7A
• •o
NEWS/Sl^e Charlotte
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Reparations advocates ui^e revival of lawsuit
Continued from page 1A
“If you tMnk you’ve been
wronged, it shouldn’t take
100 years to investigate the
conduct of Aetna, Lehman
Brothers and the hke,” said
Posner said. “There are a lot
of people living today whose
parents were wealthy in the
19th century who have noth
ing.”
Last week’s hearing comes
at a pivotal time for the repa
ration mov^nent.
This summer, the Moravian
Church and the Episcopal
Church apologized for their
roles in the slave trade and a
North Carolina commission
urged the state to repay
descendants of a violent 1898
white supremacist campaign
in Wilmington
And corporations have
begun to acknowledge their
ties to slavery, in part
because of a series of state
laws requiring companies to
do so.
Several cities — includir^
Chicago, Detroit and
Oakland ~ also have laws
Workers:
Don’t
dump on
our job
Continued from page 2A
able contract agreement.
North Carolina cities and
coimties fall under the same
guidelines.
“It’s basically racist laws,”
Orton said. “The archaic laws
come under Jim Crow and
segregation period. The prob
lem is systemic throughout
the state.”
State NAACP President
William Barber reminded
city officials that 38 years
ago, Martin Luther King Jr.
lead a march for sanitation
workers in Memphis, 'Ifenn.
“We love our state,” Barber
said. ‘We desire to see this'
state lead in fairness and
equality”
He said the sanitation
workers do not mind picking
up garbage.
“They are simply saying
dcBi’t treat us hke garbage
and as expendable,” he said.
“This is a moral issue.”
Boost the
spirit of
giving
By Todd Luck
THE W/NSrON-SALEM CHRONICLE
WINSTON-SALEM
Emmett Carson, one of the
nation’s foremost Blac^ phil
anthropy advocates, spoke
recently to an audience of
about 180 listeners at
Winston-Salem State
University about the impor
tance of giving back and
investing in the Black com
munity
“I want to surest to you
black philanthropy has
everything to do with race,”
said Carson, who has pub
lished more than 7 5 works on
philanthropy and social jus
tice.
He is president and CEO of
the Minneapolis Foundation.
He has been selected as
leader of the new Sihcon
Valley Community
Foimdation. The California-
based formdation is one of the
largest in the nation, with
assets of $1.35 biUion.
Carson defined black phil
anthropy as the giving of
money time, talent or ser
vices to a charitable cause, no
matter how b^ or small the
donation.
Correction
An article in last week’s
Post (“Wlson follows passion
of education opportunity”)
was written by Erica
Singleton.
requiring businesses to make
such disclosures. Charlotte
does not.
“Slavery was not a local
occupation - it was facilitated
and made possible by the
great northern banks that
today sit in our great cities of
New York, Chicago, Boston
and Los Angeles and San
Francisco and ail over the
country” said Bnice Afran, a
lawyer r:ep:esCTiting Deadria
Farmer-PaeUmann, whose
family membo's were slaves
in South Carolina.
JP Morgan Chase has
acknowledged it owned 1,200
slaves in Louisiana and
accepted 13,000 others as col
lateral before slavery was
abolished in 1865.
Lawyers pushing for the
compensation said
Wednesday the current day
“market value” of the compa
ny-owned slaves would be at
least $850 million
The company has since
apologized for its role in slav
ery and funded a $5 million
college scholarship program
for black students from
Lomsiana. Company
spokesman Tbm Kelly
declined to comment on the
litigation.
The case made its way to
the appeals court after the
lawsuit was dismissed last
summer by a federal judge,
who said the debate about
reparations should be decid
ed by the legislative or ececu-
tive branch.
Lawyers pushing for the
reparations said if their argu
ments are rejected again,
fheyTl ask the U.S. Supreme
ComT to consider the case.
If the repai'ations advocates
succeed, the companies will
have to accoimt for the
income they earned from
slavery produce historical
records and give up the prof
its earned fixim slavery The
damage awards woxdd be
used to create a court-super-,
vised ftmd to help fix prob
lems in the black community
“The companies that bene
fited from slavery must share
their wealth,” said Richard E.
Barber Sr, a Somerset, N.J.
resident whose grandfather,
great-grandfather and great-
aunt were slaves. “This issue
must be resolved in my gen
eration.”
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