Lehman Brothers has become the first contractor with the city of Chicago to acknowledge past ties to slavery under a law requiring the disclosure. An affidavit filed by the financial services firm said that the three brothers who founded the company bought at least one female slave, and "may have personally owned other slaves." In October 2002, the Chicago City Council passed a groundbreaking ordinance dictating that companies working with the city disclose whether they ever profited from slavery. ...

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The City Council champion of the slave reparations movement demanded Monday that Carole Brown apologize to African Americans or step down as CTA board chairwoman for "allowing herself to be used" to defend a financial services firm with past ties to slavery. Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd) said it's insensitive and insulting for Brown, senior vice president of Lehman Brothers , to suggest that "the Lehman Brothers in the 1850s is not the company that it is today." ...

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