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Pathway to Justice: Reparations Are the Antidote to Inequality.

This is an open resource and we welcome you to share, copy or reproduce it freely. 

Content warning: This booklet contains mentions of violence against Black people, slavery, and generational trauma. This material can be difficult, so please come to it when you feel able.

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Reparations

Rep•a•ra•tions /re-pə-ˈrā-shən/

        1  a: a repairing or keeping in repair

            b: reparations plural: REPAIRS

        2  a: the act of making amends, offering expiation, or giving satisfaction for a wrong or injury

            b: something done or given as amends or satisfaction

At Lush, we believe that reparations are the antidote to inequality. As a business committed to social, animal and climate justice, we campaign on issues that make our communities stronger, more diverse and safe for all. It was our friends at the Decolonizing Wealth Project (DWP) and the incredible work of Edgar Villanueva that opened the door to our learning about the urgent need for reparations in the United States and encouraged Lush to join the movement centering healing and restoration.

The DWP series, “Realizing Reparations”, in collaboration with Yes! Magazine, provided a meaningful starting place for our research as to the role Lush could play before joining a gathering of reparations activists convened by DWP. At DWP’s conference in 2023, we crossed paths with Damario Soloman-Simmons, founder of Justice for Greenwood, whose powerful work to win reparations for the survivors and descendants of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre ignited our passion to share this history and ongoing legacy of harm with our customers.

Through co-creating a campaign and the documentary, “Greenwood Is Still Burning”, we were able to reach millions with the message that justice for Greenwood will allow all of us to move forward together.

The reparations movement is vibrant, diverse and deeply powerful and is tirelessly advancing an agenda to ensure freedom and equality are real for all. This work is exemplified in these four essays, authored by incredible community leaders, which aim to widen the readers’ understanding of the critical need for reparations, in order for the United States to heal its histories of harm.

We are grateful to our partners across the reparations movement for their ongoing support and collaboration, and are committed to fight alongside them until justice is realized.

Our Authors

Reparations in The United States — Only the Highest Standard

Kamm Howard (he/him) is a national and international reparations scholar and activist working for over 20 years building grassroots movements to obtain reparations for African descendants in the United States. Prior to founding Reparations United, from 2006-2022 he served as the National Co-Chair of The National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America, or N’COBRA.

To learn more about this work, visit reparationsunited.org and follow on Instagram @kammhoward.

Reparations: History-in-the-Making

Nkechi Taifa (she/her) is a civil and human rights attorney, scholar, and activist. She serves as President & CEO of The Taifa Group and Director of the Reparation Education Project. She is the author of bestseller memoir, “Black Power, Black Lawyer”, the story of the rebellious journey of a girl coming of age during the Black power era and the social justice lawyer she becomes, and “Reparations on Fire”. Watch Nkechi Taifa’s TEDx Talk: Reparations: An Issue Whose Time Has Come.

To learn more about this work, visit ReparationEducationProject.org and follow on Instagram @nkechitaifa.

Solidarity as the Pathway to Liberation

Trevor Smith (he/him) is an artist and narrative strategist who writes and researches on topics such as racial inequality, the racial wealth gap, and reparations. 

Savannah Romero (she/her) is an enrolled member of the Eastern Shoshone Tribe. She is a writer, poet, storyteller, and educator who explores the confluences of colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, land-body relations, and memory.

As co-founders of the BLIS Collective, Trevor and Savannah work to strengthen narrative infrastructure across Black, Indigenous, and progressive social movements. To learn more about the BLIS Collective visit BLIScollective.org and follow on Instagram at @blis_collective.

Getting Free: Continuing the Work of the Civil Rights Movement to Protect and Deepen our Freedoms and Secure a Multi-Racial Democracy

Nicole Carty (she/her) is the Executive Director of Get Free, a youth-led movement focused on repairing past harms, removing ongoing barriers to equality, and realizing a future where freedom is for all. She is a movement strategist, digital organizer, campaigner, and trainer born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, and has over a decade of experience studying and supporting movements to further racial, gender, and economic justice.

To learn more about Get Free visit GetFreeTogether.org and follow on Instagram at @GetFree_MVMT.

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