The city council of Evanston, Illinois became the first government agency in the United States to approve payment of cash reparations to African-American families whose ancestors were discriminated against by city policy, Reuters reports.
By an 8 to 1 vote, the council voted to set aside $400,000 for the initial payment into a planned $10 million program, which would give $25,000 grants to families to be used for down payments, mortgage payments or repairing homes in a city that had historically redlined Black families.
“I’m proud of our community for taking this bold and courageous action to begin the process of remedying racial disparities that have harmed our Black community for decades,” Alderwoman Ann Rainey said in a statement.
The council voted in November 2019 on the $10 million commitment, to be paid by taxes on legalized marijuana sales. To be eligible for the grant, the applicants must have lived or had an African-American relative who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or if they can show they were damaged by the city’s discriminatory housing policy.