SPRINGFIELD, IL (Chambana Today) — The Illinois African Descent-Citizens Reparations Commission on Thursday released a sweeping new report documenting the historical and ongoing harms experienced by Black residents across the state, calling it a foundational step toward meaningful reparative action.

The report, titled “Taking Account: A History of Racial Harm & Injustice Against Black Illinoisans,” is the first comprehensive, evidence-based study commissioned by the state to examine how slavery and its legacy have shaped inequities in Illinois. The commission partnered with the University of Illinois Chicago’s Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy to produce the findings.

Commission Chair Marvin Slaughter Jr. said the report confronts the state’s full historical record, from colonial-era enslavement through Reconstruction, Jim Crow, urban renewal and mass incarceration.

“Confronting the truth of our state’s history is a necessary first step toward building a more equitable future,” Slaughter said in a statement. He noted the report’s release coincides with the 100th anniversary of Black History Month and honors the legacy of Carter G. Woodson.

The findings are intended to guide the commission’s recommendations to the Illinois General Assembly on potential reparative policies.

Dr. Terrion L. Williamson, the project leader and associate professor of Black Studies and Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, said the report challenges the notion that racial inequities ended with formal segregation.

“Redlining, chronic school underfunding, discriminatory lending and over-policing were not isolated injustices,” Williamson said. “They were policy decisions that structured opportunity along racial lines and continue to shape the experiences of Black residents in Illinois today.”

The report identifies nine broad categories of harm, tracing their historical roots and contemporary consequences:

  • Enslavement and servitude: Although Illinois entered the Union as a free state in 1818, legal loopholes and indenture systems allowed slavery-like conditions to persist, embedding racial hierarchy in the state’s early institutions.

  • Racial terror: Lynchings and race riots in Springfield (1908), East St. Louis (1917) and Chicago (1919), along with the rise of sundown towns, enforced segregation and exclusion well into the 20th century.

  • Political disenfranchisement: The Illinois Black Codes and later tactics such as violence, gerrymandering and prison-based districting diluted Black political power.

  • Stolen economic labor: From enslavement to union exclusion and discriminatory hiring, the report links systemic exploitation to the modern racial wealth gap.

  • Policing and the legal system: Early systems controlling Black mobility evolved into contemporary patterns of disproportionate policing, sentencing and incarceration.

  • Housing: Redlining, restrictive covenants, contract selling and exclusionary zoning fostered segregation and disinvestment in Black neighborhoods.

  • Education: Segregation and inequitable school funding, often tied to housing policy, created lasting disparities in academic opportunity.

  • Family: Policies enabling family separation and economic instability disrupted Black households, even as communities built strong mutual-aid networks.

  • Health: Barriers to quality care, environmental harms and systemic bias have contributed to higher rates of chronic illness and maternal and infant mortality among Black Illinoisans.

The commission said the report will serve as the evidentiary backbone for its forthcoming policy proposals. A public hearing is scheduled for April 25 at the DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center in Chicago, where residents will have an opportunity to provide testimony and feedback.

More information about the report and upcoming events is available on the commission’s website.