Evanston, Illinois First in US to Pay Reparations to Black Residents

The City Council in Evanston, Ill., voted 8-1 late Monday to approve a plan to make reparations available to Black residents over past discrimination and the lingering effects of slavery.

The plan, which could be the first of its kind in the U.S., is to distribute $400,000 to eligible Black households. The Associated Press reported that qualifying households in the city of 73,000 would be eligible to receive $25,000 for home repairs or down payments on property.

Ald. Robin Rue Simmons, the lawmaker who proposed the initiative back in 2019, called the approval a first step but said more needs to be done.

“It is, alone, not enough,” she said, according to the Chicago  Tribune. “We all know that the road to repair and justice in the Black community is going to be a generation of work. {snip}”

She told the New York Times, “It is the reckoning. We’re really proud as a city to be leading the nation toward repair and justice.”

The funding for the program will come from the 3% tax on the sale of recreational marijuana and donations. The city expects to spend about $10 million over 10 years.

Qualifying residents must either have lived in or been a direct descendant of a Black person who lived in Evanston between 1919 to 1969 and who suffered discrimination in housing because of city ordinances, policies or practices.

Simmons said pro-reparations groups have offered pro-bono legal assistance if the program is challenged in court.

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