AAmom

For those ignorant of history, when watching Kendrick Lamar, “40 acres and a mule” was a promise broken to the freed slaves. They were promised land as a start to being given true freedom. It was an opportunity to build wealth, independence, and a future beyond the chains of slavery. But that promise was stolen from them, just as their labor, dignity, and humanity had been stolen for centuries. Abraham Lincoln’s assassination wasn’t just the loss of a president. It was the loss of a fairer future for Black Americans. With his death, white leaders eager to restore the old racial order ripped away the land, power, and possibilities that could have transformed Black communities for generations. Had Lincoln lived, Black people in America would likely have had a fighting chance at true economic freedom—owning land, creating generational wealth, and breaking the cycle of systemic oppression that white America has upheld for over a century and a half. Instead, they were forced back into poverty, sharecropping, and racial violence, while white America continued to hoard the benefits of their ancestors’ crimes. Most Americans don’t know this history—because white America doesn’t want them to know. They want to pretend that slavery ended and everything was fine, ignoring the broken promises, the stolen land, and the systemic barriers still in place today. But history doesn’t forget. And neither should we.