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Thank you. This is Our Body Politics. I'm NPR correspondent, Cheryl Corley, sitting in for Faridia.

You've probably heard the phrase 40 acres in a mule.

It's widely used in conversations and debates over reparations for African Americans.

It was a promise, actually a military order, part of the special field order number 15 issued during America's Civil War.

That promise of land ownership for black people,

a building block for economic prosperity never came to be. You know, there's always been a great

divide in America when it comes to building wealth, and it persists despite the fact that black

Americans are graduating from universities more than ever before and play a

significant role in contributing to the economy of the United States. Still, black Americans remain

in far worse economic conditions than white Americans and fewer than half of black families own

their homes compared to about three quarters of white families. So that brings us back

to reparations, a movement to repair the harm caused by discrimination that black Americans have

faced for generations. And what reparations means and how it should play out have been hot topics,

but in recent years there's been growing support for reparations in different areas of the

country. It's a change that's come in large part because of the actions of dedicated advocates,

like our guest, Robin Rue Simmons. She's a former alderwoman of Evanston, Illinois's Fifth Ward,

who spearheaded and guided a reparations initiative through the Evanston City Council.

And she's currently the founder and executive director of First Repair, an organization fighting to

advance more local reparation efforts across the country. Robin, glad to have you back and welcome

...