Blacks In Government (BIG) Demands Slavery Restitution From Aetna Insurance Company
Washington, DC (BlackNews.com) - Blacks In Government (BIG), the nation's largest and oldest public service employee organization, passed a national resolution demanding that Aetna Insurance pay restitution for its participation and benefit from slavery. The resolution was adopted this August 2006, at the BIG National Delegates Assembly in New York City.
Ms. Deadria Farmer-Paellmann, Executive Director of the Restitution Study Group -- an organization that does slavery reparations litigation and research -- made a guest appearance at the National Delegates Assembly to address the voting members. Farmer-Paellmann was a law student when she made the initial findings that Aetna Insurance participated in slavery by writing life insurance policies on the lives of enslaved Africans with slave owners as the beneficiaries. She gave a personal account of her investigation of Aetna Insurance and Aetna's resultant public apology and promise to pay restitution. According to Farmer-Paellmann, Aetna reneged on the promise to pay restitution. This sparked a mass movement for corporate restitution from companies complicit in slavery including litigation and legislation.
BIG's Resolution asks government employees to consider other healthcare providers for their medical needs, if Aetna does not live up to its promise of Restitution by establishing a Trust Fund to benefit African Americans. Portions of the funds will be utilized to provide financial support to identified Healthcare Centers that cater to African Americans
and to assist African American Healthcare Institutions actively working to alleviate the health disparities plaguing African American families and communities.
Blacks In Government (BIG) was organized in 1975 and incorporated as a non-profit organization under the District of Columbia jurisdiction in 1976. BIG is the Nation's oldest and largest public service employee advocacy organization dedicated to the eradication of all vestiges of
racism and disparate treatment practices perpetrated upon people.
For additional information on Blacks In Government, please contact the BIG National Headquarters at (202) 667-3280 or visit the website at www.bignet.org. For information on this topic contact:
Matthew Fogg
BIG, National 1st Vice President
Matthew.Fogg@Bignet.org
Felicia Shingler, Chair
National Communications/Public Relaions Committee
Felicia.Shingler@bignet.org
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