Chicago mayor creates reparations task force for ‘historical wrongs committed against’ black Chicagoans
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) announced on Monday the creation of the city’s reparations task force to correct the “historical wrongs committed against” black residents and has appropriated $500,000 in the 2024 budget for the task force’s establishment.
In his executive order, Johnson pointed to other cities and states that have gone forward with some form of reparations for black people. The order also offers an official apology to black Chicagoans.
“As a Black man, and as the leader of a major U.S. city, I have a responsibility to set the tone on how we rectify decades of neglect. Today’s Executive Order on the Black Reparations Agenda is a pledge to confront Chicago’s legacy of inequity,” Johnson wrote on X.
The money going toward the task force and its forthcoming recommendations comes at a time when Chicago’s budget deficit is over $500 million.
The task force will “support the strategy, implementation, and engagement of the Chicago Black Reparations Agenda.” Within 90 days of the order being signed, the mayor’s office will invite members of the Black Caucus to “co-design a framework and selection process for the Task Force, to include members of the community.”
Within 12 months, the task force will provide a report that will lay out how to:
- Create a city definition and framework for black reparations,
- Design educational tools for city staff to learn about reparations,
- Conduct a study of all policies that have harmed black Chicagoans “from the slavery era to the present day,”
- Make a series of recommendations that will serve as appropriate remedies and restitution for past injustices and present harm consistent with international standards, and
- Recommend appropriate ways to educate the Chicago public in the report.
The city’s “chief equity officer” will be providing quarterly updates to Johnson’s office.
There is also the issue of the $45 million in pension costs.
