Pittsburgh’s “Crafting Democratic Futures Project” is part of a three-year five million dollar grant: “Crafting Democratic Futures: Situating Colleges and Universities in Community-Based Reparations Solutions.” This project is funded by the A. W. Mellon Foundation, under Principal Investigator Dr. Earl Lewis, Director of the Center for Social Solutions (CSS) at the University of Michigan. CAUSE is one of ten partners in this nationwide effort. Under the leadership of PI Joe William Trotter, Jr., Pittsburgh’s “Democratic Futures” project brings together college and university humanities scholars with community-based organizations and grassroots social activists to produce a comprehensive history of Pittsburgh’s African American experience from its inception during the late colonial era through recent times.By carefully documenting the myriad dimensions of social injustice in the city and region over time, this book will establish the empirical foundation for the development of “research-informed, community-engaged reparations plans” for the City of Pittsburgh and the larger metropolitan region. All along this journey, the Pittsburgh project will enlist the help of influential community partners in government and public service; the religious and philanthropic communities; and the organized labor, entrepreneurial, and business sectors of the city’s variegated political economy. Our collaborators will assist in researching, writing, understanding, interpreting, and forging solutions to systemic racial and class inequality across Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania.