Students and the community gathered in January for a screening and discussion of  The Cost of Inheritance: An America ReFramed Special.  The film explores the complex issue of reparations in the U.S. using a thoughtful approach to history, historical injustices, systemic inequities, and critical dialogue on racial conciliation. Through personal narratives, community inquiries, and scholarly insights, it aims to inspire the understanding of the scope and rationale of the reparations debate.

The film was created as part of the Crafting Democratic Futures project.  This three-year initiative funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation brings together colleges and universities around the country with communities to develop suggestions for racial reparations solutions. Housed within the Center for Social Solutions at the University of Michigan, the CDF project is a national network of humanities scholars located at nine colleges and universities across the country to develop research-informed, community-based reparations plans for each location. Three of these are in Georgia: Emory University, Spelman College and Wesleyan College.  

Professors from Emory and Spelman met on a panel to share their ongoing research.  Emory's professors, including Dr. Carol Anderson, Dr. Janeria Easley and Dr. Jessica Lynn Stewart, are collecting oral histories from community members that address education, housing and economics and entrepreneurship.  They approach these topics by asking questions like what was lost, and what will it take to heal?  

Spelman's research, led by Dr. Cynthia Neal Spence, aims to yield a body of knowledge that will inform public-facing strategies for reparations.  They have been collecting oral histories from descendants of formerly slave-owning and enslaved families in the Port Wentworth-Savannah area.  These histories are also supporting the work of the Quarterman-Keller Scholars Program.  

This project hopes to bring awareness to the growing research into reparations, and what it can mean to local communities.  

The Cost of Inheritance, an America ReFramed Special is available to stream online here, and on the PBS Video app on your smart tv.