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Champaign-Urbana reparations coalition seeks commission; asks county to join research funding
Summary
A local reparations coalition urged the board to support a joint reparations commission and discussed funding models and next steps, including a public hearing Oct. 4 and a request that Champaign County consider contributing to an initial research fund.
Jeffrey Trask, a local organizer with the Champaign-Urbana Reparations Coalition, presented to the Champaign County Board on Sept. 9 and asked the county to participate in forming a joint reparations commission with the cities of Champaign and Urbana and the University of Illinois. Trask described the coalition’s goals—education, acknowledgment and reparations—and said the group’s immediate priority is research to document harms and design remedies.
Why it matters: The commission would research historical and contemporary harms to African Americans in Champaign County, guide public education efforts and make recommendations. Trask asked local governments to contribute seed funding for that research and to appoint representatives to a commission that would be majority community members of African descent.
Trask said his group’s original vision was that the city of Champaign, Champaign County Board and UIUC would each contribute $25,000 to an intergovernmental commission to fund research and public education. He said the City of Urbana has already committed $25,000 and the coalition is working with Urbana’s city attorney on draft language to launch the commission. “We actually connected Matt Rocheleau, their city attorney, with Nick Cummings, who’s the city attorney in Evanston,” Trask said; Evanston’s program is a frequently cited model.
Trask described national and state work on reparations and said the group is coordinating with the Illinois African Descent Citizens Reparations Commission, which was appointed by Governor Pritzker. He said the state commission will hold a public hearing in Champaign on Oct. 4 at Krannert Center from 10 a.m. to about 12:30 p.m.
Board members asked how funds have been raised in other places. Trask said Evanston used multiple revenue sources, including a marijuana sales tax, a real-estate transfer tax on high-value homes and faith-community donations. He said funding strategies vary by locality and local context.
Several board members, including those with experience in county records and GIS projects, noted the county’s data and digitization projects could be valuable to the commission’s research. A county board member suggested the county could consider funding the research or offering a joint resolution of support; Trask welcomed both.
Ending: Trask asked the board to consider contributing seed funding and to appoint representatives to a commission that would lead research, public education and reparative recommendations; he said the coalition will host the state commission’s public hearing on Oct. 4.
