Forty Acres and a Mule: Local Reparations Policies in Comparative Perspective

In 2021, Evanston, IL, became the first city to distribute reparations to Black residents in the form of $25,000 housing grants. Since then, other municipalities have begun modeling their own reparations programs after Evanston’s. Building on his Evanston case study, political scientist Matthew Nelsen will examine how residents in San Francisco, CA, St. Paul, MN, Detroit, MI, and Asheville, NC, all of which are pursuing reparations policies, understand the proposed initiatives. He will conduct interviews for his study.