Evanston Grants: Federal Courts Allow Justice Department Intervention

A federal judge permitted the U.S. Justice Department to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Evanston, Illinois' housing grant program. The city provides $25,000 payments to Black residents whose families were affected by discriminatory housing policies. The intervention adds a major legal hurdle to what Robin Rue Simmons, who now goes by N'nanba, calls the nation's first municipal reparations program. Simmons, a former city councilwoman and chair of Evanston's Reparations Committee, is currently helping expand this model to more than 100 communities.

The legal challenge originates with a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. The suit argues that Evanston distributes funds based on race without identifying specific harms. Michael Bekesha, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, stated that the Constitution prohibits governments from selecting winners and losers based solely on race. The Justice Department alleges the program violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the Fair Housing Act. Kiersten Pels, a department spokeswoman, said race-based government benefit programs are often unconstitutional and frequently violate federal civil rights law.

This legal move is part of a wider administrative effort to limit race-based initiatives. Last year, the Justice Department sent warning letters to leaders in Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina, who were considering similar programs. President Donald Trump has also voiced opposition to such efforts. In a September speech, he told supporters that they want to steal money for reparations, adding that the concept is going nowhere.

Simmons said that despite barriers under the current administration, she and other advocates still view federal redress as their collective north star. The push for reparations has gained international attention. In March, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling the trafficking of enslaved Africans the gravest crime against humanity. More than 120 countries supported the measure. Argentina, Israel, and the United States voted against it, while 52 nations, including England and 27 European Union members, abstained.

The debate centers on the history of chattel slavery, which lasted until 1865 in the United States. An estimated 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships bound for the Americas, and about 1.8 million did not survive the voyage. Roughly 388,000 were taken to what is now the United States. William Darity, a co-author of a book on reparations, noted that no president has previously supported comprehensive Black reparations. He said Trump speaks the word with hostility.

Institutional efforts to address this history have also faced pressure. Georgetown University continues to offer admission consideration to descendants of enslaved people linked to its past. However, Richard Cellini, who previously led a Harvard project identifying such descendants, said new work across higher education has stalled. His team identified nearly 500 living descendants of people enslaved by Harvard's past leaders. Harvard fired the team days after Trump's January 2025 anti-DEI order. Research by an outside firm continues, but Harvard has not provided redress to those descendants.

Some programs continue to operate. Juan Woolfolk, 36, a Georgetown descendant, is using a $10,000 scholarship to study museum studies at Southern University at New Orleans. Virginia Theological Seminary makes annual cash payments to descendants of people who labored on its campus. Its funding endowment has grown from $1.7 million to $2.8 million since 2019. In Evanston, recipient Joe Martin, 46, a Delta flight attendant, said that when a legitimate program is created, the government is like, naw.