Even if a lawsuit were successful, a victory would yield no easy solutions. "How and who do we distribute the money to?" Pires said.

Members of the group said that if they go ahead with the suit, it would have tremendous social implications.

"Reparations was something first talked about in 1865 with 40 acres and a mule. If we got this together, this would be the mother of all civil rights lawsuits," Chestnutt said.

Richard F. Scruggs, who won a $368 billion dollar settlement for states against tobacco companies, said the lawsuit would change the way Americans view their own history.

"New England might not have had slavery, but it sure made a lot of money with all the businesses centered here. Aetna, for example, sold insurance to slave owners for their slaves. And most people in New England never think of this legacy of slavery," he said.

This is the first time a team has been put together to "even begin to seriously discuss a reparations lawsuit," Scruggs added.

But group members said they have a long way to go before a lawsuit could actually be filed.

"We are very much in the planning stages...but these are good people and great minds. We have the confidence," Pires said.