The City of Evanston and the Segregation of Wards

Evanston, Illinois is divided up into nine wards, each with their own characteristics and communities. The city planning of these wards was meticulous and purposeful, resulting in distinct socio-economic class differences between wards, namely, the fifth ward. The fifth ward in Evanston is bounded by McCormick Blvd, Noyes St, Church St, and Sherman Ave. The boundaries of the fifth ward came into fruition during the 1960s when city planners and real estate brokers implemented discriminatory redlining policies that pushed the majority of Evanston’s Black population into the area. Today, while Evanston’s population is only roughly 12% Black, about 94% of the residents in the fifth ward are Black. Looking at economic differences, the average median income for Black residents of Evanston is $46,000 lower than the average median income of their White counterparts. The legacy of this redlining  has led to a variety of developmental challenges for the area including a lack of community spaces, adequate housing, food and medical options, and namely a lack of schools. 

Focusing on the issue of education, there used to be the Foster School, a high school located in the fifth ward that was made up by overwhelmingly Black students. In congruence with the Fair Housing Act of 1968, Evanston attempted to desegregate its own schools. This attempt however backfired, and the Foster School was closed down and remaining students were bussed to schools in other wards. The attempt at desegregation essentially took away the fifth ward’s only high school and forced students living in the area to attend school outside of their immediate local community. 

Evanston’s history of segregation is somewhat unique. With the first Black residents settling in the 1850s, there was already a well-established Black community by the start of the Great Migration in 1916. Black migrants mainly came to supply labor for the White populace in Evanston and were subject to a type of informal racial zoning where real estate brokers sectioned them off to the west side of Evanston near the railroad tracks. As Evanston grew in the first half of the century, Black residents were segregated into a triangular area around where the fifth ward currently is. In addition to real estate brokers practicing informal racial zoning, Evanston banks refused loan financing for Black home-buyers seeking to live in predominantly White neighborhoods, and White homeowners even formed syndicates to buy houses that might have been bought by Black families.

In 1919, formal zoning laws were passed that designated the areas surrounding the Black triangle to be used for commercial purposes, essentially limiting any new development of Black residential areas. These discriminatory policies, conversely helped develop the Black suburban community in Evanston to a degree. There was a substantial amount of vacant land west of Dodge Ave within the triangle and many Black residents began building their own homes that were added on to overtime. Black households also shared housing costs by living with extended family or renting rooms for extra income, ultimately leading to growth in the community. Of course, these policies only had a small positive effect, as the continued development of the triangle led to overcrowding and higher housing prices. 

Jumping forward to the 1960s, although desegregation began around the end of the decade, there was much resistance from a variety of groups. In 1964, the Community Relations Commission of the Evanston City Council surveyed and found that over half of White respondents desired to live in a fully White neighborhood, while three quarters of Black respondents preferred to live in an equally integrated neighborhood. This investigative committee further found some real estate brokers refusing to list homes that wanted to be nondiscriminatory in the application process. Coalitions of White homeowners and real estate brokers opposed any open housing policy, citing the First Amendment to determine who they sell to, and argued desegregation would lead to drops in property values. Simultaneously, multiple demonstrations for open housing continued and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. even made a visit in support of the cause. Through 1966 and 1967, the City Council attempted twice to pass fair housing legislation, with the former vetoed by the Mayor and the latter passing but lacked comprehensive regulations. As mentioned earlier, it was not until the Fair Housing Act of 1968 did Evanston officially begin its process of desegregation, but the legacies of these policies still manifest today.

With the plethora of issues plaguing the fifth ward, there have been a variety of solutions that have been discussed and proposed to help mitigate the inequality seen in Evanston. We will be discussing two of these policies, the first is the reopening of the Foster School and the second is the payment of reparations to Black residents. 

The issue surrounding the reopening of the Foster School has been hotly contested for the last twenty years. District 65, the school district where residents of the fifth ward fall into, first proposed the idea of placing a school into the Family Focus building in 2002. Family Focus, first founded in 1976, began as a drop-in center for parents but has grown to be a community center where families and households of the fifth ward gather and discuss about educational and social issues. However, a year later, this proposal was stopped as the project would face a multi-million dollar deficit.

In 2012, the idea of building a new school in the fifth ward was put to a city-wide referendum and was defeated 54.7% to 45.3%. In the fifth ward, 67.3% of residents voted in favor. This second proposal had an estimated cost of $20.6 million in bonds and an additional cost of $25 million for improvements to existing schools. Since this last proposal, Evanston has been in a gridlock on this issue, with some arguing that a new school would be too costly and would create segregated schools once again. No significant progress has been made on this issue as of date, but advocates continue to push for a reopening. 

The second policy proposal of reparations has actually passed and made national headlines for being the first city in the United States to implement a reparation policy. In 2019, the City Council passed legislation that approved the beginning of reparation payments to Black residents, which was to be funded by a 3% tax on recreational marijuana sales and is expected to generate up to $10 million in funds. Funding for the reparation policy was decided to be taken from recreational marijuana sales for a purposeful reason. Before the legalization of marijuana, a disproportionate number of incarcerated individuals for marijuana were largely Black males and oftentimes were non-violent offenders. Now with the legalization of marijuana, the City Council aims to use the tax revenue to support Evanston’s Black community. 

In December 2020, the City Council ironed out the details of the reparation payment policy and allocated an initial $400,000 to be dispersed among 16 recipients, with $25,000 in grants reserved for each recipient. These reparation grants are aimed at addressing housing inequity and supporting home ownership among Black residents. However, the issue of the reparation being a grant as opposed to a direct cash transfer has been a highly contested topic. These grants do not actually go directly to the recipient, but rather are to be used by the recipient to be given to a third party financial intermediary. Examples of this include payment to a contractor for repairs on a home, to a mortgage lending institution to help refinancing or placing a downpayment, or even directly to Cook County for property taxes.

Moreover, these grants are to be counted as taxable income. Due to this, many have advocated against this method and called for direct cash transfers. The basic economic reasoning for this is that rational individuals know what would bring them the most utility and will spend funds in the most efficient way for them. By limiting the options of where an individual can spend their funds, this constrains their utility possibilities and the outcome may not be the most efficient for the individual. As of date, the City Council plans to move forward with this grant form and is not considering the possibility of direct cash transfers. 

Through our research, we would like to examine the potential benefits that reopening a school in the fifth ward would bring using spatial analysis. In 2019, the property of the Family Focus building located at the previous Foster School was listed for $2.4 million. At the heart of the fifth wards, the 44,200-square-foot building could be bought and reoperated as a public school again. Above shows a map of if the city of Evanston reopened a school in the original location of the Foster School. By setting the walking time feature to a 1-mile radius (15 minutes walking), the maps shows that the school covers a substantial amount of the current fifth ward areas. Since none of the nearby public schools were within the district of fifth wards, the map indicates that the new Foster School is convenient and easily accessible to the residents.

The current state laws outline that no more than 60% of one ethnicity can be present within a public school. The problem is, 80% of the demographics in the fifth wards are African-American populations. To propose the solution, the city of Evanston can allow transfers across the district lines without penalty. This cross-district transfer plan would further diversify the student demographics within the New Foster School without having to develop a complex transportation plan. As indicated in the above map, few public schools are within the 1-mile walking radius towards the New Foster School, meaning that the ease of cross-district transfer policy is effortless and viable. With the exemption of the policy, the new Foster School will be demographically diversified. 

The segregation of nine wards was the history and the legacy of complex and systematic policing problems. By the start of the Great Migration in 1916, the well-established Black communities were dissolved and subjected to informal racial zoning. This further pushed the Black population off to the west areas of Evanston until 1919, when the city passed the formal zoning laws. The substantial amount of vacant land in the current fifth wards was then developed as the residential areas for Black communities. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the closing down of the only high school in the district essentially impacted the local community within this area. 

We have examined the two major solutions that the city of Evanston has proposed. The first revolves around reopening the Foster School in the fifth wards, the only ward with no public school within the district. Since the last proposal, there has been no significant progress. The second solution is the reparation policy, where the City Council passed the legislation that approved the reparation payment to the Black communities in 2019. However, the city limited the spending options by putting constraints on the of payment of the received fundings. 

We both agreed that the reopening of a school in the old Foster School location brings in a plethora of benefits for the resolution. First, the new Foster School is built at the heart of the fifth wards, located at the current Family Focus building (2010 Dewey Avenue). Set at a 1-mile walking distance, the location covers the entire residents in the fifth wards (10 - 20 minutes by foot). Second, it’s easier to diversify the student demographics within the fifth wards. Since 80% of the demographics within the fifth wards are African American, the state limitation of 60% single demographics is a huge burden. To resolve this problem, Evanston can provide the cross-district transfer exemption for the nearby public schools to diversify the student demographics within the New Foster School without having to develop a complex transportation plan. 

The legacies of both segregation and desegregation policies can undoubtedly be still seen today in Evanston. Despite the issues surrounding building a new school and the roll out of reparations, Evanston can be considered to have made progress on addressing it’s discriminatory past. There are no easy policy solutions to mitigating the inequity between wards but building a school may be a starting place. Through this article, we not only explored Evanston’s segregationist history, but also examined the benefits of reopening a school in the fifth ward. Despite the potential high costs, it is undoubtedly worth the investment back into a community that has been marginalized for so long. 

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