DETROIT (Michigan News Source) – The city of Detroit’s Reparations Task Force asked the city to provide it with information on businesses the city had contracted that had “benefitted from chattel slavery.”
The city’s Slavery Era Records Ordinance requires businesses to provide that information.
The city of Detroit’s Legislative Policy Division found two companies that stated they had benefitted from slavery and were doing business with the city of Detroit. They were both banks – Bank of New York Mellon and JP Morgan Chase. The Legislative Policy Division said its search was limited since it didn’t have access to all the city records.
Bank of New York Mellon reported that in one instance prior to 1866 a loan was secured by a mortgage that was collateralized by a plantation that enslaved people. The Legislative Policy Division found that the Bank of New York Mellon Trust Company was a one-time supplier in 2016 with the city and that the contract was still active in 2024. The total contract amount in 2024 was $0.00.
JP Morgan Chase reported that two of its Louisiana banks had received thousands of slaves as collateral before the Civil War. JP Morgan Chase was a contract supplier to the city about 20 times in 2016, 2017 and 2020. The contract with JP Morgan Chase expires in 2029 and has a total value of $0.00.
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