Federal Courts Join Fight Against City Reparations Grants

A federal judge authorized the Department of Justice to intervene in a lawsuit challenging Evanston, Illinois, reparations grants this month. The intervention targets a $25,000 housing subsidy program for Black residents whose families were harmed by discriminatory policies. The Justice Department argues the city violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the Fair Housing Act by distributing funds based on race without identifying specific harm.

Michael Bekesha, an attorney representing the plaintiffs, stated that the Constitution prevents governments from picking winners and losers based entirely on race. The case was originally filed by Judicial Watch. Last year, the Justice Department sent warning letters to leaders in Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina, who were considering similar local programs. Kiersten Pels, a Justice Department spokeswoman, asserted that race-based government benefit programs are unconstitutional and often violate federal civil rights law.

Robin Rue Simmons, who goes by N'nanba, helped create the Evanston program and now assists more than 100 communities in adopting similar measures. She chairs Evanston's Reparations Committee and served as a city councilwoman. Despite administrative barriers, she maintains that federal redress remains the collective goal for advocates. The legal pressure coincides with a wider push for global acknowledgment of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, which forced an estimated 12.5 million Africans onto ships bound for the Americas.

In March, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution describing the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. More than 120 countries supported the measure, urging reparations. The United States, along with Argentina and Israel, voted against the resolution. Fifty-two nations, including England and 27 European Union members, abstained. William Darity, a co-author on a book about reparations, noted that no president has supported comprehensive Black reparations. He observed that President Donald Trump recently spoke about the topic with hostility.

Trump addressed the issue in a September speech, telling supporters that opponents want to steal their money for reparations. He added that the effort is going nowhere. His administration's campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion programs has influenced higher education. Richard Cellini, who previously led a Harvard project identifying descendants of enslaved people, reported that new work across the sector has stalled. His team found nearly 500 living descendants of people enslaved by Harvard leaders, but the university fired the team days after Trump's January 2025 anti-DEI order.

Some institutions continue to provide financial support despite the federal stance. Georgetown University offers admission consideration to descendants of enslaved people tied to its past. Juan Woolfolk, 36, is using a $10,000 scholarship from the university 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. The endowment funding these payments has grown from $1.7 million to $2.8 million since 2019. Joe Martin, 46, an Evanston grant recipient, said the government reacted negatively when a legitimate program was created.

Approximately 388,000 of the enslaved Africans brought to the Americas were taken to what is now the United States. Chattel slavery in the country lasted until 1865. Jim Crow segregation and systemic racism subsequently limited Black Americans' ability to build wealth. That wealth remains largely concentrated among white families. The legal and political fights over these programs continue as the nation marks its 250th anniversary.