Posted on 12/30/2002 6:17:38 AM PST by Republican Red
NEW ORLEANS -- Antoinette Harrell-Miller says companies that profited from slavery should pay her for their misdeeds, and she's going to court to make her case.
"These companies amassed great wealth over the years from the labor of my ancestors," Harrell-Miller, 41, said recently in the former slave quarters of her modest but once-stately home in central New Orleans. "I am three generations away from slavery, but I and especially my elders have suffered from it."
Harrell-Miller is among thousands of African-Americans across the country who are plaintiffs in a handful of reparations lawsuits filed against various corporations -- mainly tobacco, railroad and insurance outfits -- they accuse of benefiting from slavery.
A former hair stylist who now works full time as a writer and genealogist, Harrell-Miller is one of some 3,000 Louisianans who filed their suit in September in federal court in New Orleans.
The suit seeks unspecified damages for each plaintiff from the defendants: a financial management company, Brown Brothers Harriman; two insurers, Aetna and Lloyds of London; three tobacco companies, the Liggett Group, Brown & Williamson and R.J. Reynolds; four railroads companies, CSX, Canadian, Norfolk Southern and Union Pacific; and the Loews Corp., a diversified holdings firm that owns hotels, tobacco and off-shore drilling companies.
The lawsuit argues companies that insured slaves as property for plantation owners or used their labor should pay reparations to descendants of slaves.
Lawyers and plaintiffs in the suit say financial compensation is the only way to make up for present-day differences between blacks and whites -- disparities in such things as home ownership, educational attainment, health status and life expectancy.
"This is a lawsuit for all descendents of African slaves in the United States," said lead lawyer Pius Obioha, who has taken the case on a contingency basis. "It is an idea that has been in discussion for a long time, and it is long overdue."
'Town hall' meeting
Harrell-Miller, like most of the plaintiffs in the case, signed onto the lawsuit at a reparations "town hall" meeting organized by Obioha and other lawyers.
She has no proof her ancestors worked for the named defendants. But she believes that she, and all descendants of American slaves, deserve cash payments as reparations.
"Most companies at that time benefited from slave labor, and most African-Americans are descendants of slaves," Harrell-Miller said.
Because limited records are available for black genealogical research, Harrell-Miller said, the typical African-American has no way of fully tracing his or her roots to specific slaves who worked for the companies.
"Records have been destroyed and many black families never learned the importance of genealogy," Harrell-Miller said. "It's hard to make the connection."
Harrell-Miller, who is married and the mother of two children, says her family and friends support her in the case. A cousin, the Rev. Adam Gordon, said he believes Harrell-Miller is pursuing a good cause.
"She has spent a lot of time in putting this thing together," said Gordon, 59, pastor of the Church of God in Christ in Amite, La. "Evidently it's something she has taken to heart."
The companies named in the suit say they should not be singled out to pay for the social wrongs of the distant past.
"These issues in no way reflect Aetna today," Aetna says on its Web site. "Over the past 20 years, Aetna has invested more than $36 million in the African-American community, targeting such areas as education, health, economic development, community partnerships and minority-owned business initiatives. Our company has embraced diversity and we are proud of our record of employing a diverse work force and supporting diverse causes."
But Harrell-Miller said the corporations would not be where they are today if it weren't for slavery.
"Companies like Aetna built their empires off the backs of enslaved Africans," said Harrell-Miller. "Over time, the companies and the stockholders became wealthy, while enslaved Africans were not educated and often died at an early age. They were never compensated for their work, and their offspring were never compensated."
Similar suits
The Louisiana reparations case follows a similar suit that was filed in March in New York. Groups in Illinois, Texas and California also filed reparations lawsuits this year. And famed lawyer Johnnie Cochran is expected to file a suit soon.
Though the cases are a recent development, the call for slavery reparations dates back to the 1800s.
After the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman promised 40 acres and a mule to all former slaves. (President Andrew Johnson later rescinded the plan.)
Other major slave reparations campaigns have included those by National Ex-Slave and Bounty Society founder Callie House at the turn of the century and black nationalist Marcus Garvey in the 1920s.
Advocates of a congressional effort and those involved in the lawsuits have sometimes differed over which strategy is most likely to succeed.
But Horace Huntley, a Birmingham Civil Rights Institute historian, says the two efforts might help each other.
The lawsuits could help Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) get his 13-year-old bill passed for a commission to study the institution of slavery, Huntley said.
"Conyers' bill has been around for a long time," he said. "These lawsuits could serve as a springboard for the discussions he has been advocating."
Other groups have successfully obtained reparations for past wrongs. Since the end of World War II, Germany has paid billions in reparations to Jewish Holocaust survivors and families of victims. In 1988, the U.S. government paid $20,000 each to 82,000 Japanese-Americans interned during World War II.
In those cases, however, the institutions responsible for the wrongs directly paid their victims or victims' relatives. Slavery reparations are more difficult, because the element of time and poor genealogy records make it nearly impossible for most plaintiffs to prove direct lineage to the slaves who worked for the defendants.
Nevertheless, Harrell-Miller is enthusiastic about the prospects for success -- and about simply going through the process of the lawsuit as well.
Her "coach house," as citified slave quarters were known, serves as an office and library filled with books on genealogy and black history. On the walls, Harrell-Miller has hung pictures of her ancestors, including her great-great-grandfather Robert Harrell, who was born a slave in South Carolina.
She says she owes it to her forebears to learn their history and to fight for their rights, even though they are no longer living.
"If this country is going to embrace its history," Harrell-Miller said, "it has to address this issue."
Repations are pure Socialism. Ask the Democrats--Who is going to pay for reparations the Government. I am the Government. Industry, my prices will rise. The American People will pay as always.
Backlash-you aint seen nothing yet.
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.
How would they put a value on the rigors of segregation?
Would only the Southern States have to pay?
What about Southerners who moved from the South, would they have to pay?
What about Southerners who didn't support segregation?
As for damages, thats up to a jury. I imagine they would be pretty severe.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.