Created Equal: Uncovering the truth behind the phrase ‘40 acres and a mule’
A new report from the Center for Public Integrity identified more than 1,200 Black Americans who were promised land and resources after the Civil War later saw it snatched away.
The Freedmen's Bureau, depicted in this 1868 drawing, was created to give legal title for Field Order 15 — better known as "40 acres and a mule."
In the years following the Civil War, formerly enslaved Black Americans in the South were promised “40 acres and a mule” to provide them with land and resources for economic self-sufficiency.
For many individuals that promise was never fulfilled, and a recent investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting showed that many who did receive land saw it snatched away as the government backed away from the idea of a reparative approach to post-war life.
In fact, the report identified more than 1,200 people in South Carolina and Georgia who received – and then lost – their land under the program.
April Simpson, a reporter with the Center for Public Integrity and co-author of the “40 Acres and a Lie” report, joined Created Equal on Tuesday to discuss her documentation of this loss of land, and a new podcast that features conversations with descendants of those who lost land, and those who gained it.
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Guest:
April Simpson is a reporter for the Center for Public Integrity and was part of the reporting team that produced a recent series “40 Acres and a Lie” in collaboration with Reveal and the Center for Investigative Reporting. When it comes to transitioning from destruction and death to the effort of rebuilding the idea of a different nation, Simpson says she agrees that equality is supposed to be at the center of the institutional purpose of government.
“It is really hard, even for me sometimes to wrap my head around, thinking of how so many people regarded as property are finally going to be regarded as people,” said Simpson. “And the rights and the emotions and all of that, it is really incredible, but you do have these southern planters, and they are petitioning the government to get their land back, and they are saying the program is truly unjust.”
Listen to Created Equal with host Stephen Henderson weekdays from 9-10 a.m. ET on 101.9 WDET and streaming on-demand.
