Evanston, Illinois, to make reparations (of a sort)

A suburb of Chicago is set to become the first place in the US to provide reparations to its Black residents for housing through a tax on marijuana sales, with a plan to distribute $10m over the coming decade.

Evanston, which sits on the shores of Lake Michigan north of downtown Chicago, is set for an initial disbursement of about $400,000 for housing needs, with a vote on the issue set to take place at the city council on 22 March.

Under the proposal, residents would get $25,000 to use towards home improvements or mortgage assistance. To qualify, residents must have either been or descended from a Black person who lived in Evanston before 1969 who suffered from discriminatory housing practices by government and banks.

  Guardian