Reparations Nation: Evanston program's architect takes aim at Northwestern University | Washington Examiner
Reparations

Reparations Nation: Evanston program's architect takes aim at Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois, has been referred to as the new epicenter of the civil rights movement when, in 2019, it became the first city in America to guarantee funding for reparations to black residents. The program has been hailed by other cities looking to implement something similar, but it has brought unintended, unfortunate consequences. In part three of this series, Reparations Nation, the Washington Examiner takes a look at the response from the education sector.

EVANSTON, Illinois — The architect of the country's first reparations program in Evanston has a bone to pick with one of her neighbors. 

Robin Rue Simmons, the founder of FirstRepair, a nonprofit group that works to get millions of dollars for black people affected by decades of discrimination, is taking aim at Northwestern University over its documented racist policies of the past and its refusal in the present to kick in funds aimed at righting those wrongs.

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"They have been inappropriately absent from committing to reparations," Simmons told the Washington Examiner, adding that while some professors have joined the "cause" or started conducting studies looking into reparations, "the institution itself has been completely silent."

"They should be the first one supporting Evanston but more specifically holding themselves accountable for all of their practices," she said.

Simmons was instrumental in securing Evanston's place in history as the first U.S. city to guarantee funding for reparations. Evanston's decision to focus on housing and not slavery came after residents said housing policies of the Jim Crow era and redlining overwhelmingly hurt them and created a cycle of poverty that some are still stuck in. On March 22, 2021, the city of 78,220 residents on the north shore along Lake Michigan became the first to approve a plan to make reparations available to residents for the harm they have suffered. Since then, Simmons has been extremely active in pushing her policies and has taken her plan for reparations coast to coast. The plan is to one day usher in a federal program.

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Robin Rue Simmons, the architect of America's first reparation program, sits at her desk at the FirstRepair office in Evanston, Illinois.

But back home in Evanston, Simmons, who was born and raised in the city's segregated 5th Ward, expressed frustration that Northwestern University, which has a checkered history of denying services to black students, hasn't done more to help.

In fact, Edwin Jourdain Jr., Evanston's first black council member in 1931, slammed the city repeatedly for "help[ing] Northwestern University erect Jim Crow housing projects."

At the time, black leaders saw red when the city approved permits to the school for new housing that specifically barred black students, including those who were veterans. Black students were not allowed to live in campus housing until 1947.

"They had to live at the [YMCA] and other places because they were not welcome to live on Northwestern's campus," Simmons said. "All forms of anti-blackness have happened there. We really should be looking [at] how they've come into land acquisition in black neighborhoods. Was that done in a fair and just way?"

Methodist ministers founded Northwestern in 1851, and its student body has included influential thinkers like Frances Willard, leader of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, which praised the school as a bastion of intellectualism and morality.

Simmons said while the school has addressed some issues with its "indigenous history," Northwestern has "yet to even respond to the call to repair the harms in the black community."

Ramona Burton, one of the first 16 recipients chosen by the city to receive a $25,000 reparations grant, echoed Simmons's frustration.

"I think it's deplorable," she told the Washington Examiner. "It reeks of underlying racism."

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Ramona Burton on her wedding day. Burton was picked as one of the first recipients of Evanston's reparations program. (Courtesy of Ramona Burton)

Simmons juxtaposed Northwestern's silence to Harvard University's $100 million pledge to create a "Legacy of Slavery" endowment fund that would allow students and scholars to examine the university's connections to slavery, including the social and economic gaps that have been the lasting legacies of that time period.

Harvard isn't alone in its inward look. More than 95 universities across the country are studying their ties to slavery or trying to repair the harm it has caused.

"Even before dollars are committed, you can start with a history," Simmons said. "There are more and more universities that are supportive in embracing reparations even if they haven't started with their work; they are embracing it."

Simmons points to her role at the University of Chicago, where she is a 2023 Pritzker Fellow and was invited to deliver a speech.

"They knew I wasn't in there talking about double Dutch," she said. "No, I am there to discuss and pour into young minds sort of the history and opportunity of reparations, and I consider that a commitment from the university. They didn't have to do that. They didn't have to share space with me, but Northwestern has yet to make any commitment."

Northwestern told the Washington Examiner that it has taken steps to "researching its past and fostering community conversations about how to confront history, both the institution’s history and the nation’s."

"The university knows that there is no single solution for undoing the legacy of systemic racism in our country. But we are proud of our many equity and diversity initiatives and remain committed to reshaping our institutions and practices and creating opportunities for all the people who call this place home," Hilary Hurd Anyaso, director of media relations, said, adding that the university commits $500,000 annually to "support programs and projects in Evanston and Chicago that address the root causes of racial inequities."

To Simmons, it's still not enough.

Race-based policies at other Evanston schools were also problematic, mostly because residential segregation meant the schools would stay segregated as well, despite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that said racial segregation of students in public schools was unconstitutional. Despite the ruling, it would take Evanston more than a decade to adopt a desegregation plan, roll it out chaotically, and then oust the superintendent of schools, Gregory Coffin, a white New Englander who hired black teachers and staff at former all-white schools and instituted curriculum aimed at removing racism from teachings.

Decades later, the divide between the haves and the have-nots in Evanston still exists and is what keeps Simmons busy. She has been championed by some who claim she's a modern-day Rosa Parks, though others are not convinced and believe her work is a form of reverse discrimination. 

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A person walks a dog past a street sign reading "Welcome to Evanston" in the predominantly Black 5th Ward in Evanston, Ill., Tuesday, May 4, 2021. ​(AP Photo/Shafkat Anowar)

A 2021 Pew Research Center poll found only three out of 10 U.S. adults believe the descendants of slaves should be entitled to reparations in the form of land or money. About 68% said it was time to leave the past in the past and that descendants should not be repaid, period. 

Views of reparations also varied widely by race, according to the survey. About 77% of black adults believe descendants of slaves should be repaid in some way, while only 18% of white adults thought the same. The views were also split when it came to party affiliation. About 48% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents believed descendants should be repaid, while only 8% of Republicans agreed and an overwhelming 91% disagreed. 

Sam Vicks, an Alabama native and history buff visiting Evanston, told the Washington Examiner it seemed futile to go back in time and force his children to pay for what their ancestors did. 

"Everyone agrees slavery was horrible, but why should my kids have to pay the price to someone else's kids who also had nothing to do with it?" he said. "But these days, you make a comment like that, and you're labeled a racist." 

Others, like Caitlyn Withers, a restaurant server in Chicago, took issue with a targeted program that would only help some people while hurting others. 

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"It's the same thing, only it's African Americans benefiting while we are getting screwed," she told the Washington Examiner. "We were all immigrants here, all subjected to some kind of struggle. Reparations aren't moving the needle forward, and isn't that supposed to be the point?" 

Catch part four of Reparations Nation tomorrow when the Washington Examiner takes a look at other cities and states following Evanston's lead.