Today's edition
The Reporting Desk
Every investigation is reported on lineage — the debt owed to descendants of people enslaved in the United States — and cites the documents behind it. Read our editorial standards.
Lead investigation · Federal Ledger
The $14 Trillion Federal Balance Sheet: How Sovereign Debt Actually Gets Funded
America funds trillion-dollar commitments through Treasury borrowing and multi-year schedules. A reparations settlement fits the same machinery — the barrier is political, not fiscal.
“The barrier has never been the balance sheet. It is the decision to record the debt at all.”
6 min read · Reparations News Staff
Read the investigation
Federal Ledger & Policy
H.R. 40, Treasury debt modeling and the legislative sessions that decide the bill.
Municipal & State Audits
California, New York, Boston and the local task forces turning studies into payments.
State Policy
Did California Pass Reparations? Inside the Direct Cash Impasse
State Policy
California's Reparations Initiatives: What Has Actually Changed?
Reparations Updates
Reparations in America: New Laws, Growing Momentum, and the Fight for Economic Justice
Policy Analysis
How to Read a Reparations Task Force Report
Public Hearings
How to Testify at a Public Hearing
Institutional & Corporate Records
Banking, insurance, land tenure and the historical defaults on promises made.
Land & Property
Can Stolen Black Land Be Returned? Historic Land Loss Reaches the Courts
Financial Records
Who Profited From American Slavery?
Corporate Records
The Business of Slavery: How Enslaved Black Americans Built America's Wealth
Reconstruction
The Land That Was Promised: What Happened to Forty Acres and a Mule?
Property Records
Tracing Stolen Land: What Property Records Reveal
Slavery Era
The Economic Legacy of American Slavery
Lineage & Delineation Forensics
The 1870 Census line, genealogy standards and demographic data.
Campus & Young Organizers
HBCU organizing, student debt against the wealth gap and lineage caucuses led by young people.
Open Campus & Young Organizers →
Live dispatch
American News Wire
Local News Feed
Recent reporting on reparations bills and community efforts across the United States.
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