Geoff: In 2019, evanston,
Illinois, past the first
reparations law in history.
Economics correspondent Paul
Solman recently visited the
Chicago suburb to follow-up on
the progress of the program.
It's part of our ongoing series,
race matters.
>> The hospital would not accept
black mothers so my father drove
me to cook county hospital to be
born.
As a baby, I came back.
My father bought the house in
1930.
Paul: 88-year-old Lou weathers'
house in evanston, Illinois,
home to a longstanding black
community which comprises some
16% of the city's 75,000
inhabitants.
Some of whom like Donna walker,
, still bitter about the past.
Donna: I am truly waiting for 40
acres and a mule.
A jackass will be fine for me,
but just give me some acreage
and I'll be okay.
Paul: Evanston isn't offering
the acreage, but given the
persistent and huge wealth and
health gaps ever since slavery,
it is trying to make amends,
with a first-of-its-kind
reparations project that's
spreading.
Robin: We had an official side
event at the united nations last
week, sharing the model.
The growth from 2019 and today
there are over 100 localities
, that have taken a first step
towards reparations for their
community.
Paul: Former city councilor
robin rue Simmons spearheaded
reparations here in 2019, $10
million to be spent over 10
years, funded by taxes on
newly-legalized cannabis and
by real estate transfers.
So far, 16 recipients of $25,000
each.
Lou: I just figured the country
would not approve nothing like
that.
Paul: Lou weathers wasn't just
surprised.
Lou: I was shocked.
Paul: Shocked.
Lou: Yeah.
Paul: Weathers used his $25,000
to reduce his son's mortgage in
evanston.
Lou: Anytime you can reduce your
mortgage, your mortgage payment
is going to be lower.
His bill is going to be lower.
He can use the money for other
things.
Donna: I have said from the
beginning that we were not going
to see this money at all.
Paul: But hairdresser Donna
walker was wrong.
>> Some people did see it and
I'm very happy that they did.
And I'm happy that the elders
are able to, you know, pay taxes
on their home and fix it up.
Paul: Walker's next door
neighbor, fellow hairdresser
Gigi Giles, is on the waiting
list for funds that will come in
future years.
So you figure you will get it
eventually?
Gigi: Eventually.
If not, my grandchildren or my
daughters will get it.
Paul: What will you do with the
money?
Gigi: I would fix up my home.
I would do my kitchen and two
bathrooms.
Paul: Can you do that for
$25,000?
Gigi: I'd make it work.
[Laughter]
Paul: Initially, reparations
money only counted toward
housing-related projects,
mortgage payments, home
improvements, or a downpayment.
In March, evanston city council
added the option of direct cash
payments, because some felt a
restricted grant was demeaning.
Recipients should be able to do
what they want with the $25,000.
Donna: Most of us here can't
even afford to live here.
Paul: Like Donna walker.
>> If you give me something, you
can't tell me how to spend it.
So it's like, you know, you have
people like, well, what are they
going to spend it on, man?
I'm going to buy newports and a
Cadillac.
Like, come on, really?
Paul: Newport cigarettes, that
is.
Lou weathers prefers housing
investment, though.
Lou: Anytime you have grants and
stuff like that, two sides have
to get something out of it.
The city making people improve
their property helps me because
I own property.
That's gonna increase my value,
my property.
Paul: Now not everyone in
evanston is pro-reparations, of
course.
>> I don't think it's a good
idea.
There are people who need help,
and help should not be
predicated on someone's race,
creed, color, orientation.
Paul: A local businessman, who
called us later trying to take
back the interview.
A bit late, but as a courtesy,
no name or face.
>> We had laws that were against
the Chinese and those were
enforced around 1883 to 1943.
So if we go by that standard,
well, then we owe the Chinese
recompense.
We owe the Japanese even more
recompense.
And there comes a point where
we're a flawed society.
I think the thing we need to do
is move forward.
Paul: Evanston mayor Daniel Biss
wasn't surprised to hear of the
reluctance to say this on
camera.
Mayor Daniel: I do think people
feel like if I come out and say
reparations is a dumb idea, we
should not do that, I'm just not
going to make a lot of friends.
I'm not going to gain a lot of
support.
Paul: But reparations champion
Simmons says taking a stand
means ignoring the blowback, no
matter how unpleasant what she
herself has received online.
Robin rue Simmons: It's the
ghetto lottery, or you know, you
monkey, you slave, and go back
to Africa, that type of stuff.
Paul: But the overall reaction,
at least in this liberal city,
according to the liberal mayor.
Mayor Biss: I think it's
something that we're enormously
proud of.
I think it's an important step,
one might argue a partial step
or an inadequate step.
It's still a really important
step toward both on a factual
level, reckoning with our past,
but also creating the concrete
equity that our community has
been talking about for probably
four or five generations but has
never really fully realized.
Paul: Is the pride pervasive, I
asked our camera-shy
businessman?
>> -- So if roughly half the
population are white, what
proportion of those people do
you think don't think this is a
good idea?
Who think as you do?
>> You don't even bring it up
because people are afraid to
really express their thoughts.
So I wouldn't be able to give
you an honest answer.
Paul: At nearby northwestern
university, professor Al Tillery
is studying the response to the
reparations initiative.
>> We so far have gotten close
to 4000 respondents, people
writing in.
Paul: So he doesn't have results
yet. But although, in nationwide
polling, few whites are in favor
>> I don't think we're going to
be at the 15% for where white
people are nationally.
I think we're going to be much
higher than that.
Will we be over 50% with our
white population?
I don't know.
Yeah, I mean, you know, so I
50% approval, I think that would
-- I mean, if we found between
30% and 50% approval, I think
that would be like finding the
pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow.
I mean, that nowhere else will
it have been so high.
Paul: And where does the program
go from here?
Mayor Biss: More revenue is
going to come in both through
cannabis and also through the
real estate transfer tax that
will allow more grants to be
allocated.
There's a long waiting list of
ancestors, behind them is a long
waiting list of descendants.
And behind them are a lot of
other people in this community
who were mistreated or whose
ancestors were mistreated by the
city government through policies
the city government deliberately
enacted.
And we have a lot of work to do
.
Paul: Just to deal with the 600
or so applicants thus far.
Especially, says the mayor, in a
city now so pricey many blacks
can't afford to stay, like
Dwayne Logan at Gigi Giles'
salon.
Dwayne: I'm from evanston, but I
don't currently live in
evanston.
Because the taxes are so high, I
had to buy a house in skokie.
Paul: Right, says Simmons,
because blacks were never able
to build generational wealth,
which inspired her push for
reparations.
Robin rue Simmons: I was looking
at the race gaps and every area
I was looking at the loss of
, black community, residents
leaving almost every day because
of lack of affordability, not
feeling a sense of place, going
to other communities where they
felt more hopeful.
And opportunity.
The black experience in this
city and in this nation has been
in a state of emergency since we
were kidnapped from west Africa
and brought here.
And so it is time to do
something radically different
than we've done in the past.
And reparations is that answer.
Paul: About time, says Gigi
Giles.
Gigi: You know, people want to
see money.
Money talks.
And then they probably will be
happy, but you know, it is what
it is.
It's a start.
Paul: And she's still living
here, and running the business
her father started 60 years ago.
For the pbs newshour, Paul
Solman in evanston, Illinois.