This city led the way on reparations for Black people. Trump is trying to stop it
The city of Evanston, Illinois, is facing a legal challenge from the Trump administration over its pioneering reparations program for Black residents. The administration argues the program is racially discriminatory, while proponents view it as a necessary step to address historical housing segregation.
Why it matters
This case serves as a focal point for the national debate on the role of government in addressing systemic racial inequality through targeted financial compensation.
EVANSTON, Ill. — As a child in the 1960s, Allie Zemtseff saw how her mother, a Black woman, was turned away by landlords while apartment hunting in white neighborhoods. So she was incredulous when the Trump administration this summer accused the city of racial discrimination because of a program it created to compensate Black residents for past housing segregation.
"I thought, 'How ridiculous,'" said Zemtseff.
Through Evanston's reparations program, the first in the U.S. to compensate Black people for historical discrimination, Zemtseff got an apology from the city for its role in keeping Black people out of white neighborhoods decades ago, and $25,000, which she used to renovate her kitchen.
"Of course it's only for Black people," she said, "because we were the ones affected by the discrimination."
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