In this short preview of Season 1, I introduce myself and say a bit about where we're headed: a deep dive into the issue of reparations for slavery and its continuing legacy. You'll hear from experts and from a rich library of archival recordings about an issue that has its roots deep into American history.

Full transcript

Sixty years ago today in Greensboro, North Carolina, four Black college students walked into the local Woolworth's and began what became the lunch-counter sit-in movement. It was a pivotal moment in the fight for civil rights in America. I recently talked with Jibreel Khazan, one of the four student from North Carolina A&T, about that day and what led up to it.

In this first full episode of Season 1, we'll explore the single most vexing question about reparations: How would a program possibly work? Specifically, how could you determine eligibility for receiving reparations?

Nothing exposes existing fissures in society like a catastrophe. The Coronavirus pandemic provides a tragic window into the effect of institutionalized racism on Black community health and how that's related to the call for reparations.

The redistribution of millions of acres of land that Lincoln promised freed people, ended with his assassination. It would prove to be one of the most consequential failures in American history.

If white Americans know anything about the dark history of American medicine and Black people, they’ve likely at least heard of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. But as author Harriet Washington explains, Tuskegee was just one example in "a sea of abusive and, frankly, racist experimentation."

Black infants die at twice the rate as white infants. Black mothers are 2-3 times more likely to die. Pioneering researchers Dr. Keisha Bentley-Edwards and Dr. Ebony Jade Hilton explain the causes of this lethal gap, and what can be done to close it.

In this wide-ranging conversation, prize-winning economist William Darity, Jr. discusses his plan for reparations for American slavery and its legacy. Based on thirty years of research, Professor Darity's plan is pragmatic, at once fiscally sound and deeply moral.

He is co-author, with A. Kirsten Mullen, of the just-published book: "From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the 21st Century," which has been hailed as "a vital intellectual history and a roadmap for these times."