Wachovia speaks to emotions (Executive's e-mail acknowledges anger over slavery report)

Tallahassee Democrat ^ | Jun. 04, 2005 | AMY BALDWIN

[new cruelty]

The head of Wachovia Corp.'s corporate and investment bank sent employees an e-mail to acknowledge employees' emotions "from anger and hurt to guilt and embarrassment" over a report issued detailing the company's past ties to slavery.

"As a white person, I know that I cannot fully appreciate the extent of those feelings, particularly for our African-American teammates. The challenge for all of us, particularly for myself and other whites, is to understand the real issues driving these emotions and appreciate the impact of different life experiences of our colleagues," wrote Steve Cummings in an e-mail sent Thursday, which was obtained by the Observer on Friday.

But it was unclear whether the e-mail was to assuage employees' hurt feelings or to head them off.

Wachovia spokeswoman Carrie Ruddy would not say if Cummings' e-mail was unique or if other managers were issuing similar ones.

The Observer spoke with several African American employees Friday, none of whom said they were angry. In fact, they applauded the company for handling the news so expertly.

"It was well communicated," said one investment banker who is African American and works in Cummings' group but who asked not to be identified.

He also said that he hadn't heard of any rancor among colleagues and that the news really wasn't so surprising.

"Any bank in that era likely did business with wealthy people who owned slaves," he said.

Wachovia published a 109-page report Wednesday detailing profits made by predecessor banks from the use of African American slaves. The company said it prepared the report to comply with a growing number of municipal laws requiring companies seeking city business to acknowledge any profits from slavery.

Chairman and CEO Ken Thompson apologized to employees in a statement. Cummings did the same in his e-mail.

The company deserves credit for being honest about its connection to slavery, said one African American woman who works in information technology there but asked not to be identified.

"This is America, and unfortunately slavery was a dark part of our past. Wachovia was upfront in admitting it," she said. "It was what it was."

The slavery issue is looming large over banks these days.

Local governments from Philadelphia to Los Angeles are requiring disclosure reports. The N.C. House of Representatives is considering similar legislation.

Charlotte's Bank of America Corp. has hired a firm to research archives for evidence of slave-related profits.

Observers outside of the bank have been more critical of Wachovia and its report.

The National Legal and Policy Center, a think tank in Virginia, sees such laws as a way to extract information from companies so lawsuits can be filed seeking reparations for slavery.

Harvard Law professor Charles Ogletree, meanwhile, said this week that the bank's apology was incomplete without a financial component. The bank said it would make such a commitment in the near future to fund African American history education.

[F. Barnard]

The ex post facto prohibition applies to only to criminal law.

[atomic_dog]

You are correct. I went and did some reading on it.