Bergenfield Public Library, Englewood Public Library, Fort Lee Public Library, Hackensack’s Johnson Public Library, and Teaneck Public Library have partnered to host authors and scholars A. Kirsten Mullen and William Darity, Jr. for a virtual discussion of their book From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century on Thursday, January 14 at 7:00pm.

From Here to Equality examines the economic divide between black and white Americans and makes a comprehensive case for how a reparations program for U.S. descendants of slavery could close that gap. Mullen and Darity assert that today’s black-white wealth gap originated with the unfulfilled promise of 40 acres in 1865, and that the payment of this debt in the 21st century is feasible—and at least 155 years overdue.