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Evanston, Illinois’ 5th Ward alderman Robin Rue Simmons recently paved the way for a unique reparations program that stands to pay out up to $25,000 per year to Black residents for housing. How did she do it?
Simmons reached out to historians like Dino Robinson to help make the case for reparations to right a historic wrong. What resulted was a 70+ page document detailing the racist practice of redlining in the city’s 5th ward. What made this practice so damaging to command financial compensation?
Decades of illegal segregation forced Black homeowners into less valuable properties through racist lending and selling practices – which over time increased the racial wealth gap as white owners’ property values soared above those of Black owners.
Now that the city is on board with making payments to Black families affected by this practice, how will the program be funded?
According to ABC News, Evanston plans to fund the program through a 3% tax on newly legal recreational marijuana sales.
"It's the most appropriate use for that sales tax," Simmons says. "In [Evanston], 70% of the marijuana arrests were in the Black community. And we are [only] 16% of the community.”
The greatest hurdle to instating reparations programs nationwide are opponents who claim they are politically and economically unachievable.
What Evanston’s example shows is that it can and should be done!