The city of Evanston, Illinois, will distribute $25,000 payments to 44 residents as part of its ongoing local reparations initiative, the city’s Reparations Committee announced.
The program, established in 2019 and formally approved by the Evanston City Council in 2021, provides direct cash payments to eligible black residents and descendants of black residents who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969. City officials have said the payments are intended to address past housing discrimination and related inequities.
Evanston became the first city in the United States to adopt a reparations plan, pledging to allocate $10 million over a 10-year period. The $25,000 payments are designated to cover housing-related expenses, according to city official Cynthia Vargas, who spoke to the Chicago Tribune.
During a meeting last week, Tasheik Kerr, assistant to the city manager, said the 44 approved recipients would be contacted in the coming weeks to inform them that their payments are forthcoming.
According to a city memo, the reparations fund recently received $276,588 from Evanston’s real estate transfer tax. The committee also discussed the possibility of taxing Delta-8 THC products as a way to generate additional revenue to sustain the program.
Ald. Krissie Harris acknowledged that such a tax would not dramatically increase funding but said it would contribute to progress.
“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 reparations fund had not received any philanthropic donations this year and is currently supported primarily by revenue from a local cannabis sales tax and real estate transfer taxes.
The program has faced legal challenges. Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the city last year, arguing that the race-based eligibility criteria violate 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 the lawsuit was filed.
Evanston’s initiative comes amid broader national discussions about reparations. Lawmakers in several states have introduced proposals, and some municipalities have created commissions or task forces to study the legacy of slavery and discriminatory policies and to explore potential forms of compensation.
READ NEXT: House Democrats Reintroduce Reparations Bill
Money taken from those who were not any part of the problem of discrimination and given to people who were most likely not in that city during that discrimination. Makes sense to me … NOT!
How does anyone PROVE who was actually discriminated against, and if they even lived in that city during that time frame?
YES, discrimination MUST be removed from any and every part of American life. But giving to those who were not necessarily discriminated against is DUMB!
And illegal according to the U.S. Constitution!
Be aware: there is but ONE color. The rest is simply skin tint caused by proximity to the sun.
There is but ONE race. THE HUMAN RACE.
As MLK said … ‘..content of character, NOT ‘color’ of skin’!