An activity I would design for students related to reparations:

I would ask them to listen to the NPR All Things Considered on the “40 acres and a mule” plan of General Sherman. Here is what they would be invited to do afterwards:

1. Find out how much 40 acres and a mule was worth (cost) in 1865
2. Find out how much a healthy adult slave tended to be auctioned for
3. Find out how much economic value the average healthy adult slave contributed to the average plantation, and make a claim for how much the black agricultural worker should have been paid for his labor
4. Adjusting for inflation, find out how much 40 acres and a mule would be worth today
5. Make a case for a 2024 equivalent to 40 acres and a mule that could be plausibly offered to all American descendants of slaves
6. Discuss the pros and cons of reparations schemes.