Federal government seeks to halt first US reparations programme for Black people
Legal
Politics
June 17, 2026
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The federal government on Tuesday asked a judge to halt the United States’ first reparations programme that offered Black people in a small Illinois city $25,000 for 20th-century race-based housing discrimination, joining an existing lawsuit that called the programme unconstitutional.
The programme, launched in Evanston, Illinois in 2021, is the first and only one of its kind in the US, allotting $20 million to Black residents — their direct descendants — who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 and suffered housing discrimination because of city ordinances, policies or practises.
Residents, regardless of race, who experienced discrimination due to the city’s policies or practices after 1969 also qualified.
Legal
Politics
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