What the U.S. Government Owes to Black Americans

Jun 28, 2023

Hundreds of movement leaders, activists, organizers, funders, and journalists gathered in Atlanta in June 2023 at , an invitation-only conference on reparations organized by the . As the conference鈥檚 media partner, 大象传媒 Media spoke with more than a dozen prominent organizers, activists, and leaders, among them House Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York.

Bowman was born and raised in New York City, spending his early years in public housing and rent-controlled apartments. He began his career as a crisis intervention teacher in a Bronx public school and has a doctorate in education. In 2009, he founded the Cornerstone Academy for Social Action, a middle school in the Bronx, where he served as principal for a decade before running for public office. He was elected to the House of Representatives after defeating the 16-term incumbent Eliot Engel in the 2020 Democratic primary.

Bowman spoke with 大象传媒 Racial Justice Editor Sonali Kolhatkar in Atlanta about his view of the movement for reparations and why the federal government needs to take immediate action.

This video is part of Realizing Reparations, an exclusive digital series exploring the leading edges of the reparations ecosystem鈥攁nd revealing a path toward healing and reconciliation.

This series was funded by a grant from Liberated Capital, a fund of the , which is led by Edgar Villanueva, of the Lumbee tribe, and works globally to disrupt the existing systems of moving and controlling capital using education and healing programs, radical reparative giving, and storytelling. Reporting and production of the series was funded by this grant, but 大象传媒 maintained full editorial control of the content published herein. Read our editorial independence policy.

Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽聽of the same name.