Trump Admin Sues to Block Evanston Reparations as Model Spreads

The nation is currently observing its 250th anniversary, a milestone that has intensified legal and political battles over how local governments address historical racial wealth gaps.

The Trump administration has moved to block a reparations program in Evanston, Illinois, while the model continues to expand to more than 100 communities across the country. The city provides $25,000 housing grants to Black residents whose families were affected by discriminatory housing policies.

A federal judge recently permitted the Department of Justice to intervene in a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch. The plaintiffs argue that the city distributes funds based on race without identifying specific harms. Michael Bekesha, the attorney representing the plaintiffs, stated that the Constitution prevents governments from selecting winners and losers based solely on race.

The Justice Department alleges that the Evanston program violates the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the Fair Housing Act. Kiersten Pels, a department spokeswoman, said that race-based government benefit programs are unconstitutional and frequently violate federal civil rights law. Last year, the department sent a warning letter to leaders in Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina, who were considering their own initiatives.

This legal push occurs as the administration broadens its efforts to limit federal support for race-based initiatives. President Donald Trump has spoken about reparations with hostility. In a speech in September, he told supporters that they want to steal money for reparations and that the movement is going nowhere. William Darity, who co-wrote a book on reparations, noted that no president has supported comprehensive Black reparations until now.

International bodies are also revisiting the issue. In March, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution calling the trafficking of enslaved Africans the gravest crime against humanity. More than 120 countries supported the resolution, while the United States, Argentina, and Israel voted against it. Fifty-two nations, including England and 27 European Union members, abstained.

Robin Rue Simmons, known as N'nanba, chairs Evanston's Reparations Committee and is a former city councilwoman. She helped create the local grant and is now helping spread the program to other areas. She said the group stands on federal redress as a collective north star despite the barriers created by the current administration.

Higher education institutions have also felt the pressure. Richard Cellini, who previously led a Harvard project identifying descendants of enslaved people, said new work has stalled. His team found nearly 500 living descendants, but Harvard fired the team days after the president's January 2025 order. Kirt von Daacke, a University of Virginia historian, reported that he sees no new scholarship programs since the president returned to office.

Some programs continue to provide benefits to recipients. Juan Woolfolk, a 36-year-old 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 funded by an endowment that has grown to $2.8 million since 2019.

Joe Martin, a 46-year-old Delta flight attendant and Evanston grant recipient, said the government acts as if it is rejecting the idea when a legitimate program is created. He noted that the historical promise of 40 acres and a mule did not go down the way it was supposed to.