Illinois City Becomes First in US To Institute Reparation Payments for Black Residents

A Chicago suburb on Monday approved a reparations program of housing grants to black residents, creating what has been hailed as the first government-funded slavery reparations program.

The Evanston, Illinois, City Council voted 8-1 to establish a $400,000 housing grant program, according to the Chicago Tribune. The program is targeted at remedying past housing discrimination in the city.

The project comes at a time when Congress is debating whether to create a federal commission on the issue of reparations for slavery.

Evanston has set aside $10 million in revenue from its marijuana sales tax for reparations-linked projects. This was the first to be approved.

The money is available in $25,000 homeownership and improvement grants as well as mortgage assistance for black residents.

According to a memo in support of the law, those getting the grants must have “origins in any of the Black racial and ethnic groups of Africa.” Applicants must either have lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 or be a direct descendant of someone who did. Applicants can also qualify if they were discriminated against in housing after 1969.

Alderwoman Robin Rue Simmons, a Democratic council member who first called for the program in 2019, said it is just the beginning of Evanston’s reparations efforts.

“It is, alone, not enough,” Simmons told the Tribune. “We all know that the road to repair and justice in the black community is going to be a generation of work. It’s going to be many programs and initiatives, and more funding.”

About 16 percent of Evanston’s 75,000 people are black, according to The Washington Post