It's partly an interesting fact. Too many people fall for American exceptionalism with regard to slavery. The more I study the subject, the less exceptional American slavery seems.

As for the continuing effects, we start with King's solution, Basic Income.

I also recommend Bright's book, as well as Douglass's three autobiographies. I wrote about him here: https://medium.com/a-universalist-in-an-identitarian-age/why-i-love-frederick-douglass-and-the-1619-project-wants-to-erase-him-1eef9cbb7217