Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) on Monday announced the creation of a city reparations task force to right “historic wrongs” against Black residents, and included $500,000 in the city’s 2024 budget to establish the task force.
his Presidential DecreeJohnson pointed to other cities and states that have moved forward with some form of reparations for Black people. The order also marks an official apology to Chicago’s Black residents.
“As a Black person and the leader of a major American city, I have a responsibility to set the tone for how to right decades of neglect. Today’s executive order on a Black Reparations Plan is a commitment to confront Chicago’s legacy of inequality,” Johnson wrote on X.
The funding for the task force and its future recommendations comes at a time when Chicago’s budget deficit exceeds $500 million.
The task force will “support the strategy, implementation and engagement of the Chicago Black Reparations Initiative,” and within 90 days of the order being signed, the mayor’s office will invite members of the Legislative Black Caucus to “co-design the task force framework and selection process, including with community members.”
The Task Force is expected to deliver a report within 12 months outlining how to:
- Develop a city definition and framework for Black reparations.
- Design educational tools for city employees to learn about reparations.
- It examines every policy that has harmed black people in Chicago “from slavery to the present.”
- Makes a set of recommendations that would provide for appropriate remedies and reparations for past injustices and current harms, in line with international standards;
- In the report, we recommend appropriate ways to educate Chicagoans.
The city’s “chief equity officer” will provide quarterly updates to Johnson’s office.
There’s also the issue of $45 million in pension costs.
