Center hosts talk on wealth inequality and reparations

Join the Center for Civil Rights History and Research for a free event focusing on justice for African Americans in the 21st century.

Keynote speakers William Darity, Jr. and Kirsten Mullen will give a talk titled, “The Arc of Justice: Reparations for African Americans,” at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 1 in the Capstone Campus Room. This lecture will analyze the history of wealth inequality in the United States, examine the failed promises of the civil rights movement, and outline the need for reparations to achieve justice for African Americans.

Darity is the Samuel Du Bois Cook professor and director of the Samuel Du Bois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke University. He has also served as chair of the department of African and African American studies and was the founding director of the Research Network on Racial and Ethnic Inequality. Before going to Duke, he served as director of the Institute of African American Research, director of the Undergraduate Honors Program in economics, and director of Graduate Studies at the University of North Carolina.

Mullen is a known folklorist, arts consultant and the founding president of Artefactual. She also did a great deal of research and reporting for the construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.

Darity and Mullen will discuss topics found in their forthcoming book “From Here to Equality: Black Reparations in the 21st Century.” The event is sponsored by the Center for Civil Rights History and Research in partnership with the African American Studies program, the College of Education and the College of Social Work’s I. DeQuincey Newman Institute for Peace and Social Justice.

A joint initiative of the College of Arts and Sciences and University Libraries, the Center for Civils Rights History and Research seeks to bring our civil rights history to life and inspire an informed dialogue about today’s social justice issues.