talk about
how African Americans were forced into slavery long after the
Emancipation Proclamation. Cooper searched to uncover the truth
behind his grandfather’s stories of growing up in Alabama, where
black youth were kidnapped by armed goons and forced to work on
plantation to pay off bogus debts. It was called peonage and
it’s a chapter of American history that continued with a
vengeance beyond the 1930s. But first, we’re going to talk about
slavery today in 1996 in the Sudan. Nation of Islam Leader Louis
Farrakhan has publicly claimed that slavery no longer exists in
the Sudan, the poorest country in the poorest continent in the
world. Largely ign