The Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois, became the first city in the US to approve a recovery program for its black residents on Monday night, following an 8-1 vote in city council.
“It’s just not enough,” said Ald. Robin Rue Simmons, who first proposed the initiative, said. “We all know that the road to recovery and justice in the black community will be a generation of work. It will be many programs and initiatives and more funding. “
The recovery program targets those harmed by the racist housing policies the city adopted in the early 20th century – and will be funded by a recreational marijuana tax, which is legal in the state.
Specifically, it will make $ 400,000 available to black residents in the form of $ 25,000 scholarships to promote home ownership and home improvement – and will also provide mortgage support to black residents who can prove they are descendants of residents who faced housing discrimination years ago .
Right now, the whole world is looking at Evanston, Illinois. This is a moment like no other we’ve ever seen, and it’s a good time, ”Ron Daniels, chairman of the National African American Reparations Commission, told The Washington Post.
The policy was also criticized by many of the more than 60 speakers at Monday’s city council meeting, including Councilor Cicely Fleming, who opposed the idea of housing subsidies and was the only “no” vote to the program.
“Real reparations must respect the autonomy of black people and allow them to determine how recovery will be managed,” Fleming told CBS News.
“They are denied that in this proposal, which gives money directly to the banks or contractors on their behalf.”
The national reparations movement was revived last year after a wave of protests over George Floyd’s death at the hands of the Minneapolis police.
A proposed piece of federal law, HR 40, would establish a national commission to study federal government reparations.
At the local level, other cities have launched initiatives to study reparations, including Chicago, Providence, Rhode Island, Burlington, Vermont, Asheville, North Carolina and Amherst, Massachusetts.
Organizers hope to use the Evanston program as an example for other local initiatives in the future.
“It doesn’t mean every city will do exactly the way Evanston did, but there is a blueprint,” Daniels told CBS MoneyWatch.