Black scholar Earl Lewis on the Floyd murder and reparations

Reparations, Earl Lewis says, are not about the past.

Rather, they are very much about the present, says the founding director of the University of Michigan Center for Social Solutions. Earlier this year, he notes, Evanston, Illinois, became the first U.S. city to pay eligible Black residents restitution for previous city policies that were racist.

And, he says, reparations can be part of the future. This year, Lewis’ initiative, called “Crafting Democratic Futures: Situating Colleges and Universities in Community-based Reparations Solutions,” received a $5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The money will be used to organize programs among nine universities and their surrounding communities that will consider what a reparations plan might include.

The Associated Press spoke recently with Lewis, 65, about reparations and his other work, including as a featured speaker at a forthcoming event, “America’s Racial Reckoning: What Nonprofits and Their Funders Should Do Next,” a free virtual program co-sponsored by The Associated Press, the Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Conversation, on June 23.

Lewis, who is the Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and public policy at the University of Michigan, received a Ph.D. in history from the University of Minnesota. He co-edited the 11-volume Young Oxford History of African Americans and was president of the Mellon Foundation from 2013 to 2018.

The interview was edited for clarity and length.

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Q: WHY FOCUS ON REPARATIONS NOW?

A: This project came out of a set of national moments of reckoning after the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor among others. In late August, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation sent out an invitation to scholars around the...