It's the Brian Lear Show on WNYC.

Welcome back everyone.

I'm Arun Venical Paul from the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom.

If you haven't been paying close attention to debate over whether black Americans are

owed reparations is no longer confined to intellectual spaces but has slowly been gaining momentum

with actual lawmakers in actual municipalities and states across the country.

It was about nine years ago that Tana Hussie Coast wrote his seminal piece in the Atlantic,

the case for reparations.

Since then, and especially since the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, we're seeing

elected officials make their own case in cities like Providence, Rhode Island, and

Evanston, Illinois, and in the state of California.

Now the reparations debate is about to take off in New Jersey with a series of public hearings

starting tomorrow evening, that's Tuesday.

But in this case, it's being led by private citizens rather than public officials.

So today, we're going to hear why regular people in the garden state are taking up the

cause of reparations instead of their elected representatives.

And we're going to hear what they hope to accomplish.

Joining us now is Ryan P. Heygood.

He is the president and CEO of the New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, which is convened

the New Jersey Reparations Council.

Hi, Ryan.

Thanks for joining us.

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