CLEAR Launches Federal Reparations Project
Professor Margaret Burnham welcomed attendees, who were provided with tools and insights to drive lasting change in their communities.
Photograph by Louie Reyna
A pivotal moment in the national dialogue on reparative justice took place at Mills College at Northeastern University during a February two-day conference, Towards Justice: Addressing Racial Violence, Advancing Legal Clarity and Restoring Community. Initiated by the Reparations Lab of the law school’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) and thereafter implemented by CRRJ and the law school’s Center for Law, Equity and Race (CLEAR), the federal reparations project aims to explore how the federal government can address harms associated with racial violence that are in part attributable to its failure to fulfill its law enforcement responsibilities in the years from 1885 to 1965.
“The lingering, multidimensional traces of historical racial violence have impeded our nation’s efforts to overcome past racial subordination and conflict,” said Professor Margaret Burnham, founder of CRRJ and faculty co-director of CLEAR. “This initiative provides us with a meaningful opportunity to reexamine and redress these atrocities.”
Descendants of victims of racial violence, whose cases are chronicled in CRRJ’s Burnham-Nobles Digital Archive, also spoke at the event, sharing their family histories and shedding light on the enduring legacy of historical racial violence. The second day of the conference was led by the Black Reparations Project, a collaborative effort between faculty and students at Mills College at Northeastern and UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy that is focused on promoting education and research on Black reparations policies and initiatives in California and across the nation.
The lingering, multidimensional traces of historical racial violence have impeded our nation’s efforts to overcome past racial subordination and conflict.
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“Do not waver in your commitment to do the right thing — focus on where you want to make a difference and apply that purpose to the work you do each day, each week and each year,” Lois Dehls Cornell ’86 told the 308 Northeastern Law graduates gathered at Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston’s Seaport on April 24 for the 2026 commencement.
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