Reparations Resolution Passes In Chicago City Council
Reparations Resolution Passes In Chicago City Council
BY KATHERINE NEWMAN
The Chicago City Council recently passed a resolution calling for the establishment of the Chicago Descendants of Enslaved Africans Reparations Commission to ensure equity, equality, and parity for citizens of African descent in Chicago who are experiencing poverty and to explore what can be done to close racial gaps in homeownership, educational funding, healthcare, government contracts, and anything else they find that needs to be addressed.
The resolution was sponsored by several Alderman including Sixth Ward Alderman Roderick Sawyer, Eighth Ward Alderman Michelle Harris, and Seventh Ward Alderman Greg Mitchell. The resolution was pioneered in part by Dr. Willie Wilson, a local businessman and a former candidate for Mayor of Chicago.
“I’m glad to serve as Alderman of the Sixth Ward and co-sponsor of this ground breaking resolution,” said Alderman Roderick Sawyer. “We know that this is going to be an uphill battle but we cannot stop this conversation. We have to keep the conversation going for the African descendants of slaves here in Chicago, in the state of Illinois, and in the United States of America. We have to have a discussion about reparations to repair the disparities that we’ve had.”
The resolution lays out several reasons why reparations are needed for descendants of enslaved Africans living in Chicago. The resolution states that “African Americans continue to suffer extraordinary disparities in economic, educational, health, housing, unemployment and poverty outcomes.”
Sawyer went on to talk about racial disparities in health care, education, and housing and said that it wasn’t until recently that he came to the realization that the fight for reparations has been going on for over a century and acknowledged that it is something worth fighting for.
“We are at the bottom or the top of every key category, we are at the top when it’s bad and the bottom when it’s good and we need to correct that. The only way we can correct it is by being here and talking about the repair and the rehabilitation and all the elements that have been talked about. We don’t have to study it anymore, we have to implement it. We need reparations now,” said Sawyer.
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