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

Episode Date: October 5, 2019

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.

Yeah, just be careful because it will kind of slice you. That's not a better sound to hear that sugar cane move. It's very thick. You know, to turn over that dirt and to watch this thing from a few inches to grow into almost a 12-foot stalk is just, it's amazing. I mean, I don't realize how depressed I get, you know, when I see people getting ready to plant cane because that was my time of the year. That was like, I would wake up just so pumped, ready to go to the shop and start repairing wagons. That was my, you know, just

that was mine. And I miss it. I miss it so much. I can't say enough how I miss this. I mean... Do you think the fields miss you? Oh, I know they miss me because I used to talk to them all the time. What would you say? I mean, I want y'all to do well, I want y'all to grow well.

Sounds silly to an unheard person, like, why are you talking to dirt? But it's just like, the love that you have for the land is just, I mean, it's unreal. It's unreal. What would you say to it now? That I want it back. I want the land back. From the New York Times Magazine, I'm Nicole Hannah-Jones. This is 1619. In the fall of 1864, at the height of the Civil War,

one of the most famous Union generals, William Tecumseh Sherman, begins his march out of the city of Atlanta to the sea. And as Sherman and his men make their way through Georgia, Black Southerners are seeing an opportunity. And so by the thousands, they start to leave the plantations where they've been enslaved and are falling behind Sherman's troops as they make their way to the coast. But these newly liberated people were not exactly welcomed. Sherman didn't actually oppose slavery. And so he's really not that sympathetic to those who are fleeing these plantations.

And he also sees them as a drain on his resources. They are families. They are people of all ages, young and old, who need food and care. And they are slowing the troops down. By December of that year, some of Sherman's troops are about to approach Savannah. And they come up on a creek that is both too wide and too deep to cross without a bridge. So the troops start building one. And they instruct the Black people who are following them to just wait,

that the troops need to cross first, but then they'll be able to come after. But the Confederate Army is on their heels. And once the Union troops cross, they break up the bridge, leaving all those people who had just escaped slavery behind to face either the icy waters or the rebel army that was in pursuit. It is a massacre. Some of them drown trying to swim across, others are trampled or shot to death, and those who remain are captured and re-enslaved. When word gets back to Lincoln's Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton, he is outraged.

He has Sherman pull together a meeting with 20 Black church leaders. There's a transcript of this meeting, and it shows that these two men, Stanton and Sherman, actually turn to this group of Black leaders and ask them, What do you want for your own people? group of Black leaders and asked them, what do you want for your own people? Speaking for the group, one of the men tells them, the way we can best take care of ourselves is to have land and turn it and till it by our own labor. That is, by the labor of the women and children and old men, and we can soon maintain ourselves and have something to spare. And what's remarkable is that Sherman turns that request of those men

for land to work for themselves into a government order, Special Order No. 15. It said that the government would take 400,000 acres that it had seized from the Confederacy and split it up among those thousands of newly emancipated people. This becomes what is perhaps the most famous provision of the Reconstruction period, which we all know as 40 acres and a mule. President Lincoln approves the order, but soon after, he's assassinated. And Andrew Johnson, a Southerner who had once enslaved people himself,

takes over the presidency and quickly overturns it. And within a few short months, the small amount of land that had been distributed to black people was returned to white Southerners. Bye! Do you want me to pull around? Maybe. Yeah, that's a good idea. Adisa Egan, tell me about your trip to Louisiana. So I went to Louisiana because despite the fact that 40 acres and a mule was reversed and that land was taken,

Black people actually managed to acquire a significant amount of land. Okay, now let's navigate. By the 1920s, Black people owned about a million farms, which is actually 14% of all the farms in the country at that time, which reflected the population of Black people. But in the decades that followed, that number has dropped drastically, from 14% to below 2%.

And so to understand why that's happened, I went down there with another producer, Annie Brown. there with another producer, Annie Brown, to a city just a couple hours outside of New Orleans, where the streets are named after plantations, and the crops that grew during slavery still drive the local economy, and black male subject went to pay dark hoodie. And where many people can trace their family line back to the enslavers. Or the enslaved.

Hey, hey! Hi! Like Angie and Wenceslas Provost Jr. My name is Wenceslas Provost Jr. I go by the name of Juneune provost have you ever met a winsilas before how's it spelled w-e-n-c-e-s-l-a-u-s yes oh first day of school was always rough with winsilas what would happen oh when claus when saucilus winchester you name it i've been called it yes and then high school they just started calling me June Provost.

Because I was a junior, so I was okay with that. June Bug, a.k.a. my man. So June and Angie descend from a long line of sugarcane farmers, going back prior to emancipation. Charles Devanzi, I don't... Charles Devanzi Olivier, your great-great-great-grandpa? long line of sugarcane farmers going back prior to emancipation. Charles de Vence Olivier, your great-great-great-grandpa? Okay, all right. And each generation, in June's case, was able to pass down the livelihood. June's family is so important historically to the area. So his great-great-grandfather taught his great-grandfather.

And his great-grandfather taught his grandfather. June's family was one of the larger farms. And his grandfather taught his dad. As long as I can remember my dad, he would always call me his right-hand man. That was his little saying for me. He would take me riding with him like all the time. So for June, that training started early. He was driving his first tractor when he was seven.

Like, what did it feel like for you to be driving the truck? Oh, I was like smiling ear to ear. I thought I was on top of the world. I mean, I was like, I'm driving tractor at seven years old. That was a toy for me. That was amazing. And my thing was just to be next to my dad. That was my whole thing, to be next to my dad. I mean, just those little moments, like, okay, for instance, now we have tractors that drive themselves. But at the time when you want to draw a straight row, we had to like pick a tree or something very far to make a straight

arrow. And I'll never forget looking at my dad pointing a tree out. And this might've been like three quarters of a mile, possibly like pointing one tree out and making a straight row. And I remember we had landowners would come in and say, how y'all do that so straight? And my dad was the one to do that. And it was like, my dad is a bad man. Like, really? Like, I mean, like, I want to do that one day. June saw the connection his dad had to the land. June saw the connection his dad had to the land. But like a lot of sugarcane farmers, most of the land his dad farmed was rented from white landowners.

And so when June's dad was finally able to buy a tract of land... It was a 60-acre tract. June understood what his father was actually working for. That was, you know, one of the first big pieces of land that he bought. And I remember we chopped the land up, we cleaned trees. I mean, the land was looking great. And when we started drawing the rows up, you know, we was talking and it just like all of a sudden it just something just came over him. He just like dropped to his knees and he just kind of grabbed that dirt and he said, you know what? This is my land. And nobody can take this. When June graduates from high school, his dad gives him 21 acres,

basically so he can start his own farm. And so June's thinking he's going to be out there with his dad all summer. But then his dad gets sick. He has to go in for heart surgery. So at 18 years old, June is left responsible with one of the most important jobs on the farm, planting cane. Was that your first time ever being responsible for planting? Yes. I remember all my workers would ridicule me because I would like be on my hands and knees making sure, you know, I didn't put too much dirt when you're covering, you know, you're supposed to... June

is so neurotic about doing a good job that he's on his hands and knees making sure that the cane is covered with just the right amount of dirt. That following year, I remember telling my dad, I said, you know what? The cane I planted came out better than the ones y'all planted when we was all together because we caught a great stand. I mean, it was just beautiful. Is that the year that you guys all won in 94? I think it was in 1994. So every year the state has this contest and they award the farmer who produces the most sugar per acre. And that year there, I was actually first in the non-quarter.

Non-quarter is when you had like 100 acres or less. So I was actually number one in the state. And my dad was 13th in the state, if I want to say. So that was a great year for us. You're beating your dad. Yeah, I was beating my dad. Exactly. Yes. And I and I and actually we talked about that for a long time. Yes, I ragged him. Yes. And what also happened is they caught the attention of everybody in the area. Word of mouth started going around and like landowner after landowner was coming to us wanting us to farm their property. And that's how we just started expanding even more. And this is how it is for the next decade or so. Business is good. June and his dad are taking on more land

leases, farming more property. And in the middle of all this is when he meets Angie. Let's get it crack-a-lackin'. All right, so... Even though her family had lived in Texas for a number of years, her ancestors were sugarcane farmers from Louisiana. So when she met June... It was as if I'd known him for centuries, like our past lives were together or something.

It's so really deep. They clicked immediately. We were going to a concert in Baton Rouge. They were going to a Keith Sweat concert. Oh, nice. June's a huge Keith Sweat fan. As am I. I was only familiar with Keith Sweat as like part of the R&B canon of baby making music.

That's not why I like it. Just playing. It is why I like it. And basically, their moment is when they hear Make It Last Forever. Oh yeah, Make It Last Forever? Yeah, that's when I turned to it

and I started singing to it. Oh yeah, sing! Make it last forever. That's how you sound. Y'all better not put that on. And so when they get married, they have a farm-themed wedding. They put sugarcane leaves on the walls, like as decoration, almost like wreaths. And then after the reception, they rode off in a tractor.

It is so cutely country. It's very cute. So sugar cane is really their lives. Yes. Sugar cane is 100% their lives. That's where the problem really starts. American play in Broadway history, says 60 Minutes. Rolling Stone gives it five stars, calling it a landmark production of an American classic. To Kill a Mockingbird is All Rise, one of the greatest plays in history, raves NPR. The New York Post says it will change how you see the world. This is what great theater is for. All Rise for Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a new play by Aaron Sorkin. This is a phenomenon, says New York Magazine. On Broadway at the Schubert Theater.

Get tickets at telecharge.com. Let's see here. This book here, Black Farmers in America, and June's family was featured in it. So that's where this picture comes from. So who all is in the photo? June's brother, Rodney, June's father, June's brother, Edward, and June. June's family was so motivating to see because they were one of the, you know, beacons of hope out there, of light. Farmers that would remain in business. And that is not the story. Right around the time when June meets Angie, things start to change.

June's dad's health has continued to deteriorate. At that time, he was actually almost incapable of working on a farm on a day-to-day basis. So June took over the farm. So my production went from a 300-acre operation to close to a 5,000-acre farm. And at the beginning of the year in 2008? I went in 2008 to get a crop loan. June does what he'd seen his father do every year. He goes to the bank and gets a crop loan. You need a loan every year to form sugar cane. So why would a successful farmer with a lot of land need to take out a crop loan every year?

So this is just how farming works. Farmers make their money at the end of the season. And so in order to cover costs like fertilizer, equipment, labor, they take out a loan. And so to run a sugarcane farm the size of June's, it costs around $2 million. And then when you sell your cane to the sugar mill, that's how you pay back that amount of money. But June can't go to the bank that his dad went to because that bank has stopped giving out crop loans. So he has to find another bank. He ends up applying for a crop loan at a place called First Guarantee Bank.

This is First Guarantee Bank. How can I help you? Hi, my name's Adiza Egan. I'm from the New York Times. I'm recording this call, by the way. How are you? Okay, I'm doing good. How about you? I'm actually looking to speak to someone about a lawsuit that the bank is involved in. We're trying to get a response to something. And what happens between June and the bank is now the subject of a lawsuit currently making its way through the legal system. Okay, that's going to be way over me. Let me get you my branch manager.

We've reached out to the bank multiple times, but they haven't responded to us. They've also publicly denied all of June's allegations. But this is what June says happened. I went to First Guarantee Bank to apply for a crop loan. He says he goes to the bank and he shows them how many acres he's planning to farm. He also shows them his financial history,

his taxes, his credit. And June is expecting to receive something that's similar to what his dad had received all those years before. But after he applies, he doesn't hear anything back. And time is passing. I mean, every day that passes is crucial to the operation. So he starts to get a little nervous. All my landlords are starting to call and ask for a land rent.

OK, now people are starting to spray herbicides. So people's crops are getting clean. Here I am, you know, not even touching the fields. And you go ride and you see all your neighbors, all these white farmers are in the fields, have all their tractors running. And I have everything parked at the shop. A similar thing had happened to his cousin a couple years before. I seen my cousin, we call him Papoose, that's his nickname, was fertilizing in the end of June. Like, my dad always wanted to fertilize early.

I mean, the earliest we could have fertilized, the better, because your king gets a good jump start. And to pass and see him fertilizing at the end of June was like, like, what was going on on? Like what was happening? And June had started to hear rumors. The word was always, you know, oh, that Olivia guy, he's not going to be farming long. He don't like to get up early in the morning. And were they implying that he didn't know what he was doing? Exactly. They were implying his farming practices were bad. He was lazy.

I mean, all of the above. And now he was worried people would start saying the same things about him. Finally, at the beginning of March, the bank does approve his crop loan. But problem was, the crop loan was very underfunded. But it's for less than half of what he expected. Did they say why? No. I mean, just say this is what I'm giving you. So, you know, you take the loan and you try to farm the best way you can with that loan. But it's just by time, you know, I pay land rent, spray chemicals, fertilizer.

I'm out of funds already. June doesn't have enough money to pay for farming equipment. So by the time it comes to planting season, he needs even more workers. I will wake up sometimes at midnight, get back home at eight, nine o'clock and just wake up again at midnight trying to do the job of three or four different other guys. I mean, it's not enough money. And time is passing. I mean, we are running out of time.

You know, you have a small window to plant your cane. And by late fall, he's starting to get desperate. The date was November 8th of 2008. And I was planting cane. And that is something, again, I can't say enough how that is not what should be happening in November. You should be harvesting your crop. You should be through planting cane at the end of September, early October, the latest. And I'm planting cane in November. And it was about four o'clock. My dad called and said, well, how is it going? I said, well, dad, I say I'm trying to chop rows. I'm trying to open rows. I'm trying to cover cane. I'm fixing breakdowns. I'm going to have to shut it down for the day because I need to try to stay in and get some land prepared. you. He said, we're going to stay late, me and you. He said, we're going to chop land, get everything ready for the next day. I'm like, Dad, no, it's close to five o'clock. I'll try to get it. I said,

just go rest. And he said, OK. But then 10, 15 minutes later, I watch on the road. He came driving up. I said, well, I'm here. He said, let's roll up tonight, me and you. And so that evening, his dad, even though he's retired and probably shouldn't be doing this type of work, Even though he's retired and probably shouldn't be doing this type of work, starts to help June plant the cane. He got on a tractor and I went hook up the covering rig and jump on another tractor. And I was covering cane and he was opening rows. And when he's opening the rows, you're making almost like a bed for the cane to sit in and rest. And then here I come with a covering rig and I throw dirt over it and then I pack the ground.

So he's making the bed and you're tucking it in? Yes, pretty much. Yes, that's a good way to explain it. Yes, yes, very much so. And it's something he loved. I mean, and I love doing it. So to have us both in a field, your heart gets full. It's just like, you know, people don't have that opportunity to work with their family like that. And then he called me up,

and he's like, well, Junior, you see, I'm almost out of diesel. And I'm like, well, Dad, you know, I'm almost out of diesel. So what I did, I was like, Jun, you see, I'm almost out of diesel. And I'm like, well, Dad, you know, I'm almost out of diesel. So what I did, I was like, Dad, you see, we just have to start off in the morning. And so he left and he was going, you know, driving back to the house. And I went, I detoured because I had to go pick up a few guys on another location. And I drove back, got on the highway.

And I drove back, got on the highway, and maybe three miles down the road is when I seen a bunch of taillights were going off. People had flashes on. And the closer I got to it, you know, I seen my dad laying down on the highway. So when I seen it, I just hurried up, just threw the truck in park, and I got down, and I went and grabbed my dad, and there was a guy there, and he was a doctor, and I was like, will he be okay? Will he be okay? And the guy told me, no, sir, he's gone. And I was like, will he be okay? Will he be okay?

And the guy told me, no, sir, he's gone. June says another doctor told him that his dad likely died of a heart attack. My dad is gone. That is hard. That is so, so hard, you know. For something, he could have stayed at home, you know, but he coming to help me to try to get ahead. And I always say this, I say, you know, the only thing that that made me sane and kept me through that is to form Sugarcane, because I dedicated everything to my dad from that point. Like, he loved it, I loved it, and that's what kept me going, you know, was to get back into the sugar cane and put my all into it. So June goes back to work,

and he's falling even further behind. Oh, it was a struggle. I mean, it's cold. We have a frost. I'm planting cane. You know, I'm out in the fields. And here these white farmers are riding and looking at me planting fields in December while all their cane is up in a beautiful stand. Here I am planning in December. You know, they pass, look, and put a smirk on their face and just like... I mean, laughing at me, like literally laughing at me. I mean, laughing. And the next year in 2009, when he went to the bank, it all started again. Poor loan amounts.

Late loans. A loan half as big as he expected. A day of that time, I would wake up and be in a panic mode. He puts up more and more collateral. So his home, his parents' home, his farming equipment, and his farmland. You see all the white drawers are in their fields, spraying and starting to apply fertilizer. Here I am, don't even have a crop loan yet.

And then in 2010, again, 2011, again, 2012, again. And some years, the loan would come as late as April or June. I mean, I remember the county agent specifically saying with June, I passed down Highway 14. I seen a fertilized truck and trailer. He said they can't be fertilizing cane in June. He said that's not supposed to happen. And it was me. It was me. I mean, that is that is crazy. Do you know how humiliating that is? As he's fertilizing late, planting late, harvesting late, he couldn't stop thinking about his cousin.

And we started talking. I said, Papoose, I said, I know it might not mean nothing to you now, but I said, I want to apologize. Because you know what? People would always say, oh, your form didn't last because you were lazy or your forming practices. And I say, maybe we should have been there more for you. Because they say the same thing about me now. I'm sorry I didn't defend him more. And that haunts me. I'm sorry I didn't defend him more. You know, and that haunts me. You know, that really haunts me because of course he knew what he was doing.

I mean, like he told me here, he's like, June, he say, give me my loan on time. Give me the adequate amount of funding. I can make a 30-ton crop just as well as anybody else because he said I was born into this. And by 2014, June's yield has dropped by more than 50 percent. 2014 was actually a horrifying year for me because that's when everything came to a head. Everything came to a head in 2014. But we are fighters. I mean, you know, that's what we decided that we were going to fight

it out. Next week, in the final episode of 1619, part two of June and Angie's story. of June and Angie's story. To Kill a Mockingbird has not played to a single empty seat. Report 60 Minutes. It's the most successful American play in Broadway history. Rolling Stone gives it five stars, calling it unmissable and unforgettable.

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