In 1915, the association filed a class-action lawsuit, Johnson v. McAdoo, in federal court for over $68 million, demanding the return of cotton taxes collected by the Treasury Department between 1862 and 1868. According to the suit, the money was due to former slaves and their ancestors for their unpaid labor. The suit eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which claimed that the Treasury Department had governmental immunity because slavery was constitutional.
