First-in-nation reparations program is unfair to residents who aren’t Black, lawsuit says

A lawsuit filed by a conservative activist group claims a Chicago suburb discriminated against residents who are not Black when it paid nearly $5 million in reparations to some Black residents in recent years as a part of an ongoing program. Evanston, Illinois, in 2021 became the first city in America to offer reparations to Black Americans, including descendants of Black residents who lived in town between 1919 and 1969 when the city banned housing discrimination. The program has provided 193 residents subjected to discrimination with $25,000 each in housing relief. Reparations are a form of financial compensation paid to a group of people who have been wronged. The town’s staff has vowed to fight the new legal challenge. In an email to USA TODAY, Cynthia Vargas, the city’s communications and engagement manager, wrote that Evanston “will vehemently defend any lawsuit brought against our City’s reparations program.” People who support reparations, including a large majority of Black Americans, say Black descendants of people enslaved in the U.S. should be compensated for financial losses brought on by slavery and decades of institutional racism and discrimination. What does the lawsuit claim? The lawsuit, filed by the national nonprofit American conservative activist group...