Reparations advocates interviewed by Fox News Digital say the US government should make direct cash payments to people descended from enslaved Black Americans. They argue that payments are essential to reparations and warn that widening eligibility to other groups could weaken the movement.

The article describes the U.S. Freedmen Project’s focus on ancestry-based eligibility and cites Evanston, Illinois, which offers eligible Black residents housing grants and payments of up to $25,000. Advocate Annette Wilcox rejects the description of payments as “handouts”, pointing to past government remedies for other groups and crises. At a New York reparations hearing, supporter Aubrey Muhammad called for $800,000 per eligible person; the article says a state commission was created in 2023 to examine slavery’s legacy and possible remedies.