Editorial Standards

Historical accuracy

We report on American slavery, its aftermath and the case for reparations as documented history, not myth. When a date, figure or quotation appears in our work, we aim to tie it to a record a reader can check.

Where historians disagree or numbers are estimates, we say so and describe the range rather than presenting one figure as settled.

Primary and secondary sources

We prefer primary sources: government records, statutes, bill text, court decisions, census and archival documents. We use respected secondary sources — scholarship, reporting and institutional research — for context and analysis, and we name them.

Where an article lists sources, they appear at the end of the piece, linked when a public copy is available.

Reporting, analysis and advocacy

Reparations News centers Foundational Black Americans and lineage: we hold that reparations are a debt owed to descendants of American slavery, not charity. We state that position openly.

We keep facts separate from argument. News and legislative updates describe what has happened; analysis and opinion pieces are labeled by their category. Tools such as the Debt Visualizer show illustrative calculations, not official or legal compensation amounts.

Corrections

If we get something wrong, we want to fix it. Readers can report an error through our contact page. When we correct a material fact, we update the article and its "Updated" date.

AI-generated illustrations

Some article artwork is created with AI image tools to illustrate themes such as land, labor and inheritance. These images are illustrations, not historical photographs or documents, and they are not presented as evidence. Archival records and real photographs are identified as such.

Representing Foundational Black American history

We distinguish the lineage claim of descendants of people enslaved in the United States from other national or diaspora claims, while respecting those histories. We aim to describe our ancestors with dignity and to center the families owed.