Steve Quayle News Alerts

October 3, 2002
By JERRY CRIMMINS

CHICAGO- The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to require companies that do business with the city to disclose past ties to slavery, a measure lawmakers say could help descendants of slaves win reparations.

In a 44-0 vote, the council approved the ordinance requiring disclosure from companies that held or issued insurance policies covering slaves.

"I believe people would like to know if a corporation they're contemplating doing business with has its roots in trading in human cargo," said Alderman Dorothy Tillman, who proposed the measure.

The proposal initially targeted only insurance companies. Tillman amended it on Wednesday before the vote to cover all companies that do business with the city.

Sean McManamy, spokesman for the American Insurance Association, said "our companies will absolutely do what is required of them."

But he added he didn't see who would benefit.

"Is this the way you go back and right a social wrong from hundreds of years ago?" McManamy said. "I'm not sure this is how you do it."

Insurance companies will be required to disclose information about policies written to provide financial protection for U.S. slave owners. Other companies will have to reveal slave profits they or their predecessors made from slave labor.

In its original form, the measure was approved by two City Council committees on Sept. 12.

"The insurance industry is just the tip of the iceberg," Tillman said. "The financial industry, textile industry, tobacco industry, railroads, shipping companies and many others got rich off the suffering and free labor of our ancestors."

Mayor Richard M. Daley said the measure had historic significance.

"We are the first city in the country to pass this ordinance. ... It will not prevent companies from doing business with the city but it will shed a light on slavery," Daley said.

Last year, California required all insurance companies licensed in and doing business in the state to report information on slaveholder policies. Seven companies said they were able to locate and report such information.

According to the California Department of Insurance, they were Ace USA of Philadelphia, Aetna, AIG, Manhattan Life, New York Life, Penn Mutual and Royal & Sun Alliance of Canada.

All except Manhattan Life disclosed that they or a predecessor had issued life insurance policies to slaveholders for slaves. Manhattan Life said it had insured a shipload of 700 Chinese laborers traveling from China to Panama in 1854.

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/nat-gen/2002/oct/02/100207831.html