PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Ten million dollars’ worth of reparations are headed toward residents of this New England city. But on a recent Friday night, change felt 10 million miles away to residents in a Black neighborhood that has never recovered from being chopped in half by an interstate highway.

“We’ve talked about it for years. Reparations, reparations, reparations. I’m a person where, hey, listen, deliver. Delivery is everything,” said Kenny Phillips, co-owner of the 148 Pavillion Bar & Lounge, a low-slung cinderblock building in South Providence near the Thurbers Avenue Curve, where northbound Interstate 95 bends left toward downtown.

 “I don’t think it will ever happen,” Bertha Araujo, 67, said on her way out of the bar.  

But once they heard more about the details of Providence’s plan to fund an array of programs aimed at closing the racial wealth and equity gap, there was optimism. “As long as it’s helping someone in the Black community, I’m for it,” Araujo said.

“If you can start the conversation, get people used to talking about it, get them comfortable talking about it, the delivery of it can be multifaceted,” said Phillips. “We’re talking about longevity. We’re talking about making an impact on the future. We’re talking about generational impact, and that’s…