Evanston, Illinois, became the first U.S. city to fund reparations earlier this year, part of an effort to make amends for the city's history of racial housing discrimination. Evanston is at the forefront of a growing grassroots movement of local governments taking action to explicitly move forward on some form of reparations to make up for social and systemic sins against Black Americans. While scholars say only the federal government can truly right the wrongs of slavery and Jim Crow, these municipalities are taking critical first steps, and their focus thus far has largely been centered on real estate. “The American housing and commercial real estate markets have been really horribly racist for the last couple of hundred years,” University of Minnesota Humphrey School of Public Affairs professor Edward Goetz said. “I think [real estate] presents itself as a logical place to think about reparations.” 
Evanston, a city of nearly 74,500, approved a $10M program for Black households, including a $25K grant given to 16 residents for home repairs and costs, paid for by taxes collected from recreational marijuana sales. Evanston is attempting to repair decades of “discriminatory housing policies and practices and inaction…  Read the full story here. | 
