In 2016, Dr. Earl Lewis convened a meeting on slavery among 40 principle collaborators—scholars, organizations, and instiutions—at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Out of this meeting came the "Slavery and Its Aftermath" initiative at the Center for Social Solutions. This project aims to tackle America’s original sin—slavery.
The latest reports estimate up to 3,000 women and children fleeing the violence in northwest Iraq have been captured and are at risk to be trafficked into modern-day forms of enslavement.