The Village of Oak Park is considering how to give reparations to Black residents in an attempt to acknowledge historical harms to the Black community and improve racial equity in the future — four years after a task force formed to study the issue.
The Oak Park Reparations Task Force, formed in 2020, finished its report on such harms to the Black community that contained suggestions for amends and compensation in February 2024. They include a formal apology and a mix of financial and policy options, including purchasing the historic East Avenue home owned by the family of Oak Park chemist Percy Julian.
Several members of the village board urged action.
“I do want to continue to listen to the recommendations, but also make sure we keep our foot on the pedal here, and not slow down or become complacent,” Trustee Chibuike Enyia said. “There’s people that are still being denied housing to this day … This hasn’t ended just because we’ve said we’re this village of equity. We have to actually walk that walk.”
Trustee Lucia Robinson, however, asked first for a deeper historical study of a century-plus of discrimination against Black residents so that the village can craft a better articulated and more authentic apology for its actions.
“We cannot have an apology that says ‘Well, the reparations task force said we did bad things, and so we’re sorry,’” Robinson said. “We have to take more ownership than that. We have to say, ‘We did the work to figure out what the history was of this community.’”
Village Manager Kevin Jackson said that while the village has to address legal concerns for a reparations program, it doesn’t mean they can’t move forward on some of the issues in the meantime but didn’t specify at the July 16 meeting what that might look like.
Christian Harris and Nancy Alexander, two members of the task force, detailed examples of historical harms to the Black community at the village board meeting last week.
One example, Alexander noted, is when white Oak Parkers got the village board to rescind a building permit for a Black congregation that purchased property on Cuyler Avenue and Chicago Avenue. The congregation later built Mt. Carmel Baptist Church in 1905, on what is now Westgate Avenue near Harlem Street and Lake Street, only to have it burn in a “mysterious fire.”
That area was the hub of Oak Park’s small Black community. It was soon rezoned for commercial development and is now the core of downtown Oak Park. Those choices to rename and redevelop erased the evidence of Oak Park’s early Black residents, Alexander said.
The task force members also pointed out the struggles Black families faced in the 1960s and 1970s to purchase homes in Oak Park. In some instances, white people became “straw buyers” and bought homes on behalf of Black purchasers, Alexander said.
And, while Oak Parkers might think racial equality is already prevalent here — with a middle school, for example, named after famed scientist Percy Julian — the Julian family nonetheless continues to face struggles without compensation, Alexander said.
Harris said reparations are necessary because racial equity initiatives tend to fall short of addressing the past and focus instead only on the future.
“How can we truly build an equitable economic future for Black people when many of the laws, systems and people that have historically extracted wealth from the Black community still exist with no signs of changing?” he asked. “We must look back to repair the harm.”
“We do have a tendency here in Oak Park to put rose-colored glasses on the history of our actions,” Village President Vicki Scaman acknowledged at the meeting. Reparations could be a step toward changing that.
Oak Park is not alone in this effort. Evanston was the first United States city to issue reparations for Black residents. Its first phase involved giving 16 residents $25,000 each for home repairs or property costs. But now, the city is facing a lawsuit over its program. A conservative group claims it is unconstitutional because the payments are based on race.
And reparations aren’t a new idea in the United States, either, one public commenter pointed out at the July 16 meeting.
According to the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, slaveowners got reparations, while the enslaved persons got nothing. According to the National WWII Museum, Congress also paid reparations to Japanese Americans after their incarceration. And 9/11 survivors received compensation, too, according to WSHU.
So how might Oak Park try to repair harm done to the Black community?
Oak Park reparations options
The task force recommended that village officials first issue an official apology for policies, practices and procedures that have been harmful to the Black community. They are also asking for the village to partner with financial institutions to create housing-related services for the Black community. This could help create equitable opportunities for homeownership, maybe through low-interest loan or downpayment assistance programs.
The task forces also suggested creating a “Percy Julian Restorative Justice Fund and Foundation,” a nonprofit that advocates for restorative justice and works to repair effects of discrimination and racism. The village board, the task force said, should commit 50% of inclusionary zoning funds to this, as well as $350,000 in startup funds.
“The village board has already spent [about] $350,000 on migrants,” Alexander said. “What will the village commit to its resident, voting, taxpaying African American citizens?”
The group’s final suggestion was for the village to buy the Percy Julian home to create a cultural center, while also allowing Percy Julian’s daughter, Faith, to stay in the home until her death.
The task force said they don’t want private developers to get ahold of the home. But some board members said July 16 that they’re not in favor of taking any agency away from Faith Julian, and that she needs to be in conversations about the future of her home.
Reactions
Trustee Cory Wesley noted other historical harms to Black communities, including the effects of race-based zoning practices and racist real estate tactics.
“I think there’s more we can do here to uncover specific instances of action that this village has taken against Black folks that would justify reparations,” he said. “A general apology just for committing acts of harm after over 100 years of harmful actions, I just don’t think is sufficient.”
He described how Percy Julian, whose home was firebombed twice, would station himself under a tree with a shotgun, telling his son it was because others in the neighborhood didn’t want him there.
Enyia recalled times he has had people try to break into his home, too.
During the public comment portion of this discussion, Oak Park resident Sheila Wesonga said the issue of reparations is personal to her. She said she’s had family members who’ve faced housing difficulties, who’ve experienced pain and trauma from police, and personally faced constant stares for wearing her native dress.
“It’s ridiculous. It’s painful,” she said. “It’s important that you know that these things not only existed in the past but continue in the future.”
Another resident, Lisa Shelton, said that in light of the aid the village gave to the migrant community during the recent crisis, a conversation about reparations is needed for the Black community. One area of focus should be for people of color in Oak Park experiencing homelessness, she said.
“Reparations are not charity nor donations,” said Dot Lambshead Roche, an Oak Park resident. “They are owed.”
Trustee Susan Buchanan said she finds the village’s feedback so far “wholly inadequate,” noting the delays in discussing the issue.
“I want a proposal from the village staff of how this village can … take the first steps in addressing reparations,” she said.
“We can’t sit on our laurels,” Trustee Brian Straw added. “We can’t let another year pass without having done something.”