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Selected Resources
Printable Materials
Other Organizations
Illinois
African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission Established in 2022 by the State of Illinois,"the ADCRC is responsible for developing and implementing measures that ensure equity, equality, and parity for African American descendants of slavery. Additionally, it will hold hearings to discuss the implementation of those measures, educate the public on reparations for African American descendants of slavery, and report to the General Assembly regarding its findings and information."
The African Kinship Reunion "Bringing Together Families Separated by Historic Mass Human Trafficking from Africa."
as
First Repair "Informing Local Reparations, Nationally." Includes a valuable resources page, with an interactive US Reparations Movement Map.
Elsewhere
About Reparations "About Reparations is a project of the National Black Cultural Information Trust, Inc. We share cultural information, stories, and resources that uplift the collective freedom of Black communities, while correcting cultural misinformation."
African American Redress Network Provides advocacy tools, research, and capacity building to descendant communities in their efforts to secure racial justice and reparation initiatives.
Descendants Truth and Reconciliation Commission "On September 20, 2019, the GU272 Descendants Association, the President of the Jesuits Conference in the United States, and U.S. Provincials signed a joint memorandum of understanding to establish a $1 billion irrevocable trust and a Descendants Truth & Reconciliation Foundation, which will work to address and heal the wounds of that betrayal of human dignity and the millions of others like it that have occurred in America before and since."
The Fund for Reparations NOW! "Building out the white lane of the reparations movement." Their online form invites white-identified folks to use to add their names and comments to an apology statement.
Paying Reparations Now A California-based group that acknowledges systemic racism as "a vital issue in America for which compensation to the victims is morally just and necessary." Their site has an especially wide array of useful resources.
Reparation Generation Based in Detroit, RepGen is "a national nonprofit committed to advancing federal reparations and demonstrating reparations in action. It plans to "launch its third round of the Home Ownership Reparative Transfer (HORT) Program in Metro Detroit this September. HORT 3.0 will offer $25,000 Reparative Transfers and homebuyer mentorship, and restorative genealogy consultation to Black Descendants of Enslaved People in the U.S. who live in Wayne, Oakland, or Macomb counties and agree to purchase a home in the region as their primary residence."
Reparations United "Reparations United seeks to solidify unity in thought around the Durban Model through a grassroot educational component. We further seek unity in action, also at the grassroots level, that has the aim of synchronizing actions of repair."
Universities Studying Slavery A "consortium of over one hundred institutions of higher learning in the United States, Canada, Colombia, Scotland, Ireland, and England. These schools are focused on sharing best practices and guiding principles as they engage in truth-telling educational projects focused on human bondage and the legacies of racism in their histories."
The Truth Telling Project Founded in 2014 by community activists in the St. Louis area following the shooting of 18 year-old Michael Brown, Jr., TTP "works to help people understand the deep-seated institutional racism that allows for police violence to occur and the pervasive impact that violence has on families and their communities. We ultimately encourage empathy and anti-racist learning among allied communities, and we lead people to The Movement for Black Lives and other racial justice organizations as supporters."
Legislation
Illinois
IL HB1227 "Enslavement Redress Act." A bill filed by Rep. Sonya M. Harper, Jan. 9, 2025. From the synopsis: "Creates the Enslavement Era Disclosure and Redress Act. Requires each contractor that participates in a competitive bid with the State to review its records for evidence of the contractor's or a related party's participation in slaveholding or the slave trade and to make certain disclosures with respect to that participation."
IL HR0453 "Support Family Roots Genealogy." A resolution filed by Rep. Carol Ammons, Oct. 23, 2023; adopted April 10, 2024. Synopsis: "Urges support for the Family Roots Genealogy Pilot Program as it provides African American descendants of enslaved individuals the opportunity to trace their roots back to their ancestral homelands, to reconnect with their ancestral heritage, and to promote their well-being."
IL HB5486 "Study: Genealogic Affairs Office." A bill filed by Rep. Carol Ammons, Feb. 6, 2026. From the synopsis: "Creates the Office of Genealogical Affairs Study Committee Act. Provides that the Office of Genealogical Affairs Study Committee shall have the following duties: (1) to examine the feasibility, scope, and structure of a permanent Office of Genealogical Affairs within the State government; (2) to examine how an Office of Genealogical Affairs could operationalize reparative genealogical services; (3) to examine how an Office of Genealogical Affairs could support forensic and historical accountability efforts; and (4) to examine how an Office of Genealogical Affairs could support administrative genealogical determinations."
Federal
H.R.40 "Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans Act." A bill introduced by Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee, Jan. 4, 2021. From the summary: "This bill establishes the Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans. The commission shall examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies." See also a 12-page primer on this resolution from the National African Americans Reparations Commission.
Local Research Sources
and Publications
Ammons, Aaron and Grant Chassy. "A Road Map for Repairing the Harm: The History of Racially Restrictive Covenants." Public i, 1 April 2024.
Andrews, Elizabeth A. Douglass Community Center: Its History and Development and the Place of Its Program in the Community. MA Thesis. University of Illinois, 1948.
Burns, Michael S. 2013. The Rhetorics of Community Space: Critical Events in Champaign-Urbana's Black Freedom Movement. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Illinois.
Cha-Jua, Sundiata. "Reparations: The Time has Come." The News-Gazette. March 28, 2026.
Champaign County Restrictive Covenant Project
Cobb, Deirdre Lynn. “Jim Crow Room & Board: The Experiences of African American Students at UIUC 1945 to 1955.” MA thesis, 1997.
Dolinar, Brian. "Champaign Housing Authority Considers Demolishing Third Black Neighborhood.” The Public i, 8 Sept. 2012.
______. "Champaign Housing Authority Considers Demolishing a Third Black Neighborhood." The Public i, 24 Aug. 2012.
______. "Soon to be displaced residents protest outside of housing authority." The Public i, 23 Aug. 2011.
______."Consent Decree 101: The Mis-education of Champaign's Black Students." The Public i, 25 Feb. 2007.
The Doris Hoskins archives at the Museum of the Grand Prairie are valuable and a finding aid is here: https://eblackcu.net/portal/items/show/3;
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More on the Hoskins Collection: https://www.museumofthegrandprairie.org/Explore/Collections
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Some digitized resources from the Hoskins archive are available on eBlack CU: https://eblackcu.net/portal/items/browse?collection=1
Evans, Chris, Marcia E. Nelson. "Brief Harm Report for Champaign County." Champaign-Urbana Reparations Coalition (CURC), 16 May 2025.
Fennell, Christopher. "Examining Structural Racism in the Jim Crow Era of Illinois." The Materiality of Freedom: Archaeologies of Post-Emancipation Life. Jodi Barnes, Editor. U of South Carolina Press, 2011, 173-189.
Franke, Carrie. "Injustice Sheltered: Race Relations at the University of Illinois and Champaign-Urbana, 1945-1962." Ph.D. dissertation, U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1990.
Means, Giuliana. "The historical mistreatment of Black Americans prompts calls for reparations in Urbana." Illinois Public Media, 6 Oct. 2025.
Hays, Emily. "Racial covenants limited housing options for Black residents in Champaign; a local group aims to repair that harm." Illinois Public Media News, 11 Dec. 2023.
Irish, Sharon. "Toward a Reparative Culture." The Public i, 10 April 2026.
Knight-Gibson, Loiuse. "Jeffrey Trask on Why Reparations Are a Win for Everyone." Smile Politely, 30 Nov. 2023.
Lenstra, Noah, et al., Webliography of African-American Champaign-Urbana. CI Lab Note, July 2010.
Local oral history interviews can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@MuseumoftheGrandPrairie/videos
Patton, Carl Vernon. Urban Renewal and Negro Involvement (A Case Study of Negro Politics in Champaign, Illinois). Thesis. U of Illinois, Spring 1968.
Ploss, George. "Reparations: Attacking the misconceptions and acknowledging their need in today’s world." Daily Illini, 3 Oct. 2006.
Prochaska, Natalie. "How Champaign’s Segregated North End was Created 1940 – 1960." Public i, 1 Jan. 2016.
Trask, Jeff. "The Case for Reparations: Champaign County." The Public i, 1 April 2024.
______. "The Case for Reparations in Champaign County." The News-Gazette, 14 Nov. 2023.
Urbana, City of. A RESOLUTION COMMITTING TO ENDING STRUCTURAL RACISM AND ACHIEVE RACIAL EQUITY (Resolution No. 2021-02-005R), 2021.
Media
(some local)
"ADCRC Urbana Public Hearing." YouTube (4 videos), A public hearing on reparations hosted at the University of Illinois by The African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission, with presentations by Carol Ammons, Naomi Simmons-Thorne, Terrance Thomas, Sundiata Cha-Jua, and Clinton Boyd, Jr., Oct. 4, 2025.
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5-minute speech for this hearing by Representative Carol Ammons. YouTube, posted by LaKisha David, Oct. 7, 2025.
"Governor Newsom signs several bills to create a Slavery Reparations Agency in CA." YouTube (2 mins.), 23ABC (Bakersfield, CA), 2025.
Conover, Adam. “Adam Ruins Everything: The Disturbing History of the Suburbs.” YouTube (6 mins.), College Humor, TruTV, 2017?
“The Cost of Inheritance.” (55-min. video), America Reframed, PBS, 2024.
Darity, William "Sandy." "A blueprint for reparations in the US." YouTube (36 minutes), Ted Talks, 4 Aug. 2020.
Darity, William Jr. and Kristen Mullins. "Why It’s Time to Pay Reparations to Black Americans." (46-min. podcast and transcript) UW-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty. 7 Dec. 2023.
"Explained: The Racial Wealth Gap." YouTube (16 mins.), Netflix, 2020.
Hanson, Peter. "Champaign Co. Board to discuss supporting reparations coalition." WCIA News. Includes 3-minute video, with interview of CURC President Jeffrey Trask. 22 Oct. 2025.
_____. "Reparations committee hosts public hearing event in Urbana." WCIA News. Includes 3-minute video, with coverage of a public hearing on reparations hosted by The African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission at the University of Illinois. 4 Oct. 2025.
Hatfield, Christine, producer. "Evanston began issuing reparations years ago. So, what’s next for Illinois and America?" (audio, 50 mins.), The 21st Show, Featuring Robin Rue Simmons, Jeff Trask, Alvin Tillery, December 11, 2023.
Higher Ground, WEFT Radio: discussions on international and national reparations, (audio), featuring Siphiwe Baleka (at 1:03:23-1:31) and Kamm Howard (1:36-end), December 23, 2023.
"The History of Reparations." (14-min. video), Origin of Everything. PBS, 2020.
Hoffman, Chad. Executive Director Habitat for Humanity. "Social Work CEU presentation: Racial Equity and Housing in Champaign County." School of Social Work, U of Illinois webinar (53-min. video), media space Illinois, 2022.
Letson, Al, et al. "Forty Acres and a Lie." (audio, 3-part podcast), Reveal News, June 15, 2024.
"NY Reparations committee collecting input on reparations." YouTube (2 min.), WGRZ-TV, 2025.
Ochuba, Anulika. “State Rep. Carol Ammons wants descendants of slaves in Illinois to have access to free DNA testing.” (1-min. radio segment, 500-word article), Illinois Public Media, February 28, 2024.
Office of the Chancellor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. "A Home of Their Own." (15-min. video), media space Illinois, 2017.
Orenstein, Bruce and Chris L. Jenkins. “Shame of Chicago, Shame of the Nation.” 4-part documentary on racially segregated housing and its impact on the wealth gap. [free to watch], 2014.]
Sewell-Smith, Nicka. "A Monumental Discovery: The Trask 250 and their 10,000-Strong Legacy." Lecture at Amherst College about DNA research. YouTube (1 hr. 29 min.), 2025.
"Slavery by Another Name." Explores the new forms of slavery after the Civil War. (1 hr. 24 min. video), PBS, 2012.
Trask, Jeff. "How Reparations is Biblical, Beneficial and Best for Everyone." Presentation at 2025 Christian Community Development Association. 2025 (1 hour, 15 min. long)
______. Presentation on reparations commission proposal to the Urbana Human Relations Commission. YouTube (29 min; 1:36 to 30:30), December 17, 2024.
______. Interviews on various media sites in 2025:
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WDWS May 29 with Brian Barnhart on Penny for your Thoughts (audio)
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WILL May 30 recorded interview with Penny Bradford, Illinois Public Media (audio)
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WEFT June 29 with Verdell Jones (audio)
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New Memphis Dialogue June 13 interview “Addressing Reparations” with New Memphis Dialogue (video)
"https://www.pbs.org/video/the-truth-about-black-banks-and-the-racial-wealth-gap-via3fm/
"The Truth about Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap." (14-mins video), In the Margins, PBS, 2024.
Who We Are Project. "Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America." (118-min. video), 2022.
Other Publications
(articles, books, reports, guides, etc.)
Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness. The New Press, 2010.
Anderson, Carol. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. Bloomsbury, 2016.
Anonymous. "Reparations ‘key to dismantling systemic racism’: UN rights chief." UN News, April 14, 2026.
______. "UN resolution urges reparations for slavery’s ‘historical wrongs’ | UN News.’" UN News, March 25, 2026.
Barram, Michael, Drew G.I. Hart, Gimbiya Kettering and Michael J. Rhodes, eds. Reparations and the Theological Disciplines: Prophetic Voices for Remembrance, Reckoning, and Repair (Rowman & Littlefield, 2023).
Brown, Dorothy A. Getting to Reparations: How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past. Crown, 2026.
Cha-Jua, Sundiata, M.F. Berry, and V.P. Franklin, eds. Reparations and Reparatory Justice: Past, Present, and Future. University of Illinois Press, 2024 ; Dr. Cha-Jua talks about the book here: ”Why is the reparations movement gaining momentum in the U.S.?” April 18, 2024
Charles, J. Brian, Mike Maciag, Daniel Vock. “Segregated in the Heartland: An Investigative Series.” Governing, January 14, 2019.
Chavez, Nicole. “Georgetown University and Jesuits Donate $27 Million to Foundation for Descendants of Enslaved People.” CNN, September 14, 2023. Also here
Chibelushi, Wedaeli and Thomas Naadi. "UN votes to recognise enslavement of Africans as 'gravest crime against humanity.'" BBC News, March 2026.
The Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery https://dofdmenno.org/
Coates, Ta-Nehisi, "The Case for Reparations," The Atlantic, June 2014. Also here
Coming to the Table reparations guide can be accessed and downloaded here:
https://comingtothetable.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/CTTT-Reparations-Guide-July-2021.pdf ; Background on the Coming to the Table working group and additional resources can be found here: https://comingtothetable.org/reparations-working-group/
Darity, William and A. Kirsten Mullen. From Here to Equality. University of North Carolina Press, 2022.
Darity, William, A. Kirsten Mullen and Lucas Hubbard, editors. The Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice. University of California Press, 2023.
Davis, Allen J. "An Historical Timeline of Reparations Payments Made From 1783 through 2026 by the United States Government, States, Cities, Religious Institutions, Universities, Corporations, and Communities." U of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. Another format is available here
DeGruy, Joy. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America's Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. Uptone Press, 2005, revised in 2017.
Florido, Adrian. “California Votes oppose cash reparations for slavery, poll finds." All Things Considered/NPR, Sept. 11, 2023.
Gaynor, Keith Garrison. "Law signed by Trump for Holocaust survivors proves reparations is possible, just not for Black Americans, say advocates." The Grio, April 15, 2026.
Goza, Joel E. Rebirth of a Nation: Reparations and Remaking America. Eerdmans Publishing, 2024.
Harte, Julia. “New York Launches Commission to Consider Racial Reparations.” Reuters, December 19, 2023.
Hayward, Giulia. "Reparations for Black Residents Are Becoming a Local Issue as Well as a National One." New York Times, Sep. 25, 2021. Also here.
Hirsch, Arnold R. Making the Second Ghetto : Race and Housing in Chicago, 1940-1960. Cambridge UP, 1983.
Howard, Kamm. Laying the Foundation for Local Reparations: A Guide for Providing National Symmetry for Local Reparation Efforts. Self-published, 2020.
Hunter, Marcus Anthony. Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation. Amistad, 2024.
Kwon, Duke L. & Gregory Thompson. Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair. Brazos Press, 2021.
Library of Congress. “Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-38.”
Love, Bettina. Punished for Dreaming: How School Reforms Harms Black Children and How We Heal. St. Martin’s Press, 2023. Especially ch. 12, “A Call for Educational Reparations”
Ly, My. "Reparations Committee Opens Up Applications for Black Business Grant Program." Evanston Roundtable, March 20, 2026. Also here
______. "Reparations nonprofit announces $400,000 to go to Evanston churches during service honoring MLK." Evanston Roundtable, Jan. 18, 2026.
Maklin, Mike. "Advocates Call For City Of Boston To Pay Reparations To Its Black Citizens. WBZ, May 7, 2026.
Meacham, Jon. And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. Random House, 2022.
Mureithi, Carlos and Eromo Egbejule. "'History longs to heal': how Africa hopes to advance campaign for reparative justice." The Guardian, March 8, 2026.
Newton, Monique and Matthew D. Nelsen. "The Politics of Expedience: Evanston, Illinois, and the Fight for Reparations." RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 10, no. 3, 1 Jun 2024, 114-139. [vol. 10 nos. 2 and 3 of RSF Journal contain articles on reparations.]
NYC Commission on Racial Equality. "Co-designing a Reparations Study, and a Truth, Healing, and Reconciliation Process." November 2025 Progress Report, 27 pages.
Omoloye, Malise. "Does African Participation Undermine Reparations Claims?" Face2Face Africa, April 27. 2026.
Pfau, Ann, et al. "Using Urban Renewal Records to Advance Reparative Justice." RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 10, no. 2, 2024, 113-131. [vol. 10 nos. 2 and 3 of RSF Journal contain articles on reparations.]
1 Jun 2024
Plaut, Martin. "Widening the reparations debate." The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs and Policy Studies, May 2025.
Providence (RI) Municipal Reparations Commission. Report, August 2022.
Reparations Narrative Lab. There Are New Suns: Building a Transformative Narrative for the Black Reparations Movement, 2023.
Reparations United. Slavery Disclosure and Redress Ordinance Toolkit. 2024?, 19 pages.
Rhodes, Jesse H., et al. "Why Reparations? Race and Public Opinion Toward Reparations." RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 10, no. 3, 1 Jun 2024, 30-48. [vol. 10 nos. 2 and 3 of RSF Journal contain articles on reparations.]
Ritchie, Andrea, et al, with The Movement for Black Lives. Reparations Now Toolkit. 2019, 118 pages.
Shah, Disant. "The Long Shadow of Slavery: Who Owes an Apology and Who Owes Reparations?" Africa Unfiltered, Substack, March 26, 2026.
Smith, Clint. How the Word is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America. Little Brown, 2021.
Solman, Paul and R. C. Holmes. "The impact of the nation's first cash reparations program for Black residents." PBS News, June 22, 2023.
Solomon-Simons, Damario. Redeem a Nation: The Century-Long Battle to Restore the Soul of America." Penguin, 2026. Interview with author, 9 mins., PBS, April 28, 2026.
Spielman, Fran. "Chicago takes another baby step toward reparations." Chicago Sun Times. March 24, 2026.
Stack, Carol. All Our Kin: Strategies for Survival in a Black Community. 1975. Basic Books reprint, 1983.
Táíwò, Olúfẹ́mi O. Reconsidering Reparations. Oxford University Press, 2022.
Thompson, Cheryl, et al. "Racial covenants, a relic of the past, are still on the books across the country." Illinois Public Media, November 17, 2021.
Turner, Margery Austin and Solomon Green. "Causes and Consequences of Separate and Unequal Neighborhoods." Urban Institute, no date.
Turner, Robert. Creating a Culture of Repair. John Knox Press, 2024.
United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). "Declaration of Trust or Declaration of Restrictive Covenants (DOT/DORC) Requirements." June 19, 2019.
Washington, Jessica. "Reparations 101: Everything You Need to Know About the Fight for Reparations." The Root. February 17, 2024.
Wilder, Craig Steven. Ebony and Ivy: Race, Slavery, and the Troubled History of America's Universities. Bloomsbury, 2013.
Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. Random House, 2020.
_______. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration. Vintage, 2010.