This groundbreaking resource moves us from theory to action with a practical plan for reparations.

A surge in interest in black reparations is taking place in America on a scale not seen since the Reconstruction Era. The Black Reparations Project gathers an accomplished interdisciplinary team of scholars—members of the Reparations Planning Committee—who have considered the issues pertinent to making reparations happen. This book will be an essential resource in the national conversation going forward.

The first section of The Black Reparations Project crystallizes the rationale for reparations, cataloguing centuries of racial repression, discrimination, violence, mass incarceration, and the immense black-white wealth gap. Drawing on the contributors’ expertise in economics, history, law, public policy, public health, and education, the second section unfurls direct guidance for building and implementing a reparations program, including draft legislation that addresses how the program should be financed and how claimants can be identified and compensated. Rigorous and comprehensive, The Black Reparations Project will motivate, guide, and speed the final leg of the journey for justice.

About the Author

William A. (“Sandy”) Darity Jr. is the Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, Economics, and Business and founding director of the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University.

A. Kirsten Mullen is a folklorist and the founder of Artefactual, an arts consulting practice, and Carolina Circuit Writers, a literary consortium that brings expressive writers of color to the Carolinas. Her most recent book is From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century.

Lucas Hubbard is an associate in research at the Samuel DuBois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. His writing has appeared in INDY Week, Duke Magazine, Paste, and Deadspin; he is also one of the editors of The Pandemic Divide: How COVID Increased Inequality in America.

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List of Illustrations

Introduction
William A. Darity Jr., A. Kirsten Mullen, and Lucas Hubbard

PART ONE: THE CONTEXT AND CASES FOR REPARATIONS

1 Where Does Black Reparations in America Stand?
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen

2 Wealth Implications of Slavery and Racial Discrimination for African American Descendants of the Enslaved
Thomas Craemer, Trevor Smith, Brianna Harrison, Trevon D. Logan, Wesley Bellamy, and William A. Darity Jr.

3 Unequal Housing and the Case for Reparations
Walter D. Greason

4 Educational Inequities and the Case for Reparations
Malik Edwards

5 The African American Health Burden: Disproportionate and Unresolved
Keisha L. Bentley-Edwards

PART TWO: THE PATH TO REPARATIONS AND RELATED CONSIDERATIONS

6 Learning from Past Experiences with Reparations
A. Kirsten Mullen and William A. Darity Jr.

7 Considerations for the Design of a Reparations Plan
Trevon D. Logan

8 Reparations and Adult Education: Civic and Community Engagement for Lifelong Learners
Lisa R. Brown

9 The Children of Slavery: Genealogical Research and the Establishment of Eligibility for Reparations
Evelyn A. McDowell

10 On the Black Reparations Highway: Avoiding the Detours
William A. Darity Jr. and A. Kirsten Mullen

Appendix A. List of Documented Massacres and Instances of Mob Violence Perpetrated against Black Individuals, Civil War through 1950
Appendix B. Sample Pedigree Chart and Family Group Sheet from Sons & Daughters of the United States Middle Passage

The Reparations Planning Committee

Index

Reviews

“A valuable asset for activists and lawmakers seeking to advance the cause of reparations.”
— Publishers Weekly

"A must-read for local, state, and federal politicians; college students studying social justice; and pretty much every American who has ever thought, 'Reparations? That’ll never happen.'"
— INDYWeek

"Well organized and presented in a thought-provoking manner that provides a great case for the progression of reparations."
— Criminal Justice Review

"This edited volume is an in-depth exploration of what it might mean for African Americans to be compensated for the damages of slavery, Jim Crow, and mass incarceration. The book includes ten chapters that discuss reparations policy in great detail. Overall, the book is an important contribution to the centuries long debate over Black reparations in the United States."
— Ethnic and Racial Studies

“Excellent scholarship that is at once thorough and accessible. This volume painstakingly connects the justification for and the implementation of reparations across the various facets of life, from housing to education and health.”—Rhonda V. Sharpe, founder and President of the Women’s Institute for Science, Equity, and Race

“A magnificent achievement and a sterling work of interdisciplinary scholarship, grounded in the assumption that readers share fundamental values of fairness and equity that transcend time, place, and political affiliation.”—Paul Ortiz, author of An African American and Latinx History of the United States

"The must-read works assembled by Darity, Mullen, and Hubbard illuminate the insidious consequences of white supremacy that are manifest throughout our country's history and permeate our society today. This handbook sets forth the compelling need for a comprehensive program of black reparations and is an indispensable guide for navigating ground-game complexities to achieve social equity and justice for all."—Susan H. Kamei, author of When Can We Go Back to America? Voices of Japanese American Incarceration during World War II

"How do you put a price on the atrocity of slavery, generations of stolen labor, and centuries of lost freedom? Shutting down critics who dismiss any dollar amount as 'just a check,' Darity and his colleagues deftly show how reparations would be powerfully transformative for Black Americans and lay the foundation for a racially just, equitable society."—Jennifer Lee, Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences, Columbia University

Awards

American Book Fest Awards (Social Change category) 2024 2024, American Book Fest
PROSE Award Finalist (Social Sciences-Economics) 2024 2024, Association of University Presses (AUP)
Next Generation Indie Book Awards (African American Non-Fiction) Finalist 2024, Next Generation Indie Book Awards
Phillis Wheatley Book Award (Historical, Current Events) Nonfiction 2023 2023, Sons and Daughters of the United States Middle Passage

About the Book