Getting to Reparations

How Building a Different America Requires a Reckoning with Our Past

She has been on the law faculty at Georgetown since 2022, and before that taught at Emory, Washington and Lee, George Mason, and the University of Cincinnati. Her previous book, The Whiteness of Wealth, examined how the U.S. tax code widens the wealth gap between white and Black Americans. She has also written two legal textbooks — one on federal income taxation, the other on cases and materials related to critical race theory and how it applies in such foundational legal fields as contracts, property, civil and criminal law, and procedure.

In her new book, Dorothy presents a strong argument for providing reparations to Black Americans — not just to atone for the original sin of slavery, but also for years of subsequent, significant harm resulting from labor exploitation, wealth stripping, denial of full citizenship, mass incarceration, and other injustices.

Dorothy was once skeptical of reparations for Black Americans, considering the idea unrealistic and impractical. But her thinking began to change after a colleague mentioned that reparations had been paid to the families of 11 Italian Americans who were lynched by a mob in New Orleans in 1891. Her book documents several other instances in which the federal government paid compensation to other groups that suffered injuries and losses similar to those experienced by Black Americans — yet Black Americans have never received the same.

She is herself a descendant of enslaved people and outlines in her book practical steps toward reparations, beginning with a federal commission established by executive order of the president. Compensation, she argues, should include not only direct cash payments to individuals, but also funding for systemic reforms. It is her hope that this thoughtful and compelling book will encourage further public debate and meaningful action on this critical subject.

In conversation with Dorothy will be Errin Haynes — a journalist who covers politics, civil rights, voting rights, and race. After stints at the Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel, and Washington Post, Errin served as the national writer on race for the Associated Press from 2017 to 2020. She then became a founding member and editor-at-large for the nonprofit news outlet The 19th. Please join me in welcoming Dorothy Brown and Errin Haynes.