In Illinois, the Evanston City Council has agreed to pay Black residents reparations for historic housing discrimination, making it the first U.S. city to adopt such a measure. The city will distribute some $400,000 to up to 16 families to be used toward housing-related costs. The money comes mostly from a $10 million fund of marijuana tax revenues. This is Delois Robinson, whose family was subject to the racist practice of redlining in Evanston.
Delois Robinson: “You know, it kind of deals with your self-esteem. And so it’s a thing of: Am I good enough to be able to stand on my own and say, 'No, I want property here,' or 'I want to cross the redlining'?”
In related news, earlier this month, Catholic Jesuit priests vowed to raise $100 million in reparations for descendants of people it forced into slavery.