大象传媒

Residents of Evanston, Illinois, filed into the Evanston Township High School Auditorium for the reparations committee鈥檚 on Jan. 11, 2024. People braved the cold winter weather to wait patiently through the meeting鈥檚 public comments, musical performances, and education sessions for the announcement of the order in which the next set of residents would receive their reparations funds.

鈥淭his information will be available starting Tuesday or Wednesday of next week on the web page and also at ,鈥� announced Robin Rue Simmons, chair of the Evanston Reparations Committee. 鈥淪o city staff will be available outside to tell you what your selection number is if you can鈥檛 see them on the screen.鈥�

An Excel spreadsheet with unique identifiers for the 454 direct descendants eligible for the second round of housing reparations benefits was projected onto a wall, illuminating the dark space. A gleeful countdown and a click of the sort button prompted cheers and applause from the crowd. The document scrolled for several minutes while residents searched for their numbers on the list.

鈥淭he number [doesn鈥檛] matter,鈥� Rue Simmons told the audience. 鈥淲hat matters is the ranking. What place you will be.鈥�

WATCH: How Towns and Cities Are Implementing Reparations

Evanston is the first city in the United States to make financial reparations to its Black residents. Through its , the city gives $25,000 to eligible residents for mortgage assistance, renovations, or a down payment on a home. A later city council vote added a direct cash payment.

Rue Simmons, a former Evanston alderwoman, learned of the local harm to the Black community during her tenure as an elected official. She concluded that the only acceptable legislative tool to advance justice for the Black community was reparations, and thereafter proposed a reparations program in 2019.

鈥淭here had been a legacy of slavery in our city,鈥� Rue Simmons says. 鈥淛im Crow-era laws, were keeping us racially separated and segregated.鈥�

Before Rue Simmons presented her motion, the , whose members are approved by the city council, held public meetings starting in January 2018, where commission members explored what reparations were needed and wanted, who could be eligible, and how those reparations would be funded. Those conversations led to the Commission鈥檚 first set of recommendations to the Evanston City Council to distribute reparations to Black residents. The council approved the final bill in March 2021.

鈥淎t that time, we approved it with three priorities that were based on community engagement, and the first was housing. That鈥檚 the area of redress that gets the most attention in Evanston,鈥� Rue Simmons says. 鈥淏ut it also included economic development and educational initiatives.鈥� The bill also 鈥渆stablished our reparations committee and seeded the fund with the first $10 million of our recreational cannabis sales tax,鈥� explains Rue Simmons.

Although the economic development and educational initiatives are still being programmed, Evanston has made strides in offering reparations for housing. Rue Simmons says the city has dispersed around $3 million in direct benefits to those prioritized as suffering direct harm鈥擝lack people who were adults aged 18 and over between 1919 and 1969.

鈥淭here were 140 that fall in that category,鈥� says Rue Simmons, who is now the founder and executive director of , a nonprofit focused on advancing local reparations in cities across the country. 鈥淭hey were all about 70 years and older. We even had one recipient that celebrated his 100th birthday.鈥�

have been part of an ongoing national conversation. The explains that reparative justice means repairing the harm done to victims 鈥渇rom the terrors of slavery and colonization to the modern struggles against mass incarceration and institutionalized racism.鈥� A federal bill, , named after the 40 acres promised but never given to emancipated slaves, would create a national reparations commission. While the bill has stalled in Congress for more than 30 years, the Biden administration has offered for federal efforts to confront inequity and structural racism.

There was in reparations for African Americans during the summer of 2020 in the midst of a historic racial justice uprising in the wake of George Floyd鈥檚 murder. Further, the racialized impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and mass unemployment left many African Americans searching for some form of redress. 

However, as the federal government struggles to determine its role, local communities are taking action. Around a across the country are now considering reparations to repair the damage of institutional racism. Reparations advisory committees have explored cash payments, housing grants, and academic scholarships as means of harm repair.

When the Drug War Ends

The state of Illinois passed the in 2019. It was called in the nation. It is also one of the first to incorporate reparations for the War on Drugs, which disproportionately targeted Black families and subjected them to mass incarceration, unequal education opportunities, unemployment, increased evictions, and housing displacement. The damage was long-term and . 

In 2018, a group of formerly incarcerated people in Chicago founded (EAT) aimed at individuals like themselves, who were imprisoned for drug offenses during the 1990s. 

EAT has joined other local grassroots organizations in a campaign called 鈥淭he Big Payback,鈥� aimed at ensuring that part of Illinois鈥� cannabis tax revenues are paid directly to survivors as cash payments. In 2020, EAT established the , an initiative described as 鈥淸u]nconditional, recurring cash transfers [that] are supporting 30 post-incarcerated West Garfield Park residents to determine their own futures.鈥� The program is an example of what reparative justice specifically for post-incarcerated individuals could look like.

鈥淲hat excites me most is this idea of restitution and the possibility that we can have an imprint on what that benchmark actually provides for our people,鈥� EAT Executive Director Richard Wallace told 大象传媒 in a 2023 interview. 鈥淲hat I鈥檓 most interested in at this time is exploring rehabilitation and restitution and how we as people [who] have been invested in with social capital, etc. can give back to the community in ways that address those pillars.鈥�

Participants of Chicago Future Fund are required to be between the ages of 18 and 35 and earn less than $12,000 per year in order to receive $500 in monthly payments for 18 months. There are no work requirements or restrictions on how the money can be spent. The first round of payments began on November 15, 2021, and ended in April 2023. 

In its CFF Round 1 , EAT framed the program by explaining that 鈥淪ystem-impacted individuals confront significant, ongoing obstacles in their everyday lives, including exclusions from employment, housing, and education.鈥� Further, 鈥淸t]he tangle of obstacles they face can lead to extreme poverty and, too often, to additional periods of incarceration.鈥� EAT sees the Chicago Future Fund as 鈥渁n intervention into these systemic inequalities and the vicious cycle of poverty and recidivism they produce.鈥�

Recipients of the funds participated in data collection to gauge how the guaranteed payments affected recidivism, physical and psychological well-being, and income volatility. EAT found increased housing stability and reduced police interactions. Recipients reported using the money to cover regular household expenses, groceries, child care, clothing, and school supplies. Many also reported sharing the stipend with partners, parents, or siblings. 

鈥淚 think each pilot, each initiative, essentially adds to the narrative change around reparations. These efforts are part of the larger push for some of the federal policy changes, but that work has to be influenced by what鈥檚 bubbling up across Black communities,鈥� Wallace said in an . 鈥淲e can have a base of people that may be divided by state lines but collectively in agreement by the demands and the purpose of reparations.鈥�

A Tangible First Step

In Asheville, North Carolina, Jim Crow ordinances, redlining, and urban renewal initiatives . The Housing Act of 1949 displaced millions of predominantly African American individuals and families between the 1950s and 1980s while clearing blighted neighborhoods. . In July 2020, the Asheville City Council passed a supporting a reparations commission to investigate how the city鈥檚 discriminatory policies harmed its Black residents. A month later, Buncombe County, which encompasses Asheville, passed a similar . The two initiatives have budgeted more than $5 million with the goal of creating generational wealth for Black residents harmed by income, health care, and educational disparities. 

鈥淚 feel like this is an opportunity not to solve, because we鈥檝e had the solutions for a while, but to actually get the solutions that we need implemented in order to reverse the disparate outcomes that are intentional,鈥� says Executive Director Rob Thomas. 鈥淲e have all the metrics. We have the data. We have the history. We know what was done. We know how it has impacted us and how it鈥檚 continuing to impact this. And we continue to say, 鈥極h, this is too big to tackle鈥� and it鈥檚 not.鈥�

The city and county have already begun work on immediate . Both have conducted internal audits in the five focus areas that include housing, economic development, health, education, and criminal justice. They also examined human resources, equity measures, and legal activities. 

鈥淭his is about improving what we do and [ensuring] that we鈥檙e not harming Black people any longer 鈥� with the policies, practices, and procedures we have,鈥� says Brenda Mills, who recently retired from her position as Asheville Equity and Inclusion Director. 

The Asheville City Council and Buncombe County Board of Commissioners appointed the members of the in March 2022. The commission has spent its time investigating property deeds, tax records, and historical documents to determine how the city damaged Black individuals and neighborhoods through racist policies. It is tasked with providing recommendations for reparative actions for the damage caused by public and private racism in criminal justice, education, economic development, health and wellness, and housing. Committees for each of the five focus areas have suggested repairs such as a community hub with economic resources and health and wellness centers. Mills says cash payments are also an option.

鈥淭hose recommendations 鈥� have to be something that people read, know what it鈥檚 called, and [know] what it is intended to do,鈥� Mills says. 鈥淸They have to know] what harm [the measure is] trying to correct or make amends for and where鈥檚 the data to that 鈥� and then what kind of budget are we looking at.鈥�

Moving Forward

Experts agree that local reparations programs need to be detailed and specific in order to minimize legal challenges. Justin Hansford, executive director of the , worked with Rue Simmons to craft the Evanston legislation. Hansford says legislation must be narrowly tailored to address specific harms.

鈥淐ommunities have to have a very detailed analysis of what happened in their community,鈥� explains Hansford. 鈥淚t can鈥檛 just be [that] Black people are the victims of racism. They need to say the city government implemented these policies of racial terrorism against Black people and 鈥� here鈥檚 data to show how they specifically harmed us economically, criminal[ly] and educational[ly].鈥�

Local reparations work is laying the groundwork for a national movement for reparations. Rue Simmons says Evanston was the only city to pursue a reparations program in November 2019. Since then, many more have embarked on various reparations initiatives that are collectively building momentum for the federal government to pass H.R. 40.

鈥淪lavery was a complex institution, Jim Crow was a complex institution 鈥� They hit us intellectually, spiritually, economically, [and] educationally,鈥� says Hansford. 鈥淭he harm that was done to us wasn鈥檛 simple so the repair won鈥檛 be simple.鈥�

This story was funded by a grant from , as part of the 大象传媒 series 鈥�Realizing Reparations.鈥� While reporting and production of the series was funded by this grant, 大象传媒 maintained full editorial control of the content published herein. Read our editorial independence policy here.