Chicago

Chicago is the capital of USBA because its neighborhoods hold one of the clearest documented records of engineered harm to Foundational Black Americans (FBAs) in the United States. That record does more than describe injustice; it shows where harm was concentrated, repeated, and normalized over time.

Chicago’s Restoration Zones function as the pilot geography for this work. They convert documented history into place-based focus so that future repair is targeted, measurable, and accountable to the lineage that absorbed the harm. 

Chicago anchors the USBA ecosystem for three reasons:

• Capital City
  It serves as the symbolic and practical center for lineage-based repair, policy framing, and public health analysis.

• Documented Harm
  Chicago’s maps, ordinances, court cases, budgets, and administrative decisions form a dense record of how harm to FBAs was engineered and maintained across systems.

• Pilot Geography
  Because the patterns are so visible and well-documented, Chicago is the test site for Restoration Zones—demonstrating how territorial repair can be designed, assessed, and refined before scaling nationally.

This page establishes that role. The full structural record lives in companion tools. 

A Restoration Zone is a defined geographic area where FBAs experienced concentrated structural harm across multiple systems, including housing, labor, policing, health, education, land use, and culture. That harm can be clearly documented. 

USBA centers three commitments within each zone:

• Prevention
  Stop further displacement and extraction.

• Protection
  Secure FBA political, cultural, and economic authority in place.

• Restoration
  Rebuild what was systematically taken—land, stability, safety, and opportunity.

The Chicago Restoration Zones Overview provides a high-level view of neighborhoods and tiers. The detailed criteria and implementation pathways are developed in later phases.  

Chicago’s Restoration Zones operate within a national rollout:

• Phase I builds identity clarity, narrative power, and the legal foundation for repair.

• Phase II applies restoration design and investment in Chicago neighborhoods.

• Phase III establishes governance to sustain and enforce restoration over time.

Chicago’s zones provide the receipts, the roadmap, and the proof—showing where harm was engineered and where lineage-based repair can be structurally tested. 

This page is an orientation reference.

Use it to:

• Understand why Chicago serves as the capital and pilot city.
• Situate Restoration Zones within the broader USBA phases.
• Identify the tools that establish the structural baseline. 

The tools associated with Chicago Restoration Zones support orientation and structural understanding during Phase I. They are not implementation manuals or program guides. These tools include: 

• State of Chicago
  Documents how policy, law, and enforcement produced concentrated harm to FBAs across eras.

• Chicago Restoration Zones Overview
  Presents a high-level map of neighborhoods and tiers where harm was most concentrated.

• Chicago Business & Community Resources Guide
  Identifies existing Chicago-based opportunities that are relevant to future restoration planning.

Together, these tools ensure that any future restoration work begins from documented history rather than assumption or sentiment.