Posted on 09/03/2002 3:31:02 PM PDT by e_castillo
NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - In the latest move in the campaign for reparations, descendants of black slaves filed lawsuits in New York and California on Tuesday, demanding corporations pay back profits reaped from the work of their enslaved ancestors.
The suits, filed in federal courts in New York and San Francisco, according to court documents, are to be followed by similar suits in Illinois, Texas and Louisiana, activist Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, who has led the campaign for corporate reparations, told Reuters.
The legal action is the latest attempt to have corporations recognize and repay profits they reaped from slavery.
Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1865.
The suits, targeting 12 corporations altogether, follow similar actions filed in New York in March, which are pending. They are a counterpart to a long-running campaign for the U.S. government to pay reparations for slavery, which drew more than 2,000 people to a demonstration in Washington last month.
In each of the suits, the plaintiffs charge that corporations are guilty of conspiracy, human rights violations and unjust enrichment from the "immoral and inhumane institution of slavery," according to the court documents.
The suits demand access to firms' records to ascertain what money was made from slavery, and the payback of illicit profits, court documents show. The suits also claim damages, but do not name a figure.
The plaintiffs in the suits are not looking for personal settlements, Farmer-Paellmann told Reuters. "We are asking for a humanitarian trust fund, to be used to deal with the vestiges of slavery that 35 million African Americans still suffer from, like housing, education, and economic development in our communities."
Court documents show 12 corporations, mostly in finance, railroads and tobacco -- which campaigners say benefited most from slavery -- are named in the suits.
They are: Investment banks J.P Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM - News), Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (NYSE:LEH - News) and Brown Brothers Harriman; insurers American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG - News) and Lloyd's of London; tobacco and insurance conglomerate Loews Corp. (NYSE:LTR - News); railroad firms Union Pacific Corp. (NYSE:UNP - News) and Norfolk Southern Corp. (NYSE:NSC - News); textile firm WestPoint Stevens Inc. (NYSE:WXS - News); and tobacco-makers R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. (NYSE:RJR - News), Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., and Liggett Group Inc., now indirectly owned by Vector Group Ltd. (NYSE:VGR - News).
The slavery suits come after successes in the past year against the insurance industry, when California's insurance regulator demanded firms reveal details of polices they underwrote covering slaves, where the proceeds of the policy went to the owner of the slave, not the slave's family.
The reparations campaign against corporations, which began by targeting insurer Aetna Corp. (NYSE:AET - News) two years ago, was inspired by the success of Jewish groups in reclaiming assets and insurance policies from German and Swiss firms which stole from Jews during the Holocaust.
The California suit was filed by Chester and Timothy Hurdle, whose father was a slave. Edlee Bankhead, also the son of a slave -- who at 119 is the oldest man in the country -- filed a similar suit in New York.
"Back then, black folks were treated as if they were no more than animals, they were just bought and sold," Bankhead said in a statement preceding the suit filing.
Similar suits will be filed by other slave descendants in Illinois, by Reverend Hannah Jane Hurdle-Toomey, in Texas, by Ina Daniels Hurdle McGee and Julie Mae Wyatt-Kerwin, and in Louisiana, by Antoinette Harrell-Miller and researcher Raymond Johnson, according to Farmer-Paellmann.
So far as I can tell, Keyes, Sowell and Williams oppose this idiotic call for reparations.
Those who are NOT descended from AMERICAN slaves need to sit down and shut up. Under even the most tortured, leftist, idiotic (redundant!) logic (oxymoron!), these people have no standing. And those who ARE descendants of slaves now calling for reparations need to remember a few things:
They should not only be glad to be in America, they should be glad to be ON THE PLANET! Had their forebears NOT been sold to the slave traders, the blood of their ancestors would have run into the earth over there several centuries ago. Their ancestors would have been killed outright or worked to death by the OTHER black who captured them in one of the interminable tribal wars still raging on that sad continent. These modern day would-be "plaintiffs" would not even exist.
And should the great-great-great grandchildren of the approximately 3,000 SLAVE OWNING BLACK plantation owners in this country also be subject to PAYING reparations?
If so, how do we find THEM?
Robert Hitt Neill tells of attending a Tennessee Mountain Writers Conference years ago with several other authors. Among them was Alex Hailey, celebrated author of Roots. Watching a TV news show, a group of them watched a demonstration in a Southern state against the Rebel flag incorporated into that states flag. The very next report covered a famine in Africa. Graphic images showed dead bodies, starving children with distended tummies and runny noses and dying people covered with flies, too weak to brush them away.
Mr. Hailey intoned in a low, serious voice:
Every time an American black sees a story like that, they should find a Confederate flag and kiss it. He then pointed to the TV screen and continued, Because these would be me and my descendants, except for American slavery. I thank God that my family and I are here instead of there.
What about the millions STILL living in slavery, held there by members of THEIR OWN RACE in Africa and elsewhere today?
Do you suppose THEY are NOT targets of these reparations whores because they have little or nothing of value for which they can be EXTORTED?
And how about the MILLIONS of WHITES and ASIANS who have slavery in their backgrounds?
Next problem!
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
It's called extortion. Plain and simple.
The legal precedent that each of these suits is using is faulty law. It fails to recognize several points:
In any event, this is viewed by most rational people as yet another shakedown attempt by the race warlords who have nothing better to do than to find ways to bully the rest of America in order to fleece more money for their own lint-filled pockets.
Yes. I want one too!
If we're going to have to pay for slavery, then we should get something for our money.
She best file suit against Webster's, Random House, etc, AND Microsoft!
Here you have it...right out of MS Word 2000:
When the police arrived at the scene, the lawyer was complaining bitterly about the damage to his precious BMW. "Officer, look what they've done to my Beeeeemer!!!", he whined. "You lawyers are so materialistic, you make me sick!!!", retorted the officer. "You're so worried about your stupid BMW, that you didn't even notice that your left arm was ripped off!" "Oh no!", replied the lawyer, finally noticing the bloody left shoulder where his arm once was. "Where's my Rolex???!!!" |
Uh, slavery was Constitutionally legal at that time.
What law or laws were broken that compensation is justified?
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