Jussie Smollett has taken a step toward closure in a case that has trailed him since 2019. On Tuesday, May 21, the outgoing Empire actor cut a settlement deal with the city of Chicago, and, in the process, he concocted a reminder that’s larger than himself.
Smollett, now 41, settled the lawsuit in 2007 for a $50,000 payment to the nonprofit Building Brighter Futures Center for the Arts, a local organization focused on mentoring underserved youth through creativity and the arts. The payment would settle a civil lawsuit from the city, which had been seeking reimbursement for the costs of investigating the now-infamous assault report by Smollett, an attack that police suspected was staged.
In a personal and pointed Instagram post, he also revealed a separate $10,000 donation to the Chicago Torture Justice Center. This group provides survivors of police violence “with professional mental health services” as well as legal services. But that donation arrived with more than dollar signs; it came with words. And for Smollett, words have always been heavy.
“I’m just lucky I had the funds to go to bat for myself. So many do not,” he wrote. “They are pushed against the wall to plea things down or to cop to things that they didn’t do.”
It’s a feeling that resonates strongly for many who live in disproportionately policed communities. Smollett, who was cleared of his conviction by the Illinois Supreme Court in 2024 after it found procedural errors in his conviction, is now using the possible final resolution to promote his belief that there is a further miscarriage of justice at work.
“Even though I was vindicated… I know there is not going to be any restitution for some of the people who still believe that I’m some asshole hoaxter who would do this.” It’s a mix of vindication and vulnerability. It is nearly impossible to articulate one that concedes the comfort of legal closure but affirms the heaviness of public suspicion that may never fully dissipate.
Smollett’s legal travails started more than five years ago when he falsely told the police that he was attacked by two men who uttered racist and homophobic slurs as they beat him in downtown Chicago. The rest was a national media firestorm, felony charges, a 2021 conviction, and then, in a stunning turn, a complete reversal by the state’s highest court.
Now, rather than in courtrooms, Smollett has focused on community spaces, such as arts centers and justice groups, which he feels are where real healing occurs.
That left followers with a message as personal as it was universal: “To anyone who has had to prove they have in fact been violated… you know how difficult this can be to navigate. I stand with and for you.”
You may or may not buy his side of the story, but there’s one thing you can’t say: Jussie Smollett isn’t just going away quietly. He’s rewriting the ending to a story that many believed was over. And now, in that ending, he’s giving back, speaking up, pushing forward.
0 Comments