"The beat goes on," Jean-Baptiste said. "And we know the history of the fight is that we don't persist, we're left with the status quo.'
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Lionel Jean-Baptiste wasn’t surprised when a white federal judge dismissed a lawsuit in July that had asked corporations to pay for past dealings in slavery.
But Jean-Baptiste, the lead attorney for the descendant of slaves who had brought the case, didn’t expect that, in addition to exhaustive legal arguments, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Norgle would share his personal view that reparations to slaves have already been paid. And that’s what has left Jean-Baptiste intent on pushing forward-even as other observers declare the decision a major setback for the reparations movement.