“Reveal” from the Center for Investigative Reporting, Mother Jones, and PRX Presents “40 Acres and A Lie”
A new public radio and podcast series uncovers a reparation that wasn’t and the wealth gap that remains
Nearly 160 years after the federal government created what became the nation’s first and most famous attempt to provide reparations by giving “40 acres and a mule” to formerly enslaved people in the South, a major investigation from the Center for Public Integrity and the Center for Investigative Reporting has identified more than 1,200 people in South Carolina and Georgia who received — and then lost — their land under the program right after the Civil War.
This is the basis of “40 Acres and A Lie,” a new public radio and podcast series brought to listeners by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, Mother Jones, and PRX. The three-part series featuring reporting from the Center for Public Integrity and begins June 15:
During their two-and-a-half-year investigation, reporters from the Center for Public Integrity analyzed 1.8 million records recently digitized from the Reconstruction-era Freedmen’s Bureau, allowing them to track down 41 living descendants, several of whom were unaware of their ancestors’ land being taken and the intergenerational wealth denied to their families. “40 Acres and A Lie” also includes the largest collection of land titles from the “40 Acres and a Mule” program known to ever be analyzed and published.
“This investigation offers an important historical corrective. For generations it was commonly believed that no formerly enslaved people received the land promised by the federal government. But thousands did, even if it was fleeting,” said Clara Jeffery, Editor-in-Chief of the Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces Mother Jones and Reveal.
The Center for Public Integrity also created a free, online search tool allowing the public to search 1.8 million documents from the Freedmen’s Bureau and other agencies. Of those, 500,000 are transcribed and can be searched by entering names, places, and keywords. The tool was developed using the Smithsonian’s Freedmen’s Bureau Transcription Project, which is working with volunteers to transcribe handwritten documents.
Reporters identified 744 people in South Carolina and 506 people in Georgia who got land through the “40 acres” program, some of which is now located in gated communities and worth as much as $2.5 million.
“All these years later we’re only now learning the full injustice of the country’s first attempt to provide redress to the formerly enslaved,” said Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Wesley Lowery, who is co-chair of the Center for Public Integrity. “This investigation is a testament to the need for thriving and independent journalism in the United States that is willing to look critically at the realities of not only our nation’s present, but its past. This is truly groundbreaking work.”
Center for Public Integrity reporters Alexia Fernández Campbell, April Simpson, and Pratheek Rebala reported the series in partnership with the Center for Investigative Reporting. The series also includes six articles published on Mother Jones’ website.
About PRX
Celebrating more than 20 years as a nonprofit public media company, PRX works in partnership with leading independent creators, organizations, and stations to bring meaningful audio storytelling into millions of listeners’ lives. PRX is one of the world’s top podcast publishers, public radio distributors, and audio producers, serving as an engine of innovation for public media and podcasting to help shape a vibrant future for creative and journalistic audio. Shows across PRX’s portfolio of broadcast productions, podcast partners, and its Radiotopia podcast network have received recognition from the Peabody Awards, the Tribeca Festival, the International Documentary Association, the National Magazine Awards, and more, including in 2022 when Futuro Media and PRX won a Pulitzer Prize.
