Demanding reparations to rectify the hundreds of years of systemic harm, mistreatment and discrimination against Black Americans is a continued call that dates back to when President Abraham Lincoln first emancipated enslaved people in the 1860s.
Though historically demanded at a federal level, seeking pathways for reparations on city and state levels has become popular. A new study is providing insights into how Black Chicagoans feel about reparations.
Created by the Blackroots Alliance, a nonprofit organizing for Black liberation, the “Reinvest 2 Repair” project is an initiative that includes 200 Black Chicagoans and their perspectives on reparations as a framework to ignite policies to repair systemic harms.
The project comes as Mayor Brandon Johnson has funded a Reparations Task Force and subcommittee to create a Black Reparations Agenda. Illinois state representatives also recently proposed a bill that would force companies involved in the slave trade to pay reparations.
“We made sure we were talking to Black Chicagoans who would be directly affected if reparations were to come to fruition,” Gabby Green, director of policy engagement and research at Blackroots Alliance, said during a community event discussing the “Reinvest 2 Repair” project. The event took place at the Discover Customer Care Center in Chatham on Feb. 22.
As part of the “Cataloging the Black Experience in Chicago” section, the report states the importance of examining “participants’ experiences in the city and the historical challenges that may contribute to financial insecurity and harm to the Black community.”
Majority of interviewees said the high crime rates, lack of support services and infrastructure neglect prevalent in Chicago’s Black neighborhoods today is a result of disinvestments.
As for the lack of wealth accumulation for Black Chicagoans, 73% of participants pointed to the historical and ongoing segregation and discriminatory practices, like redlining.
Many participants stated they were looking to invest the funds receive through reparations, which showed that interviewees prioritize ways to build generational wealth but lack discretionary funds to do so.
Participants also noted the need for the Black communities in Chicago to have more access to jobs and fresh food options.
The report was a collaboration between the Black Researchers Collective and the national movement support organization, Liberation in a Generation. During the event, panelists representing each organization detailed the process of creating the report and the actions they hope come out of the project.
Though interviews were conducted in 2024 from June to August, Blackroots Executive Director Katelyn Johnson said the idea for the report came out of years of talking to people about their ideas for investment in their communities. For the report, 579 Black Illinoisians were also polled in statewide surveys for their input.
“Many people were talking about the need to do something bigger, something more radical and people were talking about this idea of reparations as the thing that we haven’t tried yet to help solve social inequities,” Johnson said.
Interviews were conducted at public libraries on the South and West Sides where participants were asked about what financial stability looks like to them, the specific harms Black Chicagoans have faced, and their ideas on what providing reparations looks like.
To get a better understanding of how Black Chicagoans envision reparations, participants were given the United Nations guidelines for reparations for victims of human rights violations. According to the U.N., reparations must include: restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition (or guarantees of non-recurrence).
According to the “Reinvest 2 Repair” report, there was a strong understanding from interviewees that financial compensation was just a part of what Black Chicagoans felt were owed to them. Other reparation investments should include “policies that promote generational wealth, such as debt relief, business funding, and property ownership support.”
During the community event, Asani Roundtree, a community organizer with Blackroots, said one thing that stuck out to him was the people’s fatigue for symbolism when it comes to repairing Black harm.
“Many folks are tired of symbolism and empty promises and Black representation that’s not leading to any material change,” Roundtree said. “Folks were like, ‘We don’t want an apology. We want compensation. We want free housing, free health care, material things that will have a tangible impact on our lives today,’ because the situation we’re in is very dire.”
A unique aspect of the project was the implementation of policy design circle workshops, which added a real component for what reparations would look like. For the Black Chicago reparations workshops, a faux app was designed to add a simulated aspect to what receiving payments could look like.
“We designed an app, which is the app that a person who receives reparations would manage their payments on and they will get messages from [a local agency that administers] and communicate with them through that platform,” said Lauren Williams, director of learning and experience at Liberation in a Generation.
Hondo T’Chikwa, a resident of West Englewood who participated in the project, said he wants the report to be used to ignite conversations around reparations and lead to communal collaboration.
“It is clear to me that our people do understand that we need reparations, but people don’t want to do no work,and that’s what the problem is,” he said. “So I would just say in conclusion, that if we move as one first, we can get shit done.”
The panel stressed the importance of leveraging the report for mass outreach and education to galvanize community support for reparative justice.
“As the reparations movement continues, we hope the outcomes of this report will inform the work of the Restoration and Reparations Subcommittee of the Chicago City Council, the Chicago and Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, and the Chicago Office of Equity and Racial Justice as they plan out their response to the nationwide demand for reparations,” according to the report.
The Blackroots Alliance is currently working to have the report on their site. You can read the full report below.
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