Mayor Brandon Johnson launches task force on reparations for Black Chicagoans

Mayor Brandon Johnson launched a task force Monday to examine implementing a reparations program for Black Chicagoans, he announced while casting the move as the latest step in his administration’s agenda focused on racial justice.

Under Johnson’s new executive order, the commission will conduct an examination of “all policies that have harmed Black Chicagoans from the slavery era to present day and make a series of recommendations that will serve as appropriate remedies,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office. The announcement came after Johnson earmarked $500,000 in the 2024 budget toward studying the issue.

“Today’s Executive Order is not just a public declaration; it is a pledge to shape the future of our city by confronting the legacy of inequity that has plagued Chicago for far too long,” Johnson said in a statement. “In partnership with the Chicago City Council Black Caucus and our dedicated allies, we are continuing to build on the bedrock of my administration to move forward in reconciliation through targeted investments aimed at rectifying decades of deliberate disinvestment in Black neighborhoods and communities.”

Specific areas of harm toward Black Chicagoans that the announcement listed include housing, health, education, mass incarceration, policing and more. In his statement, Johnson nodded to the upcoming Juneteenth holiday and said the moment to act on rectifying “the legacy of chattel slavery and Jim Crow laws” is now, noting that Black Chicagoans still suffer disparities in life expectancy, unemployment and more.

Black Caucus chair Ald. Stephanie Coleman, 16th, applauded the move, saying she was “proud that we are taking concrete action rather than just engaging in discourse.”

“Today is a major step forward, and I am thankful to the Johnson Administration for its continued support and commitment to addressing the deep wounds inflicted by centuries of injustice against the Black community,” Coleman said in a statement. “We will not be ashamed of who we are, and what we have overcome.”

Exploring a reparations program to undo the harms of slavery and segregation has been an idea floated across American cities, particularly in the wake of the 2020 racial justice uprisings over the police murder of George Floyd. North suburban Evanston has made some of the biggest strides in that vein, kicking off a program that provides $25,000 payments for Black Evanstonians affected by racial housing policies put in place by the city — though a conservative group last month filed a lawsuit accusing the initiative of being unconstitutional.

Also Monday, Johnson announced Carla Kupe as his chief equity officer during the city’s Juneteenth flag raising in Daley Plaza. Kupe, who served as the city’s first diversity and inclusion officer at the Office of the Inspector General, was set to be the mayor’s final cabinet appointment, though Johnson now has another vacancy in the wake of last week’s announcement of the retirement of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Commissioner Kenneth Meyer.

ayin@chicagotribune.com