A new report from a state reparations commission details the lasting effects that slavery and state laws that prevented Black Illinoisans from generating wealth have had on the state’s Black residents. 

The State of Illinois African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission was created by the General Assembly in 2021 via Senate Bill 1608. The objective of the commission was to produce policy ideas to ensure “equity, equality and parity for African American descendants of slavery” and educate the public on the reparations.   

“Taking Account: A History of Racial Harm and Injustice Against Black Illinoisans” is intended to educate people on the lasting harms of slavery and the subsequent aftermath of “Reconstruction, Jim Crow, urban renewal, mass incarceration and racialized policymaking” on Black Illinoisans.  

The report was completed by the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy at the University of Illinois Chicago.  

The findings are broken down into nine categories: enslavement and servitude, racial terror, political disenfranchisement, stolen economic labor, policing and the legal system, housing, education, family and health.  

Slavery was abolished in lands covered by the Northwest Ordinance — which included what would later become Illinois — in 1787. But the report detailed that some exceptions allowed it to continue for years thereafter, including after the ratification of the 1818 Illinois Constitution.   

Because of this, the labor of enslaved people contributed to the state’s economy, according to the report.  

During the early 1900s “racial terror in Illinois mirrored the brutality of the South and left a legacy still seen today in persistent racial inequities and generational trauma,” according to the report.  

Illinois had the third largest number of reported lynchings outside of the South, led the nation in Sundown Towns — towns that prevented Black Americans from living in them through politics and intimidation — and had major race riots in cities that led to the deaths of hundreds of Black Illinoisans and millions of dollars' worth of property damage, primarily in Black neighborhoods.   

The report further notes that Black Illinoisans were prohibited from voting through state law until ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870. It also noted that until 2021, Illinois employed the practice of “prison gerrymandering,” in which incarcerated people were counted as residents of a prison’s location instead of their last known residence.   

Illinois has followed national trends in other ways, as well. Between 1978 and 1998, Illinois's prison population grew by more than 260 percent, a common trend seen during the “war on drugs,” which a number of studies have shown disproportionately impacted Black communities.   

In 2011, for example, Black Americans were found to have been incarcerated at a rate five to seven times higher than white Americans for the same offenses, according to a U.S. Department of Justice study.   

The “Taking Account” report said that by 2000, Black Illinoisans were 60 percent of the state’s prison population, despite being only 15 percent of the population.  

The report said that this practice shifted political power away from urban, majority- Black communities to rural, majority- white communities where the prisons were located.  

Policies implemented by the state, private employers and unions also created systemic barriers to employment and wealth generation, according to the report. The median household income for Black Illinoisans is $40,000 less than white Illinoisans, and Black Illinoisans are three times as likely to be impoverished.   

One of the largest barriers to wealth accumulation across the country was the practice of redlining. Illinois was no different. Between 1950 and 1970, 75 to 85 percent of homes purchased by Black Chicagoans were done so through contract sales, which typically included high interest rates, excessive down payments and a lack of protections awarded through traditional mortgages.  

Health disparities also persist among Black communities in Illinois. Rates of diabetes, adult asthma, cancer, hypertension, obesity, high cholesterol, COVID-19 mortality, maternal and infant mortality, drug overdose deaths, HIV infection and chronic illness are all higher among Black Illinoisans.  

Some communities also continue to be disproportionately exposed to hazardous environmental conditions due to industrial development, toxic waste, and dilapidated infrastructure. 

Black Illinoisans are also eight times more likely to experience homelessness, with the unhoused often receiving low-quality healthcare.  

The report does not make policy suggestions, though it does end with some discussion of reparations.  

“As important as it is to know and understand our past, and as critical as it is to understand how that past shapes the realities of our present situation, reparations are not just about the injustices of our past and present,” the report said. “Reparations are also about the making of our collective futures.”   

Reparations have remained a controversial policy proposal. A 2025 poll from YouGov found that just 38 percent of U.S. adults support reparations for descendants of enslaved people.  

Broken down, 65 percent of Democratic voters said they supported it, while just 16 percent of Republican voters do.  

The poll further found that people are more likely to support reparations to Native Americans — with 56 percent of adults polled voicing support — and Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II — with 47 percent voicing support.  

The City of Evanston created a reparations program in 2019, offering $25,000 to Black Illinoisans who can prove they lived in or descended from someone who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969, when redlining and other state laws prevented Black Illinoisans from generating wealth.  

The program is funded in part by the city’s cannabis tax and real estate transfer fees, but the Evanston Reparations Committee is examining other funding mechanisms as of last month, according to The Daily Northwestern.  

Whether or not Illinois ultimately chooses to pursue a version of reparations remains to be seen, but with the state facing tightening budget margins, it would likely have to find new revenue to fund such an endeavor.  

The commission’s next meeting is March 20, 2026.