Ogletree To Lead Slavery Lawsuit

Harvard Law School Professor Charles J. Ogletree is leading a team of lawyers and professors in preparing a lawsuit to gain reparations for the descendants of American slaves.

The group includes prominent lawyers such as Johnnie Cochran, Alexander J. Pires, who won a $1 billion lawsuit for black farmers against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and J.L. Chestnutt, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s former attorney.

Pires said the attempt to secure reparations for victims of slavery was a logical next step in attempts to mend past injustices with legal settlements.

"This stems from the discussion of Holocaust cases, Japanese internment, black farmers. We've got a lot of people with experience in civil rights law ready to take this on and tell history more honestly," he said.

Ogletree, who is Climenko professor of law, brings an academic perspective to the lawsuit.

"Professor Ogletree is a man of immense respect in the legal community. He is a wealth of knowledge and experience, as well as someone who has great prestige in the legal profession," Chestnutt said. Ogletree could not be reached for comment last week.

Chestnutt said the legal team faces enormous obstacles, from figuring out whom to sue to figuring out whom to pay.

The case is "complex almost beyond imagination," Chestnutt said. "Who would you sue? Is it the federal government, the states, businesses that have profited from slavery? Even the statute of limitations becomes an issue. Was slavery too long ago?"

Even if a lawsuit were successful, a victory would yield no easy solutions. "How and who do we distribute the money to?" Pires said.

Members of the group said that if they go ahead with the suit, it would have tremendous social implications.

"Reparations was something first talked about in 1865 with 40 acres and a mule. If we got this together, this would be the mother of all civil rights lawsuits," Chestnutt said.

Richard F. Scruggs, who won a $368 billion dollar settlement for states against tobacco companies, said the lawsuit would change the way Americans view their own history.

"New England might not have had slavery, but it sure made a lot of money with all the businesses centered here. Aetna, for example, sold insurance to slave owners for their slaves. And most people in New England never think of this legacy of slavery," he said.

This is the first time a team has been put together to "even begin to seriously discuss a reparations lawsuit," Scruggs added.

But group members said they have a long way to go before a lawsuit could actually be filed.

"We are very much in the planning stages...but these are good people and great minds. We have the confidence," Pires said.