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IDKMYDE: Epsy and Vero Beach · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about land, because apparently if you're black and
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: your own some everybody suddenly gets real interested in your property.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I didn't know, you didn't. I didn't know. I didn't know.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: didn't know. Take the Epsy family for example, back in
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: nineteen forty two, they was living a dream in Vero Beach, Florida.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: They had one hundred and forty seven acres of land.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Now I have to do some homework on that. How
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: much is one acre? Well, for easy math, it's about
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: three fourths of a football field. So let's just say
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: one acre equals a football field or sixteen tennis courts,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: or one acre is larger than nine basketball courts. They
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: say you can fit five baseball fields in one acre. Well,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: the Epsy family had one hundred and forty seven acres.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Now that's just not land. That's by your kids a
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: pony and still got space for a ferris wheel land.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: But then the US government came knocking and this say,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: excuse me, we're gonna need your land to build an airfield.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Don't worry, it's for the war effort, and the Epstey's
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: was like, all right, but can we get it back
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: after spoiler alert? They didn't. Instead, their land went to
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the Navy, the city of Vero Beach and dig this
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the La Dodgers. Yes, they even named it Dodger Town.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: And they ain't even blessed the Epsey family with season
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: tickets or an expensive hot dog at the concession stand
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: or nothing. And I'm gonna keep it a buck one
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: hundred and forty seven eight because the land wasn't just dirt.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: That's wealth, generational wealth. But instead of that wealth staying
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: in the Epsy family got passed around like a Netflix password.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Now here's where it gets wow, because people love to
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: ask why can't them colored families just build wealth like
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: everybody else? Oh? I don't know. Maybe because every time
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: we do, someone shows up with a clipboard, a bulldozer
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: and some bad intentions. This is not just history, it's
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: a pattern from Tull to the Vero Beach. Anytime we
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: start thriving and surviving, somebody decides, yeah, that's nice, but
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: we want that for us. So here's my challenge to
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: you learn these stories that didn't make it into the textbooks,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: talk about them. Share them because the only way to
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: stop history from repeating itself is to start calling it out.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: That's the reason for I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: The historic Dodger Town in Vero Beach is no more.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: They closed the doors and shut down because they were broke.
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: Haven't had it since March of two thousand and eight.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: But Minor League Baseball did reopen the facilities and now
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: it's named Vero Beach Sports Village. But it ain't owned
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: by the Epsey family. It's owned by Major League Baseball.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. No