60 Minutes - 05/05/2024: Leader Jeffries, Work to Own, St. Mary’s

Episode Date: May 6, 2024

Norah O’Donnell profiles Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, who might become the first ever Black Speaker of the House, by tracing his Brooklyn roots to one of the most powerful positions in American politics. O’Donnell meets Jeffries on Capitol Hill to talk about his caucus’s decision to save current Speaker Mike Johnson’s job, his views on Israel’s approach to Hamas and the civilian casualties in Gaza, the migrant crisis, and how the debate over reproductive rights will impact the race for the White House and Congress. As the American wealth gap continues to widen, correspondent Jon Wertheim reports on an unlikely effort to get more money in the hands of rank-and-file workers. Pete Stavros is an executive at one of the biggest private equity firms in the country, KKR. His industry is famously cutthroat, but Stavros has emerged as a leading advocate for the concept of employee ownership, which takes the same incentives that have long helped the C-suite get rich and applies them to people working factories, flatbeds and farms. Wertheim travels to rural Illinois to find out how this model has impacted workers, and whether it’s good for business. Correspondent Bill Whitaker visits New Orleans where two high school seniors solved a mathematical puzzle that was thought to be impossible for 2,000 years. Whitaker speaks to the students, their families and the teachers at their school, St. Mary's Academy, that has been fostering academic excellence and boundless possibilities for its student body of African American girls since the end of the Civil War.  To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue? A well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door. A well-marbled ribeye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool. Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Grocer $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. This Congress will likely be the least productive since the Civil War. The Republican majority is having trouble controlling its MAGA wing,

and few have seen the dysfunction like Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries. And even though we're in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done. Those are just the facts. You're a part of a movement. This man is a heavyweight in the world of private equity, an industry famous for its ruthlessness. Yet he's emerged as the leading evangelist for the concept of employee ownership.

His idea? Take the same incentives that have long helped the C-suite get rich and apply them to the folks working factories, flatbeds, and farms. Even our newest colleagues are going to get a meaningful payout of $20,000. So, are you math geniuses? Not at all. How did these high school students prove an ancient mathematical equation that was thought to be impossible for 2,000 years?

We start with just a regular right triangle where the angle in the corner is 90 degrees. Then we start creating similar but smaller right triangles, and then it continues for infinity. Am I going a little too...? You've been beyond me since the beginning. I'm Leslie Stahl. I'm Bill Whitaker. I'm Sharon Alfonsi. I'm John Wertheim. I'm Cecilia Vega. I'm Nora O'Donnell. I'm Scott Pelley. Those stories and more tonight on 60 Minutes.

The United States Congress is not particularly popular these days, and look no further than the current session to understand why. It will likely be the least productive Congress since the Civil War. One lawmaker who's figured out a way to get a few things done is Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. He replaced Nancy Pelosi as the leader of the Democrats in the House over a year ago, and the 53-year-old has built a reputation as a consensus builder in his own caucus

and as a tough but respectful opponent of the Republican Party. Minority leader Jeffries could potentially become the first Black Speaker of the House, though to hear him tell it, the Democrats are already in charge. Even though we're in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done. Those are just the facts. The fact is Republicans in the House are a majority in name only. With just two votes to spare, infighting has crippled their conference. Even some Republican members are at their wits end. The Lord Jesus himself could not manage his conference.

It's a difficult situation on the other side of the aisle because many of my Republican colleagues are more interested in creating chaos, dysfunction, and extremism. For what purpose? That's a good question that has to be asked of them. We were sent by the American people to get things done, to solve problems. At the end of the day, some people don't have that view of the job. Nine months after getting the job of Speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy of California got dumped by the far-right wing of his party. Following three weeks of paralysis, Mike Johnson of Louisiana took his place. MIKE JOHNSON, President of the United States of America, I want to thank you all for the trust

that you have instilled in me. LISA DESJARDINS- After he worked with Democrats to pass the foreign aid bill that included $61 billion for Ukraine, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who opposed it, said she will follow through with the threat to oust him. Jeffries told us he works to find common ground with the other side of the aisle, and at least one Republican who might be happy about that is Speaker Johnson. Johnson at some point today... This past week, Democrats said they would vote against Congresswoman Greene's effort to remove him. Has Speaker Johnson asked for your help?

He has not. And our view would traditionally be, let the other side work its own mess out. But when that mess starts to impact the ability to do the job on behalf of the American people, then a responsible thing at that moment might be for us to make clear that we will not allow the extremists to throw the Congress and the country into chaos. As chaos spreads across college campuses nationwide over Israel and Gaza. Some far-left members of Jeffrey's own party have shown support for protesters. Leader Jeffries, whose district is 11 percent Jewish,

spoke about the protests at his weekly press conference this past Wednesday. Peaceful protest is an important part of the fabric of America, but we shouldn't see any protest ever there into threatening the safety and security of others, into anti-Semitism or racism or xenophobia. STEPHANIE SY, In all, 37 House Democrats recently voted against sending more military aid to Israel. The divisive issue will follow Leader Jeffries and President Biden into the election this November, where control of the White House and Congress looks like a coin flip. What do you think about how Israel has been waging this war against Hamas in Gaza? Israel was put in a very difficult situation

when it comes to the horrific events of 10-7, a brutal terrorist attack by Hamas, which is an entity that has sworn to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. So Israel was in a position where, of course, it had to respond to decisively defeat Hamas. At the same time, my view has been that we have to do everything possible

to get the hostages out and to surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza. But isn't it also true that while retaliating and going after Hamas terrorists, that Israel has been indiscriminate in its bombing? I would not say that they've been indiscriminate. I do think what we'd like to see moving forward is the execution of the new phases of this conflict

with surgical precision. You can still be a strong supporter of Israel and Americans' defense of Israel and be critical of their approach about how they've waged this war in Gaza. That's correct. But you seem reluctant to criticize Israel at all. I'm dealing with the facts on the ground.

The facts are, according to the UN, half of Gaza's 2.2 million people are on the verge of famine. Has Israel done enough to get food and aid into Gaza? Israel clearly needs to do more, as they have recently acknowledged through their actions, to surge humanitarian assistance into Gaza. The other thing that I think is important... Only after they killed seven aid workers from World Central Kitchen. Correct. And that was horrific, including one American. Now, in terms of the loss of innocent

Palestinian life in this tough theater of war, that is deeply disturbing, tragic, and should be painful for anyone who has a shred of humanity in their body. Palestinian civilians do not deserve to suffer for the sins of Hamas. In March, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a staunch supporter of Israel, spoke out against the way it's waging war in Gaza. The fourth major obstacle to peace is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Was Leader Schumer's speech a turning point? Anything that Chuck Schumer has to say on the subject is going to be incredibly important and received. But at the same time, every single

member of Congress has the responsibility of answering to their constituency. That's the beauty of American democracy. So what Leader Schumer has to say on a given issue, what Mitch McConnell has to say on a given issue, yeah, there's some importance connected to it in Congress inside the Beltway. That was a very long answer without answering my question. Well, it was. I mean, come on. Chuck Schumer criticizing the prime minister of Israel, calling for him to be replaced. That's a big deal.

Chuck Schumer's words speak for themselves. But I think that trying to suggest that Leader Schumer is somehow undermining the U.S.-Israel relationship is ridiculous. How worried are you that voters' frustration with President Biden over the war in Gaza could hurt Democrats' chances in this election year? We can't take any vote for granted. But I also believe that at the end of the day, voters are going to look at the totality of circumstances. Who is fighting to deliver for everyday Americans?

And who is simply fighting for himself? Hakeem Jeffries says he learned about fighting for everyday Americans from his parents. His father was a substance abuse counselor, his mother a social worker, who Jeffries says taught him and his brother, a college professor, to work hard and be good to people. Jeffries attended NYU Law School, worked for a prestigious law firm, then spent a few years as an attorney for 60 Minutes parent company CBS before entering politics in 2006. This election is about a fresh start moving forward. So many great pictures of Brooklyn all around here. You are the first black leader for either party in either house ever.

What does that say about America? Government of the people, by the people, and for the people isn't just a theoretical concept. Like, it actually exists in America. He was raised in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, a few blocks away from his district. She's my home! Where Sundays were for church.

At 12 years old, he became an usher and says it taught him how to talk to people. These are challenging times. Jeffrey says he visited more than 60 churches in Brooklyn last year. And in Washington, we're going to continue to put people over politics. One of Jeffrey's allies told us his ability to connect to both young and old Black voters makes him an important surrogate for President Biden this fall. Black voters are a core Democratic constituency.

Why do you think support for President Biden has decreased among Black voters? I think that tremendous progress has been made for African Americans under the leadership of Joe Biden. That's quantifiable. But the reality is there are still real challenges. One new challenge in communities in New York City and in many others around the country is the influx of migrants. Shelters to house thousands of them have gone up in and around Jeffrey's district. What do you say to voters who not only see migrants streaming into the U.S., not just from Mexico and Latin America, but also from China and other countries, and wonder, what's Congress doing about this? We have a broken immigration system and we have clear challenges at the border that we have to confront decisively and in a bipartisan way.

And the American people are crying out for us to do something about the situation at the border in a manner consistent with our values. How big of an issue will abortion rights be this election year? It's going to be an incredibly significant issue because on its own, it's about freedom. And the extreme-agricultural Republicans have set in motion the erosion of reproductive freedom. We're going to fight for it with everything that we've got at our disposal. If Roe v. Wade can fall, anything can fall. Social Security can fall. Medicare can fall. Voting rights can fall. And God help us all, but democracy itself can fall. If Roe v. Wade can fall, then anything can fall. Every single thing that we care about is on the ballot in November. Leader Jeffries says Democrats have a story to tell beyond what voters have to lose in November, and pointed to legislative wins for gun safety

and the billions invested in American manufacturing and infrastructure. Those are real results. But two-thirds of voters think the economy was better under President Trump. Well, that's just not the case, and we have to do a better job of laying out the facts that the economy has dramatically improved under the leadership of President Joe Biden. But if those are the facts, why don't voters believe it? Is that a communication problem? Voters understand that more needs to be done,

that there are challenges that remain. We understand we have to lower costs. We have to end price gouging. We have to grow the middle class. We have to keep our communities safe. We have to solve the problems and challenges at the border. We're on the right side of those issues, and we just have to make sure we make that case in a compelling, a clear, and a comprehensive way to the American people. You admit you haven't done that yet? It's a work in progress. Sometimes historic events suck, but what shouldn't suck is learning about history. I do that through storytelling.

History That Doesn't Suck is a chart-topping history-telling podcast chronicling the epic story of America, decade by decade. Right now, I'm digging into the history of incredible infrastructure projects of the 1930s, including the Hoover Dam, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, and more. The promise is in the title, History That Doesn't Suck, available on the free Odyssey app or 50 years ago, CEOs earned around 20 times the median worker's salary. Today's CEO can make in a day what the average laborer earns in a year. No wonder there's not so much a wealth gap as a wealth canyon, rendering the American dream for so many a mirage. Into this crisis strides Pete Stavros,

unlikely champion for empowering and enriching the rank and file. Stavros is a heavyweight in the world of private equity, an industry famous for its ruthlessness. Yet he's emerged as the leading evangelist for the concept of employee ownership. His idea? Take the same incentives that have long helped the C-suite get rich and apply them to the folks working factories, flatbeds, and farms. Norman Rockwell never did paint Arthur, Illinois, but what a canvas of Americana.

Beating slow in the heart of the heartland, this town of 2200 sits in a pocket of Amish country, a place where past and present cohabitate. Not long ago, Arthur was the unlikely site of a daring experiment in American capitalism. CHI Overhead Doors, which manufactures garage doors, was founded by a local Amish carpenter. Then in 2015, KKR, one of the world's biggest private equity firms, came to this small town and purchased CHI for $700 million. That's when Brad Edwards, a 19-year veteran of the factory floor, and his wife Crystal started Googling the new corporate overlords. What'd you learn?

To me, it seemed like they owned half the world, right? And then the rumors start going around like, oh, this is big New York private equity. They're going to skin this down to the bare bones until they can squeeze a few bucks off of us. And whenever they leave, there's going to be nothing left. Today, roughly 12 million Americans are employed by companies owned by private equity. Firms like KKR that specialize in buying businesses with the goal of improving performance and value and ultimately reselling for a profit, a practice that often involves cuts and layoffs. Over a 10-year span, it's estimated that at least a half million jobs have been lost to private equity cutbacks. That would have devastated Brad and

Crystal Edwards. Buried under credit card debt and with no savings, they had taken second jobs to support themselves and their three daughters. You were working, she worked midnights at Casey's. The gas station used to be open 24 hours. So you took a late shift at the gas station here. Late shift at the gas station and then maybe slept or maybe didn't sleep. Soon after KKR bought CHI, employees gathered to meet the new boss, KKR executive Pete Stavros, who came bearing an unexpected message. No slashing, no burning, CHI would be growing, and the entire workforce would now be part owners in the company. What's your immediate response when you heard about that? It was too good to be true, right?

Like you would hear people talk about, no, this is just, they're just dangling the carrot, right? What's the catch? Yeah, yeah, what's the catch, exactly. A lot of times you're walking in and people say, I've heard promises before. Stavros had given the employee ownership pitch before and was accustomed to a skeptical audience.

Day one, we sit down with the workforce. We explain at a very high level, this is our business plan. This is where we're headed. These are the key priorities. There is a pool of ownership set aside for you. His idea really is simple. Give rank-and-file workers a stake in their company on top of salary, plus a voice in how the business is run day-to-day. With skin in the game, they'll be motivated to work harder and smarter.

Ownership is really an ethos. It's a mindset. What I mean by that is what you want are people feeling like these are my products. So if I'm sending out poor quality, that's a problem for me. If our productivity is down or if our customers are unhappy, these are my customers. And this doesn't happen overnight, but when they pay off, you do get behavior change. You get people on the shop floor saying, I have ideas on how to reduce scrap or improve quality. The concept is not a new one. In the 70s, Congress passed laws to encourage employee ownership, a story 60 Minutes covered at the time.

A year ago, the 75 employees of this company were told they were going to become part owners, stockholders in infant specialties. But as corporate America struggled with the complexity of a new model, the effort sputtered. Today, while it's common for executives to be compensated with shares, fewer than a quarter of private sector employees own a stake in their company, all as their wages and wealth have stagnated. On this topic, devout capitalist Pete Stavros can sound downright revolutionary.

You've said the social contract in America is broken right now. What do you mean by that? That workers feel like they don't have hope. They don't have a way to get ahead. There's half of America earns an hourly wage. Most of them have no assets, no plans for a dignified retirement. This, Stavros says, is not just bad for society. It's bad for balance sheets.

70% of America doesn't like their jobs. Somewhere around 20% hate their jobs. They're throwing the proverbial wrenches in the machinery. Like, sabotage. Sabotaging their own employer. That's bad for human beings. It's bad for our economy. You're very clear, though, this is not charity, this isn't philanthropy, this isn't socialism. You are making a business case. This is the right thing to do that also happens to be good business.

His obsession with employee ownership traces to his working class upbringing outside Chicago. His father paved roads for a construction company. And the lessons around the dinner table for my sister and I were really about the plight of the hourly worker. There's no incentive. I mean, the thing that really drove my dad crazy, he used to talk about the need to just work steady. If you work too fast and you're too productive, your hours go down and your paycheck goes down. You need hours. You need hours.

In business school at Harvard, Stavros published research on, you guessed it, employee ownership. Once he'd reached the gleaning offices of KKR, he put the program into action for the first time in 2011. Today, thanks to Pete Stavros, KKR has implemented the model at 47 companies and counting. That's 100,000 employees globally, union, non-union, in manufacturing, e-commerce, even book publishing. Will you do a deal that doesn't have employee ownership now? In the U.S., no. We've been at this almost 15 years. This is the new way we are operating. This is the model.

In February, we visited a recent KKR acquisition, Potter Global Technologies in St. Louis, manufacturer of fire protection equipment. Employees were first learning the details of their new ownership plan. It was part pep rally, part polished TED Talk. As of today, you're a part of a movement. A movement to change the way ownership is shared in corporate America. Afterward, we sat down with factory employees Debbie Brummett, Craig Leppert, Mike Irby, Donna Henson, and Gina Grant to hear their reaction. We all deserve it.

We've been doing it, but now we're going to get benefits. Right, right. That's how we'll get it. We kept hearing employees start thinking like owners. What does that mean? It's easier to spend somebody else's money, but when you work for it and you own it, it's a difference when it's your money. These big checks, that's a motivation? Absolutely. To know the payouts and what it can potentially bring in my future, this is actually something I have prayed for. It's personal to me.

The aim is for employees like these to get checks equivalent to at least a year's salary when KKR sells the company five or so years later. Congratulations on becoming an agent. Stavros also offers workers free financial literacy training to better understand the economics. But he is quick to stress any payout depends on how the company performs and whether KKR sells at significant profit. It's risk. Now, there's no downside because workers are not investing out of their own pocket. But there's definitely no guarantee. We always say we need to perform for this to work. Have you had to have that ceremony on the shop floor of, look, we're selling, but unfortunately there's no pot at the end of the rainbow? We haven't had that yet.

It will happen. That day will come. We've been fortunate so far. Pete Stavros has his critics. This, after all, is private equity, a sector often vilified for its aggressive business practices. Here are some of the critiques we've heard about your efforts. It's greenwashing. It's whitewashing. It's mostly public relations. It's a watering down of the real employee ownership. What do you say to detractors like that?

When you look at what workers are getting, I just think there's too much substance for someone to shrug it off and say, ah, that's just, that's fake. But coming from a sector that doesn't traditionally act like this, that tends to cut jobs and tends to squeeze profits and tends to hollow out companies, does that create an additional challenge for you? Well, I don't agree with that characterization. You don't? No.

I think certainly mistakes have been made both in our industry and in capitalism. If all private equity was doing was plundering, I just don't think it would be where it's at, which is continuing to gain market share. Stavros does concede that when there is a sale, top executives stand to make orders of magnitude more than rank-and-file workers, tens of millions of dollars. I think that's one of the things that I struggle with about employee ownership in general. It's giving people a chance to get a leg up, but it is not going to solve the wealth inequality problem that we have. Talk about this yawning wealth gap we have in the country. Does private equity help that gap or help create it?

So we're investing capital, and that capital is owned for the most part by wealthy people. That's just a fact of life. So in a sense, we are compounding the problem. So we'll be experimenting. We'll learn. An imperfect messenger, perhaps, but Pete Stavros has emerged as the leading employee ownership apostle. He's founded a nonprofit that teaches executives how to deploy the model. He crisscrosses the country preaching his gospel at business schools and before D.C. lawmakers, advocating to update the tax code to incentivize employee ownership, which he hopes will soon be standard business practice, not an exotic exception.

This is an unbelievably popular idea with liberal progressives and MAGA Republicans and everything in between. You can make this palatable to anyone on the spectrum. That's right. It's not a government handout. This is a benefit tied to work. And the outcomes are driven by performance. And about performance.

Nothing has matched that of CHI in Arthur, Illinois. In 2022, KKR sold the business for a tenfold return. Employees were again summoned to the factory floor. They knew they stood to gain, but not precisely how much. Pete gets up there and announces what the payouts are going to be. You're smiling. Obviously, I'm excited for myself. I mean, how could you not be?

How could you not be? And they start tossing those numbers around. Even our newest colleagues are gonna get a meaningful payout of $20,000. $20,000, $50,000, $100,000. Holy cow. They haven't even got to 19 years yet, right? You're your seniority level.

The payout is six and a half times. Brown and Crystal were too modest to reveal exact numbers, but told us their check was in the mid-six figures. Life-changing. Absolutely. And not just for us, for our kids too. Yeah. Our kids don't have to worry about us being stressed out about money. We're not working night shifts. The Edwards family donated to their church. They finally paid off that credit card debt. And they started a college fund for their kids and for Brad. Still at CHI, he's studying for

his bachelor's degree at night. These stories rippled across Arthur after the sale still at CHI, he's studying for his bachelor's degree at night. These stories rippled across Arthur after the sale, as CHI employees had money to spend in and on the community. I'm curious, do you think this idea of, hey, employees can turn into employee owners, is that a challenge? Or is that, hey, it can happen in the middle of Illinois, it can happen anywhere? Absolutely, it can happen in the middle of Illinois, it can happen anywhere? Absolutely, it can happen anywhere. You know, look outside of my window, you're going to see a house and miles of cornfields, right? If it can happen here, where can it not happen? But this might be the biggest payoff of all.

Employee ownership was not a fad or a one-time windfall. After KKR sold, the workers got a stake in the business under the new owners. Why change a winning culture? Why mess with success? As the school year ends, many students will be only too happy to see math classes in their rearview mirrors. It may seem to some of us non-mathematicians that geometry and trigonometry were created by the Greeks as a form of torture. So imagine our amazement when we heard two high school seniors had proved a mathematical puzzle that was thought to be impossible for 2,000 years. We met Kelsey Johnson and Nakia Jackson at their all-girls Catholic high school in New Orleans.

We expected to find two mathematical prodigies. Instead, we found at St. Mary's Academy, all students are told their possibilities are boundless. Come Mardi Gras season, New Orleans is alive with colorful parades, replete with floats and beads and high school marching bands. In a city where uniqueness is celebrated, St. Mary's stands out, with young African-American women playing trombones and tubas, twirling batons and dancing, doing it all.

Which defines St. Mary's, students told us. Junior Christina Blasio says the school instills in them they have the ability to accomplish anything. That is kind of a standard here so we aim very high like every our aim is excellence for all students. The private Catholic elementary and high school sits behind the Sisters of the Holy Family Convent in New Orleans East. The academy was started by an African-American nun for young Black women just after the Civil War. The church still supports the school with the help of alumni. In December 2022, seniors Nakia Jackson and Kelsey Johnson were working on a school-wide math contest that came with a cash prize.

I was motivated because there was a monetary incentive, because I was like, $500 is a lot of money, so I would like to at least try. Both were staring down the thorny bonus question. So tell me, what was this bonus question? It was to create a new proof of the Pythagorean theorem, and it kind of gave you a few guidelines on how would you start a proof. The seniors were familiar with the Pythagorean Theorem,

a fundamental principle of geometry. You may remember it from high school. a squared plus b squared equals c squared. In plain English, when you know the lengths of two sides of a right triangle, you can figure out the length of the third. Both had studied geometry and some trigonometry, and both told us math was not easy. What no one told them was there'd been more than 300 documented proofs

of the Pythagorean theorem using algebra and geometry. But for 2,000 years, a proof using trigonometry was thought to be impossible. And that was the bonus question facing them. When you looked at the question, did you think, boy, this is hard? Yeah. What motivated you to say, well, I'm going to try this? I think I was like, I started something, I need to finish it. So you just kept on going? Yeah. For two months that winter,

they spent almost all their free time working on the proof. She was like, Mom, this is a little bit too much. Cece and Cal Johnson are Kelsey's parents. So then I started looking at what she really was doing, and it was pages and pages and pages of, like like over 20 or 30 pages for this one problem. Yeah, the garbage can was full of papers where she would, you know, work out the problems and if that didn't work, she would ball it up, throw it in the trash. Did you look at the problem?

Neliska Jackson is Nakia's mother. Personally, I did not, because most of the time I don't understand what she's doing. What if we did this? What if I write this? Does this help? AX squared. Their math teacher, Michelle Bluen-Williams, initiated the math contest. And did you think anyone would solve it? Well, I wasn't necessarily looking for a solve, so no idea. What were you looking for? I was just looking for some ingenuity, you know.

Kelsey and Nakia delivered on that. They tried to explain their groundbreaking work to 60 Minutes. Kelsey's proof is appropriately titled the waffle cone. So to start the proof, we start with just a regular right triangle where the angle in the corner is 90 degrees and the two angles are alpha and beta. Mm-hmm. So then what we do next is we draw a second congruent, which means they're equal in size.

But then we start creating similar but smaller right triangles going in a pattern like this, and then it continues for infinity, and eventually it creates this larger waffle cone shape. Am I going a little too? Yeah, you've been beyond me since the beginning. Oh. So how did you figure out the proof?

Okay, so we have a right triangle, 90 degree angle, alpha and beta. Then what did you do? Okay, I have a right triangle inside of the circle, and I have a perpendicular bisector at OP to divide the triangle to make that small right triangle. And that's basically what I use for the proof. That's the proof. That's what I call amazing.

Well, thank you. There had been one other documented proof of the theorem using trigonometry by mathematician Jason Zimba in 2009, one in 2,000 years. Now, it seems, Nakaya and Kelsey have joined perhaps the most exclusive club in mathematics. So you both independently came up with proof that only used trigonometry. Yes. So are you math geniuses? I think that's a stretch.

If not genius, you're really smart at math. Not at all. To document Kelsey and Nakia's work, math teachers at St. Mary's submitted their proofs to an American Mathematical Society conference in Atlanta in March 2023. Well, our teacher approached us and was like, hey, you might be able to actually present this. I was like, are you joking? But she wasn't. So we went, I got up there, we presented, and it went well. And it blew up. It blew up. Yeah. Yeah. What was the blow up like? Insane. Unexpected. Crazy. Honestly. Today's story features two high school students, Kelsey Johnson and Nakia Jackson. It took millennia to prove, but just a minute for word of their accomplishment to go around the world. They got a write-up in South Korea and a shout-out from former First Lady Michelle Obama,

a commendation from the governor, and keys to the city of New Orleans. Why do you think so many people found what you did to be so impressive? Probably because we're African American, one, and we're also women. So I think, oh, and our age. Of course, our age has probably played a big part. So you think people were surprised that young African-American women could do such a thing? Yeah, definitely.

I'd like to actually be celebrated for what it is. Like, it's a great mathematical achievement. Achievement. That's a word you hear often around St. Mary's Academy. Kelsey and Nakia follow a long line of barrier-breaking graduates. The late queen of Creole cooking, Leah Chase, was an alum. So was the first African-American female New Orleans police chief, Michelle Woodfork. And judge for the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, Dana Douglas.

Math teacher Michelle Bluen-Williams told us Kelsey and Nakia are typical St. Mary's students. They're not unicorns. Oh, no. No. If they are unicorns, then every single lady that has matriculated through this school is a beautiful black unicorn. You good?

Pamela Rogers, St. Mary's president and interim principal, told us the students hear that message from the moment they walk in the door. We believe all students can succeed. All students can learn. It does not matter the environment that you live in. So when word went out that two of your students had solved this almost impossible math problem, were they universally applauded? In this community, they were greatly applauded. Across the country, there were many naysayers.

What were they saying? They were saying, oh, they could not have done it. African Americans don't have the brains to do it. Of course, we sheltered our girls from that, but we absolutely did not expect it to come in the volume that it came. And after such a wonderful achievement? People have a vision of who can be successful. And to some people, it is not always an African-American female.

And to us, it's always an African-American female. What we know is when teachers lay out some expectations that say, you can do this, kids will work as hard as they can to do it. Gloria Ladson-Billings, professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin, has studied how best to teach African American students. She told us an encouraging teacher can change a life. And what's the difference, say, between having a teacher like that and a whole school dedicated to the excellence of these students?

So a whole school is almost like being in heaven. What do you mean by that? Many of our young people have their ceilings lowered, that somewhere around fourth or fifth grade, their thoughts are, I'm not going to be anything special. What I think is probably happening at St. Mary's is young women come in as perhaps ninth graders

and are told, here's what we expect to happen, and here's how we're going to help you get there. Who is the author of this story? At St. Mary's, half the students get scholarships subsidized by fundraising to defray the $8,000 a year tuition. Here, there's no test to get in, but expectations are high and rules are strict. No cell phones, modest skirts, hair must be its natural color. Students Raya Sadiq, Summer Ford, Carissa Washington, Tatum Williams, and Christina Blasio told us they appreciate the rules and rigor. Especially the standards that they set for us, they're very high, and I don't think that's ever

going to change. So is there a heart of philosophy, an essence to St. Mary's? The sisterhood. The sisterhood. Yes. And you don't mean the nuns, you mean you. So when you're here, there's just no question that you're going to go on to college. College is all they talk about. And Arizona State University. Principal Rogers announces to her 615 students the colleges where every senior has been accepted. So for 17 years, you've had a 100% graduation rate and a 100% college acceptance rate. That's correct. Nakia Jackson. Last year, when Nakia and Kelsey graduated, all their classmates went to college and got scholarships. Nakia got a full ride to the pharmacy school at Xavier University in New Orleans. Kelsey, the class valedictorian,

is studying environmental engineering at Louisiana State University. So wait a minute, neither one of you is going to pursue a career in math? No, no. I may take up a minor in math, but I don't want that to be my job job. Yeah, people might expect too much out of me if I become a mathematician. But math is not completely in their rearview mirrors. This spring, they submitted their high school proofs for final peer review and publication, and are still working on further proofs of the Pythagorean theorem. Since their first two... We found five, and then we found a general format that could potentially produce at least five additional proofs. And you're not math geniuses? No, no.

I'm not buying it. Now, the last minute of 60 Minutes. Tonight, an update of a story from October, a quiet invasion of the country of Georgia. As the nation's president, Salome Zorabishvili, told Sharon Alfonsi, Russia occupies 20 percent of Georgia, even as Georgia applies for membership in the European Union. A proposed law in Georgia's parliament could scuttle that membership. Resembling Russian legislation, it opens the way for a crackdown on journalists, aid groups,

and other international agencies, and may draw Georgia away from democracy and closer to Russia's orbit. This past week, Georgians took to the streets in protest. They faced off against water cannons, tear gas, and riot police. Parliament is expected to pass the law, but Georgia's president, Zorabishvili, has promised a veto. I'm Bill Whitaker. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.