First 16 Evanston Seniors Eligible For Local Reparations Selected In Ping-Pong Ball Draw

EVANSTON, IL — The first 16 recipients of the nation's first municipal reparations program for African Americans were chosen Thursday.

With the drawing of 122 Ping-Pong balls from a brass cage at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Center, members of the Evanston City Council's Reparations Committee established the order in which Black seniors will have the opportunity to receive housing grants of up to $25,000 as part of the city's Restorative Housing Program.

"Today's event is more procedural than anything," committee chair Peter Braithwaite, 2nd Ward alderperson, said ahead of the draw. "That's just drawing the 16 names, as well as ranking all the other participants within our ancestry category."

Printed with on each of the balls was a number corresponding with a person verified to be an "ancestor" — a Black resident of Evanston between 1919 and 1969, the half-century period between the City Council's establishment of a zoning code and adoption of a fair housing ordinance.

The program is the first to be funded by the city's Reparations Fund, which was established in November 2019 with aldermen's pledge of the first $10 million in municipal cannabis tax revenue.

Last year, the City Council allocated $400,000 from the fund toward home-related grants, which can be used to cover mortgages, repairs or improvements. That initial funding is enough for 16 ancestors to receive the maximum grant amount. If all 122 of the people whose numbers drawn do so, the housing program will need to be allocated an additional $2.65 million.

---

"Today we are drawing all the names of our applicants and we will rank them in an order, right? And so our hope is, that all the first 16 will accept the award and move forward throughout the process. But in the event that, for whatever reason, someone can not take advantage or chooses not to participate, then we know we have a line of people behind them. In addition, I think that it's critical that we also understand how many people are in this, the 122, and that we're properly budgeting beyond the 16, and that we will address in future committee meetings," Braithwaite said.

"So we thought about the most open process that will provide a random selection. We didn't want to do something that was generated by a computer for fear of criticism," he said. "But this is what we're going to do."

---

Robin Rue Simmons, who spearheaded passage of the reparations initiative during her term as 5th Ward alderman, drew the first balls from the cage. In remarks ahead of the drawing, the committee member traced the origin of the moment back nearly two decades to the City Council's passage of a resolution in favor of House Resolution 40, a bill to establish a commission to consider reparations for slavery that was first introduced in 1989.

"To be clear, our call for H.R. 40 has only become more resolute, but we recognize the city of Evanston, Illinois, is also responsible for harm in the Black community," Rue Simmons said.

---

"We are moving forward with tangible repair that is within our purview and in direct correlation to the harm enforced by the city of Evanston," she added. "Today we take an important step in selecting the first reparations recipients. We are prioritizing our residents that suffered direct harm: Black residents that lived in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 and suffered from discriminating zoning laws that stripped away wealth and opportunity, like my colleague Mr. Sutton."

Carlis Sutton, another appointed committee member, said the city was setting an important precedent.

"Last night I had an opportunity to read over the Constitution of the United States of America. I specialized in three amendments, the 13th, the 14th and the 15th," said Sutton, a retired Evanston Township High School and Evanston/Skokie School District 65 teacher.

---

"For the first time since reconstruction days after the Civil War, a government agency is participating in a process that will make this a more perfect union and more inclusive for all citizens of the United States of America," Sutton said. "Is this a perfect process? No. No first time effort ever is. But we can truthfully say no other community, no other state, no other agency in government has gone this far. So before you start criticizing us, I suggest that you follow the lead that we've set."

Rue Simmons emphasized that the initial allocation only amounted to 4 percent of the fund’s pledged budget. She said other institutions in town are also responsible for harms and are now challenged to contribute to repair.

"To those that are concerned this is not enough: I believe we are all in agreement with you," Rue Simmons said. "But as you know, this is not a settlement. If the goal is to, in fact, improve our efforts, the most productive use of our time is to engage in the process to inform the 96 percent of the budget that is remaining and yet to be allocated with stakeholder direction."

Ald. Bobby Burns, 5th Ward, said ahead of the draw that many representatives of other towns who attended a recent reparations conference organized by Rue Simmons had told him they would like to pursue their own municipal reparations programs but did not believe they would have support from their local legislative bodies.

"One thing we say about Evanston — we're not unique to any other place, we make mistakes and we still have a long road ahead to repair our community properly — but one thing I thought about the other day is, I think what separates Evanston is that change is possible here," Burns said. "And every city can't say that."

Two members of the committee — Burns and Clare Barber — attended the meeting via video-teleconferencing software. One member, Ald. Devon Reid, 8th Ward, did not attend.

Related: Evanston Reparations Lottery: Ping-Pong Balls To Pick Payment Order

---

About a half-dozen residents observed the meeting in person. Among them was Vanessa Johnson-McCoy, who was tracking the numbers of six ancestors, mostly from her church, including parents of friends and family and her own mother.

"She wasn't at first going to even going to do it because she said other people need it more than us," Johnson-McCoy said. "But I said, 'No, mom we're not going to pass up that opportunity, we need a new roof, we need new windows,'"

Johnson-McCoy, whose father grew up in Evanston and who works with Rue Simmons, said the program was a small, but nonetheless wonderful, step in the right direction.

"It's just very exciting. Being a realtor, I realize that the redlining that happened in the past, there are still some effects, even today in the disparities of the values of the houses in the historically Black, previously redlined area. So the impacts are still felt today," Johnson McCoy said.

"To hear the stories of what my parents went through to buy their home outside of the red is just been such an eye-opener," she said. "Reparations are due, repair is due, and even though we've come a long way, it's still challenging, as I've said before, to catch up when you were held down for so long."

Deputy City Manager Kimberly Richardson said staff would next month begin verification of the 515 people who applied as direct descendants of people who lived in Evanston during the 50 years prior to 1969. She said ancestors may transfer funding to a qualified direct descendants, who would be bound by the same rules and regulations governing the program.

Richardson said the numbers and the order in which they were drawn would be posted on the city's website, but it would be up to the committee when, if ever, to disclose the names of recipients.

---

Committee member Bonnie Lockhart, a lifelong Evanstonian and Dementia Friendly Evanston board member, said it was appropriate that the drawing of the numbers of the first 122 ancestors take place at Fleetwood-Jourdain, formerly known as the Foster Community Center, which he had served as the "heart of the Black community" after being built in 1956.

“I am just so grateful that on this momentous day in history that our ancestors are being honored, and all that they lived with and lived through, and that they never gave up and that they fought the fight," Lockhart said. "And we will continue to fight the fight."