New York City Council Looking for Business Links to Slavery

• Originally published in The New York Post February 10, 2005 Copyright 2005 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc. and

• The New York Times February 10, 2005  Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

City lawmakers said yesterday that they are intensifying a push to force companies that do business with the city to disclose whether they profited from slavery. Companies with historical ties to slavery would not be barred from receiving municipal contracts, but any company found to falsify this information would have its contracts voided. ''Too often when we think of slavery, we only think of Southern cotton fields,'' said Councilman Bill Perkins of Manhattan, above, who sponsored the legislation. ''New York has a substantial history of slavery.''

Hearings will begin next week on legislation that would require city contractors to delve into their histories.

"We're hoping that these hearings will bring to light the fact that there had been a history of slavery in this city, that there are some corporations that might have been a part of that history," said Councilman Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan).

After a similar law was enacted in Chicago in 2002, JPMorgan Chase found that two banks it once owned accepted 13,000 slaves as collateral for loans made to Louisiana plantation owners in the 1800s.

The New York legislation would not force the companies to pay any money, nor would they lose their city business.

A companion resolution calling on Mayor Bloomberg to establish a commission to study the issue of slavery reparations for African-Americans will also be tackled in the council next week.

Sponsor Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn) called upon Bloomberg and Council Speaker Gifford Miller to publicly express support.

But not all lawmakers think it's a good idea.

Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Queens) said it "sounds like an attempt to help trial lawyers get evidence to start lawsuits."

James Oddo (R-S.I.) said the bill should look at injustices done to Irish-Americans and Italian-Americans.

Bloomberg said he hadn't seen the proposal, but said that the predecessors to some companies did things that they probably were ashamed of.  [more] He said that while he did not want to turn a blind eye toward companies with ties to slavery, ''You're talking about people who are simply running and working at these companies who weren't even born in those days.''