Local Reparations Policies

Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt Evanston, Illinois’s reparations program on the grounds that it limits eligibility to Black residents and their descendants, representing five non‑Black plaintiffs who say they otherwise meet the criteria for $25,000 payments but are excluded solely because of race. Evanston says the current round will send $25,000 to 44 recipients, that 137 people have already received $3.47 million (with 171 recipients and about $4 million expected by year’s end), and the fund has been seeded with $276,588 from the city’s real‑estate transfer tax while officials consider a tax on Delta‑8 THC products to sustain it.