Students, activists link JPMorgan Chase to slavery

Students and activists held a lunchtime press conference and rally on Dec. 5 in front of JPMorgan Chase headquarters on 47th Street and Park Avenue to demand reparations for the ravages of slavery.

Heading the rally was the Restitution Study Group, which has been at the forefront of the struggle to hold JPMorgan Chase—among other banks, including Wach ovia, Bank One and Bank of AmericaFleet Bank—accountable for its profit from and ownership of slaves during its formative years. The group claims that multibillion-dollar banks like JPMorgan Chase and Bank One have had the benefit of the wealth that enslaved laborers generated, while enslaved Africans and their descendants have suffered the loss of the fruits of 450 years of labor.

Activists are urging students to seek their student loans elsewhere.

Says spokesperson and founder Deadria C. Farmer-Paellmann, “Right now, JPMorgan Chase controls over 15 percent of the $45 billion student loan industry. Historically, JPMorgan Chase and its subsidiary Bank One used over 13,000 enslaved Africans as loan collateral, and owned another 1,250. The United Nations declared that slavery and the transatlantic slave trade are and always have been crimes against humanity and that slavery was institutionalized terrorism, genocide, kidnap, rape, torture and robbery of humans for corporate profit and greed.”

Although lawsuits are pending to hold JPMorgan Chase accountable—there is significant documentation of the company’s role in the enslavement of Africans—the bank refuses to settle the lawsuits.

One lawsuit calls for the creation of a humanitarian trust fund to heal the injuries caused by JPMorgan Chase and other tainted banks, such as urban poverty, inadequate health care, and lost housing, employment, educational and business opportunities.

Carl Mayer, counsel for the plaintiffs, expressed his disgust at JPMorgan’s response to the lawsuit. “They refused to settle. What they offered was a pittance: five million dollars to be put into a scholarship fund for Black students. This amount is not even 1/100th of one percent of the net profits of this mega-corporation.”

Representatives of the Restitution Study Group assert that enslaved Africans and their descendants have been demanding justice for over 150 years. They have never given up this struggle. They further state that undergraduate students have the power to command justice from JPMorgan Chase and other tainted banks.

The rally, which included performances by cultural artists such as singer/activist Nana Soul of Black Waxx and Spiritchild of Mental Notes, opened with prayer and a libation ceremony directed by Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely.

Other organizations present included the Louisiana Center Against Poverty, the National Reparations Convention, NCOBRA of Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Ga., and the National Coalition for Reparations and Economic Wealth.

The Restitution Study Group can be contacted at (917) 365-3007, www.onestudent.us. For information on the lawsuit, contact (609) 462-7979.