‘1619,’ Episode 5: The Land of Our Fathers, Part 1

Today on “The Daily,” we present Episode 5, Part 1 of “1619,” a New York Times audio series hosted by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You can find more information about it at nytimes.com/1619podcast.

More than a century and a half after the promise of 40 acres and a mule, the story of black land ownership in America remains one of loss and dispossession. June and Angie Provost, who trace their family line to the enslaved workers on Louisiana’s sugar-cane plantations, know this story well. Guests: The Provosts, who spoke with Adizah Eghan and Annie Brown, producers for “1619.”

Background reading:

• The story of the Provosts contains “echoes of the policies and practices that have been used since Reconstruction to maintain the racial caste system that sugar slavery helped create,” Khalil Gibran Muhammad writes in his essay on the history of sugar in the United States.
• The “1619” audio series is part of The 1619 Project, a major initiative from The Times observing the 400th anniversary of the beginning of American slavery. Read more from the project here.

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