Reparations have become the latest target for conservative activists. Advocates say they are prepared to fight back.

CNN  —  A conservative group’s lawsuit against a reparations program in Evanston, Illinois, that provides some Black residents with cash payments and housing assistance, has left advocates for reparations worried this could be the first of many attacks on their efforts to redress the harms of slavery, segregation and systemic racism in the United States. The complaint, filed against the city last month by Judicial Watch, claims Evanston’s program violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, and asks the court to declare the city’s “use of race as an eligibility requirement for participation in the program to be unconstitutional.” The argument follows a legal strategy frequently employed by conservative activists to attempt to undercut programs dedicated to addressing racial disparities in the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action in college admissions. As the nation prepares to observe Juneteenth — the federal holiday on June 19 that commemorates the end of slavery in the US — reparations advocates tell CNN they are bracing for potentially more lawsuits against their programs, but stand firm in their commitment to finding ways to rectify the centuries of racism Black Americans and their families have endured. Under the Evanston...