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.
I think the statute of limitations has expired.
And every person who was there, and can show that they were hurt by this institution is due compensation. Descendants can neither show harm done to them directly, nor are they due compensation.
However the attorneys representing them and who probably instigated the who thing ARE looking for huge profits!
While the article states the suit was
inspired by the success of Jewish groups in reclaiming assets and insurance policies from German and Swiss firms
that's not remotely true. In the case of the Holocaust survivors these were genuine assets that had been seized one generation out (from parents or grandparents).
In the case of slavery, the tactic will be as you said (and as was true with the tobacco suits) to launch as many actions in as many jurisdictions as possible, with as many dubious claims of "harm" as can be devised, until the state AGs step in to handle the overload.
Ultimately, as with the tobacco suits, a state-run entity of some sort will be erected to receive the proceeds of many no-contest settlements.
The AGs and the defendants will somehow negotiate a deal that causes the U.S. taxpayer and not the corporate defendant to pay the fees.
The state-protected settlement entities will employ or be run by a board of people like Julian Bond, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton. There will be lots of cushy benefits and power to those on the boards and to their friends and cronies.
The whole enterprise will be veiled in "law" and "justice," supported by taxpayers, and produce a vile and immensely corrupt quasi-public "reparations" organization.
Part of these trillions was affirmative action. And the funding of black colleges. And it's likely the reason that some of these lawyers are lawyers was due to affirmative action and the hard work and taxes paid by people that had nothing to do with slavery. At a minimum, the fact that they could go to school and become educated is a tribute to this great country. And what do they do with this education? Spit in the faces of the rest of us and many others that made sure they could get such an education. And become successful.
All these lawsuits should be immediately thrown out of court and the attorneys that have brought them should be fined. Before they are removed from the bar.
I think some of these companies did not exist until after 1865.
Notice they don't say it was ILLEGAL?
In the unlikely event that they do win, they're going to regret ever filing that suit within hours. The people who actually get the money will be named, they will become pariahs throughout the nation, and race relations overall will be set back at least thirty years.
Richard Joshua Reynolds, the founder of RJ Tobacco Comany was 15 years old when the slavery ended. RJR Tocacco Comany was'nt formed until 1875.
I look to the black race to put an end to this. Unfortunately, 80% + are sitting back waiting for the bucks to roll in so they get "Their fare Share"
Why don't any of these people go after the companies who sold the slaves back then, and go after the companies who sell the slaves now??
Why is the Gun Debate different?
SR
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