Illinois: In 2019, the city of Evanston, a suburb of Chicago with a population of 75,000 people, committed to paying $10 million over the next 10 years in local reparations. Evanston is expected to pay 140 mostly elderly black residents $25,000 each in reparations by the end of the year in what it is calling a 'test run for the whole country.' The program will benefit black residents if they, or their ancestors, lived in the city between 1919 and 1969 or if they can show they suffered housing discrimination due to the city's policies. The payments, which come in either vouchers or cash, will be funded by marijuana and real-estate transfer taxes that will affect prices in the real estate market. Supporters say that the program is expected to lead the country. Federal reparations efforts have stalled for decades, but cities, counties, school districts and universities have taken up the cause.

Last month, a task force in California recommended spending billions on reparations as proposals for the rest of the country sit idle. A University of California, Los Angeles study found that roughly two-thirds of Californians are in favor of some form of reparations, though residents are divided on what they should be. California was not a slave state.