Community Partners for Affordable Housing (CPAH), a non-profit organization that develops affordable housing, was chosen by the city to help publicize the first 16 local repair restorative housing grants. It turns out that one of the 16 beneficiaries, Louis Weathers, has been on the CPAH advisory board for 20 years.
“Reparations came in Evanston in 2012 by [former] City councilor [Lionel Jean-] Baptiste,” Weathers, 87, told RoundTable when asked where he first heard about the local remediation effort. “But the blacks paid no attention. so it kinda went [away] until my girl walks in, Robin [Rue Simmons]. She was my councilor… She’s nice.
He said he went to the first meetings about the restorative housing program to find out what the “ground rules” were, and overall he says the program is great, although like many others he has reservations about what those rules were.
“You had to own a house, you made us use the funds in a certain way. I wasn’t very happy about it. But that didn’t stop me from supporting him,” he said.
Weathers said he is not a political person, but he has some political knowledge.
“When anything is done politically… both sides have to win something.”
He found he was chosen in the first round of housing beneficiaries just days after the January 13 draw, as the city published the official list on its website. Weathers couldn’t believe it. He felt like he was winning the lottery, although, he said, the City Council explained that it was not a lottery draw.
“I don’t think I had a chance,” he said. His wife, who is from Jamaica, was happy for him because she knew Weathers was involved in growing the community. “She’s not from Evanston. It didn’t affect her like I did.”
Program Background
The Evanston Local Reparations Restorative Housing Program is the first initiative in the city’s $10 million commitment “to eradicate the effects of past systemically racist practices by the city government and all city-affiliated organizations.” The first $400,000 of the reparations program goes towards housing, which is enough to pay 16 donations of $25,000.
Applicants deemed eligible for the program and selected to participate can receive up to $25,000 to buy or renovate a home or pay a mortgage. The home must be in Evanston and must be the applicant’s primary residence.
To participate, Black Evanstonians must fit into one of three categories:
- Residents who lived in the city between 1919 and 1969, called “ancestors”.
- Direct descendants of a black resident from 1919 to 1969.
- Residents who provided evidence that they experienced housing discrimination due to city policies or practices after 1969.
There were more than 600 applicants for the Restorative Housing Program, 122 of whom were ancestors. The Reparations Committee decided to prioritize this group for the first 16 donations.
Weathers decided to donate his $25,000 to his son, Michael Weathers, so that Michael could reduce his own mortgage on the condo.
Weathers said he is temporarily lending the funds to his son because he is receiving inheritance money from his late mother who has yet to settle down.
“Then he’ll take the inheritance money and pay me back,” he says.
family history
Weathers’ parents came to Evanston and in 1932 bought the house he now lives in. Three years later, in 1935, he was born at Cook County Hospital in Chicago because Evanston Hospital was segregated and did not accept black mothers.
His mother was born in Joliet and his father in Birmingham, Alabama. Weathers’ father was an interior decorator who served wealthy suburban clients like Kenilworth and Wilmette. His father would take young Louis to work with him throughout his childhood. His mother stayed at home and did housework.
“Back then, wallpaper was very popular,” he said. “And I said, ‘I would never do that. This is very tedious as a job. You had to cut it right. They didn’t play the role like they do now. And if you put too much paste or ripped it, you had to go back and measure it all over again.”
The Weathers family was only the second black family to move to his street, he said, with Swedes living next door and Italians across the street. Weathers’ father was a Scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts, organizing meetings in his basement with other children.
The father of the only other black family that lived on his street was a postmaster and a Scoutmaster, so the two parents became close, Weathers said.
“His wife didn’t work either,” he said. “We don’t socialize with anyone else. We didn’t need… Black people had their own businesses.”
personal history
Weathers said growing up in Evanston was wonderful. He enjoyed the segregated YMCA on Emerson Street, where he learned to swim, play ping pong, and shoot basketball.
He was the youngest child and grew up in the house mostly alone. As his brothers were much older than he was, they left home when he reached high school.
Weathers graduated from Foster School, Haven Middle School and Evanston Township High School without ever having had a black teacher, he said. The trend continued in college, where he studied music briefly at the University of Illinois before finally dropping out.
Weathers served two years in the military during the Korean War before returning to Evanston and working at the post office on Davis Street from 1958 to 1969.
His first marriage lasted 22 years until their divorce in 1980, which led to Louis moving to Maryland in 1981. Sixteen years later, in 1997, he retired back to Evanston to care for his ailing mother and sister as his primary caregiver.
He even took and passed courses to become a certified nursing assistant to properly care for his family. Back then, a state law allowed CNAs to be compensated for caring for their own critically ill family members, and the state paid him even more because his mother had a brain tumor.
“So I used my money to hire girls [from my classes], I hired CNAs,” Weathers said. “And I used my money to give it to them. I was free to come and go…I had it all figured out.”
Most days he had several CNAs coming in and out to take care of his family.
Weathers remarried and has been with his wife of 27 years. He has two children, Darlene, 54, and Michael, 60, from his first marriage and a son, Victoria, 36, from his current marriage.
What is the next
What does he expect to happen next for local reparations? Well, he says the city is committed to continuing the next 10 years with the first $10 million, but he’s excited about the “opening” of additional programs that will make more black Evanstonians eligible for reparations.
“Now I told all these people I was against it. I said, ‘You will have your chance.’ … You didn’t like the way they did this one. So now you can go to town hall meetings and tell them what you want. And see if they accept your proposal.”
Previous profiles of repair recipients
‘I never thought I’d be chosen’: Meet one of the first 16 recipients of Evanston Reparations
Meet one of the first 16 reparations recipients: ‘I had a great childhood. And I won’t complain.
‘Dad, I think your number has been chosen’: Meet one of the first 16 recipients of Evanston Reparations