Liberal Evanston, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, is the first U.S city to issue slavery reparations.
The city committed $20 million to the program to come from tax collected from cannabis sales.
The first group of persons eligible for $25,000 payments are current Evanston residents who identify as Black or African American and were at least 18 years of age between 1919 and 1969. Evanston refers to this group as “ancestors.”
During a Reparations Committee March listening session, a pause of the program was announced after projections based on 2019 came in lower than expected.
Reparations Chair Robin Rue Simmons shared, “When we made that projection in 2019 based on the interest and activity within the industry and our zoning, we expected that we would have three dispensaries.”
Currently, there are only two in the city.
Traci Smith, who resides in Colorado as a real estate agent, spoke during public comment, saying she wants to make her way back home when she retires. Being able to receive reparations will impact her decision to return.
“My family has been in Evanston for over 100 years at this point,” Smith said. “ I hope to retire in Evanston, and that’s a few years out.”
Councilmember Krissie Harris (2nd Ward) was concerned that starting a new round of disbursements under the reparations fund deficit would “not be appropriate.”
“As a current City Council, we stand behind it and will until we can get through the people that we promised,” Harris said.
In October 2024, Judicial Watch filed a class action lawsuit against the city.
Judicial Watch asked a court to reject a motion by the City of Evanston, IL, to dismiss our class action lawsuit on behalf of 6 individuals over the city’s use of race as an eligibility requirement for a reparations program. READ: https://t.co/aP4I9PgKMo
— Judicial Watch
(@JudicialWatch) October 1, 2024
The class action, civil rights lawsuit challenges “on Equal Protection grounds Defendant City of Evanston’s use of race as an eligibility requirement for a program that makes $25,000 payments to residents and direct descendants of residents of the city five-plus decades if not more than a century ago. Plaintiffs seek a judgment declaring Defendant’s use of race to be unconstitutional. Plaintiffs also seek an injunction enjoining Defendant from continuing to use race as a requirement for receiving payment under the program and request that the Court award them and all class members damages in the amount of $25,000 each.” Through a series of resolutions, the Evanston City Council created a program to provide $25,000 cash payments to residents who lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 and their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
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