Reparations Now

Reparations now

July 4th, 2026 marks 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The wounds of slavery did not end with emancipation. Through racial violence, Jim Crow, redlining, and more, the country has compounded harm across generations. The Reparations Now campaign exists because repair is not optional, it is owed. In partnership with Liberation Ventures, the Reparations now campaign translates federal reparations research into culture-shifting visual art — reaching classrooms, city streets, and communities nationwide.

Liberation Ventures hosted the Week of Repair, a national campaign running from Juneteenth through July 4th, 2026. As the United States marks 250 years, this campaign confronts what remains undone — actively seeking to repair the harm of the last two and a half centuries by centering truth, accountability, and the diverse realities of Black and Indigenous communities. The work is organized around four pillars that speak to every dimension of healing: Repair is Personal. Repair is Love. Repair is Community. Repair is the Future.

Most people think of reparations simply as financial compensation — but the United Nations definition goes much further. Reparations is a human rights framework. True repair requires reckoning with harm, public acknowledgement, and systemic redress for the people who experienced gross human rights violations, their families, and broader society. Applied to U.S. chattel slavery and its legacies — racial violence, Jim Crow, lynching, redlining, segregation, gentrification, mass incarceration, and more.

Three commissioned artists developed powerful visual and narrative tools rooted in the UN definition of reparations translated for broad public audiences — Bee Harris, Noa Denmon, and Jeni Jenkins. The work reframes reparations as an internationally recognized framework for accountability and healing.