In the past five years, the debate over reparations for slavery has intensified, with voices as varied as writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, columnist David Brooks, and a handful of Democratic presidential candidates coming down on either side of the issue. At the heart of the debate is the question of what form reparations might take. Columbia professor Katherine Franke provides an answer with Repair, a compelling exploration of the years immediately following the Civil War, when experiments in reparations were conducted in two southern states. Franke will explain how racial inequality remained embedded in those efforts, leading to their failure, as well as what we can learn from the past as we consider reparations in the present.

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