Evanston, Illinois, a northern suburb of Chicago, is the first city in America to begin collecting money for a reparations fund aimed at healing racial divisions.

The town council ratified the fund months before the sale and consumption of recreational marijuana in Illinois became legal on January 1. Revenue is created by a three percent tax on recreational cannabis as well as donations. Evanston began collecting the tax on July 1 and is expecting an income of at least $10 million in the first 10 years.

Evanston Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, a leader in the passage and enactment of the fund, said, “the reparations work is in response to the years of discrimination, historic redlining, oppressive zoning and other polities in our city. The reparations fund will repair damages done to the Black residents in the city of Evanston.”

A conservative timeline has the fund’s first $400,000 worth of payments, in the form of $25,000 forgivable loans or direct benefits toward mortgages and home renovations, starting to be distributed in 2021. Black residents will be eligible for funds if they were a resident or a descendent of an Evanston resident between 1919 and 1969. The Northshore suburb has determined these dates, before the Fair Housing and Discrimination Act, to be when Evanston banks engaged in redlining, which reduced Black home-ownership by discriminating against Black borrowers. Residents will also be eligible if they can prove housing discrimination.

Enforcement disparities of recreational marijuana, the source of the funding, also contributed to the city’s commitment to the fund. According to the city’s internal data during the three years leading up to November 2019, 71 percent of arrests for cannabis possession were Black and 15 percent were white. Meanwhile, the US Census Bureau estimates that Black residents make up 16 percent of the city’s population.

“There was a clear over policing problem that resulted in criminalizing residents that now have arrest records and felony records that are keeping them from job opportunities, business opportunities, access to renting houses and student loan opportunities to further advance their education and learn a living wage,” Rue Simmons said. “Damages due to the over policing of cannabis are trickling down to generations within one household and therefore within one neighborhood.”

Rue Simmons sees her city’s plan as a “model that should be considered in cities across the nation,” noting that Evanston’s disparities in income, life-expectancy, education and home-ownership are similar to those of many other cities across the country.

Evanston Alderman Ann Rainey said that she and her colleagues have been “bombarded” by other cities looking to learn from and replicate steps taken by her city. In late June, Evanston’s southern neighbor, Chicago, passed a resolution establishing a subcommittee aimed at determining the best course of action with regard to city-wide reparations. Rainey also recognizes Evanston's responsibility as a leader in actions on reparations. “We have a spotlight on us,” Rainey said. “We are not going to make mistakes”

On August 20, the National African American Reparations Commission (NAARC) endorsed Evanston’s reparations fund. The convener of the NAARC, Dr. Ron Daniels, said “we view Evanston as a model which can be replicated around the nation.” 

The nation-wide Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of George Floyd’s death by the knee of a Minneapolis police officer have elevated a national conversation about social justice and America’s racial disparities. In response to the movement, Rue Simmons said, “the awareness and the awakening has put [the fund] on the radar of residents that perhaps needed more education on why this is urgent and why this is a priority.”

Rainey expects the fund to continue generating income as Evanston and Illinois expand cannabis operations throughout the city and state. Rainey said that the coronavirus pandemic has increased demand for marijuana, and that the city can expect to take in around $50,000 per month. Evanston currently has one dispensary; however, Rainey is optimistic that one or two more will open in the near future. “Evanston is one of the friendliest cannabis municipalities in the state of Illinois,” Rainey said.

Looking toward the future, both Aldermans Rainey and Rue Simmons see the fund as a continuing commitment toward equality for Black residents. They see the fund’s goal of $10 million in 10 years as obtainable and as figures that can be expanded.

“My hope is that we expand this $10 million substantially and in perpetuity because the damages to be repaired have taken generations of oppression and it certainly will not be wholed within 10 years,” Rue Simmons said.

This article was published in the September 2020 issue of the Los Angeles Free Press.