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

Editor: Paul Singer

Editorial Assistant: Mara Mellits

Production oversight: Lee Hill

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Malik Williams

Artwork: Mamie-Hawa Bawoh & Matt Welch

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

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 whether Boston is really serious.

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Credits:

Host, Producer and Writer: Saraya Wintersmith

Senior Producer: Jerome Campbell

Editor: Paul Singer

Editorial Assistant: Mara Mellits

Production oversight: Lee Hill

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Malik Williams

Artwork: Mamie-Hawa Bawoh & Matt Welch

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins

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 legislation introduced by Rep. John Conyers in every session of the U.S. Congress since 1989 to create a national commission on reparations.

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Credits:

Host, Producer and Writer: Saraya Wintersmith

Senior Producer: Jerome Campbell

Editor: Paul Singer

Editorial Assistant: Mara Mellits

Production oversight: Lee Hill

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott

Theme Song and original music: Malik Williams

Artwork: Mamie-Hawa Bawoh & Matt Welch

Project Manager: Meiqian He

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins