Author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a landmark essay, “The Case for Reparations” in 2014 in the Atlantic, that is credited with forcing Americans to look in the mirror and think about slavery, Jim Crow, and redlining in ways that many had never done before. The essay helped bring the topic of reparations to the level of serious policy proposal in a a congressional hearing, where Coates testified on June 19, 2019. Despite this, Coates said he doesn’t see his role as one of an activist.
