Freda Linder walks daily past a small sign donned with 20 words in Crescent Park Apartments, a majority-Black housing complex in Northern California’s Bay Area. “WARNING,” the placard reads. “This area contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.” Linder lives in Richmond, a city of […]
reparations
Posted inCulture, History
The Next Phase of the Tulsa Race Massacre Survivors’ Legal Battle
The three known survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre refuse to stop fighting for restitution, even after a Tulsa County District Court judge tossed out their lawsuit seeking reparations. “The dismissal of this case is just one more example of how America’s — and specifically Tulsa’s — legacy of racial harm, racial distress, is […]
Posted inMoney, Partner Content, Wealth Gap
Lorraine Hansberry’s Family Says Chicago’s Racist Policies Seized Their Land. Now They’re Seeking Reparations.
Originally published by The 19th Your trusted source for contextualizing the news. Sign up for our daily newsletter. The 1959 Broadway debut of “A Raisin in the Sun” brought America inside a crowded Chicago apartment where the dreams of Black families went to die. And while Lorraine Hansberry was making history as the first Black […]
Posted inMoney, Wealth Gap
The Case for Reparations: What Compensating Black Americans Could Look Like
Edmund Ford taught math for 14½ years and noticed that opportunities were sparse and unevenly distributed in Tennessee’s Shelby County Schools. “My classrooms were probably about 95% Black,” he said. “Many of my students weren’t getting the tools and resources they needed so that after they graduated from high school, they’d be impervious to social […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
A Growing Call for Climate Reparations, Explained
America is finally joining the global movement of wealthy nations agreeing to pay poorer countries for the damage they’ve endured because of climate change. To the dismay of many Republican legislators, last year the Biden administration agreed to participate in the United Nations’ fund for “loss and damage,” also known as climate reparations. Although the […]
Posted inHealth, Health Equity
The Medical System Has Failed Black Americans for Centuries. Could Reparations be the Answer?
This story published in collaboration with Vox, part of a series on reparations. In 1972, two social workers set Debra Blackmon’s sterilization in motion. The primary diagnosis in her medical records read: mental retardation severe. Soon, Blackmon would undergo a total abdominal hysterectomy, a procedure, sanctioned by the local government, to remove her uterus and […]
Posted inMoney, Wealth Gap
California’s Reparations Plan Exposes Deep Divides in Black Communities
With a packed house behind him, Milton Hall, a Los Angeles Mid-City Neighborhood Council representative, approached the microphone. Under his breath, he lamented about missing the beginning of his golf game to attend this meeting, a gathering of California’s reparations task force for descendants of American slavery. The task force is the first of its […]
Posted inMoney, Partner Content
There’s No Freedom Without Reparations
This story is part of a special Juneteenth project with Vox which explores the ongoing struggle for freedom for Black Americans. Born into slavery, Henrietta Wood was legally freed in 1848 in Ohio when she was about 30. She only basked in that freedom for five years. In 1853, a white sheriff empowered by the […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy, Voices of Change
This Activist Campaigned on Poverty, Gentrification, and Reparations —and Won
Ahead of the 2022 midterms, Capital B is talking to newsmakers from across the country who want to reshape American politics or galvanize Black voices in government. Our “Voices of Change” series will update periodically with insights from the candidates, activists, lawmakers, and political insiders who you should know. Jecorey Arthur expected much more pushback from other […]