Ex-Black Panther Sues Bush, Pope, Elizabeth II Over Slavery

Bob Brown, a former Black Panther and co-director of Pan-African Roots, filed a 183-page class-action lawsuit yesterday, claiming that 71 defendants owe reparations for slavery.

The suit names the king of Spain, the queen of England, the pontiff, President Bush and Jaques Chirac; the governors of Illinois, Virginia, Louisiana and Texas; nine ports; several major sugar, gun, tobacco and railroad companies; many, many banks and even Bacardi Rum.

The Chicago Tribune pointed out that Brown will have difficulty with such a suit, considering that "slavery was legal, as well as the difficulty Brown and those he represents face in proving that they were directly deprived due to slavery." Not to mention the fact that it would be nearly impossible to prove that the pope or the current president had anything to do with slavery.

[Editor's note: In fact, if one wanted to sue anyone, one might think of suing the Democratic party, which, had Gen. George McClellan defeated Lincoln in 1864, would have eliminated emancipation in a conciliatory move toward the secessionist South, but we digress.]

Bob Bennett, former dean of Northwestern University's law school, told the Tribune, "The lawsuit strikes me as a rhetorical statement which probably belongs in the realm of political rhetoric and demonstration and maybe even lobbying, but not in a court of law."

Brown brought the suit himself, without the help of a lawyer, and has been working on it for two years, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

He is calling on those named as defendants in the suit "to acknowledge and apologize for the role that they and their predecessors played and continue to play."

[Editor's note: No one is sure what role anyone continues to play in the slave trade, since it has been outlawed by the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified almost 150 years ago, but we digress further.]

Brown added that "Slavery was and is an illegal criminal enterprise," a point that is clearly not true; slavery is certainly immoral, wrong, horrific and heinous – but it was, unfortunately, legal in the South at the time.

Brown challenged Pope John Paul II directly: "The Pope must come and say the truth. ... He must come and tell us why ... certain Catholic forces disobeyed Catholic laws, enslaved us and became unjustly enriched up on us. He must open the Vatican library and disclose the files."

Editor's note:
Speak Your Way to Success – Find out the power of "Success Talk" – Click Here Now