CLEAR Launches Federal Reparations Project at Pivotal Conference, Hosted by Mills College at Northeastern University

03.06.2025 – A pivotal moment in the national dialogue on reparative justice took place at Mills College at Northeastern University during a two-day conference, Towards Justice: Addressing Racial Violence, Advancing Legal Clarity, and Restoring Community. National leaders in the reparations movement joined experts and advocates in the field on February 27-28, 2025, to provide attendees with tools and insights to drive real, lasting change in their communities.

On day one of the conference, Northeastern University School of Law’s Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR) Managing Director Dr. Deborah A. Jackson introduced the hundreds of attendees, present in the historic Mills Hall, on Northeastern’s Oakland campus, and online, to the Federal Reparations: Lynching and Racial Violence Project.

“The opportunity to bring together experts in the reparations field from across the country to explore strategies and develop support for this historic initiative was an important first step,” said Jackson. “We look forward to expanding awareness and support as our work continues.”

Initiated by the Reparations Lab of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) and thereafter implemented by CRRJ and CLEAR, the federal reparations project aims to explore how the federal government can address harms associated with racial violence that are, in part, attributable to its failure to fulfill its law enforcement responsibilities in the years from 1885 to 1965.

“The lingering, multidimensional traces of historical racial violence have impeded our Nation’s efforts to overcome past racial subordination and conflict,” said Burnham. “This initiative provides us with a meaningful opportunity to re-examine and redress these atrocities.”

Speakers included Burnham, a nationally renowned expert on civil rights and restorative justice who serves as co-director of CLEAR and director of CRRJ; University of San Diego professor Roy Brooks, the author of more than 20 books, including Atonement and Forgiveness: A New Model for Black Reparations; and Stanford University professor Lerone Martin, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

Descendants of victims of racial violence, whose cases are chronicled in CRRJ’s Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive, also spoke at the event, sharing their family histories and shedding light on the enduring legacy of historical racial violence.

The second day was led by The Black Reparations Project, a collaborative effort between faculty and students at Mills College at Northeastern University and U.C. Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, focused on promoting education and research on Black reparations policies and initiatives in California and across the nation. Speakers on this day included Angela Glover Blackwell, chief vision officer of the Democracy Policy Initiative; Dr, Gayle Cummings, Assistant Dean and Public Health Program Director at the Touro University California; and Robin Rue Simmons, Executive Director at FirstRepair.

For more information on the conference and to access key resources, visit law.northeastern.edu/academics/centers/clear/towards-justice-conference-resources.

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