The Advisory Council on Reparations follows a national effort to study and repair institutional and systemic racial injustice at the community level.

United Way of Washtenaw County will soon launch a brand-new series of community talks on racial inequity.

ANN ARBOR – The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Just Futures Initiative has awarded the University of Michigan two $5 million grants. Led by professors Stephanie Fryberg and Earl Lewis, the grant money will be used over the next three years to fund projects that address racial inequity. Fryberg is a professor of psychology and a University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor. Lewis is the Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies and Public Policy. In total, the Mellon Foundation awarded more then $72 million in grant funding for 16 arts, humanities and social sciences projects across the U.S.

DETROIT – A hospital in Indiana is promising a full review of the treatment of a Black doctor who died from coronavirus days before Christmas. READ: Black doctor who grew up in Michigan dies of COVID after racist treatment complaintsMoore got her medical degree from the University of Michigan in 2002 and studied engineering at Kettering University in Flint. Moore was admitted to Indiana University Health North Hospital after testing positive for COVID-19. Dennis Murphy, President and CEO of Indiana University HealthThe coronavirus pandemic has disproportionately impacted Black men and women. In response, the state of Michigan started the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities and required implicit bias training for health professionals.

A Michigan task force has been conducting research and implementing new protocols to help improve conditions for minority communities who have been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic -- and they have seen some notable progress so far. Gretchen Whitmer established the Michigan Coronavirus Task Force on Racial Disparities to address issues leading to the disproportionate havoc the pandemic has wreaked on communities of color compared to white communities. Since the task force was created, more than 20 “Neighborhood Testing sites” have been established in previously-underserved communities throughout Michigan, the state reports. Moving forward, the group intends to close the “digital divide” by ensuring minority communities have better access to internet, telehealth services and virtual learning. “It’s clear that the work of this task force ... has made significant progress in protecting families, frontline workers, and small businesses in communities of color,” said Celeste Sanchez Lloyd, task force member and community program manager for Strong Beginnings at Spectrum Health.