Chicago City Wire

A new Chicago community group says only whites, hispanics and asians should pay property taxes in the city, as partial compensation by for “injustice” suffered by blacks in America.

“We’re losing a lot of the black culture in Chicago. A lot of the blacks are moving out of Chicago because of crime and taxes,” said the group’s founder, former 37th Ward Aldermanic candidate Howard Ray of West Humboldt Park, on Chicago’s Morning Answer with Dan Proft and Amy Jacobson. “A lot of blacks are moving to the red states, the southern states. By not paying property taxes, (blacks) will be able to be saved.”

“It’s a start. We’re trying to preserve the blacks to stay here (in Chicago). We don’t want our people to leave this city. We built this city,” Ray said. “It goes back to slavery- the injustice that has been done to us as black Americans. From slavery to Jim Crow, the lynching, redlining, the incarcerations due to marijuana.”

Ray said black taxes are being used by Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson to pay for illegal aliens who are now living in black communities.

“They’re using our taxes to demise our communities. They’re using our taxes to support and advocate for the illegal immigrants. And in the meantime, we’re getting pushed out,” he said.

Ray is working to get elected officials on board with his proposal. He says he is also working to get average people behind him.

“Our concern right now is to get the demand, particularly from the black Chicagoans. Once we get that demand and that support, then everything is gold,” he said.

"ReRan," which stands for "Reconstruction Era Reparation Act Now," was founded in Chicago in 2023 by community organizer Howard Ray.The group, which backs slavery reparations for all blacks, is calling for black Chicagoans to pay no property taxes. Only white, Asian and Hispanic property owners would pay property taxes, according to the ReRan plan.Ray said he started the group because Black Chicagoans "are losing their homes due to the increase of county and city property taxes."

On Jan. 18, 2023, ReRan for Blacks created a Change.org petition demanding "no Property Taxes for Black Chicagoans as a part of Reparations for Black Americans.""This program will shield Black Americans from displacement and help Blacks keep their homes to pass down to their children and grandchildren. ReRAN is not to substitute for but a support for reparations for Black Americans in the United States," it said.

Ray, who lives in West Humboldt Park, attended Oak Park and River Forest High School in Oak Park as well as Iowa State and Roosevelt Universities. In 2023, he ran unsuccessfully for 37th Ward Alderman, challenging incumbent Emma Mitts. Mitts defeated Ray, winning 61 percent to Ray's 26 percent.The 37th Ward includes Austin, West Garfield Park and West Humboldt Park on Chicago's West Side.

Proft also hosts his podcast “Counterculture” — co-hosted by American Greatness and Restoration News —which was launched in September 2023. He is the co-host of “Chicago’s Morning Answer” weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on AM 560 Chicago. A former Republican candidate for Illinois Governor, Proft attended Northwestern University and received his J.D. from Loyola University-Chicago.