On May 6, 2026, Chicago gathered at Washington Park Refectory to celebrate “Happy Reparations Day” — and to announce the upcoming groundbreaking of a permanent memorial honoring survivors of Jon Burge’s police torture ring. Jen Ash, Executive Director of the Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation, delivered a powerful address reminding everyone that this moment was built on decades of pain, persistence, and people power.
5 Key Takeaways:
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On May 6, 2015, Chicago became the first city in the nation to pass reparations for racially motivated police violence — the ordinance included a formal apology, financial compensation, free mental health services, free college education for survivors and their families, a Chicago public school curriculum, and funding for a permanent memorial
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The reparations ordinance was originally drafted by attorney Joey Mogul and passed unanimously by the city council after years of rallies, public art, youth organizing, and international advocacy led by groups like Black People Against Police Torture, Amnesty International USA, Project NIA, and We Charge Genocide
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The movement was directly connected to ending the death penalty in Illinois — torture survivors like Ronald Kitchen and Stanley Howard sat on death row, denied the right to present evidence of their torture, until Governor Ryan commuted all death sentences in 2003 and Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011
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The Chicago Torture Justice Center, opened in 2017, was the first center in the nation dedicated to healing from state violence — and it continues supporting survivors, people coming home from prison, mutual aid, and workforce development
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In 2023, the city committed to fully funding the memorial at Washington Park — the groundbreaking is just weeks away, and it will stand “for generations as a site of truth, justice, public memory, and collective power”
“History matters deeply to me because history tells us not only where we’ve been, but what we owe to one another.”
— Jen Ash, Executive Director, Chicago Torture Justice Memorials Foundation
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