Jada Pinkett Smith Urges Action Against Human Trafficking, Testifies Before Senate
WASHINGTON -- Actress and activist Jada Pinkett Smith urged Congress on Tuesday to step up the fight against human trafficking in the U.S. and abroad.
The actress testified during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that she plans to launch a campaign to raise awareness and spur action against human trafficking and slavery. She said the "old monster" of slavery "is still with us," almost 150 years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves in the U.S.
"Fighting slavery doesn't cost a lot of money. The costs of allowing it to exist in our nation and abroad are much higher," the actress said. "It robs us of the thing we value most, our freedom."
She said the issue was brought to her attention by her daughter Willow, 11, who sat nearby with actor Will Smith, Pinkett Smith's husband and Willow's father. The Smiths all wore blazers over T-shirts that read, "Free Slaves." The hearing room was filled mostly with young people, some trying to take photos of the famous family.
I have always thought that slavery was alive, but well hidden... And this mechanism of human trafficking is one of the very unfortunate avenue that keeps slavery out of sight, but don't let it remain out of mind...
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