nickel
05-18-2003, 10:37 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The City Council voted 10-0 Friday to draft a law requiring every company doing business with the city to report whether it earned profits from slavery.
The proposed law would not require reparations to be made but supporters said it was an important symbol for descendants of American slaves.
"It does us no harm but in fact it reclaims the history ... that has been lost," Councilman Nate Holden, who is black, said before the vote.
He compared it to votes the council in previous years had taken restricting companies doing business with apartheid South Africa, the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, also known as Burma, or those supporting the Arab boycott of Israel.
However, the proposed law wouldn't bar companies that made profits from slavery from city contracts.
"We're not here today to ask companies to go out of business," Holden said. "We're here to say let us know who you are."
The vote requests the city attorney to draft the ordinance. Holden said he is pushing for speedy action and the council could get the completed measure for a vote as early as next week.
Mayor James Hahn would sign the measure, spokeswoman Julie Wong said.
It would take effect 30 days after approval.
Councilwoman Jan Perry said she had a personal interest in the motion.
"When I was a teenager, I had an uncle who was still alive, although he was well over 100 years old, who had been a slave and had been a freed man and still had his papers."
"He was the living embodiment of the stain upon our own American history and so it touches me on a very personal level," she said.
If the ordinance passes, Los Angeles would become the second U.S. city to require such disclosure. Chicago passed a similar law last fall but no businesses have yet reported any history of profits from slavery.
Three years ago, California passed a state law requiring insurance companies to disclose whether they sold policies on slaves. Since then, eight companies have reported such policies and provided the names of 614 insured slaves.
The city law would require a company doing business with the city to sign an affidavit stating whether it or its predecessors ever profited from slavery. Companies also would have to disclose any records they found of such profits.
The ordinance would most likely affect insurers who provided policies for slaves, and railroads and developers that have histories stretching back to slavery times.
Supporters said they hoped the law would encourage companies that profited from slaves to voluntarily contribute money to benefit their descendants, such as creating scholarships for black students or providing funds for inner-city communities.
link (http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/6674250p-7625907c.html)
The proposed law would not require reparations to be made but supporters said it was an important symbol for descendants of American slaves.
"It does us no harm but in fact it reclaims the history ... that has been lost," Councilman Nate Holden, who is black, said before the vote.
He compared it to votes the council in previous years had taken restricting companies doing business with apartheid South Africa, the Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, also known as Burma, or those supporting the Arab boycott of Israel.
However, the proposed law wouldn't bar companies that made profits from slavery from city contracts.
"We're not here today to ask companies to go out of business," Holden said. "We're here to say let us know who you are."
The vote requests the city attorney to draft the ordinance. Holden said he is pushing for speedy action and the council could get the completed measure for a vote as early as next week.
Mayor James Hahn would sign the measure, spokeswoman Julie Wong said.
It would take effect 30 days after approval.
Councilwoman Jan Perry said she had a personal interest in the motion.
"When I was a teenager, I had an uncle who was still alive, although he was well over 100 years old, who had been a slave and had been a freed man and still had his papers."
"He was the living embodiment of the stain upon our own American history and so it touches me on a very personal level," she said.
If the ordinance passes, Los Angeles would become the second U.S. city to require such disclosure. Chicago passed a similar law last fall but no businesses have yet reported any history of profits from slavery.
Three years ago, California passed a state law requiring insurance companies to disclose whether they sold policies on slaves. Since then, eight companies have reported such policies and provided the names of 614 insured slaves.
The city law would require a company doing business with the city to sign an affidavit stating whether it or its predecessors ever profited from slavery. Companies also would have to disclose any records they found of such profits.
The ordinance would most likely affect insurers who provided policies for slaves, and railroads and developers that have histories stretching back to slavery times.
Supporters said they hoped the law would encourage companies that profited from slaves to voluntarily contribute money to benefit their descendants, such as creating scholarships for black students or providing funds for inner-city communities.
link (http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/6674250p-7625907c.html)