When it comes to making good on its commitment to pay reparations to its Black citizens, Evanston, Illinois, is the first city in the United States to do so.
In 2019, the city promised to invest $10 million over a decade in local repairs. Two years later, to make up for the city’s discriminatory housing regulations, a program was created to provide qualifying Black people with $25,000 housing subsidies for down payments, renovations, or current mortgages.
The city of Evanston is collecting money for its program through a 3% tax on recreational marijuana sales and a real estate transfer tax on selling houses worth more than $1 million. According to the Evanston Round Table, city officials estimate $1.18 million in income to have been produced thus far.
The national crisis over racial injustice that followed the police shooting of George Floyd in 2020 revitalized interest in federal reparations efforts that had languished for decades.
According to a document written by the city’s assistant manager, Tasheik Kerr, the administration has met with 48 qualified people to receive rewards. According to the local media, the payments have been sent to sixteen of them.
The city of Evanston plans to provide $25,000 to 140 citizens, primarily seniors, by the end of the year. We have sent an email to the city manager’s office for comment.
Retired postal worker and Korean War veteran Louis Weathers, 88, is among the recipients.
He informed the newspaper that he had spent his whole life in the predominantly Black Fifth Ward until racial segregation restrictions began to loosen in 1969, at which point he was free to relocate to a predominantly white area.
You or your ancestor must have been a Black resident of Evanston between 1919 and 1969 and have experienced housing discrimination to qualify.
Former Alderwoman Robin Rue Simmons led the charge for the city of Evanston’s reparations initiative.
The Black Reparations Task Force in California delivered its historic two-year report to state lawmakers at the end of last month. The study included more than one hundred recommendations. However, politicians are skeptical that reparations would be accepted due to the high cost of the proposed financial settlement.
Reparations may cost California over $800 billion, but the state is already expected to run a deficit of $31.5 billion this fiscal year.
