THE CALL FOR REPARATIONS GAINING MOMENTUM

he subject of reparations to descendants of enslaved Africans in America is definitely gaining momentum--as can be seen by events throughout the New York area on merely one day last week.

On Tuesday morning, March 26th, in a Federal Court in Brooklyn, Deadria Farmer-Paellman filed the first class-action lawsuit seeking compensation from United States companies for profiting from the "slave" trade.

The suit, which was filed in behalf of all living descendants of enslaved Africans in this country, seeks unspecified damages from Aetna Inc., the FleetBoston Financial Corporation, and the CSX Corporation because they or their parent companies profited from enslaved labor.

The suit charges that the three defendants "knowingly benefited from a system that enslaved, tortured, starved, and exploited human beings." Specifically, it states that FleetBoston evolved from an earlier bank founded by a John Brown of Providence, Rhode Island who owned ships used to transport captured Africans; that Aetna's predecessor "insured slave owners against the loss of their human chattel;" and that CSX is the descendant of railroad lines that were constructed or run, in part, by enslaved labor.

Roger S. Wareham, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, said that whatever money is won in the lawsuit will not go to individuals, but rather into a fund to improve health, education and housing for all African Americans.

That same day the New York University School of Law, in conjunction with the New York University Black Allied Law Students Association (BALSA), hosted an all-day symposium entitled, A DREAM DEFERRED: Comparative and Practical Considerations for the Black Reparations Movement.

Attended by law students and many others from the university and community, the purpose of this Twelfth Annual BALSA Symposium was to provide a forum to discuss theories of unjust enrichment and retributive justice; various successful national and international reparations movements by other ethnic groups; and forms of legal redress, including litigation and legislation, available (or not) to the Black reparations movement in America.

The symposium was moderated by Professor F.Michael Higginbotham, the author of Race Law: Cases, Commentary, and Questions, and Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore where he teaches Constitutional Law, International Law, and Race and the Law.

The morning session was entitled "Reparations Movements: Historical Roots and Comparative Analysis." First to speak was Professor Anthony J. Sebok, teacher of Tort Theory and Jurisprudence at Brooklyn Law School. Having dealt with Holocaust slave labor litigation based on unjust enrichment arguments, he spoke on the limitations encountered when trying to build a reparations case on that basis.

He was followed by Professor Bonnie B.C Oh, Research Professor of Korean Studies at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Her field of expertise was litigation on behalf of the Korean "Comfort Women" who were forced to provide sexual services to the Japanese servicemen during World War II. She discussed various avenues that are being pursued to obtain justice for them from the Japanese Government.

Next to speak was Attorney Morris A. Ratner, a partner at Leiff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, a firm specializing in class actions and other complex litigation on behalf of victims of human rights, environmental contamination, discrimination, and other categories of misconduct. Ratner, who led the firm's efforts on German Holocaust-era litigations, reviewed what had and had not worked there as it related to effort to obtain reparations for African Americans.

The final speaker of the morning was Professor Alfred A. Brophy who teaches administrative law and American legal history at the University of Alabama School of Law. He writes, too, about race and law in American history. His most recent work is Reconstructing the Dreamland: The Tulsa Riot of 1921--Race, Reparations, Reconciliation. His presentation dealt with the ongoing efforts to obtain reparations for the Tulsa Race Riot.

Following the lunch break, the afternoon session was entitled,

"Where Do We Go from Here?: The Legal Case for Black Reparations in America." The first speaker was the highly esteemed Adjoa A. Aiyetoro, social justice activist and chief legal consultant to the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America (N'COBRA). She is an adjunct professor at Washington College of Law, American University where she teaches a course on Litigating Reparations for African Americans.

Within her very rich presentation Aiyetoro spoke about the fact that every successful reparations strategy has combined direct action, a campaign of public education about the issue, legislative action, and litigation. "Any of these by themselves won't succeed," explained Aiyetoro. "We need to use all these tools to put the pressure on."

Next up was Ajamu K. Sankofa, Director of New York City Police Watch, a project of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights. He co-chairs the criminal punishment sub-committee of N'COBRA's Litigation Team which is planning to file a Reparations lawsuit. His message focused on the practical considerations of achieving reparations, including, centrally, the reclamation of the African mind. "The process of mind reclamation is a prerequisite for the taking back of what was taken from us," stated Sankofa.

From there, the action moved on to New Jersey, where the Brooklyn House of the Lord Church's Expansion Ministry hosted a reparations meeting titled "Tap the Power Within" at the Miller Branch Library on Bergen Avenue in Jersey City.

A cross-section of the community was present to hear the two main speakers of the evening, Pamela Payne, the church's Chairperson for the Committee on Reparations, and Onaje Muid, the International Commissioner for N'COBRA.

Ms. Payne laid out an overview of the reparations struggle, including why they are owed, some of the organizations working for them and approaches being taken to get them, as well as what forms reparations might take.

And the audience was stirred as Onaje Muid spoke from his heart about how necessary it is for individuals to take part in the struggle for reparations in order to reclaim themselves, their self-identity, and self-determination as a people.

All in all, it was a great day and evening, and it bodes well for the growing reparations movement.