Speaker 1: On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about land, because apparently if you're black and
Speaker 1: your own some everybody suddenly gets real interested in your property.
Speaker 1: I didn't know, you didn't. I didn't know. I didn't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
Speaker 1: didn't know. Take the Epsy family for example, back in
Speaker 1: nineteen forty two, they was living a dream in Vero Beach, Florida.
Speaker 1: They had one hundred and forty seven acres of land.
Speaker 1: Now I have to do some homework on that. How
Speaker 1: much is one acre? Well, for easy math, it's about
Speaker 1: three fourths of a football field. So let's just say
Speaker 1: one acre equals a football field or sixteen tennis courts,
Speaker 1: or one acre is larger than nine basketball courts. They
Speaker 1: say you can fit five baseball fields in one acre. Well,
Speaker 1: the Epsy family had one hundred and forty seven acres.
Speaker 1: Now that's just not land. That's by your kids a
Speaker 1: pony and still got space for a ferris wheel land.
Speaker 1: But then the US government came knocking and this say,
Speaker 1: excuse me, we're gonna need your land to build an airfield.
Speaker 1: Don't worry, it's for the war effort, and the Epstey's
Speaker 1: was like, all right, but can we get it back
Speaker 1: after spoiler alert? They didn't. Instead, their land went to
Speaker 1: the Navy, the city of Vero Beach and dig this
Speaker 1: the La Dodgers. Yes, they even named it Dodger Town.
Speaker 1: And they ain't even blessed the Epsey family with season
Speaker 1: tickets or an expensive hot dog at the concession stand
Speaker 1: or nothing. And I'm gonna keep it a buck one
Speaker 1: hundred and forty seven eight because the land wasn't just dirt.
Speaker 1: That's wealth, generational wealth. But instead of that wealth staying
Speaker 1: in the Epsy family got passed around like a Netflix password.
Speaker 1: Now here's where it gets wow, because people love to
Speaker 1: ask why can't them colored families just build wealth like
Speaker 1: everybody else? Oh? I don't know. Maybe because every time
Speaker 1: we do, someone shows up with a clipboard, a bulldozer
Speaker 1: and some bad intentions. This is not just history, it's
Speaker 1: a pattern from Tull to the Vero Beach. Anytime we
Speaker 1: start thriving and surviving, somebody decides, yeah, that's nice, but
Speaker 1: we want that for us. So here's my challenge to
Speaker 1: you learn these stories that didn't make it into the textbooks,
Speaker 1: talk about them. Share them because the only way to
Speaker 1: stop history from repeating itself is to start calling it out.
Speaker 1: That's the reason for I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either.
Speaker 1: The historic Dodger Town in Vero Beach is no more.
Speaker 1: They closed the doors and shut down because they were broke.
Speaker 1: Haven't had it since March of two thousand and eight.
Speaker 1: But Minor League Baseball did reopen the facilities and now
Speaker 1: it's named Vero Beach Sports Village. But it ain't owned
Speaker 1: by the Epsey family. It's owned by Major League Baseball.
Speaker 1: And I didn't know. Maybe you didn't either. No