From Broken Promises to 40 Acres and a Mule

Matthew McConaughey vs. revolving doors, Jackie Chan's father living off dog food, and Joe DiMaggio's lifelong love for Marilyn Monroe might sound random, but they all lead to one of the biggest broken promises in U.S. History. After the Civil War, newly freed Black people were guaranteed 40 acres and a mule -- This episode of IDKMYDE dives into: what that promise meant, who snatched that guarantee away, and how its betrayal still echoes today.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Know it All.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Welcome to another episode of your favorite podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
I didn't know maybe you didn't either.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
And if you're new here, you're called a know it
all if you're part of the family again, not because
you know it all, but because you'll want to know
it all, and this is the podcast to learn it all.
I am your host, b dot and a couple of
weeks ago, I meant to give a big shout out
to Charlemagne and the Black Effect Podcast Network, not for
just celebrating five years, which was a commendable feat before

(00:30):
what Bruh did during Labor Day the International African American
Museum in Charleston, South Carolina. That Monday, when everybody was
off work, Charlemagne bought enough tickets that anybody that wanted
to go could go free see. The museum is doing
a road to five hundred thousand. They're trying to reach
a goal of having five hundred thousand visitors since they opened.
And if you check out our YouTube, just search IDK myde.

(00:54):
I did a couple episodes in Charleston, South Carolina, right
there on Gadson's Wharf as they were built holding the museum,
and I was sharing how I can't wait to actually
go to the museum.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
It is now time for me to make a trip.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
Labor Day, I was in Montgomery, Alabama with Winston Salem
State for the Red Tails Classics, so I couldn't take
that free ticket.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
But maybe Bossman Charlamagne.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Can pull a cup of strings and give me a
ticket of two so I can take the team down
you did. If you do get to go to Charleston,
South Carolina, please visit the International African American Museum.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
They're just like this podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
They're just sharing untold stories near and far, trying to
reach as many people as they can. But on today's episode,
if I didn't know, maybe you didn't either. Of course,
we're gonna kick it off with three of the most
useless facts you'll never need, never not a day in
life about celebrities. Your first useless fact, Matthew McConaughey, you

(01:48):
know Maddie Interstellar, the Lincoln Lawyer or Tom to Kill
Woolf of Wall Street. Well, did you know that he
has a fear of revolving doors, to the point where
he gets terrified just.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Being near one.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Your second useless fact, are you familiar with Joe DiMaggio?

Speaker 1 (02:04):
He was a legendary New York Yankees outfielder.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
He's got a Major League Baseball record that still holds
to this day. Fifty six straight games would a hit,
most folks say it's unbreakable. Well, did you know that
he was married to Marilyn Monroe and after she died,
Joe DiMaggio delivered flowers to her grave twice a week
for over twenty years. He never remarried, and his last

(02:29):
words before dying in nineteen ninety nine were, I'll finally
get to see Maryland. I wanted that boy have an erection.
And your third useless fact, we all know Jackie Chan
rumbling the Bronx Rush Hour Drunken Master. But did you
know that Jackie Chan's parents were so poor that they

(02:50):
had to consider selling him to cover the two hundred
and fifty dollars doctor bill when he was born by
c section. Yeah, his father actually borrowed the money and
then he ate dog food for the next two years
to save cash. That why that boy, Jackie Chan got
that dog in him. Those have been your three usless facts.

(03:11):
Matthew McConney has a fear of revolving doors. Joe Demaggio
was so sprung off that Marilyn Monroe juice, that he
delivered flowers to her grave.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
Twice a year for twenty years.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
And if you had two hundred and fifty dollars when
Jackie Chan was born, you possibly could have bought him
now for today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you
didn't either. Have you ever heard the phrase forty acres
and a mule. It was supposed to be the first
form of reparations for formerly enslaved people. If you have
heard that phrase, do you know why we never got

(03:42):
the forty acres.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
And the mule? Did you know who promised the forty
acres and a mule?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Do you know who overturned the promise of the forty
acres and the mule?

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Because I didn't I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
I didn't know. I didn't know.

Speaker 1 (04:04):
I didn't know. All right, So here's the story.

Speaker 2 (04:06):
In January of eighteen sixty five, during the Civil War,
Union General William T. Sherman met with a group of
black ministers in Savannah, Georgia. Now remember the Union, good guys, Confederates,
bad guys. The black ministers in Savannah, Georgia told General
Sherman very plainly, freedom without land would mean nothing. So

(04:27):
Sherman issued Special Field Order Number fifteen. Special Field Order
Number fifteen promised that freed black families would receive up
to forty acres of confiscated Confederate land along the coast
of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida, and the US Army
planned a loan out surplus mules so that they could

(04:47):
farm their land. Now this wasn't a handout, this was
recognition for generations enslaved black labor built the wealth of
the South. Forty acres on a mule was meant to
give black families foundation to finally build wealth of their own.
But you know, this wouldn't be an American story without
some betrayal.

Speaker 1 (05:06):
See.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
After Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, his vice President Andrew Johnson
took office. Andrew Johnson was an openly racist and very
sympathetic to the South. He overturned General Sherman's order. He
gave that land back to the very Confederate landowners who
had fall to keep slavery alive. Black families who had
already begun farming that land, they were pushed off, stripped

(05:30):
of their chance of independence. Instead of land ownership, many
were forced into sharecropping, a system that kept them in
poverty for generations after generations. So when we talk about
reparations today, forty acres on a mule that ain't just
a slogan is a reminder of the promise America made
and then broke.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either,