44 Black Evanston Descendants Will Receive $25K In Reparations: Report

EVANSTON, IL — The Evanston Reparations Committee announced Feb. 5 it will issue $25,000 reparations payments to 44 additional descendants this summer.

The city's reparations program was established in 2019 and was approved by the Evanston City Council in 2021. It is the first government-funded initiative in the United States that aimed to provide reparations to Black Evanston residents, and their direct descendants, who faced housing discrimination between 1919 and 1969.

Each of the 44 descendants will receive $25,000 payments, which are intended for housing expenses, Evanston’s Communications and Community Engagement Manager Cynthia Vargas told the Chicago Tribune.

The program has received $276,599 for the Reparations Fund through the real estate transfer taxas of Jan. 31 this year. The program also gets funds from Evanston's Cannabis Retailers Occupation Tax.

Read more from the Chicago Tribune: Evanston Reparations OKs payments to descendants, gets update on DNA connections with Africa