A quiet revolution is taking place inside the bustling libraries in Chicago’s West and South Sides. Since June 2024, organizers from BlackRoots Alliance (BA), an organization that advocates for Black liberation in Chicago, have been conducting interviews with hundreds of Black Chicagoans, asking fundamental questions about their experiences, needs, and visions for the future.
This grassroots initiative, called “Reinvest to Repair” (R2R), represents a critical chapter in Chicago’s evolving reparations story—one that is increasingly shaped from the ground up.
“Libraries were ideal interview spaces—trusted, public, and accessible,” explains Asani Roundtree, a community organizer with BlackRoots Alliance who personally conducted more than 40 interviews. “Unlike private venues, which can feel exclusionary, libraries provided a neutral and welcoming environment where people felt safe sharing their thoughts.”
The timing of BA’s initiative coincided with Mayor Brandon Johnson’s June 2024 executive order launching a citywide reparations taskforce—a historic step that positions Chicago among a growing number of American cities confronting their histories of racial injustice through concrete policy.
From Grassroots to Government
BlackRoots Alliance’s R2R project emerged alongside mounting pressure from various community organizations advocating for reparative justice in Chicago.
“We’ve been doing this work since 2022,” says Lorne Runnels, Director of Organizing for BlackRoots Alliance. “The mayor’s executive order is welcome, but it’s important to understand that it came after sustained community organizing and demand-making. Our work helped create the political environment where this became possible.”
As part of the executive order, Carla M. Kupe, Esq. was appointed Chief Equity Officer of the Mayor’s Office of Equity and Racial Justice. According to Kupe, the city is currently working to establish a 40-member task force by spring 2025.
“We’re looking at March or April to stand up the task force,” Kupe confirmed in a recent statement. The task force will include 25 appointed members and 15 positions open to public application, creating a structure that balances expertise with community representation.
The Power of Participatory Research
BlackRoots Alliance is conducting participatory research to center the voices of everyday Black Chicagoans in crafting its vision for reparations.
Over three months, the BlackRoots Alliance team conducted 200 formal interviews and engaged with hundreds more community members through door-knocking, phone calls, texts, flyers, and leveraging existing networks from past initiatives.
Interviews explored participants’ experiences in Chicago, their economic security, their views on local government and understanding of reparations, as well as their visions for the future.
The interviews also had an educational component; interviewers provided information on the UN-defined components of reparations—restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction, and guarantees of non-repetition—to ensure participants could engage meaningfully with these concepts.
“Many participants came in with strong opinions but limited knowledge about formal reparations frameworks,” Roundtree notes. “By providing definitions and context, we created space for more informed and nuanced conversations.”
What Black Chicagoans Want
Several key findings from the interviews could inform the city’s official reparations process.
Participants expressed a vision rooted in communalism—community centers, shared resources, and mutual aid initiatives featured prominently in their descriptions of a just future. This stands in contrast to individualistic models of compensation that sometimes dominate reparations discussions.
Many participants initially expressed internalized “bootstrap narratives”—the idea that lack of progress stems from failures within the Black community itself. However, deeper conversations revealed an understanding that systemic oppression, not personal failings, was the root cause of economic disparities.
Perhaps most significantly, there was a clear demand for material change over symbolic gestures. “Participants wanted tangible reparations—financial compensation, housing, education, and healthcare—not empty apologies or vague promises,” Roundtree emphasizes.
Based on these findings, BlackRoots Alliance developed policy recommendations centered on structural change, with particular emphasis on deprivatizing essential services. The underlying message was clear: housing, education, healthcare, and employment should be public goods, not commodities.
The Road Ahead
As Chicago’s official reparations task force takes shape in the coming months, the question remains: How much influence will grassroots voices have on the process?
BlackRoots Alliance is working to ensure their research doesn’t simply gather dust. The organization continues community outreach through movie screenings that serve as spaces for “edu-tainment” and discussion, as well as canvassing efforts to maintain engagement.
“Reinvest to Repair was not just about gathering information—it was about building momentum for real change,” Roundtree explains. The insights from these interviews will inform BA’s ongoing advocacy and shape policy proposals that reflect the actual needs and desires of Black Chicagoans.
As the city’s task force begins its work this spring, the research and relationships built by BlackRoots Alliance offer a valuable blueprint for meaningful community engagement.
For many Black Chicagoans who participated in R2R, the work has already had an impact beyond policy. As one participant told Roundtree, “Just being asked what I think, what I need—that’s already a kind of repair.”
This article is part of an ongoing series examining reparations initiatives across America.