12.5 Million: The Scale of a Federal Legal Fight Over Evanston's $25,000 Grants

The Justice Department is now formally challenging the first municipal reparations program in the United States. A federal judge permitted the department to intervene in a lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, which argues that Evanston, Illinois, distributes funds by race without identifying specific harm. The intervention alleges that the city's $25,000 housing grants violate the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause and the Fair Housing Act.

The program was created by Robin Rue Simmons, who now goes by N'nanba. She helped design the grants for Black residents whose families were affected by discriminatory housing policies. Simmons chairs Evanston's Reparations Committee and previously served on the city council. She is currently working to replicate the model in more than 100 other communities. However, the Trump administration's push to limit federal backing for race-based initiatives has created new hurdles for these local efforts.

The legal challenge occurs as the nation marks its 250th anniversary. President Donald Trump has expressed hostility toward reparations, telling supporters in September, "They want to steal your money for reparations," and adding that "it's going nowhere." His administration has also sent warning letters to leaders in Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina, who were considering similar programs. Justice Department spokeswoman Kiersten Pels stated that race-based government benefit programs are unconstitutional and often violate federal civil rights law.

Michael Bekesha, who represents the plaintiffs in the Evanston lawsuit, said the Constitution bars governments from "picking winners and losers based entirely on race." The suit claims the city distributes funds based on race without pinpointing the specific injuries suffered by recipients. This legal strategy mirrors broader federal moves to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.

Simmons remains committed to the cause despite the federal pushback. "Under this administration, of course, there are many barriers to achieving that, but we still stand on federal redress as our collective north star," she said. She views the Evanston program as a foundational step in addressing historical wrongs that have limited wealth building for Black families.

The debate over reparations is also influencing higher education. Georgetown University continues to offer admission consideration to descendants of enslaved people tied to its history. However, new work across the sector has slowed. Richard Cellini, who led a Harvard project identifying descendants, said his team found nearly 500 living descendants of people enslaved by Harvard's past leaders. Harvard fired the team days after Trump's January 2025 anti-DEI order. Research by an outside firm continues, though Harvard has not provided redress.

The historical context for the fight is vast. The trans-Atlantic slave trade forced an estimated 12.5 million Africans onto ships bound for the Americas, and about 1.8 million did not survive the journey. Roughly 388,000 were taken to what is now the United States, where chattel slavery lasted until 1865. William Darity, a co-author of a book on reparations, noted that no president has supported comprehensive Black reparations. "Now, Trump will speak the word, but with hostility," he said.

Some recipients continue to benefit from existing programs. Juan Woolfolk, 36, a Georgetown descendant, is using a $10,000 scholarship to study museum studies at Southern University at New Orleans. In Evanston, recipient Joe Martin, 46, said that when a legitimate program is created, "the government's like, naw." Martin noted that the promise of "40 acres and a mule" did not materialize as expected.