Idea in Brief
The Roots
The history of some long-lived companies includes participation in atrocities such as slavery, the Holocaust, and the displacement of indigenous peoples.
The Reaction
Present-day executives often try to avoid accountability for what they claim is distant history. But large portions of society are pushing for what they see as an overdue reckoning for past wrongs.
The Solution
Corporations must first accept that responding to historical crimes is their fiduciary and moral duty. They should be totally transparent, apologize, and take cues from the field of transitional justice by working with victim communities and their descendants to make amends.
In 2002 the executives of CSX, a freight railway company whose origins lay in the early 1800s, received unexpected news: The company was being sued in a federal district court in New York as part of a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of all living descendants of enslaved people in the United States.