Getting to Reparations by Dorothy A. Brown

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Getting to Reparations

Name: Getting to Reparations
Price: 22.00 USD
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Author: Dorothy A. Brown
ISBN: 9798217165841

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Available on Jan 20, 2026 | 7 Hours 50 Minutes

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Available on Jan 20, 2026 | 7 Hours 50 Minutes

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A bold manifesto arguing that there is a clear precedent for paying reparations to atone for America’s original sin of slavery, offering a compelling legal strategy to achieve this goal—from the acclaimed author of The Whiteness of Wealth.

The idea of reparations is not a new or original one; it is one that is baked into American history.

When the District of Columbia Emancipation Act of 1862 went into effect, wealthy slaveowners like Margaret Barber were compensated for the loss of their enslaved workers. Barber received $9,000—an equivalent to $250,000 today. When a group of Italian immigrants were lynched in 1892, President Harrison compensated Italy a total of $25,000 for their deaths—an equivalent to almost $766,000 today. The Indian Claims Commission, an arm of the federal government, paid Indigenous Americans $818 million for underhandedly stealing their land in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries—an equivalent to almost $350 billion today.

Dorothy A. Brown addresses the glaring question: if reparations can be achieved for others, why not for Black Americans? If lynching can be remedied for Italian immigrants, and slaveholders compensated for losses associated with abolition and emancipation, then the government’s failure to provide such remedies to Black communities harmed by similar violence, loss, and destruction is long overdue. The fight for reparations is truly a fight for the soul of America, to produce the country our founding fathers idealized but never achieved.

Getting to Reparations makes a logical and necessary case for reparations for Black Americans. It lays out a path as to how we might achieve this, built on the frameworks used throughout U.S. history by the government to pay restitution. It is now time to do the same for America’s Black population.

“Dorothy Brown is offering oxygen to a democracy choking on lies, misdirection, and failing promise. Rather than merely describe this nation’s racist doctrine, Professor Brown offers a sober prescription. Sober not because it is hard—although it will be hard—but because making good on the nation’s debt to Black Americans is imminently doable. Getting to Reparations is the perfect mix of bold vision and practical strategy. Compelling stories call us to action while Brown’s deft guidance guides our way forward.”—Tressie McMillan Cottom, author of the National Book Award finalist Thick

“The incredible thinker and legal scholar Dorothy Brown does it again. With her clear prose and treasure trove of evidence, Brown challenges everyone who ever thought of reparations as a pipe dream and confronts them with a stellar argument and a rich analysis of the law. This book presents a pathway to reparations that is not only historically grounded but also legally rich in exposing the critical histories that must be studied and understood in order to move our recalcitrant nation toward an honest assessment of the debts that are owed and the harms that can never be fully repaired. A devastating and commanding read for anyone who wishes to create a better world and establish the foundations of a just future.”—Marcia Chatelain, author of the Pulitzer Prize–winning book Franchise

“Legal scholar Dorothy Brown has written a powerful book for anyone who questions seeking all forms of reparations for African Americans. Once a skeptic, she details in vivid prose previous chapters of governmental reparations in the United States and lays out a plan for doing so for Blacks. At this moment, a critical read.”—Dr. Earl Lewis, Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University, Professor at the University of Michigan

“A bracing history . . . A cogent argument for putting long-overdue dollars on the table to compensate for injuries past and present.”—Kirkus Reviews

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Author

Dorothy A. Brown

Dorothy A. Brown is a professor of law and the Martin D. Ginsburg Chair in Taxation at Georgetown University Law Center. She is also the author of The Whiteness of Wealth. A graduate of Fordham University and Georgetown Law, she received her LLM in taxation from New York University. A nationally recognized scholar in the areas of race, class, and tax policy, she has published dozens of articles, essays, and book chapters on the topic. She has appeared on ABC’s The View, CNN, MSNBC, PBS, NPR, The Armchair Expert, New Yorker Radio Hour, and Code Switch, and her opinion pieces have been published in The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Born and raised in the South Bronx in New York City, Dorothy Brown currently resides in Washington, D.C.

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Getting to Reparations

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