Source: Politics<\/p>\n
EVANSTON, Ill. \u2014 This suburban town just north of Chicago will soon start cutting checks to Black people to make amends for Jim Crow era wrongs. The test will be whether anyone follows its lead.<\/p>\n
The cash is the latest step in Evanston\u2019s plan to dole out $10 million \u2014 in $25,000 chunks \u2014 to those who suffered the local sting of housing discrimination, and Robin Rue Simmons\u2019 phone has been ringing ever since the City Council greenlit the money in March. <\/p>\n
A former alderman who introduced the reparations legislation in this mostly-white Midwestern college town, Simmons continues to field calls from people around the country who want to know how Evanston pulled off what has eluded so many. From church leaders and corporate executives to a Black organization in New Jersey and an organizer in Detroit \u2014 they are all curious how to right the wrongs of the past.<\/p>\n
“There is no question that momentum is building around what we’ve done in Evanston,” Simmons said in an interview.<\/p>\n
While California created a commission last year to study statewide reparations, movements to establish them have struggled at the state and federal levels. Efforts in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Oregon have slowed or stalled altogether, making Evanston\u2019s government the first to sign off on substantial sums to Black residents in the name of correcting a longstanding racial injustice. <\/p>\n
That milestone has given social justice activists a concrete example to wield as they pitch broader reparations to a nation that has wrestled with how \u2014 and if \u2014 its government should address the systemic wrongs of slavery.<\/p>\n
Victory in Evanston is likely to be measured by cities hundreds of miles away: places like Amherst, Mass.; Asheville, N.C.; Providence, R.I.; and Burlington, Vt. How reparations play out in those cities \u2014 and who gets to define what they are \u2014 will demonstrate whether Evanston is the model activists envision or an outlier that shows how polarized the country remains in coping with the legacy of racism.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes a progressive, well-educated electorate. So yeah, places similar to Evanston will have more success,\u201d said Alvin Tillery, Jr., director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University, comparing it to conservative enclaves least likely to take reparations seriously. \u201cAsheville and Burlington are more similar to Evanston than Cherokee County, Georgia, or where [Texas Rep.] Louie Gohmert serves.\u201d <\/p>\n
And if reparations are ever to become a real goal for Washington or statehouses, it will be places like Evanston that laid the political and policy groundwork to make it happen. <\/p>\n
In Detroit, Keith Williams, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus, is quietly leading an effort to collect the 3,400 signatures by June 15 to put reparations on the city\u2019s 2021 ballot. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou saw Black Lives Matters signs in front of homes in white neighborhoods,\u201d he said in an interview, noting how he was \u201cinspired\u201d after hearing about Evanston\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n
The language Williams is pushing would establish a committee to create a reparations fund and make recommendations on how to allocate money to those affected by racially restrictive covenants and housing discrimination. <\/p>\n
Putting money in<\/span><\/p>\n What distinguishes Evanston\u2019s program is that it comes with cash, and during an economic recession no less. It\u2019s tailored to Black people who can demonstrate their ancestors either lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 \u2014 when racism was a matter of official policy \u2014 or can show they faced housing discrimination during that time. The funds are also purpose-driven: The $25,000 is specifically for buying a home or improving one they have.<\/p>\n Simmons and racial justice activists see the city\u2019s move, which will dole the money out over 10 years, as the start of a grassroots effort that might eventually spur Congress to enact a federal reparations law. There\u2019s precedent for small towns leading a national change. Desegregating the bus system in Montgomery, Ala., started with Rosa Parks\u2019 iconic protest, and interracial marriage had dozens of small victories before the Supreme Court came around in 1967. Simmons also points to the more recent Ban the Box effort to remove criminal background checkboxes on employment applications that started in Hawaii and spread to Minnesota, Illinois and other states.<\/p>\n \u201cLocal initiatives have a history of inspiring Congress and communities to pursue and advocate and take action on long-overdue justice legislation in the United States,\u201d said Simmons, who now sits on the New York-based<\/a> National African American Reparations Commission.<\/p>\n Reparations aren\u2019t new in the U.S. In 1988, the federal government disbursed more than $1.6 billion to more than 82,000 Japanese Americans who endured internment in this country during World War II. The reparations law signed by then-President Ronald Reagan admitted that internment was based on “race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership.”<\/p>\n A congressional committee advanced reparations-related legislation<\/a>, H.R. 40, for the first time in April. But it\u2019s unclear whether the bill, which would set up a commission to study the issue and the U.S. government\u2019s role in African American disenfranchisement, might reach the House floor. Its odds in the Senate are essentially zero.<\/p>\n Activists worry Democrats in the House won\u2019t move forward with the measure for fear it would jeopardize 2022 midterms.<\/p>\n \u201cWinning elections plays a big role in causing things to happen. It\u2019s important to maintain the majority so that you can make some things happen in the next round,\u201d said Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), who sees the issue gaining momentum anyway. \u201cI\u2019m optimistic. It\u2019s been slow, but change is oftentimes slow. And it\u2019s more evolutionary than revolutionary.\u201d<\/p>\n Until the federal government embraces an approach to reparations for its part in slavery, smaller municipalities seem eager to experiment after Evanston made headway. <\/p>\n \u201cIt can be the model for other cities that want to step into the national debate,\u201d Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza said in an interview. \u201cRace relations in this country has been a divisive issue since the Constitutional Convention and … as a country, it\u2019s something we\u2019ve never fully addressed head-on.\u201d<\/p>\n Providence released a report earlier this year<\/a> on the history of Black and Indigenous injustice in the New England city as part of what Elorza calls a first step in a reconciliation process. The city followed up with a request for proposals to talk with voters about the effects of those injustices and what might be done now.<\/p>\n The final phase \u2014 reparations \u2014 has proven to be the most challenging for Providence for the same reasons places like Asheville and other cities get stuck: cost.<\/p>\n \u201cFinding money for this at the municipal level is a challenge in North Carolina because cities have very limited options for generating new sources of revenue,\u201d said Julie Mayfield, a former Asheville City Council member who now serves in the state Senate. \u201cAsheville is using all of the authority it has to generate revenue and really the only option that the city has to raise a lot of new revenue is to increase property taxes. And at this point, that is a challenge.\u201d <\/p>\n