More than four dozen Evanston residents are set to receive $25,000 payments as part of the city’s ongoing reparations initiative, officials confirmed this week.
According to Fox News, the city’s Reparations Committee announced that 44 qualifying residents will be issued direct cash payments in the coming weeks.
The program, first established in 2019 and approved by the City Council in 2021, provides compensation to Black residents and descendants of Black residents who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969.
Evanston made national headlines as the first city in the United States to adopt a formal reparations plan.
Leaders pledged to distribute $10 million over 10 years to address historical discrimination experienced by Black residents.
The $25,000 payments are intended to assist with housing-related expenses, Evanston official Cynthia Vargas told the Chicago Tribune.
Tasheik Kerr, assistant to the city manager, said during a meeting last week that recipients will soon be notified.
“They will be contacted to inform them their payments are on the way over the next few weeks,” Kerr said.
According to a city memo, the reparations fund recently received $276,588 from Evanston’s real estate transfer tax. Committee members also discussed the possibility of taxing Delta-8 THC products as a way to sustain funding in the future.
Ald. Krissie Harris acknowledged that such a tax would not dramatically boost revenue but said it could still contribute to the effort.
“It’s really important for people to understand we pay as we have the money, and it’s not that we’re withholding from paying everyone,” Harris said, according to The Daily Northwestern. “It’s just we have to accumulate the funds to make sure we can pay.”
As of Jan. 31, the fund had not received any philanthropic donations this year. It is primarily supported by cannabis sales tax revenue and money generated from the real estate transfer tax.
The program has faced legal challenges. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit last year arguing that limiting eligibility based on race violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
“To date, Evanston has awarded over $6,350,000 to 254 individuals based on their race. The city must be stopped before it spends even more money on this clearly discriminatory and unconstitutional reparations program,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said at the time.
Evanston’s plan comes amid broader discussions nationwide, as state and local governments explore proposals to examine the legacy of slavery and consider possible compensation frameworks.
