Eddie Glaude interviews author W. Ralph Eubanks regarding his upcoming book, When It’s Darkness on the Delta: How America’s Richest Soil Became Its Poorest Land. The discussion explores the Mississippi Delta as a landscape shaped by systemic poverty, racial mythology, and a lingering plantation economy. Eubanks explains how the region’s hardship is a result of intentional public policy and the displacement of Black laborers by technology. By comparing the Delta to Appalachia, he argues that race is often used as an economic construct to justify inequality. Ultimately, Eubanks challenges readers to view the Delta not as a southern anomaly, but as a microcosm of American history and extraction. He emphasizes that the region's struggle reflects a broader national trend of normalizing economic disparity.
Portraits of W. Ralph Eubanks by Maude Schuyler Clay
