Laura Flanders sent along the latest episode of her news analysis program, “The Laura Flanders Show,” on the importance of black land ownership throughout history.

The history of the US is packed with people of color and poor people who’ve been stripped of their rights — to vote, to wages, to housing or even just the right to stay in the country — through incarceration, segregation, slavery and deportation. For just as long, black communities have created safety, and won a say in democracy, through buying and keeping land cooperatively.

Here’s a bit more about the program, and the story of “Weeksville”:

A look at the historical and present-day connections between democracy, land, housing and economic development. The history of the US is packed with people of color and poor people who’ve been stripped of their rights — to vote, to wages, to housing or even just the right to stay in the country — through incarceration, segregation, slavery and deportation. For just as long, black communities have created safety, and won a say in democracy, through buying and keeping land cooperatively.

It’s not just history, either. Mark Scott is an organizer of #blacklandmatters, a group working today, and Tia Powell Harris is the director of the Weeksville Heritage Center, Brooklyn’s largest African-American cultural institution, which is dedicated to preserving the history of the 19th century African American community of Weeksville — one of America’s first free black communities.

You can also listen to the program as a podcast. Thanks for sharing, Laura!