As Trump fights over what America owes, slavery descendants organize for the future

N’nanba Robin Rue Simmons is working to expand the United States’ first municipal reparations program to more than one hundred communities nationwide. This expansion effort faces immediate legal opposition from the administration of President Donald Trump, which has intervened in litigation aimed at halting the initiative in Evanston, Illinois. The conflict arises as the nation prepares to mark its 250th anniversary, creating a sharp divide between local efforts to address historical harms and federal actions designed to dismantle race-based government programs. Rue Simmons, who serves as chairman of Evanston’s Reparations Committee and previously held office as a city councilwoman, helped design the local program. It provides a $25,000 housing grant to Black residents whose ancestors were affected by discriminatory housing policies. She described the current political climate as presenting significant barriers to achieving federal redress, yet stated that her group maintains federal compensation as its primary goal. The administration’s aggressive stance includes a campaign against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, along with broader moves to reduce federal support for race-specific projects and Black history education. These federal actions have led some institutions to pause or quietly scale back their own reparations work. The domestic dispute occurs alongside international developments regarding the legacy of slavery. In March, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution describing the trafficking of millions of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity. The resolution called for reparations. Over 120 nations voted in favor of the measure. Only three countries opposed it: Argentina, Israel, and the United States. Fifty-two other nations, including England and 27 members of the European Union, abstained from the vote. Historical data cited in the debate highlights the scale of the transatlantic slave trade. For more than three and a half centuries, an estimated 12.5 million Africans were forced onto ships bound for the Americas. Approximately 1.8 million did not survive the voyage. About 388,000 enslaved individuals were brought to what is now the United States. Their captors maintained a system of chattel slavery, treating both the enslaved people and their offspring as property, until abolition occurred in 1865. Proponents argue that this period of enslavement stripped generations of Black Americans of their freedom and any substantial portion of their labor’s value. Subsequent eras of Jim Crow segregation, discrimination, and systemic racism further hindered the Black population’s capacity to accumulate wealth, a disparity that persists today with assets remaining largely concentrated among white families. William Darity, co-author of a book on reparations with A. Kirsten Mullen, noted that no previous president had openly supported comprehensive Black reparations. He observed that discussing the topic was once considered taboo. According to Darity, President Trump now addresses the subject but does so with hostility. During a speech in September, Trump told supporters that opponents sought to steal money for reparations. He claimed the country lacked such funds and asserted that those demanding them hated the nation, adding that the requests would go nowhere. Legal challenges to the Evanston program center on constitutional grounds. The lawsuit was initially filed by Judicial Watch, with the Trump administration subsequently joining the effort to stop the program. Michael Bekesha, representing the plaintiffs, argued that the Evanston scheme distributes funds based solely on race without identifying specific individual harms. He contended that this approach differs from historical reparations models and violates the Constitution, which he said prohibits governments from selecting winners and losers based entirely on racial identity. Supporters of the movement view these programs as essential steps toward accountability. Marcus Anthony Hunter, a sociologist in African American studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained that reparations aim to atone for the historical crime of chattel slavery. He noted that while some initiatives take the form of housing grants or college scholarships rather than direct cash payments, the core purpose remains consistent. Hunter emphasized that the monetary amounts involved are often modest compared to the broader need for recognition, acknowledgment, responsibility, and remedy. The unfulfilled promise of forty acres and a mule after the Civil War stands as a historical reference point for these modern proposals, which now navigate a landscape of heightened political uncertainty.