A suburb of Chicago is leading the way for reparations for the Black community. The name of the city is Evanston. The city plans to give millions of dollars of reparations to the Black community over a number of years. The reparations plan was created two years ago and is now starting to be implemented. The reparations funding source is from marijuana sales taxes. The focus of the initiative is to help the Black community with mortgages, homeownership, and home improvements. It is a very positive and promising initiative, however, many residents of the city think more can be done. This same sentiment is also held by others across the country as well. A woman who introduced the legislation for the city of Evanston believes that we are in the correct time period to address the issue of slavery reparations. She also believes we have the drive and resolve to accomplish it as well. The woman’s name is Robin Rue Simmons.
The plan and legislation will be voted on next year in March. If the vote succeeds, the city will be able to begin to pay out the slavery reparations in the various forms of home assistance. The plan has specific criteria that need to be met in order to qualify for the reparations. The residents of Evanston it focuses on are primarily older or are descendants. The narrow criteria one must meet are that they have lived in the city anywhere between 1919 and 1969. They can also qualify by being direct descendants of those who lived in the city during that specific timeframe. The reason this type of legacy approach was taken for the reparations plan was that during that time period the Black community faced discrimination in the housing market. Banks were heavily discriminatory towards the Black community in the issuing of home loans. The banks and real estate companies also prevented the Black community from buying homes in certain neighborhoods. The banks and real estate companies effectively quarantined the Black community to certain parts of the city which led to segregation.
A professor from another state also shared his thoughts on the groundbreaking reparations initiative that the city of Evanston is undertaking. His name is Edwin Driver and he is a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He would like to see the reparations initiative put forth by Evanston be adopted by other cities across the nation. He shared his personal experiences of being discriminated against during the mid-1900s. Professor Driver began teaching in 1948 and was heavily discriminated against for years. He was never given a raise despite how well he performed. He believes he is not the only one in Amherst that was discriminated against. He knows that there were countless other people who struggled and were victims of discrimination. The idea of giving slavery reparations to the Black community is becoming more widely accepted and discussed. The hardships the Black community had to endure during slavery and also after slavery cannot be ignored. The Black community has faced discrimination even during the mid-to-late 20th century as pointed out in the examples of Evanston. Joe Biden has voiced his concern and proposed that a special task force looks at the issue of reparations for the Black community as well.
