“There are a lot of things happening locally,” said Justin Hansford, a law professor and director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University.

“Reparations are going to happen locally first, and then later on, there’s likely to be a national response as well.”

In partnership with Columbia University, Howard University last week launched a project to identify and support local efforts to provide redress to African Americans – both for slavery and for racially motivated crimes.

Called the U.S. African American Redress Network, it details more than 100 efforts to make good, ranging from public apologies to compensation in the form of scholarships or cash.