According to Fox News:
The state law taking effect in January requires California insurance companies to make public whether their corporate ancestors sold slave insurance payable to slave owners in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Its supporters see it as another stepping stone to obtaining reparations to present-day African-Americans whose forebears were slaves.
Prominent among them are trial lawyers, including Johnnie Cochran, who successfully defended O.J. Simpson in his murder trial.
Opposition has come from those who say it is unfair to penalize anyone for what someone else did 150 years ago in order to benefit another who is only remotely related by color of skin.
They say some of the insurance companies do not even have records dating back that far.
Other opponents say the law will bring on a lingering quagmire of court cases, in which lawyers will emerge the primary beneficiaries.
A Republican assemblywoman, Lynne Leach, said, "My concern in opposing this is that we would open a tangled and expensive can of worms. I’m afraid it will leave a trail of litigation and lawsuits.
"This was once an acceptable practice; thank heavens it no longer is. It’s not something that any of these companies would subscribe to today."
As one who supported reparations for holocaust victims, she said, the difference is that some of those survivors and many of their heirs are still living and can be directly compensated.
Civil rights attorney Leo Terrell disagrees: "African-Americans started well behind the starting line. If you were a slave, you were considered property, so even before you had American status you were a piece of property. So there has to be some sort of compensation."
Alexander Pires, one of a group of lawyers backing the law, said that "people don’t know that these companies helped enforce slavery by insuring the slave owners. People shouldn’t be prohibited from learning history.
"No one's out to hurt the insurance companies; we just want the story to be told."
Also an advocate of black reparations, Pires said this doesn't necessarily mean handing out money.
"Sometimes it means programs, sometimes an apology," he said. "It means cleaning up your mistakes."
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