Illinois’ 2019 legislative session opened on a tone of cautious optimism for local advocates committed to promoting racial equity in Springfield. With a self proclaimed progressive assuming the governors’ seat and an incoming democratic supermajority in both legislative chambers, circumstances appeared to favor the policy objectives of grassroots racial justice activists across the state. However, as the session unfolded, it became readily apparent that lawmakers would thwart this opportunity. In an effort to fast track the new governor’s politically calculated policy agenda, legislators gutted crucial bill language and cast aside dozens of key proposals that would have advanced true safety, opportunity and liberation for Black communities across Illinois. 

 

In the spring session, the Illinois General Assembly roundly discounted the most urgent policy concerns of Black constituents throughout the state. The legislature declined to pass any substantive reform of Illinois’ inhumane and racially targeted systems of mass incarceration and police violence, and failed to adequately ensure fair protections for workers, guarantee the democratic rights of Black voters, or promote equitable access to education, human services and economic opportunity.

 

Despite these shortcomings, Springfield’s fawning statehouse press corp heralded the session as a progressive triumph, citing, in particular, the passage of a statewide minimum wage increase and the legalization of recreational marijuana. However, the final approved language on these two measures reveals the extent to which legislators were prepared to compromise on issues of Black equity and justice in order to declare legislative victory. Notably, lawmakers exempted tipped employees and younger workers from the minimum wage increase, and slashed a key provision in the cannabis legalization bill that would have allowed for the automatic expungement of certain cannabis related convictions. 

 

The urgency for transformative racial justice policy is palpable for Black constituents across the state. Illinois, which is home to the nation’s three most racially inequitable cities, sustains the highest rate of Black unemployment and racialized prison overpopulation in the country. Communities of color in Illinois are also impacted by staggering racial wealth inequality, pervasive police abuse, and barriers to direct democracy.

 

In order to build universal equity, justice and liberation in Illinois, lawmakers must champion a policy agenda that includes sweeping reform of sentencing laws, prohibitions on practices of racialized police abuse, improved protections for every worker, equitable investment in public services, and access to direct democracy for all.