Evanston, Illinois, made history in 2021 by becoming the first city in the United States to enact a race-based reparations plan aimed at compensating Black residents for past housing discrimination. The plan, which began with around 40 payments annually to qualified residents, has disbursed approximately $4 million to date. This year's initiative will provide $25,000 to 44 eligible Black residents and their descendants who lived in Evanston from 1919 to 1969. Although intended to address systemic inequalities in housing, the effectiveness of the reparations program has come under scrutiny, with critics labeling it as primarily symbolic and raising concerns about its legality.