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Reparations group tells Chase: 'We are outraged'

Published Feb 17, 2005 10:22 PM

WW photo: Anne Pruden

The Millions for Reparations committee held a press conference and noon time rally on Feb. 9 in Manhattan to bring public attention to JP Morgan/Chase Bank’s recent acknowledgement that it had supported and profited off the heinous U.S. slave trade. The powerful capitalist institution recently announced that to make amends, it plans to set up a $5 million scholarship fund for African Americans.

The committee stated that Chase’s crime of supporting slavery “can certainly not be resolved by it deciding what the overall scope and amount of money the penalty should be.” Black lawyers presented in a class action lawsuit back in 2001 that banks and corporations that profited off the slave trade and slavery amount over $2 trillion today. The committee has submitted two bills to the NY City Council—one would establish a commission to investigate NY business involvement in the slave trade and the other would require corporations that have dealings with city government to open up the books exposing their historical relationship to the slave trade.

--Monica Moorehead

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