Race, Personhood and
Corporate Power
University of Akron Rethinking Race Series
February 6, 2014
Greg Coleridge
NE Ohio American Friends Service Committee
Premises
 We don’t have a real democracy/republic
 We’ve never had a real democracy/republic
 People of color, women and others have been oppressed in part to
serve the interests of corporations and the elite. The gun has not
only been the only tool to control the oppressed – the constitution,
courts and laws have also been weapons
 Corporations have exploited people of color and have used the
constitution, courts and laws to acquire never-intended power and
rights
 Mass democratic social movements are the only vehicle for real change
 Effective mass social movements must be genuinely diverse (including
racial, gender and income)
Person
What/who is a person?
Person
 A human being regarded as an individual.
 Every person possesses inalienable rights -- not
contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any
particular culture or government.
Corporation
What is it?
Corporation
 From Latin: corpus = body, shun =
create/build
 Group of people who come together
to petition government to become a
separate legal entity apart from
individuals
 Take private voluntary money and
direct to public use
 Legal shield / limited personal
liability / unitary actor
Democracy
What is a democracy?
Democracy
 Greek
demos = people
kratia = power or rule
people power or people rule
People are “Sovereign”
 Republic: A form of government in which power is held by
the people and representatives they elect, and affairs of state
are a "public matter" (from Latin: res publica), rather than
privately accommodated (such as through inheritance or
divine mandate). In modern times the definition of a republic
is also commonly limited to a government which excludes a
monarch.
Constitution
What is it?
What is a constitution?
 The supreme law of a land.
 The charter that creates the laws of a
nation.
 A set of bylaws.
 Legal codification of a social contract.
 Binding document reflecting best principles,
values and aspirations.
Premises
 We don’t have a real democracy/republic
 We’ve never had a real democracy/republic
 People of color, women and others have been oppressed in part to
serve the interests of corporations and the elite. The gun has not
only been the only tool to control the oppressed – the constitution,
courts and laws have also been weapons
 Corporations have exploited people of color and have used the
constitution, courts and laws to acquire never-intended power and
rights
 Mass democratic social movements are the only vehicle for real change
 Effective mass social movements must be genuinely diverse (including
racial, gender and income)
The struggle of people against power is the struggle of
memory against forgetfulness.
- Milan Kundera, Czech author
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1787 – Article 1, Section 2 of US Constitution:
 Full personhood limited to white, male, property-owners.
 “Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned
among the several States which may be included within
this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which
shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of
free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term
of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of
all other Persons.”
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1791 – Article 4 of the US Constitution:
 Defined people as property.
 “No Person held to Service or Labour in one State, under
the Laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in
Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be
discharged from such Service or Labour, but shall be
delivered up on Claim of the Party to whom such Service
or Labour may be due.”
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1830 – Indian Removal Act
(legislative action)
 Indigenous communities forced
from their homelands. Over 10
years, 100,000 native children
and adults march thousands of
miles west into unknown arid
territory. 15,000 do not survive
the journey. However, over 25
million acres of land is made
available for white settlers.
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1854 – The People vs Hall (California Supreme Court)
 Non-whites are barred from testifying in court. “No black,
mulatto or indian shall be allowed to give evidence in
favor of or against a white man.”
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1857 – Dred Scott vs Sanford
 Freed blacks are taxed but still have no rights of
citizenship granted to whites
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1862 – Emancipation Proclamation in DC (legislative
action)
 Slaves are freed in DC but former slave owners are
reimbursed for slaves given up. White are paid over $1
million in reparations for “lost property.”
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1862 – Homestead Act (legislative action)
 50 million acres of formerly indigenous land in the west
having been violently invaded by US soldiers in violation
of treaties is distributed by the government at low cost to
white settlers only and 100 million acres of indigenous
land are given for free to railroad developers.
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1882 – Chinese Exclusion Act (legislative action)
 Bans immigration of both skilled and unskilled Chinese
laborers
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1924 – Johnson Reed Act (legislative action)
 Creates an immigration quota system based on national
origin favoring “Nordics” over the “inferior” races of Asia
& Southern and Eastern Europe.
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1934 – The National Housing Act (Roosevelt New
Deal)
 In the wake of the Great Depression the National
Housing Act is implemented creating a federal housing
authority to provde loans and federal subsidies for
homeownership but the FHA mortgage underwriting
standards discriminate against non whites and investment
in non white communities through a process called red
lining.
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1942 – Japanese American Concentration Camps
(Executive Order 9066)
 Executive order forces 111,000 Japanese American into
concentration camps.
Oppressive Constitution,
Courts & Laws
 1971 – Nixon’s War on Drugs
(Presidential Initiative)
 The War on Drugs declared by
Richard Nixon violently targets
and imprisons people of color
disproportionally through today.
Premises
 We don’t have a real democracy/republic
 We’ve never had a real democracy/republic
 People of color, women and others have been oppressed in part to
serve the interests of corporations and the elite. The gun has not
only been the only tool to control the oppressed – the constitution,
courts and laws have also been weapons
 Corporations have exploited people of color and have used the
constitution, courts and laws to acquire never-intended power and
rights
 Mass democratic social movements are the only vehicle for real change
 Effective mass social movements must be genuinely diverse (including
racial, gender and income)
Slave Trading Corporations
 The Africa Trading Company,
England (1553).
 Dutch East India Company
(1602)
 Dutch West India Company
(1621)
 The Royal African Company,
England (1660)
All and others were chartered to
“trade”/ sell human beings
US corporations which
profited from slavery
Slavery was at the foundation of American capitalism and was
often synonymous with the sugar, tobacco, and/or cotton
plantations that fueled the Southern economy and corporations,
but Northern corporations also benefited.
 Bank of America - Bank of America found that two of its
predecessor banks (Boatman Savings Institution and Southern
Bank of St. Louis) had ties to slavery and another predecessor
(Bank of Metropolis) accepted slaves as collateral on loans.
 Wachovia - Two institutions that became part of Wachovia
(Georgia Railroad and Banking Company and the Bank of
Charleston) owned or accepted slaves as collateral on
mortgaged property or loans.
US corporations which
profited from slavery
 AIG - AIG purchased American General Financial
which owns U.S. Life Insurance Company. AIG found
documentation that U.S. Life insured the lives of slaves.
 Tiffany and Co. - Tiffany and Co. was originally financed
with profits from a Connecticut cotton mill. The mill
operated from cotton picked by slaves..
 Brooks Brothers - The suit retailer started their company
in the 1800s by selling clothes for slaves to slave traders.
US corporations which
profited from slavery
 New York Life Insurance Company is the largest mutual life
insurance company in the United States. They also took part
in slavery by selling insurance policies on enslaved Africans.
 JPMorgan Chase - JPMorgan Chase reported that between
1831 and 1865, two of its predecessor banks (Citizens Bank
and Canal Bank in Louisiana) accepted approximately 13,000
slaves as loan collateral and seized approximately 1,250 slaves
when plantation owners defaulted on their loans.
 Aetna - Aetna insured the lives of slaves during the 1850’s and
reimbursed slave owners when their slaves died
US corporations which
profited from slavery
 Norfolk Southern also has a history in the slave trade. The
Mobile & Girard company, which is now part of Norfolk
Southern, offered slaveholders $180 ($3,379 today) apiece for
enslaved Africans they would rent to the railroad for one year,
according to the records.
 USA Today has found that their own parent company, E.W.
Scripps and Gannett, has had links to the slave trade.
 CSX used slave labor to construct portions of some U.S. rail
lines under the political and legal system that was in place
more than a century ago.
US corporations which
profited from slavery
 FleetBoston evolved from an earlier financial institution,
Providence Bank, founded by John Brown who was a slave
trader and owned ships used to transport enslaved Africans.
The bank financed Brown’s slave voyages and profited from
them.
 Brown Brothers Harriman is the oldest and largest private
investment bank and securities firm in the United States,
founded in 1818. USA Today found that the New York
merchant bank of James and William Brown, currently
known as Brown Bros. Harriman owned hundreds of enslaved
Africans and financed the cotton economy by lending millions
to southern planters, merchants and cotton brokers.
Not just corporate power
but corporate rights
 Corporations not only
amassed fortunes from the
slave trade and from
slaveholding
 They translated their
fortunes into power and
never intended “rights” –
claiming they possessed the
rights of persons through
the courts.
Corporations become
“persons”
Corporate “rights”
 1819 - Dartmouth College vs Woodward
 Turned a corporate charter from a government granted
charter to a contract. This ruling gave corporations
standing within the constitution.
Corporate “rights”
 1886 – Santa Clara County vs Southern Pacific Railroad
 Though the court did not rule on corporate personhood,
the decision was subsequently cited as precedent to hold a
private corporation is entitled to the 14th amendment
rights of due process and equal protection as human
beings.
 If a corporation is a person, it is a person owned by
other persons (the stockholders), and therefore a slave;
and as slavery is forbidden by the 13th Amendment,
Congress must dissolve all corporations.
Corporate “rights”
 1906 – Hale vs Henkel
 The court granted corporations the fourth amendment
search & seizure protection.
 1919 – Dodge vs Ford Motor Company
 The business corporation is organized & carried on
primarily for the profit of the stockholders. Stockholder
primacy is established.The purpose of the corporation
according to the court, is no longer to serve the public
good as it had been, it is now to maximize profit for
shareholders above all else.
Corporate “rights”
 1919 – Dodge vs Ford Motor Company
 The business corporation is organized & carried on primarily
for the profit of the stockholders. Stockholder primacy is
established.The purpose of the corporation according to the
court, is no longer to serve the public good as it had been, it is
now to maximize profit for shareholders above all else.
 1922 – Pennsylvania Coal Co vs Mahon
 Corporations get the fifth amendment takings clause meaning if
you pass a regulation that impacts a corporation's ability to
make a profit, that is deemed a taking and they can sue for the
right to future profits lost.
Corporate “rights”
 1976 – Buckley vs Valeo
 Spending money to influence elections is protected under
the first amendment in effect saying that money is speech.
 If money = speech, then those who have the most money
have and most speech.
 Plutocracy, not democracy.
Corporate “rights”
 2010 – Citizens United vs FEC
 Expanded first amendment “free speech” rights of
corporate entities and individuals to be engaged in
political activities for or against candidates and elected
officials.
 Resulted in a flood of political money in 2010 and 2012
from corporations and super wealthy.
Corporate rights furthers
oppression: ELECTIONS
 Money from corporations and wealthy individuals
means their voices are heard, not those (the 99%)
without money. Their voices are not heard, needs not
met and communities not helped.
Corporate rights furthers
oppression: PRISONS
 The 1.32 million of people of color locked up in prisons,
many of them run for profit.
 Between 1990 and 2009, the inmate population of private
prisons grew by 1,664% (130,000)
 2010 annual revenues for two largest companies —
Corrections Corporation of America and the GEO Group —
were nearly $3 billion.
 Companies that house prisoners for profit have a perverse
incentive to increase the prison population by passing more
laws, policing more heavily, sentencing more harshly, denying
parole and avoiding rehabilitation.
Corporate rights furthers
oppression: HOUSING
 Predatory lending aimed at racially segregated minority
neighborhoods led to mass foreclosures that fueled the U.S. housing
crisis, Banking corporations targeted neigborhoods of color with
risky “subprime” loans.
 In some ways, subprime lending changed the traditional lending
paradigm for neighborhoods of color from one of redlining (where
lenders avoided entire neighborhoods) to reverse redlining (where
lenders targeted these neighborhoods for more costly and risky
home loans).
 Study after study has shown that people of color are far more likely
to get stuck with higher priced subprime home loans than whites.
 Banks responsible for 2008 financial collapse were bailed out in
2008 but not neighborhoods of color.
Premises
 We don’t have a real democracy/republic
 We’ve never had a real democracy/republic
 People of color, women and others have been oppressed in part to
serve the interests of corporations and the elite. The gun has not
only been the only tool to control the oppressed – the constitution,
courts and laws have also been weapons
 Corporations have exploited people of color and have used the
constitution, courts and laws to acquire never-intended power and
rights
 Mass democratic social movements are the only vehicle for real
change
 Effective mass social movements must be genuinely diverse
(including racial, gender and income)
Past social movements
 US Revolution
 Ended British Rule (military, economic and corporate)
 Power to define corporations were with people who
“Constitutionalized” crown corporations
 Massachusetts Bay Company
 Carolina Company
 Virginia Company
 Maryland Company
 Early legislative acts created corporations one at a time
through petitioning the state legislature, or General
Assembly, stipulating rigid conditions.
 Corporate charters granted privileges, not rights.
 A charter was a democratic tool.
Control by We the People over
Corporations – Charters
In Ohio, these often included:

Limited duration of charter or certificate of
incorporation,

Limitation on amount of land ownership,

Limitation of amount of capitalization, or
total investment of owners,

Limitations of charter for a specific purpose
(to amend its charter, a new corporation
had to be formed),

The state reserved the right to amend the
charters or to revoke them,

Corporations could not engage in political
activities.
Control by We the People over Corporations –
Charter revocations
 State legislatures and courts repealed entire corporate
charters or portions of charters that violated terms of their
incorporation.
 In a 1900 ruling to dissolve a dairy company, the Ohio
Supreme Court said,
 The time has not yet arrived when the created is greater than the
creator, and it still remains the duty of the courts to perform their
office in the enforcement of the laws, no matter how ingenious the
pretexts for their violation may be, nor the power of the violators in
the commercial world.
Past social movements
 1791 – Bill of Rights (US Constitution)
Provides basic political and religious rights
 1865 – 13th Amendment
Slavery abolished
 1866 – Civil Rights Act (legislative action)
Extended the rights of emancipated African
Americans
Past social movements
 1868 – 14th Amendment
Black males get equal protection under the law
 1870 – 15th Amendment
Black males ge the right to vote
 1886 – National Social Change
Labor movement for 8 hour workday / Populists
Past social movements

1913 – 17th Amendment
Direct election of US Senators
 1920 – 19th Amendment
Women achieve right to vote – after 75 years of struggle
 1954 – Brown vs Board of Education (US Supreme Court)
Schools could no longer be segregated based on race.
Separate is not equal
Past social movements
 1960s – Civil Rights Acts
Protected voting rights, prohibited discrimination by
federal and state governments, and prohibited
discrimination in housing sales and rentals.
 1971 – 26th Amendment
Voting age changed from 21 to 18.
 National multi-racial coalition seeking to amend the US
Constitution to end twin legal doctrines that corporations
are not persons and money is not speech.
 More than 328,000 have signed the petition calling for this
and to commit to be involved.
MTA Campaign
 Resolutions/initiatives calling for ending corporate
constitutional rights and money as speech -- more than
500 to date.
 In Ohio: Resolutions in Athens, Oberlin, Barberton,
Fremont and ballot initiatives Brecksville, Newburgh
Hts, Cleveland Hts. and Defiance).Mentor, Lakewood,
Newark and Toledo working on their own initiatives in
2014 and others on council resolutions, including
Summit County.
 Pledge to Amend
 Mass education – including Legalize Democracy film
There are a thousand hacking at the branches of
evil to one who is striking at the root.
- Henry David Thoreau
Greg Coleridge
Director
Northeast Ohio American Friends Service Committee
[a Quaker social action organization]
2101 Front St., #111, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221
Phone: 330-928-2301
Fax: 330-928-2628
Email: gcoleridge@afsc.org
Web: http://www.afsc.net
Blog: http://www.createrealdemocracy.blogspot.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/greg.coleridge