The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
-by Sherryanne De La Boise
Illinois has 1,299 incorporated municipalities, of which 217 are "home-rule," where local officials have the power of taxation and jurisdiction over legislation. Most home-ruled towns border Chicago, St. Louis, or Rankin.
Home-rule allowed Evanston's City Council to assess a 3% sales tax on any marijuana sales, with the proceeds funding Reparations. Only one pot store opened. We all sniggered that the home of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union would never generate many pot sales.
But, were we wrong! 2020, that little store generated $400,000 for Reparations. By my math, that's $13 million in pot sales. And, that was with Northwestern University closed.
A committee decided to use the money to compensate for red-lining, which created a historically black neighborhood north and west of the high school. Until the Fair Housing Act of 1968, a non-white family would not be shown property any place other than this neighborhood. In fact, City Council supported Northwestern University not providing housing for their black students in the white neighborhoods, even the black WWII veteran students.
The houses are normal 2-5 bedrooms with detached garages, perfect for a middle class family. However, they are tiny compared to the houses in the other parts of Evanston and undesirable to whites. Their land values did not increase, like the rest of Evanston (neither did their property taxes). This discrimination and segregation negatively affected the wealth of black families, when the only buyers were non-whites.
The committee decided that the descendants of any black resident, owning a home in Evanston between 1919 and 1969 would be eligible to get $25,000 for housing loans and housing repairs. They selected 16 residents for the initial distribution. And the grumbling started!
The committee decided against cash payments, because they would be taxed by the IRS, reducing the spending power of the $25,000. The money is to be paid directly to the same banks and financial institutions that would not lend money to blacks. By not giving a lump sum check, the committee has confirmed the stereotype that poor folks, "can't handle their money."
Both the BBC and CNN have often quoted the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE) as saying lottery winners ending up bankrupt (70%). The NEFE says the statistic is neither backed by anyone's research, nor confirmed by any organization. The statistic appears to have been a statement made by a participant in a 2001 NEFE conference. And, mis-quoted, mis-sourced from that day forward. It simply is not true.
Banks and financial institutions would not lend money to blacks to purchase housing, yet they will be benefitting from Evanston's Reparations, as they get the entire $25,000 if used to pay for a housing loan. And, they will charge fees, as they administer and pay repair bills on behalf of the recipient. "Might as well pay the taxes and get the money to use on things I need."
The Jesuit priests in Canada and the USA have pledged to raise $100 million, not pay out of their own coffers, in reparations to descendants of the blacks, the church enslaved and sold, including the 272 slaves sold in 1838 by the Jesuit owners of Georgetown University. 5,000 living descendants. That works out to $20,000 per person.
The problem is that the Catholic Church was the largest corporate slaveholder in Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. Starting in 1452, it morally sanctioned the development of the trans-Atlantic slave trade with a series of papal bulls (Did you know that Brazil received more slaves than the USA?). How will it ever fundraise enough to give $20,000 to each of those folks?
Reparations got rolling under General Sherman in 1865. Twenty African-American leaders convinced him that, through land ownership, blacks could secure their futures. Sherman did not have legislative authority, but he could issue a Field Order setting aside 400,000 acres of coastal land in Georgia and South Carolina, for 10,000 male slaves to settle there. He later agreed to loan the settlers army mules. Hence, 40 acres and a mule.
Within 6 months, 40,000 freed slaves had moved in, only to have that land confiscated and returned to its former owners by President Andrew Johnson, a year later.
To this day, many blacks are angry that they did not get their "40 acres and a mule." The argument continues that had their family had that, they would have had wealth. Wealth would have passed down through the generations, bring education, prosperity and equality. This is one of the arguments of the 1619 Project of the New York Times: Black families are missing Inherent Wealth.
Instead, we have social welfare programs: Head Start, Food Stamps, Unemployment, Welfare, Medicaid, Low Income Housing, Earned Income Tax Credit, Affirmative Action. Illinois had programs in 1911. Social Security started in 1935. But, it was President Kennedy's 1961 Affirmative Action that has caused the most white dissention and division, as it appeared that whites would have to give up highly sought after places. Actually, most schools added to the number of students to accommodate the AA candidates. None of these programs were a direct payment. None of these payments have addressed casteism and racism. None of these programs offered an apology.
One hundred and fifty-six years is a long time to wait for restitution. At this point, Reparations need to be both verbal apologies on behalf of wrongs we all have committed, as well as one final payment to the descendants. While I would prefer our federal government to make structured payments in the form of increased Social Security for all descendants born before today, I understand the feeling of having waited long enough. We need to get this done this decade. We need to show our appreciation and recognition for the unpaid work of their unpaid ancestors that built the wealth of this Nation. Freedom from slavery was not payment enough.