Free Republic

The mayor of the ultra-liberal, near-north Chicago suburb of Evanston wants to apply for a slice of a $20 million county grant to turn an abandoned office building in his city into a new migrant shelter in a bid to help take migrants off the hands of officials in Chicago. Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss (D) announced his intention to apply to Cook County’s recently created $100 million-dollar “disaster response and recovery” fund, of which $20 million is set aside for migrants, to help him rehab an empty office building near Church Street and Oak Avenue. Biss wants to turn the...

At long last, justice has come: the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Ill., has begun paying reparations to black residents. So now that historic wrongs have been righted, a new era of racial harmony will dawn in northern Illinois, right? Wrong: one local “civil rights activist” is already complaining that the payouts are too meager and more money is needed. Despite the discontent, however, supporters of the scheme are optimistic, with one even terming it “a test run for the whole country.” Yeah, that’s the problem. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Evanston will shell out $25,000 to around 140...

Apart from the 16 individuals who have already received payment, the city has identified 90 more eligible individuals and begun making home visits. A Chicago suburb began paying reparations to black residents this week after first approving the proposal in 2019. Thus far, 16 residents have received funds from a $10 million sum the city allocated for such payments, the Evanston Round Table reported. The money was initially to come from cannabis sales tax, but the city subsequently approved use of real estate transfer tax revenue to expedite the process. Apart from the 16 individuals who have already received payment,...

Native American groups are now joining the call for reparations centuries after hundreds of tribes had land taken from them by 'land-grab universities and colleges.' An estimated 10.7 million acres of land was taken from 250 tribes following the signing of the Morrill Act by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862. This law converted tribal lands into initial sites for land-grant higher education institutions in many states. Institutions such as the University of Minnesota, which received 94,440 acres of land, and Cornell University in New York that received more than 987,000 acres are being targeted. Cornell, in total, received land in...

A suburb of Chicago has become the first to start paying reparations to qualifying black residents in what is being seen as “a test run for the whole country.” The city of Evanston has already paid 16 locals from a $10 million package first approved in 2019, the Evanston RoundTable said Monday. By the end of the year, the reparations committee expects to have paid $25,000 each to 140 qualifying residents in the city of about 75,000, officials also told the Wall Street Journal. “I see it as like a test run for the whole country,” Justin Hansford, head of...

A suburb of Chicago has become the first to start paying reparations to qualifying black residents in what is being seen as “a test run for the whole country.” The city of Evanston has already paid 16 locals from a $10 million package first approved in 2019, the Evanston RoundTable said Monday. By the end of the year, the reparations committee expects to have paid $25,000 each to 140 qualifying residents in the city of about 75,000, officials also told the Wall Street Journal. Those qualifying had to be at least 18 and living in the city between 1919 and...

Individuals who are eligible to apply include residents of Evanston who are 18-24 years old, over 62 years old, or an "undocumented community member." In order to qualify, applicants must also live in a household that makes below or at 250% of the poverty line. For a one-person household, 250% of the poverty line is $33,975, and for a two-person household, 250% of the poverty line is $45,775, according to city officials.

CHICAGO – Those who call themselves members of the woke tribe in America often point to communities like Pastor Corey Brooks’ South Side neighborhood as signs of systemic racism. They talk of white supremacy, redlining and block-busting as the major contributors to the poverty and violence while conveniently ignoring the devastating impact of post-'60s liberalism. The woke find their audiences in universities, corporations, institutions and in school districts like District 65 in Evanston, a wealthy Chicago suburb 20 miles north of where the pastor lives and ministers. Teachers in that district have been teaching students about Black Lives Matter as...

We rightly criticize and condemn China for sending more than one million Uighurs – Muslims – to “re-education” camps. At the “camps” the Uighurs are “educated” in a process their Chinese elders describe as “washing brains, cleansing hearts, strengthening righteousness and eliminating evil.” Again, this is sick and wrong, a human rights abuse, something that should disgust us all. But we have our own, milder, version of “re-education” camps that indoctrinate, all for a supposed good, evolved cause. We call our re-education camps public schools. Here is one example, from Evanston, right outside of Chicago, of what first and second...

Contempt for this country has been spreading from academia, where it first gained a foothold during the Vietnam War, to infect the commanding heights of our institutions. The cities and towns that hist the most prestigious colleges and universities almost without exception are bastions of the left. Berkeley, California, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Cambridge, Mass, and not least Evanston, Illinois, home of Northwestern University.Evanston, Illinois made headlines recently by becoming the first city in the country to pay “reparations” to Black residents who lived there between 1919 and 1967, or who were descended from someone who did, and who “had been...

The town of Evanston, Illinois, part of the Chicago metro area, has determined that there will be no physical July 4 celebration in 2021, however, a Juneteenth concert-style event and a LGBT pride “drive by parade” are offered by the city during the month of June.

An Illinois town is holding a “Juneteenth” parade and a Pride parade, but has cancelled their Independence Day parade and fireworks. Evanston, Illinois has apparently decided that only holidays celebrating our nation are a COVID risk, apparently. The town is hosting a Juneteenth celebration and parade on June 19 and a Pride parade and day of events on June 26. Following the Pride parade, they will be holding a “Pride Community Picnic” in the park.

THE first US city to introduce slavery reparations is facing backlash from black residents who have blasted the $25,000 payments as "fake" restitution and claimed it is "not benefiting me." Evanston, Illinois, voted in March to approve the first slavery reparations system for black residents in a $400,000 program that was expected to be a blueprint for the rest of the country. Yet the program has been criticized for being focused on allowing 16 black people to receive $25,000 payments that can only be put toward housing. Opponents to the program have noted that there are 12,500 black people in...

Far-Left City Of Evanston, IL Becomes First City In America To Give Reparations To Black Residents…But There’s a Catch According to the 2019 US Census– 16.5% of citizens living in Evanston, IL, are black. The far-left city is set to become the first city in America to dole out $10 million in reparations—but there’s a catch. Not every black Evanston resident will qualify for the $25K payout. The money used to pay reparations to some black residents will come from a 3% tax on the sale of recreational marijuana. Black leaders warn it’s not enough. Evanston NAACP President Rev Michael...

Evanston, Ill., is a suburb of 75,000 residents directly north of the city of Chicago. Aside from being the home of Northwestern University and the birthplace of dozens of famous actors, including Bill Murray, the city is known as just an extension of Chicago. Now, Evanston will be known as the first city in the country to offer reparations to black people. The Evanston City Council will vote on March 22 to finalize a plan that was approved by voters in 2019 offering reparations to black people for “historical racism and discrimination.” What’s curious about this plan is that nowhere...

Evanston, Illinois, is like a lot of American cities. The city just north of Chicago appears picturesque, updated and grand on one side -- but not far away, one can see the signs of economic and racial segregation, despite the city's proud, diverse and liberal reputation. What sets Evanston apart from other cities, however, is its groundbreaking plan to address the impact of that segregation and Black disenfranchisement: reparations. The impetus for the city's reparations resolution, first passed in 2019 and spearheaded by 5th Ward Alderman Robin Rue Simmons, is rooted partially in Rue Simmons' experience growing up Black in...

Northwestern University President Morton Schapiro has had more than enough of his students’ means of protesting for abolishing campus police. Some of their violent tactics are reported here. Read his entire, open letter below.

Of all the displays of political myopia and intolerance in the American academy over the past several years, this story may be the most astonishing: Students and faculty at Northwestern University have forced Karl Eikenberry—a retired three-star general and fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies—to withdraw his appointment as head of a new global affairs institute on the Evanston campus on the grounds that he is a “career military officer.” The Washington Post‘s report on the story contains a truly remarkable, and telling, quote from one student involved in the crusade against the general (who has...

Evanston is joining a number of other cities, teaming with the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day on the city's celebration calendar later this year. The city and museum, which is based in Evanston at 3001 Central St., announced Wednesday in a press release hey are joining other cities, universities and cultural institutions to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples' Day, to be celebrated Monday, Oct. 10.

Evanston police are warning residents to be on alert after finding two bottles filled with a potentially explosive mixture outside two homes on the city's northwest side. The two bottles were initially found on Thursday by residents in the 2700 block and 2800 block of Lincoln Street, said Evanston Police Cmdr. Jay Parrott. The bottles contained a mixture of aluminum foil and a liquid containing ammonia that, when agitated, sparks a chemical reaction that could cause the bottle to explode, Parrott said. "If somebody is holding it or nearby, it can cause some severe injury," Parrott said.