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COX: You heard Calmetta Coleman just say that it was not reparations, and I know that you are a longtime advocate of reparations, so what is it, reparations or not?
Prof. OGLETREE: Of course it's reparations and it's absurd to say that it isn't. It's an apology for what happened during slavery. The bank admits having more than 13,000 slaves as collateral. It also is something that, as we believe, enlightens and improves the reparations movement. Here we are in the 21st century, and finally a company has had the courage to come forward to admit the past. And Alderman Dorothy Tillman and her daughter, Ebony, found this evidence even before the bank did, so we're glad that the first steps have been taken.
COX: Is this a suggestion to you and to Alderwoman Tillman that perhaps other companies are likely situated...meaning that they have connections like this?
Prof. OGLETREE: There are other companies similarly situated and we know that. This conference we're going to be having in Chicago in March will reveal some of that. And historians, history buffs and ordinary citizens will find these documents are important and find that JP Morgan is the first, but not the last, company to have extensive connections with slavery and those will all be revealed. This is also important for the Tulsa race riots case, because in 1921, a similar thing happened in Tulsa and that case is in the federal courts. So all this evidence is coming forward at a critical time to reinvigorate the reparations movement in America. [more]