Congressional Black Caucus Statement on DOJ Efforts to Halt Illinois' Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program

Today, Congressional Black Caucus Chair Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) and members of the Congressional Black Caucus issued the following statement:

"During a time when we should be celebrating the accomplishments, culture, and continued liberation of our people, the Trump Administration attempted to commandeer the commemoration of Juneteenth to launch its latest federal attack on a local reparative housing program in Evanston, Illinois, created to redress the city's documented history of housing discrimination. The Congressional Black Caucus condemns the ongoing attacks on reparative measures and the undermining of reparative efforts across the country.

"From 1919 to 1969, local zoning laws and restrictive housing covenants systematically enforced segregation, suppressed Black homeownership, and stymied economic and political mobility. The Evanston City Council's Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program directly addresses decades of government-sanctioned harm by providing funds for home purchases, mortgage assistance, property repairs, and direct payments to eligible Black residents and their direct descendants. It is a model of what local accountability looks like.

"In response, President Trump's Acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, joined the right-wing extremist group Judicial Watch in opening an anti-civil rights investigation to intimidate Black families through federal litigation. Instead of protecting the most vulnerable, the Department of Justice (DOJ) appears to believe that dismantling reparative justice efforts to counteract decades of racial discrimination is a top priority.

"What this administration is doing is not an isolated act. It is a coordinated campaign. This latest move by DOJ follows a pattern: DOJ's threats targeting Buncombe County, North Carolina's reparations program; the Administration's stripping of appropriations for the District of Columbia's Reparations Foundation Fund and Task Force as part of the $1.1 billion in cuts to D.C.'s budget; the Administration's efforts to subvert the use of the Treasury Judgment Fund, historically used to compensate Black and Native American farmers subjected to federal discrimination, through its proposed $1.776 billion Anti-Weaponization Fund; and its failure to use DOJ resources to remedy the impacts of the Tulsa Race Massacre following the first-ever Review and Evaluation of the Massacre.

"Reparations for Black people aren't unique or unprecedented. Municipal, county, and state governments across the country are advancing reparative justice efforts in an attempt to rectify centuries of government-sanctioned discrimination. The overwhelming majority of CBC members have reparations efforts in our own backyards, and our constituents deserve federal leadership that meets that work with support, not sabotage. As the American people plead with this administration to lower the cost of living, this administration continues, without fail, its steadfast efforts to dismantle tools of economic, social, cultural, and political mobility.

"The Congressional Black Caucus will not stand by while MAGA extremists turn a weaponized DOJ against our communities and wage war on reparative justice. We stand fully in support of the City of Evanston, its Reparations Committee, and the residents it serves, as this community represents a viable example of repair. We cannot allow the Administration to actively work to derail initiatives designed to promote equity and remedy generations of discrimination. Our federal obligation is clear: to advance a robust reparative justice agenda that provides the wraparound support our communities need and the redress they are owed. The time for acknowledgment, accountability, and repair is now, and we will not be deterred in establishing a reparative future for the next 250 years of this nation."