Senators Sleeping On Slavery Era Disclosure
Letter to the Editor By Shelley Moorhead
Nov 21, 2009
Dear Crucians in Focus:
I write to today to inquire about the status of Bill No. 26-0089. Citing the more than four (4) years that have transpired since this legislation was introduced by Senator Shawn-Michael Malone and held in the Committee on Government Operations and Consumer Protection, there are many concerned citizens and members of the Virgin Islands Reparations Movement who would like to determine if the bill still has a primary sponsor and if the legislation is of interest to the 28th Legislature.
A number of significant developments have occurred since Bill No. 26-0089 was introduced by Senator Malone on June 25, 2009. If the legislation is to see its course there are a number of things that should be incorporated; among those, the fact that the U.S. House of Representatives on July 29, 2009 apologized to black Americans, more than 140 years after slavery was abolished, for the “fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow” segregation. The draft presently on file at the legislature must be modified to also include references to the many municipalities, city councils, and state legislatures that have passed and implemented slavery era disclosure legislation in the United States .
Given the extensive history of slavery in the U.S. Virgin Islands, and in view of its still lingering effects, the educational, economic, and spiritual capital inherent in the redressing of the era; it is imperative that the territory join the ranks of the various districts that have demonstrated value in making law the disclosure of slavery era corporate records.
Through the passage of ordinances on the U.S. mainland, JP Morgan Chase/Bank One, Bank of America/FleetBoston, Norfolk Southern Railway Co., Union Pacific Railroad, CSX Transportation Inc., R. J. Reynolds, Brown and Williamson, WestPoint Stevens, Lehman Brothers, Wachovia Corporation, ACE USA, Aetna Life Insurance Company, AIG, Manhattan Life Insurance Company, New York Life, Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, Providence Washington Insurance Company, and Royal and Sun Alliance respectively have disclosed ties to slavery. It is no secret that there are corporations doing business in the Virgin Islands today that have deep ties to the slavery era. Should not they too be held to the same standards of responsibility expected of their corporate peers in the U.S. ?
Enclosed below are website links to legislative research and information on slavery era corporations’ disclosure laws.
Slavery Era Disclosure Ordinance – City and County of San Francisco
http://www.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/oca/SE_Report.pdf City of Milwaukee – Legislative Research on Slavery disclosure laws
http://legistar.milwaukee.gov/Attachments/27483.PDF California Department of Insurance – SLAVERY ERA INSURANCE REGISTRY REPORT TO THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE MAY 2002
http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0100-consumers/0300-public-programs/0200-slavery-era-insur/slavery-era-report.cfm Iowa Insurance Division – Consumer Affairs Bureau REPORT ON SLAVERY ERA INSURANCE
http://www.iid.state.ia.us/educational_materials/slavery.asp CITY OF LOS ANGELES – SLAVERY DISCLOSURE ORDINANCE
http://bca.lacity.org/site/pdf/sdo/Affidavit.pdf City of Philadelphia City of Philadelphia (Bill No. 040133-A) AN ORDINANCE Amending Section 17-104 entitled “Prerequisites to the Execution of City Contracts” by adding a new subsection (2) entitled “Slavery Era Business/Corporate Insurance Disclosure”
http://webapps.phila.gov/council/attachments/2324.pdfAn ordinance adding a new Article 15 to Chapter 1 of the Los Angeles Administrative Code to provide information to the City regarding participation in or profits derived from slavery by any company doing business with the City.
http://www.laparks.org/dos/concession/rfp_pdf/sdo_ordinance.pdf New York Senate – Bill S1135: Provides for the gathering, compilation, and disclosure of slaveholder insurance policy information by the superintendent of insurance
http://open.nysenate.gov/openleg/api/mobile/bill/S1135An Act Relative to the History of Slavery in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/186/ht03pdf/ht03148.pdf
Slavery era disclosure regards the principle of human rights in business; it concerns repair and the making of reparations by the provision of information to the descendants of slaves. The reckoning, however difficult, is about enslaved and unrecognized laborers, the honoring of their contributions and life sacrifices, and making available to their descendants historical records that make them whole.
For its value to education in the territory, for its capacity to repair those impaired, for its promise to dignify and memorialize the uncompensated and enslaved Virgin Islands parentage, I implore that past, present, and future generations are with bated breath and great concern arrived at the historic juncture of this legislation.
A November 11, 2009 letter to U.S. Virgin Islands senators inquiring about the status of Bill No. 26-0089 to date remains unanswered and without reply. After taking more than four (4) years to research, vet, and/or tweak the legislation, is it that slavery era disclosure has found no support or sponsor in the 27th and 28th legislatures? Is it that there is no senator on St. Croix, St. Thomas , or St. John to be found concerned?
Hopeful that the day this legislation is resubmitted will come soon, I remain among those who will continue to watch, advocate, and inquire regarding this matter of Virgin Islands humanity.
Shelley Moorhead is the president of the Caribbean Institute for a New Humanity, Inc. and founder of the African-Caribbean Reparations and Resettlement Alliance (ACRRA), both based in St. Croix .
Loading ...
This is most important to draw attention to the reparations bill floundering in our colonial (sorry, territorial) legislature. I would suggest that we are careful about linking our reparations to the United States since it was Denmark which enslaved us. The United States has no responsibility for reparations to the former Danish West Indies. They don’t even acknowledge responsibility in the Congresional resolutions. Mr. Moorhead’s earlier focus on Denmark is the right approach. Including the United States in the picture may only serve to confuse some senators including, the president who recently said that we are, somehow, a democratic model for the Caribbean. Since when was a colony a democratic model?
@ Carlos Otero:
Questioned has been the morality of the treaty entered into by the two (2) colonizing nations that governed the 1917 session of the Danish West Indies; and, more recently the legality of the sale of title by Denmark and its purchase by the United States is being challenged citing violations of fundamental human rights and the sale of people, which until today continue to impede social advancement in this non self-governing, “Unincorporated” U.S. territory. For example, the treaty document distinguishes between “citizens” as Danes and “inhabitants” as African descendants and demonstrates absolutely no consultation with the latter, nor grants any rights or privileges to this group of people. This neglect of the Virgin Islander’s inalienable human right to self-determination during the sale of the islands and the years which followed is reminiscent of the slavery-era sale and exploitation of African peoples and remains an international human rights violation of the worst sort.
These issues and questions still linger and today challenge development in the USVI. With the institution of slavery ending in the Danish colony in 1848, and in the United States in 1863, how then are the sale, purchase, and/or cession of more than 100,000 “free” people justified generations later? Which nation is responsible for repair? Who will bear the still-lingering, inevitable burden of decolonization?
Shelly, we are on the same page!
“A November 11, 2009 letter to U.S. Virgin Islands senators inquiring about the status of Bill No. 26-0089 to date remains unanswered and without reply.”
Another classic performance by our Virgin Islands legislators. Senator Malone introduced the bill in 2005. Why out of all the senators has he not responded??? I hope those rum boys have not gotten to him too. Did anyone notice that Diageo sponsored his “Birthday Party”?
What about Senators Richards, Nelson, and Neville or Wayne James? Are any of them addressing this? It is a crying shame that we continue to elect senators who lack the testicular will to stand for the people. Are not 80% of all Virgin Islanders African descendants? Were not our grandparents enslaved by corporations that still do business in the USVI today?
Am I missing something or is disclosure by corporations who enslaved Virgin Islanders too black of an issue for our senators to touch?
I wonder if our sleeping senators would wake up if one day they came to work to find Mr. Moorhead blowing a conch shell at the legislature.