Reparations, Earl Lewis says, are not about the past. The founding director of the University of Michigan Center for Social Solutions has developed a program, funded by a $5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, for nine universities to work with their communities to develop research-based reparation solutions that could be expanded across the country. Earlier this year, Evanston, Illinois, became the first U.S. city to pay eligible Black residents restitution for previous city policies that were racist. Lewis says the programs could help unite America by repairing the damage of the past.
