In a press release minutes after the hours-long meeting concluded, caucus Chair Jason Ervin, 28th, said under the current plan, “there will undoubtedly be economic loss and opportunities for African Americans. There is currently zero African American participation among the 11 existing dispensaries—who will get the first shot at the market during the first year of legalization.”

The caucus could prove a force to be reckoned with if they stick together and manage to add to their ranks. Twenty-six votes are needed to make or break legislation.

“This is only the first step in many steps to come to ensure African American participation in this growing industry,” said Budget Chair Pat Dowell, 3rd. “Now we must focus on the Zoning Board of Appeals criteria, rules for participation in the lottery and licensing criteria. We are ready to work with our Springfield counterparts to make certain we secure genuine ownership."

Throughout the day, caucus members voiced concerns that the nascent program—which allows existing marijuana dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana on Jan. 1 and open a second location—did not do enough to lift up communities most harmed by the "war on drugs."

“Ultimately our push is that the black community have a decent shot at ownership in this business,” Ervin told reporters after the meeting. “Right now, we do not agree with the 11 current dispensaries being given carte blanche day one. . . .We would like to see equity in the process where people across all walks have an opportunity to participate on a level playing field.”

“When day one there’s no African Americans opening up a dispensary, that’s not equity,” Ald. David Moore, 17th, told colleagues. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for us to get this right. . . .To me, this is a banana in the tailpipe.”

“We’re asking for the administration to table this, go back to the state, fix what’s going on in the state, and then come back to us,” Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, told reporters. “They need to go down to Springfield and make some substantive changes during the veto session.”

Mayoral aides and planning officials feverishly negotiated with aldermen throughout the afternoon, including during a more than two-hour recess. For more than an hour, Black Caucus members huddled in Room 201A at City Hall.

State Sen. Toi Hutchinson, who will become the state’s “cannabis czar,” and who negotiated the equity provisions of the state’s bill, also briefly addressed aldermen early in the day, saying “every part of that 610-page bill was done with an eye towards equity at every single layer.” She did not take any questions and left after her testimony.

At a press conference hours before, Mayor Lori Lightfoot told dissenters the way to promote equity was “through Springfield, through legislation,” and said she was not “sure where they were during the spring session” when the bill was being debated.

“We need to get this done,” she said she told them of the zoning ordinance, and the pathway to further equity is not to “kill it in Chicago.”

Earlier in the day, Lightfoot wrote to Farzin Parang, the chair of the Zoning Board of Appeals, which will oversee dispensary locations. She asked that Parang make sure the board “serve as a powerful tool to incorporate, in equal measures, local community feedback and sound land use policy” and not listen only to “the wealthy and well-connected.”

“The state of Illinois gave us enabling legislation that I am using to take strong, affirmative steps to ensure Chicago’s black and brown communities do not suffer from disproportionate enforcement, but rather benefit from our nascent but promising cannabis industry,” she wrote, asking for the board to consider community and elected officials’ input. “I expect the ZBA to strongly take into consideration any negative or detrimental impacts to the community including congestion, traffic, parking and the general welfare of the surrounding neighborhood and land uses.”

Committee members will meet again before the full City Council to consider small substitutions from the city’s Department of Planning & Development to appease some aldermen. Department officials planned to draft the language yesterday evening. They include shortening the downtown exclusion zone by one block (up to Van Buren Street from Ida B. Wells Drive) and give aldermen some zoning control over where marijuana-related businesses can locate.

The number of caucus members has been corrected in this updated story.