Chicago compels contractors to come clean on slave profits

• Originally published on Buzzle.com [here]
  

Chicago city council has passed an ordinance requiring companies doing business with it to disclose whether they ever profited from the slave trade. Its Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance is a boost to the campaign to make reparations for slavery. It goes further than a Californian state law which requires insurance companies to disclose their connections with slavery: some sold policies to slaveholders which paid out if slaves died or escaped.

The Chicago ordinance was broadened at the last minute to cover all companies holding contracts with the city, and was passed unanimously.

Seven companies have revealed their history under the Californian law, and at least 14 big insurance companies are being sued by the descendants of slaves.

They include Lloyd's of London, JP Morgan Chase, and CSX, which used slaves to build parts of the American railway network.

The US outlawed slavery in 1865.

Alderman Dorothy Tillman, who sponsored the ordinance, said: "The insurance industry is just the tip of the iceberg. The financial industry, textile industry, tobacco industry, railroads, shipping companies and many others got rich off the suffering and free labour of our ancestors."

The mayor, Richard Daly, said: "This ordinance and resolution will not prohibit a company from doing business with the city or state, even if it had once profited from slavery, but it would shine a light on a disgraceful part of our nation's history."

Mr Daly is the son of the city's most famous mayor, Richard J Daly, whose mixed record on race relations included being accused of backing segregation and police brutality in the 1960s and 70s.

"It would help demonstrate how much of the nation's wealth was created by the sweat and blood of slave labour," Mr Daly said.

Ms Tillman said companies which gave the wrong answer to the question would have their contracts ended: apparently meaning those found to have falsely claimed no slavery connections, rather than those which admitted them.

"We want to know what was your role in slavery, what did you do, was your company built off the backs of slaves," she told the Chicago Tribune. "If they answer wrong, they can no longer do business with the city."

Sean McManamy, a spokesman for the American Insurance Association, said its members would "cooperate fully", but added: "We cooperated in California, and ... there was not much of a treasure trove of information waiting to be discovered."