BLACK Americans are to get $25,000 EACH in reparations for slavery in a city that has promised $10MILLION in funds.
Evanston, Illinois is the first US city to distribute the money –meant to help compensate for a lack of generational wealth and systemic racism, ABC News reported.
This year, the city will begin paying out a total of $10million to residents – with up to $25,000 per eligible resident.
The funds will be available to use for housing.
A 3percent tax on legal recreational marijuana sales will fund the reparations, ABC reproted.
Robin Rue Simmons, 5th Ward Alderman of Evanston, spearheaded the resolution – which was first passed in 2019.
She told ABC the reparations are meant to fight "a lack of affordability, lack of access to living wage careers here in the city, and a lack of sense of place."
Simmons said she noticed differences as a child when she went to a white friend's neighborhood.
She said "the streets were wider. The trees were taller. The homes were bigger and brighter. As a young child, I recognized that difference."
Simmons said she never felt "envious" – but knew the disparity was systemic.
Reparations plans were first formulated in 1865 – but President Andrew Johnson overturned land distribution orders late that year.
They were proposed to help make amends for slavery – which financially benefited many Americans – most who were white, and not blacks who were forced to work.
The Center for American Progress noted how systemic racism has affected black communities for decades.
"For Black communities in urban areas, public policies have often been enacted under the guise of creating new public spaces, combating urban blight, or bolstering economic development," CAP said.
"But over time, these policies have stripped Black communities of the wealth and financial stability found in property ownership and affordable rental housing," it added.
The report added: "For decades, governments and private citizens have employed exclusionary tactics to prevent African Americans and other people of color from building wealth through homeownership and affordable housing."
According to the latest Census Data, white people own homes at nearly 50percent higher rates than black Americans.
One report from The Brookings Institute found that housing disparities are still dominant.
"Homes of similar quality in neighborhoods with similar amenities are worth 23 percent less ($48,000 per home on average, amounting to $156 billion in cumulative losses) in majority black neighborhoods, compared to those with very few or no black residents," a 2018 report said.
As Evanston became the first city to make a plan for reparations, President Biden is reportedly aiming "push for reparations" during his first term.
The White House announced last month that Biden supported studying if paying reparations to the descendants of enslaved people would be an appropriate remedy.
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