Trump administration seeks to halt first US reparations program for Black people

Source: The Guardian

The Trump administration has joined a lawsuit attempting to stop a first-of-its-kind reparations plan that would compensate Black residents of a Chicago suburb, arguing that its race-based criteria are unconstitutional.

The program, in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, offers Black residents and their descendants up to $25,000 for past raced-based housing discrimination. When the city's program was approved in 2021, it was hailed as a model for reparations movements across the US.

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Throughout his second term, Donald Trump has sought to weaponize civil rights laws against groups they once protected and has fixated on dismantling programs related to diversity, equity and inclusion.

"This lawsuit is designed to intimidate and discourage other communities that are beginning their process of reparations, inspired by what Evanston has done," Robin Rue Simmons, who spearheaded Evanston's reparations program and now chairs the Evanston reparations committee, said.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/17/lawsuit-stop-reparations-evanston-illinois