Slavery descendants ask court to revive landmark reparations lawsuit
(http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/news/74591,3_1_EL28_A4SLAVE_S1.article)

September 28, 2006

BY Ashley M. Heher Associated Press

CHICAGO -- Lawyers for slave descendants asked a federal appeals court Wednesday to revive a landmark reparations case that demands 17 of the nation's insurers and banks publicize and pay for their roles in the country's slave trade.

The case, which names Wall Street behemoths JP Morgan Chase & Co., Aetna Inc., Bank of America and others, states that the companies' predecessors issued loans to slave owners and, in some cases, owned, insured and transported slaves -- all at a financial profit that helped ensure their success today.

"I am here seeking justice for the physical damage, emotional damage," said Antoinette Harrell, a genealogist from Kentwood, La. who clutched raw cotton as she spoke inside a federal court house Wednesday. "We were left in poverty. My family's hardship and free labor was not in vain."

But lawyers for the companies told a panel of judges at the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago that the case is without merit and the corporations did nothing to harm the current-day descendants.

"These are inherently speculative claims," said lawyer Owen Pell.

The three-judge panel seemed to agree.