What is Owed?

Jun 19 2024 9 ep. 29 mins 48

What is Owed? Podcast artwork

Boston - like many cities around the US - has begun to wrestle with the notion of paying reparations to Black people to make up for 400 years of enslavement and economic exclusion. But in Boston, this debate is layered in history. It was here that slavery was first legalized in the American colonies; it was here that founders of American independence are buried alongside the Black people they enslaved; and it was here that legislation was introduced in the 1980s that became the model of a national bill calling for reparations - a bill that is still on agenda in the U.S Congress. In “What Is Owed?”, a new 7-part podcast, GBH News political reporter Saraya Wintersmith seeks to understand what reparations might look like in one of the oldest cities in America, uncovering the lessons for a successful reparations framework through the stories of its architects, past and present.

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Credits:

Host, Producer and Writer: Saraya Wintersmith

Senior Producer: Jerome Campbell

Editorial Assistant: Mara Mellits

Editor: Paul Singer

Production oversight: Lee Hill

Mixing & Sound Design: David Goodman and Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Malik Williams

Artwork: Matt Welch and Mamie-Hawa Bawoh

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Managing Producer for GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

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Episode 8 - What Could Boston Look Like After Reparations?

Jun 19 2024 40 mins

GBH News and The Emancipator — a digital magazine that reimagines the nation’s first abolitionist newspapers for a new day — convened a discussion to consider how Boston might change in the decades after reparations are enacted.

Episode 7 - Meanwhile, Back in Boston

Mar 28 2024 35 mins

Boston’s Mayor and members of the reparations task force speak about the progress made so far, the challenges going forward, and what they think reparations could actually look like.————-Credits:Host, Producer and Writer: Saraya Wintersmith Senior Producer: Jerome Campbell Editor: Paul SingerEditorial Assistant: Mara Mellits Production oversight: Lee Hill Mixing and Sound

Episode 6 - That Reluctant Conversation

Mar 21 2024 28 mins

We’re talking about the “R” words. Race. And Reparations. With Ibram X. Kendi, founder and director of the Boston University Center for Antiracist Research.————-Credits:Host, Producer and Writer: Saraya Wintersmith Senior Producer: Jerome Campbell Editor: Paul SingerEditorial Assistant: Mara Mellits Production oversight: Lee Hill Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman

Episode 5 - A Midwest Experiment

Mar 14 2024 31 mins

As Boston begins its first steps into considering reparations, we look at the city of Evanston, Illinois - which is already doing it. Evanston is the first city in the U.S. to enact municipally-funded reparations legislation. Robin Rue Simmons is a former city alderman who led the passage of the bill, which began disbursements in January 2022. In this episode, Rue Simmons and her c

Episode 4 - The Government’s Burden

Mar 07 2024 29 mins

Although reparations has been historically fought for by Black people, the duty will be ultimately carried out by the government. To understand this role, we look at one of the biggest reparation efforts launched in history – repaying survivors of the Nazi regime. In this episode, we focus on the reparations paid by the Austrian government in response to WWII and how the nation p

Episode 1 - When a City Tries to Heal Itself

Mar 03 2024 30 mins

Boston, a city entrenched in the history of the American Revolution, creates a task force to explore the city’s history of slavery and economic discrimination and to consider reparations for Black citizens. The effort is delicately balanced to navigate political challenges – and yet it is immediately beset with delay and mismanaging, leading some city residents to wonder whethe

EpIsode 3 - Defining the Debt

Feb 29 2024 30 mins

One of the biggest challenges for a local reparations effort is determining who should get repaid. Historically, the idea of reparations has been tied to the forsaken promise of 400,000 acres the U.S. government was going to give to formerly enslaved people due to the atrocities of slavery. However, the harms endured by Black people have not been confined to that period. We start t

Episode 2 - Bill Owens: Boston’s Reparations Trailblazer

Feb 22 2024 34 mins

We look back at the history of efforts in Boston to explore reparations, particularly through the lens of Sen. Bill Owens, the first Black member of the Massachusetts Senate. At the end of the 1980s, Owens, inspired by activism he had seen in Detroit, introduced a bill to pay reparations to Black descendants of enslaved people. That bill is credited as being a model for national le

Introducing What Is Owed?

Feb 01 2024 2 mins

Boston - like many cities around the US - has begun to wrestle with the notion of paying reparations to Black people to make up for 400 years of enslavement and economic exclusion. But in Boston, this debate is layered in history. It was here that slavery was first legalized in the American colonies; it was here that founders of American independence are buried alongside the Black