July 13th 2023.
The town of Evanston, Illinois is leading the charge to become the first city in the United States to provide reparations to Black residents. According to Newsweek, the city expects to give $25,000 each to nearly 140 residents by the end of the year. In a memo from Tasheik Kerr, assistant to the city manager, it was reported that 48 of those eligible have already been met with, and 16 have already received payments.
One of those recipients is Louis Weathers, an 88-year-old retired postal worker who was a native of the historically Black Fifth Ward until 1969 when he was able to move to a predominantly white neighborhood due to law changes. Weathers recalled needing to threaten filing a complaint with the real estate board just to be able to sign a sales contract for him and his wife to buy a house.
The Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 gave a new impetus to the reparations discussion at the federal level. Evanston has been working on its program since 2019, when it committed to providing $10 million over the next 10 years to local reparations. The program was approved for eligible Black residents in 2021, and it provides housing grants for down payments, repairs, or existing mortgages in order to address past racist housing policies.
The reparations program is funded through a 3% tax on recreational marijuana and a real estate transfer tax, which has generated a little over $1 million in revenue so far. Justin Hansford, head of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University, sees Evanston's move as a great example for others to follow, saying, “I see it as like a test run for the whole country.”
California is also in the news for its fight for reparations for Black residents. In January, the San Francisco Reparations Committee advocated for a payback program with the recommended sum of $5 million each. It is clear that Evanston's plan is setting a great example for other cities and states to follow.
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