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IDKMYDE: Stolen Cities Jasper County · 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: We're gonna take a trip back in time to Jasper County, Mississippi.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Black folks was out there thriving, bought land, built businesses,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: created their own little empires. But then some white folks
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: saw this and thought, you know what this needs a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: little bit of violence entered the KKK. These dudes were like, Oh,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: your farm is successful, we're gonna burn it. Oh your
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: house is nice, We're gonna burn it. Your happiness, Oh yeah,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: that's gotta go to I didn't know. Maybe you didn't need. No,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. Maybe I didn't know. I didn't know.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know. Even after all that,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the Klan wasn't done. In nineteen thirty two, they burned
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: down the Paulding Courthouse. Now this wasn't just some random arson.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: That was strategic because that courthouse held the land records
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: for the black families in Jasper Caunty, Mississippi. Meanwhile, the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: records for the white families were chilling in another courthouse
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: miles away, untouched. Real convenient, huh. Then a few years later,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: along comes a company called Masonite. They're like, oh, Wow,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: look at all this land just sitting here. Guess it's ours.
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  Speaker 1: They ended up with over ninety five hundred acres of land,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: and we've already done the measurements of acres this season.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: One acre is roughly the size of a football field,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: so nine thousand, five hundred football fields worth of land
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: they used to belong to black families. And let me
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: tell you that land wasn't just sitting there looking pretty.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: It was full of oil, timber, and gas. Millions of
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: dollars came out of it, but not a dime went
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: back to the original owners. You see, this is the
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: stuff they don't teach you in school. That's why we
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: have I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either, because see,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: they'll give you dates, wars, and treaties, but they skip
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: over the part where entire black communities were systemically erased
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: because they weren't successful. But because they were successful in
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: this situation, it was titled imminent domain. And this ain't
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: just some dusty old story. It's a reminder that the
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: game has been rigged for a very long time. So
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: if you're sitting here listening today, thinking what can I do?
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: Learn these stories, share these podcast episodes challenge the systems
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: that allowed us to happen, and keep showing up because
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: black excellence isn't just a moment, it's a legacy, and
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: no matter how hard they try, they can't burn that
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: a way. And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't know.