Government's Land Promise to Newly Freed Black People Analysis

Contrary to the common narrative of the "40 Acres and a Mule" promise being broken, a new investigative series discovered that over 1,200 formerly enslaved individuals were allocated land by the U.S. government. However, the land was reclaimed after protests from their former enslavers. Through an analysis of digitized Reconstruction-era Freedmen's Bureau records, journalists uncovered titles of properties in South Carolina and Georgia. The reclaimed lands have now transformed into gated white-majority communities, with property values reaching up to $2.5 million.