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This is Fresh Air.

I'm Tanya Mosley. 40 acres and a mule is often referred to as the broken promise of reparations the U.S. government

made to the formerly enslaved.

Well, a new investigative series by the Center for Public Integrity, Mother Jones, and

reveal finds that while it was assumed 40 acres was only promised to newly freed

black people, the government did indeed give land to more than 1,200

formally enslaved men and women, only to take the land back after their former enslavers

protested.

The Center for Public Integrity made this discovery by analyzing

recently digitized records from the Reconstruction era Freedmen's Bureau. As part of

their two-year investigation, journalists tracked down the titles of hundreds of properties in South Carolina and Georgia.

Some of the land taken back is now gated majority white communities, with values as much as 2.5 million.

This three-part series which is featured in this week's Mother Jones and the public radio show

and podcast reveal explores how this land-loss-deprived formerly enslaved men and women, a building intergenerational

wealth.

The lead journalist on the project is senior investigative reporter Alexia Fernandez-Camble with the Center for Public

Integrity. She covers labor and inequality. And Alexia, welcome to fresh air. Thank you so

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