Reading the paper (Winston Salem Journal) at the office today, and just love it.
My question is who will enforce the accuracy of what a company reports to the state?
Did we end up paying anyone for being the decendents of slaves yet?
By James Romoser
JOURNAL RALEIGH BUREAU
Published: March 21, 2009
RALEIGH
A state legislator from Winston-Salem wants to require companies that do business with the state to disclose their historical ties to slavery.
Under a bill sponsored by Rep. Larry Womble, companies entering into contracts with the state would have to search their corporate records for evidence that they participated in slavery or profited from it.
A company would have to publicly disclose any records of ties to slavery, including the names of any enslaved workers or slaveholders contained in the records.
"History gives a true reflection of how our country got started," Womble said.
His bill deals only with public disclosure -- it does not call for any penalties against companies that once benefited from slavery. But if a company did not comply with the disclosure requirements, it could lose its contract with the state.
Womble said that it's important for companies to own up to their history if they built wealth based on slave labor.
"It's more or less an educational thing," Womble said. "At least you can acknowledge, ‘Yes, we participated in slavery. Yes, we made a profit off slavery.'"
Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth, is also a primary sponsor of the bill, which was filed Thursday.
Critics said that the bill is well-intentioned but that it would be impractical and burdensome for companies to try to find records of ties to slavery more than 140 years ago.
"I don't know what kind of record a company could have that would enable it to even answer that kind of question," said Gayle Anderson, the president of the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce.
Anderson also said that the state should not add more mandates on businesses that are already struggling in the recession. "It just doesn't seem like that is the most productive use of anybody's times," she said.
Another issue is the difficulty of defining the extent to which a company "participated in" or "profited from" slavery.
"It's a tangled web," said Anthony Parent, a history professor at Wake Forest University who studies slavery. "If you were engaged in business in the South before emancipation, you're going to have been somehow tied into the slave system."
Manufacturing companies, for instance, may have employed enslaved workers. Large banks helped finance the buying and selling of slaves.
For other companies, the link to slavery may have been more indirect.
Nonetheless, Parent said, it would be healthy for companies to examine and acknowledge their pasts.
"In terms of the psychological effect -- and just coming to terms with this past of ours -- I think this is fundamental," he said. "I think we all need to do this, if for no other reason than to understand how important slave production was for the economy and the society. It wasn't marginalized or minimal to the wealth being generated during this period."
Womble has unsuccessfully tried to pass similar legislation in the past, and it's too early to say what his bill's chances are in this year's legislative session. But there is growing momentum for slavery-disclosure laws around the country. At least two states -- California and Illinois -- have such laws. Legislatures in several other states are considering disclosure laws this year.
Some large cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles, have ordinances requiring companies to disclose ties to slavery.
Those laws have caused some big companies -- including Wachovia, which is based in Charlotte -- to make disclosures and issue public apologies.
In North Carolina, the General Assembly issued its own formal apology in 2007 for the state's history of slavery.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
My question is who will enforce the accuracy of what a company reports to the state?
Did we end up paying anyone for being the decendents of slaves yet?
By James Romoser
JOURNAL RALEIGH BUREAU
Published: March 21, 2009
RALEIGH
A state legislator from Winston-Salem wants to require companies that do business with the state to disclose their historical ties to slavery.
Under a bill sponsored by Rep. Larry Womble, companies entering into contracts with the state would have to search their corporate records for evidence that they participated in slavery or profited from it.
A company would have to publicly disclose any records of ties to slavery, including the names of any enslaved workers or slaveholders contained in the records.
"History gives a true reflection of how our country got started," Womble said.
His bill deals only with public disclosure -- it does not call for any penalties against companies that once benefited from slavery. But if a company did not comply with the disclosure requirements, it could lose its contract with the state.
Womble said that it's important for companies to own up to their history if they built wealth based on slave labor.
"It's more or less an educational thing," Womble said. "At least you can acknowledge, ‘Yes, we participated in slavery. Yes, we made a profit off slavery.'"
Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth, is also a primary sponsor of the bill, which was filed Thursday.
Critics said that the bill is well-intentioned but that it would be impractical and burdensome for companies to try to find records of ties to slavery more than 140 years ago.
"I don't know what kind of record a company could have that would enable it to even answer that kind of question," said Gayle Anderson, the president of the Greater Winston-Salem Chamber of Commerce.
Anderson also said that the state should not add more mandates on businesses that are already struggling in the recession. "It just doesn't seem like that is the most productive use of anybody's times," she said.
Another issue is the difficulty of defining the extent to which a company "participated in" or "profited from" slavery.
"It's a tangled web," said Anthony Parent, a history professor at Wake Forest University who studies slavery. "If you were engaged in business in the South before emancipation, you're going to have been somehow tied into the slave system."
Manufacturing companies, for instance, may have employed enslaved workers. Large banks helped finance the buying and selling of slaves.
For other companies, the link to slavery may have been more indirect.
Nonetheless, Parent said, it would be healthy for companies to examine and acknowledge their pasts.
"In terms of the psychological effect -- and just coming to terms with this past of ours -- I think this is fundamental," he said. "I think we all need to do this, if for no other reason than to understand how important slave production was for the economy and the society. It wasn't marginalized or minimal to the wealth being generated during this period."
Womble has unsuccessfully tried to pass similar legislation in the past, and it's too early to say what his bill's chances are in this year's legislative session. But there is growing momentum for slavery-disclosure laws around the country. At least two states -- California and Illinois -- have such laws. Legislatures in several other states are considering disclosure laws this year.
Some large cities, including Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles, have ordinances requiring companies to disclose ties to slavery.
Those laws have caused some big companies -- including Wachovia, which is based in Charlotte -- to make disclosures and issue public apologies.
In North Carolina, the General Assembly issued its own formal apology in 2007 for the state's history of slavery.
■ James Romoser can be reached at 919-210-6794 or at jromoser@wsjournal.com.
