Chicago Suburb Pays Reparations to Black Residents in a ‘Test Run for the Whole Country’

Louis Weathers still remembers one of his first experiences with racial prejudice in this Chicago suburb along Lake Michigan, home of Northwestern University.

At his integrated junior high school, a white teacher didn’t want Black students such as Weathers showing up their white classmates with the right answers to questions, he recalled.

“Every time we raised our hand, she wouldn’t call on us, but when we didn’t raise our hands, she would—to make you look like a dummy,” Weathers said. “We got onto that, though. When we didn’t know the...