HATER Group NLPC Says JPMorgan Chase 'Groveling' Before Slave Reparations Activists
- Originally published by U.S. Newswire January 26, 2005
Copyright 2005 U.S. Newswire
Peter
Flaherty, president of the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC),
today criticized JPMorgan Chase & Co. for apologizing for its
alleged links to slavery.
Flaherty said,
"Instead of caving in to shakedown artists, the bank should have made
the moral case against group guilt and in favor of individual
sovereignty. This is an act of corporate cowardice."
JPMorgan
Chase apparently disregarded a warning by NLPC against appeasing
reparations activists. In a Nov. 15, 2004 letter to JPMorgan Chase
Chairman and CEO William B. Harrison, Jr., Flaherty wrote, "It is
imperative that corporations resist the growing calls to pay slave
reparations. Corporations are not legally or morally obligated to pay
money just because their 19th century predecessors may have profited
from slavery."
JPMorgan Chase & Co.,
the parent company of Bank One, disclosed last week that two of its
predecessor banks in Louisiana allowed 13,000 slaves to be used as
collateral on loans and took ownership of 1,250 slaves when the loans
defaulted.
The bank purportedly took the
action in order to comply with a 2002 City of Chicago ordinance that
any company doing business with the city must reveal ties to slavery.
The bank apologized for its links to slavery and created a $5 million
college scholarship fund for African-American students in Louisiana.
Flaherty
continued, "Nothing required this kind of groveling or the payment of
$5 million in tribute." Of the scholarship fund, Flaherty said, "If the
scholarships are race-based, JPMorgan is making a mistake. Race-based
scholarships operate off the same principle of slavery itself."
Flaherty
pointed to the negative reaction of pro-reparations activists as
confirmation that corporate appeasement is counter- productive, and
will only lead to greater demands. According to the Chicago Sun-Times,
Conrad Worrill, chairman of the National Black United Front, said
Friday, "The Bill Daley/JPMorgan Chase (offer) is insulting. It's a
joke."
William Daley is the Midwest chairman of JPMorgan Chase and the mayor's brother.
Lionel
Jean Baptiste, an attorney representing plaintiffs in a slave
reparations lawsuit filed in federal court, told the Sun- Times, "It's
nowhere near enough." Baptiste claimed, "The demands of the plaintiffs
were that the defendants establish a trust fund fully funded to address
the ills of the black community. We're talking about education, health
care, legal and family support services."
The
case against JPMorgan Chase and other companies was dismissed without
prejudice. The plaintiffs' amended complaint is now pending along with
the defendants' motion to dismiss.
Flaherty's November 15 letter read, "Paying compensation will only encourage more lawsuits."
NLPC
recently published a 35-page monograph titled, The Case Against Slave
Reparations, co-authored by Peter Flaherty and John Carlisle. It is
available as a pdf at
http://www.nlpc.org.
NLPC promotes ethics in public life, and sponsors the Corporate Integrity Project.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
Contact: Peter Flaherty or John Carlisle, 703-237-1970, Web:
http://www.nlpc.org