Was a man awarded 40 acres and a mule after Supreme Court case? Fact Check
A story is circulating online that claims the Supreme Court of the United States has just awards a man named Abraham Brown 40 acres of land and a mule promised by the US Government to his great-grandfather.
The article traces back to a 2015 story published by WorldNewsDailyReport.com
Washington, D.C. | The Supreme Court of the United States has granted to the Georgian slave descendant, Abraham Brown, “40 acres of land and a mule”, in a historic decision that could affect thousands of African Americans.
The 61-year old man filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2011, accusing the United States of violating their obligations to his ancestor, who died in 1891.
His great-grandfather, Elijah Brown, along with 18,000 other freed slaves who had fought for the Union in the American Civil War, had been promised “40 acres of land and a mule” by the U.S. army in 1865, but never received anything.
By a narrow 5-4 vote, the Supreme court ruled that the U.S. government had to hold the promises made to these 18,000 freed slaves, by granting the promised acreage and animals to their descendants.
However the story is largely false. It comes courtesy of WorldNewsDailyReport.com which is a spoof news site that constantly publishes nonsense stories such as this.
The story capitalises on the very real “40 acres and a mule” phrase that symbolized the American governments failure to follow through with a promise to distribute land to freed slaves following the American Civil War. Such slaves had been promised the above but the decision was later overturned.
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And no “40 acres and a mule” has been awarded in recent years, and not by the Supreme Court. Abraham Brown doesn’t exist, at least not in this context, and neither does his great-grandfather. The photo used in the WorldNewsDailyArticle.com of an African-American man celebrating in court is actually Ricky Dale Wyatt, who was a convicted rapist freed after serving 33 years by the Innocence Project after having his conviction overturned.
World News Daily Report has a disclaimer on their website that reads in part –
WNDR assumes however all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any persons, living, dead, or undead is purely a miracle.
As such, the story is false and should not be circulated.
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