From the Center for Investigative Reporting in PRX, this is Reveal.

I'm Al Edson.

There's been a lot of talk this year about the legacy of slavery.

It's even made it into the Democratic presidential race.

We need to recognize that when it comes to the economic gap between blacks and whites in

America, it does come from a great injustice that has never been dealt with.

That great injustice has had to deal with the fact that there was 250 years of slavery

followed by another hundred years of domestic terrorism.

People aren't starting out on the same base in terms of their ability to succeed.

And so we have got to recognize that and give people a lift up.

I have long believed that this country should resolve its original sin of slavery and that

one of the ways we should consider doing that is through reparations for people who are

the descendants of slaves.

After the Civil War, freedmen were promised 40 acres in a mule that never happened.

And many of the black farmers who did buy or inherit land have lost it.

Earlier this year, the Center for American Progress reported that black farmers lost 80%

of their land between 1910 and 2007.

A big part of that loss?

The USDA discriminated against them, refusing to give black farmers the same loans they

were giving white people.

Every wise told us he experienced that in a story we first aired two years ago.

He dreamed of owning a farm.

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