Evanston's Reparations
How Black Churches Helped Fund Evanston’s Reparations Efforts
The nation has heard about Evanston, Illinois. In 2019, it became the first city in the U.S. to commit public funds to a formal reparations program. The specific initiative, a Restorative Housing Program, was approved in March 2021. It was a historic step, committing millions from tax revenue to begin addressing generations of racial injustice. The headlines were written, and Evanston was cemented as a pioneer.
But that’s only half the story.
While the cameras focused on city hall, a different kind of movement was taking root in the pews and fellowship halls of Evanston's Black churches. It was a quieter, parallel effort driven not by tax dollars, but by faith and conviction. This is the story of how a coalition of faith leaders, seeing the deep need for community-led repair, organized to raise and pledge a million dollars. They built a second, crucial pillar in the city's quest for justice, funding reparations on their own terms.
A Debt Decades in the Making
To understand why this church-led movement was so vital, you have to understand the history etched into the very map of Evanston. For about fifty years, from 1919 to 1969, the city’s Black residents faced systemic housing discrimination. This wasn't accidental. Through a combination of city zoning ordinances, discriminatory real estate practices like "racial steering," and federally-backed redlining, Black families were effectively trapped. They were systematically denied opportunities to buy homes in most of the city, concentrating the Black population into the city's Fifth Ward.
This created what historians call a "contained community." While white families were able to purchase homes, build equity, and pass that wealth down through generations, Black families were largely excluded from that primary engine of American wealth creation. T he impact of this injustice didn't end when the Fair Housing Act was passed in 1968. It echoed for decades, manifesting as a persistent racial wealth gap and under-resourced neighborhoods. It became clear to many that any true repair couldn't just come from a single program; it would require a response as multifaceted as the harm itself.
The Spark of a Parallel Movement
In November 2019, the city of Evanston took its historic first step. The city council voted to establish a reparations fund, committing the first ten million dollars from a new 3% tax on recreational cannabis sales over ten years. This fund was designed to address the legacies of housing and economic discrimination. The initial program, the Restorative Housing Program, authorized grants of up to $25,000 for eligible Black residents to be used for home purchases, improvements, or mortgage assistance.
But even as this municipal effort was taking shape, leaders within Evanston's faith community knew a government program alone wouldn't be enough. Faith leaders were instrumental from the start, helping build the moral and political case for reparations by hosting town halls and building public support. Figures like Reverend Michael Nabors of the historic Second Baptist Church became powerful voices, arguing that repair was a moral imperative.
They understood that the harm of segregation wasn't just economic; it was spiritual and communal. And so, advocates, community leaders, and clergy decided to build something parallel to the city's effort. This led to the creation of the Reparations Stakeholder Authority of Evanston, or RSAE, a separate, independent nonprofit. The RSAE was designed to be a different channel, a way for congregations, community members, and private donors to contribute directly to reparative work, ensuring the community had a direct hand in funding its own healing.
Faith in Action: The Million-Dollar Challenge
The vision was ambitious, and it was put to the test in June 2022. Leaders from the interfaith community gathered with a bold public promise: they would raise one million dollars for the Evanston Reparations Community Fund, to be managed by the RSAE.
This wasn't a promise to simply pass the collection plate. It was a commitment to a sustained, organized campaign. Church leaders delivered sermons connecting the history of injustice to the moral call for repair. They held events and reached out to their networks, building a groundswell of support.
The effort was a testament to the unique power of the Black church as a hub for social action. For over two and a half years, the congregations worked. Then, by Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2025, they announced they had reached their goal, securing roughly one million dollars in payments and pledges.
The funds came primarily from the interfaith community, with a reported 16 congregations pledging to contribute. The giving showed incredible commitment. The Unitarian Church of Evanston, for example, raised nearly $50,000 for the fund. This parallel fund became even more critical as reports noted the city’s cannabis tax revenue was coming in slower than initially projected, highlighting the need for a diverse and resilient funding ecosystem for reparations.
Building a Reparative Ecosystem
A crucial distinction exists between Evanston's two reparations tracks. The city's fund focused on its Restorative Housing Program, providing grants directly to eligible individuals. The faith-led fund, however, was designed for a different but equally important purpose: community and institutional repair.
The money raised by the churches through the RSAE does not go to direct individual cash payments. Instead, it is being channeled into grants for Black-led organizations and programs that are actively working to uplift the entire community. In early 2026, RSAE announced it would begin distributing an initial $400,000 of the funds to Black churches to support their reparative work.
The goal is to use these funds to build the capacity of the very institutions that have served the Black community for decades. Guided by community feedback, the priority areas for these grants are broad and holistic, aimed at tackling systemic inequality. They include supporting affordable housing initiatives, economic development, youth education, and health and wellness programs. One key partner is Evanston Own It, a coalition of local churches working on youth initiatives, which helps distribute grants to support community programs. This model says repair isn't just about compensating for past harm, but about empowering the community to build its own thriving future.
A Blueprint for the Nation
The story of Evanston’s faith community offers a powerful example for the rest of the country. It demonstrates how a reparations effort can be a two-track system: one lane driven by municipal government, and another, equally vital lane driven by the community itself.
Black churches provided what a government entity often cannot: deep-seated trust, moral authority, and a built-in organizing infrastructure that has been at the heart of Black freedom struggles for centuries. By creating their own fund, they ensured the reparations movement in Evanston would be more resilient, more holistic, and more deeply rooted in the community it is meant to serve.
This approach, a public-private-faith partnership, shows a path forward. It proves that when a city takes a historic step, the community can rise to meet it, amplify it, and build upon it. The work in Evanston is far from over, and the process of repair is a long one. But the million-dollar effort led by its faith community is a profound statement of empowerment.
Call To Action
This story is still being written, in Evanston and in communities across the country. To learn more about the work of the Reparations Stakeholder Authority of Evanston and to see how communities are taking repair into their own hands, check out the links in the description below.
And if you believe in the power of community-led action, share this story.
Conclusion
In the end, the full story of reparations in Evanston is one of dual engines working in tandem. While city hall made history with a pen and a vote, the churches of Evanston made their own history with faith, organizing, and action. They provided the moral courage, the grassroots power, and a million dollars in pledges to prove that true, lasting repair is not just a government program. It is a community’s sacred promise to heal itself.