The Samuel DuBois Cook Center is a scholarly collaborative that studies the causes and consequences of inequality and develops remedies for these disparities and their adverse effects.
Cook Center Founding Director William A. “Sandy” Darity, Jr., along with writer A. Kirsten Mullen, were recently interviewed by WUNC North Carolina Public Radio to discuss research from their edited volume The Black Reparations Project: A Handbook for Racial Justice. This research demonstrates a direct connection between slavery and today’s racial wealth gap. In the audio…
Dr. Darity was quoted in the Richmond Free Press about the failure of Reconstruction to provide freedmen and freedwomen with land following the Civil War. “There would’ve been a territory ranging from the Sea Islands to northern Florida that would’ve been essentially a coastal Black belt community,” he said. Instead, he noted, Black Americans remained…
While many Black Americans have been celebrating Juneteenth since 1865, the holiday has often been overlooked by non-Black Americans. This hour, we look at the tradition of the holiday and recognize its importance as a time to learn more about Black history in the U.S. Alliah L. Agostini is a mom and children’s book author. Her…
Founding Director William Darity Jr. co-authored a new literature review in The BMJ that directly addresses one of the most persistent critiques of reparations: the claim that no feasible plan exists. The proposal outlines direct monetary payments as the clearest economic measure of the cumulative and intergenerational effects of white supremacy. The article argues that…
Cook Center Director William A. Darity Jr. will be among the featured speakers at an upcoming public hearing hosted by the New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies (NYSCCRR) on Saturday, March 21st, 2026, in Staten Island, New York. The hearing, titled “Economic Development: Quantifying Harms,” is part of the Commission’s statewide effort to…
New research co-authored by Faculty Affiliate Sarah Gaither, Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience at Duke University, explores how something as routine as demographic forms can influence feelings of inclusion and identity among marginalized communities. Published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, the study—“Enumeration or Exclusion? Demographic Forms and Latine Identity”—investigates how demographic questions may…
