“(Mayor Brandon) Johnson seems to think the economy is a zero-sum game, where if one amasses substantial personal wealth, the masses suffer and are consigned to a lifetime of living in miserable conditions. Johnson’s position — one designed to be provocative — is deeply misguided. “

“The story we tell in this building begins not with Michelle’s origins or my origins, but with our nation’s,” former President Barack Obama said. “With a founding era print of the Declaration of Independence, and a pen and inkstand used by Frederick Douglass. Lincoln’s Bible and a pamphlet by Ida B. Wells. Suffragist button, and a hard hat worn by FDR’s Labor Secretary Frances Perkins.”

“The Bible declares in the Book of Proverbs: ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish.’ The fates of Illinois and Chicago are economically and politically interconnected. We rise together.”

According to published reports, Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss has pledged to continue to defend the city’s program in court against the federal interventions. Biss reportedly said: “We stand behind our first-in-the-nation reparations program, are confident in its constitutionality, and look forward to defending it in court.”

Alderman Marty Quinn opposed the measure and said it’s a bad deal for the city. “Our budget gap that we’re going to get into in short order would suggest that we shouldn’t be in the business of buying property. We should be in the business of selling property,” Quinn said.

Maria Hadden, Andre Vásquez, Mike Rodríguez, Matt Martin and Jeylu Gutiérrez: “That’s why we have worked with nearly two dozen community organizations to introduce the Fair Elections Ordinance. The program would provide up to $200,000 in matching funds for aldermanic races, multiplying a $25 contribution into $325.”

The continued growth of employee payroll and healthcare benefit expenses, along with what county officials describe as a “restricted use of transportation-related taxes,” are driving the county’s general fund shortfall.

“This neighborhood has sat dormant through multiple administrations, I activated it, and the type of impact it’s going to have, not just in the South Loop, but Bronzeville, Chinatown, this is exactly what the people of Chicago elected me to do, was to invest in them, create jobs and opportunities, generate revenue so that we can continue to make those critical investments,” Johnson said.

“There are sound ways for a city to remedy past discrimination or direct resources to its most vulnerable citizens and neighborhoods,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated in the filing. “Simply handing out money based on race, however, is not the answer. It is race discrimination, pure and simple. And it is illegal.”