An annual day where all NYC public schools engage in reading, discussion, and art focused on the history and legacy of slavery and the case for reparations.
The Reparations Read-In Citywide Curriculum Day
To ground his push for municipal reparations in public understanding, Zhoran Mamdani institutes an annual Reparations Read-In day across all NYC public schools. On this day, normal curriculum is paused. Instead, students, teachers, and staff engage in age-appropriate readings, discussions, films, and art projects focused on the history of transatlantic slavery, its economic foundations, its ongoing legacies in NYC (from redlining to police violence), and the contemporary movement for reparative justice. High school students might study Ta-Nehisi Coatess The Case for Reparations; elementary students might read picture books about resilience and repair.
The day is designed not to induce guilt, but to build shared knowledge, foster empathy, and create a common factual foundation for the citys reparations policy debate. It includes opportunities for students to share their own family histories and to envision what repair could look like in their communities. You cannot repair a breach you do not acknowledge, Mamdani explains. The Read-In is our collective act of acknowledgment. It ensures that every generation of New Yorkers understands the deep roots of our racial inequities and is equipped to participate in the healing process. It makes education a tool for historical truth and future justice.
