Elected leaders turned out en masse on Nov. 8 for the Chicago Urban League’s annual Golden Fellowship Dinner. The star-studded black-tie event drew Chicago’s elite Black citizens, including Mayor Brandon Johnson, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton and a host of Black federal and state legislators. Interestingly, they were comfortable having a great time while seemingly oblivious to the figurative fire raging in the Black community.
How can they party as a 2025 State of Black Chicago report released by the Chicago Urban League paints a grim picture of economic progress for Black Chicagoans? As the report notes, the median net worth for Black households in Chicago in 2024 was zero dollars, whereas the median worth for their white counterparts was $210,000.
Perhaps elected leaders do not understand that Black households may be living paycheck to paycheck with no financial savings or assets to fall back on. Black politicians party while their constituents struggle to make ends meet.
As someone who grew up in the Jim Crow era, I am appalled at seeing Black politicians who are more loyal to a political party than their constituents. Prioritizing migrants over Black citizens is an example. This go-along-to-get-along attitude has produced very little tangible progress for the Black community. Too many Black citizens remain plagued by economic despair, poor education opportunities and crime-ridden communities. Where are the profiles of courage among modern-day Black political leaders?
Black leaders promise to fight for their constituents, but in the end, material conditions remain unchanged.
The school-to-prison pipeline will continue as long as politicians support low education standards and block options for children. The Illinois legislature allowed to sunset in 2023 the Invest in Kids tax credit program, which helped thousands of children, including those in low-income Black communities. The following year, an Illinois Policy Institute analysis found that Welch and Senate President Don Harmon each received $600,000 in political contributions from the Illinois Federation of Teachers, which opposed continuing Invest in Kids.
This year’s Illinois Report Card shows that only 17.4% of Black fourth graders and 36.7% of Black eighth graders scored proficient or better in math, compared with 55.4% and 66.6% of white students.
It is unreasonable to expect children to succeed in life if they are denied the opportunity of a proper education, as one-time Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren observed. It must be made available to all on equal terms.
Elected leaders are quick to applaud high graduation rates. However, if children who receive diplomas cannot read or do basic math, the education system has failed. Even worse, such a reality ensures a perpetuation of the school-to-prison-pipeline.
The Black population in Illinois is about 14%, but Black people represent 54% of the prison population in Illinois. How long will Black leaders fail to address this? How long will Black politicians be beholden to white politicians?
In Cook County, property tax bills began hitting mailboxes after being four months late: Black neighborhoods are being hit the hardest with higher bills. According to a report released by Cook County Treasurer Maria Pappas, tax bills rose the highest in West Garfield Park, North Lawndale and Englewood.
Working-class families who have experienced redlining pay the highest costs for mortgages and car and property insurance. They face rising health insurance premiums, coupled with higher costs for groceries and utilities. How do politicians expect working-class families with no net worth to pay those taxes? This is another example of Black politicians being complicit in the fleecing of the Black community through an unfair property tax system.
Black elected leaders have shown little sense of urgency to deal with high crime in communities they represent. The crime is traumatizing everyday people, including senior citizens and children.
I support reparations for the Black community as a way to repair the harm of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow, trauma and disinvestment. My idea for reparations consists of free education, health care and job training, for residents in poor communities.
The following are some suggestions to help Black families:
- Gov. JB Pritzker, Johnson, Welch and Harmon must fix the broken education system in Illinois.
- Welch and Illinois Black Caucus members must demand equity in contracts for Black business owners through the procurement process.
- Pritzker, Welch and Harmon must fix the unfair property system that burdens the working class. Exempt senior citizens from paying property taxes.
- Pritzker and the state legislature should pass a reparations bill that includes free education, health care, child care, housing and job training for Black citizens living in poverty.
Black leadership that does not prioritize economic infrastructure, such as schools, banks, construction companies, grocery stores, businesses and skilled trades, will continue to oversee poorer and economically fragile communities.
We celebrate the historic number of Black elected officials, but without any real tangible progress for the Black community, there is no reason to party.
I write this commentary to make those Black leaders comfortable with continuing the status quo uncomfortable.
Willie Wilson is a business owner, philanthropist and former mayoral candidate.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
