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Activist sues 102 firms on slavery disclosure
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By Michael Higgins
Tribune staff reporter

August 2, 2006

A local activist has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against 102 businesses and other entities, alleging they violated a 2002

city ordinance requiring companies that apply for city contracts to reveal whether they profited from slavery.

Bob Brown, a former Black Panther, filed the 560-page lawsuit in May in Cook County Circuit Court, but it had been kept

under seal while city officials decided whether to join the suit.

City officials declined last month, and Cook County Judge Rita Novak unsealed the lawsuit.

Brown alleges that entities ranging from the Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago to United Airlines to Chicago's "sister cities"

such as Toronto and Paris have violated the ordinance at least 549 times on billions of dollars of contracts since 2003.

Brown charges that many of the defendants failed to acknowledge historical ties to slavery by related or predecessor

organizations.

The lawsuit alleges, for example, that the archdiocese should have reported the role of Florida church officials in slavery in

the 1500s and 1600s.

Archdiocese officials have not yet been served with the lawsuit and could not comment, spokeswoman Susan Burritt said.

The lawsuit does not specify the total damages sought, but it says defendants should pay $10,000 for each false claim and

$1,000 for each false statement of fact that is proven at trial, as well as other damages.

Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) led the push for the Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance in 2002. The ordinance was the first of its

kind in the nation.

City officials "certainly know about the violations," Brown said . "Why have a law if you're unwilling to apply it?"

Law Department spokeswoman Jennifer Hoyle would not comment on why the city declined to join Brown's lawsuit. "He's

entitled to proceed with the case on his own," Hoyle said.

In 2004, Brown filed a federal class-action lawsuit seeking reparations for slavery. That suit named 71 defendants,

including President Bush and the pope. He later withdrew the suit.

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mjhiggins@tribune.com

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