As Trump fights over what America owes, slavery descendants organize for the future

Efforts to compensate descendants of enslaved people are meeting stiff federal opposition just as the country marks its 250th anniversary. Robin Rue Simmons, who chairs Evanston, Illinois's Reparations Committee and previously served on its city council, helped create the first municipal reparations program in the country, a $25,000 housing grant for Black residents harmed by discriminatory housing policies. She is now helping more than 100 other communities follow suit, while acknowledging that the current administration makes the work harder, according to ABC News.

The Justice Department, which a federal judge this month allowed to join a suit first brought by Judicial Watch, contends Evanston's program breaches the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection guarantee and the Fair Housing Act. Plaintiffs' attorney Michael Bekesha argues funds go out by race without identifying specific harm. Last year the department also warned officials in Asheville and Buncombe County, North Carolina, who were considering similar plans. President Donald Trump has told supporters that the country lacks the money for reparations.

Elsewhere, momentum has faded.

Summarized by PolitiKool from ABC News’s reporting. Read the full story at ABC News →