During the summer of 2020 rumors about human trafficking spread on social media like wildfire. They implicated celebrities like Tom Hanks and Ellen DeGeneres, as well as the online home-goods retailer Wayfair. These rumors are unfounded.
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.