Changing the Story, Healing the Nation: A Spotlight on Radical Reparations
★★★★★ Review by Jeff Geoffray
At the 431 Exchange, we do more than offer scholarships. We aim to change minds and hearts—by helping people understand the systemic barriers that block economic justice and educational opportunity, and by lifting up the truth-tellers and visionaries who are showing us a better path forward.
One such voice is sociologist Marcus Anthony Hunter, whose new book Radical Reparations: Healing the Soul of a Nation is a landmark achievement. Published by Amistad, an imprint of HarperCollins, the book challenges the tired idea that reparations are just about money. Instead, Hunter presents a sweeping framework—Political, Intellectual, Legal, Economic, Social, Spatial, and Spiritual—for what true repair looks like.
“Healing begins when we change the story we tell about who we are—and who we’re meant to be.”
Hunter’s brilliance lies in his ability to blend scholarship with imagination. In one unforgettable story, he reclaims the legacy of Charles “Buddy” Bolden, the father of jazz, who was nearly lost to history. Through Bolden’s story—and through Hunter’s deep reverence for New Orleans—he calls for intellectual reparations: the long-overdue public recognition of Black ideas, artistry, and invention.
Like The Souls of Black Folk or The Fire Next Time, this book is more than a call to action. It’s a literary act of repair. And like our work at the 431 Exchange, it starts with a powerful belief: that healing begins when we change the story we tell about who we are—and who we’re meant to be.