In 1865, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and General Sherman met with Black church leaders to discuss their needs, leading to Special Field Order No. 15, which promised "40 acres and a mule." While President Lincoln initially approved the distribution of 400,000 acres of seized Confederate land, his successor Andrew Johnson overturned the order. The land was subsequently returned to white Southerners, a move the hosts describe as a profound betrayal of the Reconstruction era.