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  • Inheritance Emblem
  • Foreword
  • Chapter 1
  • Credits
  • Index

Chapter 1

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

America’s Political Roots Are in Eutaw, Alabama

by Adam Harris

The 1970s Black Utopian City That Became a Modern Ghost Town

by Thomas Healy

The Magazine That Helped 1920s Kids Navigate Racism

by Anna Holmes

When America Truly Became a Democracy

by Vann R. Newkirk II

Everybody Knew Teenie

by Damon Young

Curt Flood Belongs in the Hall of Fame

by Jemele Hill

A Forgotten Founder

by Danielle Allen

The Stories I Didn’t Learn in School

by Clint Smith

A Priceless Archive of Ordinary Life

by Cynthia Greenlee

We Were the Last of the Nice Negro Girls

by Anna Deavere Smith

Ghosts in Schools

by Joy Priest

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  • Inheritance

    Inheritance Logo

    A project about American history, Black life, and the resilience of memory

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    • Introducing Inheritance

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      Too much knowledge has been lost, too many stories distorted, too many people forgotten. We mourn for all we do not know. Yet the vision and resilience of Black America are shaping this nation. Our future demands that we unbury the past.

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    • Credits

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      Production, Design, and Engineering
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      Khalik Allah

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    • The Stories We Tell Ourselves

      •
      Chapter 1
    • America’s Political Roots Are in Eutaw, Alabama

      •
      by
      Adam Harris

      When I think about the 1870 riot, I remember how the country rejected the opportunity it had.

      Read story

    • A black and white photo of a sign pointing to Soul City

      The 1970s Black Utopian City That Became a Modern Ghost Town

      •
      by
      Thomas Healy

      What the demise of an experimental Black town reveals about the struggle for racial equality today

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

      Subscribe

    • Collaged images of children and illustrations from the pages of The Brownie Book

      The Magazine That Helped 1920s Kids Navigate Racism

      •
      by
      Anna Holmes

      Mainstream culture denied Black children their humanity—so W. E. B. Du Bois made The Brownies’ Book to restore it.

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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    • 1965 color photo of young people protesting voting rights

      When America Truly Became a Democracy

      •
      by
      Vann R. Newkirk II

      The Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally delivered on the stated ideals of this country. Now it hangs by a thread.

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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    • Small crowd gathered outside Studio Dee, WHOD radio station

      Everybody Knew Teenie

      •
      by
      Damon Young

      Charles “Teenie” Harris captured at least 125,000 people during the 40 years he documented Black life for The Pittsburgh Courier.

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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    • Colorful illustration of Curt Flood

      Curt Flood Belongs in the Hall of Fame

      •
      by
      Jemele Hill

      His defiance changed baseball and helped assert Black people’s worth in American culture.

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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    • A black and white water color of Prince Hall

      A Forgotten Founder

      •
      by
      Danielle Allen

      Prince Hall was a free African American in Boston at a time of revolutionary fervor—and a transformative figure whose story deserves to be reinserted into the tale of America’s creation.

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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    • Alternative Text for a Sample Image

      The Stories I Didn’t Learn in School

      •
      by
      Clint Smith

      The accounts of ordinary people who survived slavery provide an all-too-rare link to our past.

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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    • Alternative Text for a Sample Image

      A Priceless Archive of Ordinary Life

      •
      by
      Cynthia Greenlee

      To preserve Black history, a 19th-century Philadelphian filled hundreds of scrapbooks with newspaper clippings and other materials. But now, underfunding and physical decay are putting archives like this one at risk.

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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    • We Were the Last of the Nice Negro Girls

      •
      by
      Anna Deavere Smith

      In 1968, history found us at a small women’s college, forging our Black identity and empowering our defiance.

      Read story

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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    • A ship being carried by a pair of hands emerging from a choppy ocean apparently towards land on which two silhouetted figures can be seen standing

      Ghosts in Schools

      •
      by
      Joy Priest

      With lines from In the Wake by Christina Sharpe

      Read poem

    • Support the Atlantic’s most ambitious journalism.

      From on-the-ground reporting to rigorous fact-checking, our work depends on our subscribers. Join us today, starting at less than $1 a week.

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