Statement from Movement Lawyers Group: In Defense of Evanston and the Movement for Reparations

The Dream of our ancestors to repair our communities and the nation is under siege– Let’s pledge to continue the fight for justice and repair WASHINGTON, July 3, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Recent attacks on efforts to obtain reparations for Black communities undermine the work done by our ancestors to repair the long lasting and devastating injuries of slavery and its living vestiges. These attacks obstruct justice and the realization of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of repair and the creation of a true inclusive democracy. The movement for reparations is a movement for healing and reparatory justice for crimes done against Black communities. The backlash against community-led efforts for true justice and repair has appeared in the past couple of months in two different ways. Both reflect the different ways in which Courts are used in an attempt to deny Black reparations.   First, in its June 2024 dismissal of Randle et. al. v. City of Tulsa, et. al. the Oklahoma Supreme Court proclaims that judicial reparations are impossible, and relief can only come from local or state legislatures. The Court holds that Oklahoma Courts are the wrong forum to seek relief, even though the plaintiffs’ claims—that the blight in...