When legislation passed, it was deemed a reparations “blueprint” for the rest of the country. Yet a few months into the first initiative, frustration and legal pressure have clouded Evanston's pioneering vision.
Reparations can only come from the federal government, the authors told NBC News in an email. Local reparations programs “cannot meet the bill for Black reparations,” they said. A congressional bill, H.R. 40, which calls for studying the potential of a reparations program, onlyResidents opposed to Evanston’s plan say it puts too many restrictions on how they can use the money. Renters, for example, can’t use the housing assistance because it is only for current and future homeowners.
Nalls and fellow organizers Kevin Brown, Jersey Shabazz and Cannon created the Facebook group Evanston Rejects Racist Reparations in February, which has since amassed more than 600 followers.in front of a cannabis dispensary in Evanston, hosted webinars about reparations and lobbied city officials to halt the March 22 City Council vote on the Restorative Housing Program. They were unsuccessful.
Both sides of Giles’ family lived on Bauer Place. They shared the block with seven other Black families in a predominantly white neighborhood in northern Evanston during the 1920s. When the city began to enforce a commercial zoning ordinance, all of these families were forced to leave their homes. The entire block, filled with homes of Black families, was completely demolished.
Giles grew up in the Fifth Ward, a neighborhood with vacant lots the city offered to sell to the Black residents that were being displaced. The majority of Black residents in Evanston already lived in the Fifth Ward because of formal and informal race-based zoning being practiced, according to research compiled by the city’s Shorefront Legacy Center.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Pies for Justice returns, raising money for Black Lives Matter and social justicePies for Justice raises money for the Los Angeles chapter of Black Lives Matter and Süprmarkt, which provides affordable organic produce to communities in South L.A.
Read more »
Dan Auerbach on the Black Keys' New Album, Missing John Prine and His Band's 20th AnniversaryDan Auerbach talks indie venues, forgotten bluesmen, and 20 years in the Black Keys. “We saw a lot of bands just jump from zero to 100 and start headlining festivals and then they’re gone,” he says. “We’re still here.”
Read more »
'High on the Hog' & the People Preserving Black Cooking TraditionsWith host Stephen Satterfield, we travel from Benin to Brooklyn and beyond, learning about the culinary influences that shaped American cuisine.
Read more »
Record 41 female CEOs among Fortune 500 includes 2 Black women for 1st timeThe annual list includes two African American female CEOs for the first time—Rosalind Brewer of Walgreens Boots Alliance and Thasunda Brown Duckett of TIAA.
Read more »