Chicago City Wire

The Chicago City Council held The Inaugural Subcommittee on Reparations Meeting on March 13, with Ald. Andre Vasquez (40th Ward) among those insisting the moment had been a long time coming.

“I’m deeply honored to have been appointed vice chair of this subcommittee,” Vasquez said in a YouTube video of the meeting. “At same time, I wished we lived in a country and a world where it wasn’t necessary. We’re here today to address something that has been an immeasurable injustice and shame on our country.  We’ve had racism perpetuated generation after generation, redlining, Jim Crow, racist policing, manufactured drug war and mass incarceration.”

The City Council agreed to begin looking into the matter in June, and nine months later the first meeting was led by Chair Ald. Stephanie Coleman (16th Ward).

While city officials have not yet committed to setting aside funds for reparations, the city of Evanston has been open about a plan to allocate $10 million in cannabis sales revenue to help Black residents buy homes through mortgage assistance programs as part of their reparations efforts.