#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Bethune-Cookman Protest Update, Ben Crump Warns FL Gov. Desantis, TX Woman Attacked By Store Clerk

Episode Date: January 26, 2023

1.25.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Bethune-Cookman Protest Update, Ben Crump Warns FL Gov. Desantis, TX Woman Attacked By Store Clerk Roland is continuing our conversation about what's brewing at Bethune Cookman University.  Following our exclusive interviews with Interim President Lawrence Drake II and Hall of Fame Safety Ed Reed, Roland's had a cascade of inquiries from folks wanting to come on this show to share first-hand insight into what conditions are like at Bethune-Cookman University. Roland will have student leaders from Tuesday night's Student Stand-in who will explain what happened after the stand-in ended.  Roland will also tell you what the past alum association president had to say and why he accused our show of one-sided coverage. Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump announced his intent to sue Florida Governor Ron Desantis for his political stunt blocking an African America AP Course. Roland will show you the press conference and speak to a Florida State Legislature about their plan to approve the course for Students.  A 65-Year-old Texas Grandmother was held against her will at a grocery store because she found 5 dollars on the floor. Roland will show you the appalling video and tell you what happened after the incident.  In our New You 2023 segment, Roland will speak with fitness expert Maurice Jones about how to start your fitness journey at any fitness level.  1.25.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Bethune-Cookman Protest Update, Ben Crump Warns FL Gov. Desantis, TX Woman Attacked By Store Clerk Roland is continuing our conversation about what's brewing at Bethune Cookman University.  Following our exclusive interviews with Interim President Lawrence Drake II and Hall of Fame Safety Ed Reed, Roland's had a cascade of inquiries from folks wanting to come on this show to share first-hand insight into what conditions are like at Bethune-Cookman University. Roland will have student leaders from Tuesday night's Student Stand-in who will explain what happened after the stand-in ended.  Roland will also tell you what the past alum association president had to say and why he accused our show of one-sided coverage. Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump announced his intent to sue Florida Governor Ron Desantis for his political stunt blocking an African America AP Course. Roland will show you the press conference and speak to a Florida State Legislature about their plan to approve the course for Students.  A 65-Year-old Texas Grandmother was held against her will at a grocery store because she found 5 dollars on the floor. Roland will show you the appalling video and tell you what happened after the incident.  In our New You 2023 segment, Roland will speak with fitness expert Maurice Jones about how to start your fitness journey at any fitness level.    Support RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered Venmo ☛https://venmo.com/rmunfiltered Zelle ☛ [e-mail] Annual or monthly recurring #BringTheFunk Fan Club membership via paypal ☛ https://rolandsmartin.com/rmu-paypal/ Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Hey, folks, today is Wednesday, January 25th, 2023. Coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. Students at Bethune-Cookman State, they sit in in White Hall where the president's office is. We'll have several of those students on the show to talk about the continued demands for answers from the administration. Also, an update on the case of a fired Texas Southern University police chief, Mary Young, regarding her restraining order against the university. Trump joins the court of law over his opposition to, and I'm glad to talk to, one of the members of members of the legislature on today's show. That and other news.

It's a jam-packed show, folks. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin on Filter, the Black Star Network. Let's go. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the find And when it breaks, he's right on time And it's rolling Best belief he's knowing Putting it down from sports to news to politics With entertainment just for kicks

He's rolling Yeah, yeah With Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's rolling, Martin, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, All right, folks. Last night, students at Bethune-Cookman took over White Hall where the president's office and the chapel is, saying they're not going to leave until they get more answers from the administration regarding conditions at the campus. All of this, of course, started with Ed Reed,

who was agreed to a deal to bring him on as a head coach. He complained about conditions there. They chose not to hire him. Students have been complaining ever since. They've been demanding answers. And so joining us right now are several of those students who they live-streamed the event last night. They are Daylon Sims, a former Mr. Sophomore, Maya Walker, Miss Barone,

Galen Nelson, Fred Hughes Jr., and Tyra Dunaway. Glad to have you on the show. So walk us through what happened, why did y'all decide to stay, just sit in and take over Whitehall? We decided to stay in because, as you said, we wanted answers, and we weren't getting them. Students have been complaining about the mold in the classrooms, complaining about leadership, lack of professionalism with the administration. So with us being in Whitehall, it was the location of the administration's office. How long? I saw the live stream last night.

How long were y'all there? Were y'all eventually removed or escorted out of the building by campus security? We were there for 12 hours. We decided to leave peacefully after they called the police. So they called campus police or the city police against you? They called the Daytona Beach Police Department. Two officers showed up and they decided that we weren't peacefully protesting anymore. And so y'all decided to leave.

What happened after that or what's the next step? What do y'all decided to leave. What happened after that? Or what's the next step? What do y'all have planned next? After we left last night at 12, we decided that we would have a social action. It's the place today at 1 p.m. where we decided to go to Whitehall. We wanted to let the city know that we need help. We're asking for legislation help outside of our practice. We were breaking up there, so if you could repeat what you just said. I just want to make sure all people are able to hear what you just said. We decided to march from White Hall to City Hall today at 1 p.m.

Over a dozen students gathered together as we stood, marched, chanted to City Hall, where we decided to take our problems to our community. We feel like we are not being heard here at our university, and being that we are a private institution we need help from the outside we need those city officials these state legislators to enforce regulations here at our university and so when you say enforce regulations you mean uh the health code yes we have president go i'm sorry go ahead, I'm sorry, go ahead. The health code, better business practice, professionalism, real business, and fortunately our administrators have not been doing that.

Now, I know President Drake sent a campus-wide letter out the other day, but has there been a call for a campus-wide meeting between the administration and students to be able to ask him questions or ask administrators questions? What's on your minds? No, no, we have not addressed that student body. That's why we were at Whitehall in our time, no, we have not addressed that student body. That's why we were at Whitehall last night, to demand him to come and speak with us.

And he did not come. He just sent a letter out that was basically, you know, not relevant, like not concerning us. Like, we want to hear you. We want to see you. We have not saw this man at all. Yes, we are just so confused on how you address the world, but not your own students. We have not seen this man.

I have not seen him since I won Mr. Ruhle and he just got to the floor. I haven't seen him since then. I haven't seen him walk. Hi. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Do not stop and change that. Do not stand there. I had on, you know, student government president, vice president, Ms. Bethune-Cookman, Mr. Bethune-Cookman. The SGA president said that he has not met face-to-face with the university president, Dr. Drake, since August. Yes, sir. Correct. When, so with me being on Royal Court, I'm the former Mr. Baltimore for this year. And we haven't had a meeting with Dr. Drake at all.

We have been emailing him, talking to these representatives, but haven't had any another company yet? One of the things that Dr. Drake extend the invitation for me to come to the campus, I accept it. I said that I wanted to do a town hall on the campus next week with students, faculty and staff. And they have not accepted our invitation as of yet. I certainly hope that happens. Are y'all seeing an increase in students joining you?

We just had the protest that took place just the other day. And so, you know, do you anticipate seeing more and more students making it clear that they want to get answers from leadership? Because as we all know, maximum pressure is typically what causes people to make change. As a result of our protest from the last 72 hours, the support has poured over from students to administrators to community members to all HBCUs. This is not just an issue that we at this private institution is encountering.

This is way bigger than reuse. This is a problem that we all must come together and target. We have to fix these issues. We have to fix these issues. We have to be heard. What are your parents saying? Are you getting support for them as well? Because again, y'all are paying tuition.

I mean, that's financial aid. That's money that's going to the institution. And so what are your parents saying? Our parents are overly happy. They, alumni, they are reaching out to us. They are proud of us. Alumni are calling us clients because we're not stopping. Like, this is something that, you know, you just don't jump in.

We're a ten-year-old dad town. Like, we want change, and we want it now. And we're not going to stop. Well, look, what I've made perfectly clear is that, look, when we cover what happened at Florida A&M, we cover what happened at other institutions. I do fundamentally believe in transparency. I do believe there should be open lines of communication between students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, and administration and the Board of Trustees. I can tell you that we reached out today to Board Chair Balvin Perry. He hung up on my producer, did not want to talk at all. I'm going to call him myself tomorrow.

Let's see if he hangs up on me. I've already made the commitment that whether we do a town hall on the campus, if they don't get back to us, we will do one next Friday there in Daytona Beach. And so we certainly want to invite all students in the community out because the reality is Bethune-Cookman also has a significant impact financially on the community in terms of what happens there. And so folks do deserve answers. And so hopefully we'll see things improve for you and the others. I appreciate y'all coming on the show and look forward to seeing what happens next. Thank you.

All right. Thanks a bunch. All right, folks. Coming up next, I'm going to all right folks coming up next talk to journalists Michael Harriet he wrote about the issues of the film cooking 4 years ago for the route. And so what you're saying now is nothing new. We'll come to discuss this more on the moment on the culture right here on the black star network be back in a moment. Trump mob storms the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance.

We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people.

The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, a relationship that we have to have. We're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it. That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money.

And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network. Hi, I'm B.B. Winans. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross,

and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Thank you. Să ne urmăm în următoarea mea rețetă. Să ne urmăm. Thank you. Să ne vedem la următoarea mea rețetă! All right, folks. The issues at at Bethune-Cookman are not new. They're longstanding. Michael Harriot, when he worked for The Root, wrote about this four years ago. He joins us right now, now working for The Grill. Michael, glad to have you on the show. You heard what those students there just said. We had football players on the show a couple of days ago with alumni on the show as well. President Drake talked about how they've only had eight presidents in the university's history,

but they had four in the last 10 years. And so when you look at what's going on, they say, hey, we had two hurricanes that hit, severely damaged the campus. But folks then say, yeah, but there were problems beforehand as well. And so, you know, this is the culmination of problem after problem. And there are people who are saying, hey, man, people like, man, why are you dogging Bethune Cookman? Somebody said, you're trying to destroy BethCookman, I'm going, listen to the students. They're the ones talking about what they have to endure every day on campus.

Yeah, so there's a number of problems, from corruption to a 30-member board of trustees that, you know, the sanctioning body said, like, it was too large. There was mishandling of funds. There was a dorm that was supposed to cost $72 million that ended up costing $306 million. So they've literally had every fight and institutional problem that you can imagine at any school. So I think it is important to recognize that we, you know, as Black people who support these institutions, we have to hold these institutions accountable if we're going to send them our kids there, right? We have to hold these institutions accountable if we're going to send our kids there, right? We have to hold them to the same standards that we would hold any institution to while recognizing the unique difficulty that HBCUs face. I think you can do both.

You know, it's interesting you make that point because I've had some people, again, I always love this part when they try to pull out the card, you didn't go to an HBCU, but you could have. I'm like, that ain't got a damn thing to do with this, because as a journalist, I can cover the issues. We cover the University of Missouri protests. We cover stuff at Penn State and other places. This is what we do.

The bottom line is, you have people who are saying there's a problem. Ed Reed's going live started this. He lit the match. And I said, you can be angry at Ed Reed for going public. You can be mad and talk about his tone and say he shouldn't be there. But the reality is him, what he did has called, has empowered students and others to use their voice to say, hey, he wasn't lying. Yeah, I think that is important to know. I think it's also important to know that Ed Reed made people pay attention, but it wasn't as if the students weren't saying these things before Ed Reed got there, you know?

And so I think that there is the gap between those two things, right? So what Ed Reed was saying was something that happens, was complaining about, was something that's endemic at small institutions. It's not unique to the HPC. I think it's important for us to make that point. At point, these students have been saying it for a

long time. Now, we can credit Ed Reed for bringing attention and a spotlight to this, right? But, and here's the big point, the fact that Ed Reed did this was not something that Ed Reed was doing specifically for these students. We have to admit that Ed Reed was doing specifically for these students. We have to admit that Ed Reed was doing this in part because of something that happened to Ed Reed. Ed Reed wasn't there two weeks before he got hired there, right? So this was something Ed Reed did for Ed Reed. No, actually, Michael, I disagree with that because if Ed Reed was there recruiting players and already had players, he was also doing it for his players who are also

students. So I get your point, but granted, I get doing it just for him, but when I listen to- Not just. Not just. But I said not just. I don't think that Ed Reed was doing it only for Ed Reed. I really truly believe that he were doing it for the players, for the students. But my point is that Ed Reed, you know, he came to the school as, you know, some say a savior. Some say it was just a job. But whatever the case may be, I think that these issues that Ed Reed highlighted, real issues, existed before Ed Reed. And what he did, most of all, we have to admit that he, as professional, and for all the dysfunction that we attribute to Bethune-Cookman, we also have to attribute to the way Ed Reed

handled this situation. Of course. There is no sides. I think that both sides have to take responsibility, and I don't think that either one is the villain and neither is actually a hero. Well, I'll say this here. If you want to talk about heroes and villains, this for me is very basic, and that is if you are responsible for students, faculty, and staff, and you are not servicing

their needs, you are the villain. Because that's your job. And part of the deal that we keep seeing here is that you've written about it, other folks have written about it, also the board. The reality is, look, we try to reach out to all board members. It's damn near impossible to find out even who they, first of all, we've got names, but how to even contact them. When you have individuals on that campus who say, we've never met the president, we've never seen him. When they say, we've never seen these board members, and because it's private, they frankly

can't be removed other than resigning unless there's external pressure brought to bear and they still have to resign. At some point, they have to also accept a level of accountability because if you are a member of the board of trustees, you are supposed to be there to serve at the pleasure or service the needs of faculty, staff, students, and alumni. And if you're hearing folks who say they aren't, that's a problem. And when the president says alumni giving went from 12% to a decade ago to 1%, that damn sure is a problem. Yeah, I agree with you. I think, you know, this is something we find at a lot of small schools and specifically at HBCU. You know, Morehouse had the same problem. What happened at Morehouse when its entire board was dismantled was the same kind of good old boy,

buddy, buddy system that we saw at Bethune-Cookman, that we saw at Hampton, that we saw at Howard. It's endemic in small colleges, HBCUs. Look, I went to Auburn, a huge school, and I don't know the board of trustee. And we did the same thing. like we made we made this kind of hires i i think it's important that like these this dysfunction isn't particularly uh it's happening at hbcus we just had we just had what could only be described like booger mcfarlane would only describe it as a pervert at auburn university who is the head coach of the football team and so this this kind of stuff happens all the time. In this situation, what we saw is rampant unprofessionalism on both sides.

I think what's jumping out here, and again, this for me, this is real basic. And again, as somebody who's run numerous black institutions in terms of the media side, folk don't want to hear, oh, woe is me. What they want to know is, are you going to fix the problem? And when students are talking about, hey, we've got mold,

are you going to clean up the mold? Are you going to have functioning dorms? Are you going to pick up the trash? Are you going to have tight security? I mean, all of those different things. And so to me, what the administration has to do, they've got to come out and speak to their constituents, not just in a letter. President Drake needs to, and when he said, well, I should address them, not the board. Well, first of all, if the board is the one that's approving capital expenditures or approving

funding, they should be there as well. But that's who your constituents are. You are to talk with them. And I don't understand why is that hard. And guess what? If they get in your ass and yell in the shouting, it's going to happen. But you know the best way to stop criticism? Fix the damn problem. Exactly right. And then all of this is exacerbated by the fact that we have a particular connection to institutions. It's not like, you know, some of the schools where you can send your kids there and connect them from the administration. You know, we should hold them responsible because a lot of the reason that our kids and the stakeholders at these institutions are at these institutions is because of our love for them, is because of our support for them.

So you're right about that, right? Like, we have to—we have to—administrations responsible. And I think that is the bottom line to all of this. And that's what, like, I think Ed Reed was doing in his own particular way. Right. And I think, you know, one of the faults that we have to acknowledge also is that how if the university was displeased with what Ed Reed said on Instagram, why didn't they know who they were hiring? If they could not ratify his contract, why weren't they to interview him in a group setting? There are entire boards and groups who interview school coaches or people with high positions at universities. And that should have been what happened at Bethune-Cookman, because you can't say we have the unilateral power to fire somebody, but dismiss yourself from the hiring process, from disconnect yourself from responsibility that of everything that happened up until that point and say, well, that's all that's at default.

Absolutely. Michael, hold tight one second. Got to go to a break. We come back. I'm going to continue more of this. I also share with you a statement that the board president gave to us where he lied. And I'm going to explain why he lied. Plus, I'll bring my panel up. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Download our app, Black Star Network, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. We'll be right back. Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men,

and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us. They think that they're being painted by white people. And I got to tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk that are the creators, the head writers, the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths. The people don't really wanna have this conversation. No, they don't. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important

and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future. I'm a genius. It's saying that my uncle was a genius. My brother was a genius. My neighbor was a genius.

I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Hello everyone, it's Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lili. And we're SWB.

What's up y'all, it's Ryan Destiny, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. My producer reached out to Bethune-Cookman board president, board chair, a retired judge, Belvin Perry Jr. And this is what he said before he hung up on her. He said, pull it judge, Belvin Perry Jr., and this is what he said before he hung up on her. He said, pull it up, please. He said, quote, I will not come on with Roland Martin, who has been telling a

one-sided story with students who have been put up to this by Charles W. Cherry II, a disbarred attorney, and Johnny McCrae Jr., who was president of the old Alumni Association. I'm done. Goodbye. Board President Perry, you are lying. Let me be fundamentally clear. You are lying. You, as a retired judge, should know better. You can't say I've been

telling a one-sided story when the first guest we had on the show on Monday was interim president Lawrence Drake. He literally was first. He was followed by Ed Reed, who told his story. He was followed by three football players. He was followed by McCray, who leads the Alumni Association, that y'all dissolved. And yes, we had Cherry. We then followed that up on yesterday, talking with other alumni, as well as the student government president, the student government vice president, Ms. Bethune-Cookman elect, Mr. Bethune-Cookman elect. And then we had five students on today.

We also have made calls to several board members, and none of y'all will answer your phones or come on the show. And so how can you say it's a one-sided story when you won't even come on? So first, you lied. And then if you say that, oh oh here's the other thing you lied about You said that these students were being put up by cherry Again president board chair Perry you are lying. I received emails Not from cherry not from McCrae, but directly from the students

They emailed me saying please can we come on? So how can you say that they're putting the students up when the students are reaching out to me directly? When you have staff members of Bethune-Cookman who are reaching out to me directly? When you have alumni of Bethune-Cookman who are reaching out to me directly, when you have parents of Bethune-Cookman who are reaching out to me directly. What I need to understand, Board Chair Perry, how in the hell am I talking to more students, faculty, staff, and alumni of Bethune-Cookman than you are and you are the Board Chair? So maybe instead of lashing out at black-owned media and hanging the phone up,

why don't you, Board Chair Perry, have the courage and the guts to speak to your constituents and not hide behind your title? Because what I will not allow for you to do is besmirch my name or the integrity of this show. You cannot suggest, and you would know if you were a judge, that if somebody lied in your courtroom, you would either say overruled or sustained. And the fact of the matter is, you cannot say it's one-sided when your own president has come on this show. Your own president, Board Chair Perry, has invited me to come visit Bethune-Cookman again. And I will gladly travel to Daytona Beach with my cameras and see the campus for myself.

The question is, are you going to allow him to accept or follow through on the invitation? Let me bring in my board, my panelists right here who join us right now. Michael Harriot is still with us. Robert Petillo, he is the host of People, Passion, Passion Politics News and Talk, 13 AWAOK in Atlanta. Rebecca Carruthers, Vice President of Fair Election Center. Joe Richardson, he is a civil rights attorney. And so again, they join us. I must say, Robert, again, we talk all the time about integrity, character, honor, credibility, and transparency. And for the board president, the board chair, to be completely dismissive of what all of these students are saying,

and they literally, Robert, I can't tell you, the emails are pouring in from them. That's the kind of arrogance they are talking about. Well, Roland, I wish this was new and I wish this was isolated. But as Michael said, this is endemic in small universities around the country and it goes back decades. Every time by the time I got expelled from college for something very similar back in 2004 when we were trying to organize campus workers against our then president at Clark Atlanta, Walter Broad next. And they literally expelled me from school

until Reverend Jackson stepped in to get me back in and help me graduate. This is something that happens. And now that we have social media, now that we have access to the internet, now that we have black media such as your show and the Black Star Network, we can bring these things to light. But this is nothing new. This is nothing different. And I'm glad that these students are standing up and fighting for the change that is necessary because nothing will improve on campuses until the students push those issues going forward. You're not supposed to shut up and sit down and get in line.

That's not what students are for. Students are meant to push the agenda and push for the social change that is necessary. You cannot train a generation of revolutionary leaders and then be surprised when they become revolutionary leaders on campus. I'll support the students and whatever they need. I will extend assistance. Feel free to reach out to me also. But we have to ensure that the students are getting what they pay for on campus and that they are given the resources needed to succeed. It's almost like that old parable of the black-owned restaurant. They're simply supposed to accept less because they're black-owned.

You don't accept less than conditions or education at HBCU just because they are black-owned. That means you are trying to push for even more excellence, not for lower standards. And here's the deal, Rebecca. The board president, board chair,

he don't have to talk to me. But when you won't even talk to your own constituents, that's a problem. In my personal and professional capacity, I partner and do a lot of work with HBCUs across the country. What was very concerning, even hearing it with Monday night's coverage, is the forced disbandment of the National Alumni Network. And yes, I heard that it was because of accreditation and making it a direct service organization, but that doesn't require disbanding the current structure. It just requires some transitioning and doing more hand and glove work with the university. And so the thing about HBCU culture is that alumni networks are paramount. Student engagement is also paramount. So to also hear from the students that they have never met with

the president or they haven't met with the president since early August, definitely before the hurricane hit campus, that's also concerning because the thing that we know about SGA, Student Government Associations, on HBCU campuses is that they are considered an integral part of campus administration. So if a major part of your campus administrator isn't meeting with your chief administrator with the campus president, you know, there's something that's horribly going wrong at Bethune-Cookman. Joe, Trustee John Crossman, we did talk to him, said he did not feel comfortable speaking individually for the, because again, he did not feel comfortable speaking individually for the board that any communication should be coming from the chair. Well, first of all, you're not speaking for the board. You're speaking for yourself as a member of the board of trustees.

But he's saying, again, that should not come on. Also, there was a, let's see here. We have Delancey. Let me pull up here. Because, again, there are several people who we reached out to talk to to talk about this whole issue. Because, again, wanted to be able to have these conversations. Robert Delancey, who is a member of the Alumni Association, he also claimed, see, this is what I'm saying.

Here you got Robert Delancey tells my producer, we are telling a one-sided story. So we said, come on the show. This is what he said. He was eager to come on a show This is what he said He was eager to come on the show But then decided it wasn't in the best interest of the university now how your ass gonna say we tell the one-sided story But then giving you the opportunity to come on and give so-called the other side Then you cut and run saying oh, it's not in the best interest of the university.

That's a weak-ass response, Joe. No doubt about it. If I was a parent of a child at Bethune-Cookman, here's where I would start, and it's not even that deep, to be honest with you. It's superficial. Celebrate my birthday tomorrow. It's how I'm going to celebrate.

I'm turning 26 in my mind. Here's how I'll celebrate. Let's fix the mold. That's my problem. My kid can't be safe on campus. Some of us, some of our children come from unsafe situations. They were supposed to go to college for things to get better, to get a sense for how things could actually be. Not to say that there are problems, kids, mental health, and all these types of things. But listen, one of your problems on

your college campus is not supposed to be your hat being molded. At the end of the day, we are out of, you said, the one brother said he wouldn't be comfortable getting on camera, having a discussion. We are beyond comfortable conversation territory. There are two things here that are important. A lot of things, but I'll focus on two. One is competence. The other one is transparency. If you are competent, I don't care how much money you gave at the beginning. I don't care who you know. If you are competent, you aren't competent. You don't know what you're doing. You have no business, or should I say you ain't got no business, like my grandmother used to tell me, on the board of trustees or running the reins of power.

And at the very least, whatever you do, okay, if I don't want to talk to Roland Martin, okay, Roland Martin, he's kind of tough. He didn't go to HBCU, this and that and the other, whatever else. I would be talking to my students. Right. He's not even doing that. There's no good reason not to do that. Again, so Michael, check this out. Literally eight minutes ago, literally eight minutes ago, this email arrived.

Could you give me a call about the corruption of faculty, of facilities, faculties taking money over the years at BCU? I was a football player there and it is still going on. I have some mind-blowing stuff to tell you before you go there to that meeting. Stuff you should know and questions you should ask. Did somebody put that person up to call? Got his name and his phone number. So, you know, this is what we see with, you know, reporting with me.

When they say you're telling a one-sided, sided story, like, are you supposed to find who didn't see the mold? Like, what's the story? Like, who said there ain, no mold on campus? What are you supposed to do to make two sides of the story even, right? Like the corruption on campus, the financial situation. We've all seen it.

It's real simple. If the students say, we got homeless folks walking across the campus, okay. Are they walking across? It's either yes or no. If Ed Reed said the gates were locked, the gates were broken,

is the gate broken or is it not broken? It's only two damn answers. Let's see. Mold? Remember, remember the president said it was mildew, not mold. Oh, better.

Well, it's a different kind of fungus that's growing on the campus. And so I don't know what you're supposed to do to present both sides of the story. So say, well, there's not mildew in every room. It's just some of the rooms or the rooms. Crackheads walking across campus every minute. It's just sometimes all the gates aren't broken, just the ones that the people can come through off of the streets. I don't know how.

And I will say, Roland, I've spoken before to Mr. Penn and Mr. Delancey, and what we see, they don't understand that when you're trying to get out of another story, some stories don't have to. Either something happened or it didn't. And I don't know why you would bring somebody who didn't know what those students were talking about. Hold tight one second. I'm already into the break. I do want to hold you off for one more segment because I want to focus next on, again, black on black accountability.

Because that also is a part of this. This thing is how dare you talk about these issues? Well, how in the hell do we address them if we don't? You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We talk about blackness and what happens in black culture. We're about covering these things that matter to us, speaking to our issues and concerns. This is a genuine people powered movement. A lot of stuff that we're not getting, you get it and you spread the word. We wish to plead our own cause to long have others spoken for us.

We cannot tell our own story if we can't pay for it. This is about covering us. Invest in black-owned media. Your dollars matter. We don't have to keep asking them to cover our stuff. So please support us in what we do, folks. We want to hit 2,000 people, $50 this month, raise $100,000.

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Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives, and we're going to talk about it every day, right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. What, huh? You should have some cue cards. Hey, what's up, y'all? It's your boy, Jacob Lattimore. And you're now watching Roland Martin right now.

Eee. In Dr. King's book, Where Do We Go From Here, Chaos or Community, he said that there are four institutions that are prime position to liberate black America. He says the black, he says the Negro church, the Negro press, Negro fraternities and sororities, Negro professional and business organizations. When it came to the Negro press, he said, Michael, that the Negro press must maintain its militancy and not fall for the conservative. King wasn't talking about the black press only focusing on white folks.

He was also talking about the Negro press doing their jobs when it comes to black folks. And all these folks, and obviously these people mad or anger, upset, why are you trying to sit here and bring down one of our schools? My whole deal is this here. If these students and parents are spending money, first of all, Michael, these students should not have to be doing protests. These students should not, they should be focused on the classroom and not worrying about rats in the classroom. They should be focusing on being able to study and not worrying about mold and things along those lines in the buildings. This is not what students at Bethune-Cookman or any college should have to be doing. they should be focusing again on studies. And so if they are having to do this, it is arrogant, dismissive, and degrading to act as if all of them are lying and making stuff up.

Right. And here's the other thing, too, right? So when we talk about these three students, you know, sometimes I hate the way we talk about them in a patronizing way. These are the people who are paying their salary, right? There would be no Bethune-Cookman. There would be no president. The board wouldn't have a place to meet. There wouldn't be any facilities without these students who are paying their tuition, some of them, and paying themselves for the rest of their lives to go to this institution. They are the people. They are the bosses here, right? And the other thing is I can guarantee you this, Roland. I don't care what these people at this institution say. I guarantee you that there will be less mold at Bethune-Cookman next week's week than there was before you started reporting

on this. I guarantee you that there will be a few less rats at Bethune-Cookman than those last weeks. I can guarantee you that the president of the university will have met with those students the next time the school's names popped up in the national news.

It shows that the Negro press is doing its job. And sometimes it's uncomfortable. Sometimes everybody is. Everybody ain't. But that's what this is. This is a vulnerability. And everybody ain't going to always like it. No, they're not going to like it.

Also, hey, Keenan, I don't know what the hell happened to our YouTube feed. We had about 4,000 folks watching now. It's 683. Somebody explain to me what the hell happened to our YouTube feed? We had about 4,000 folks watching now, and 683. Somebody explain to me what the hell happened. Let me go to our, let me go to Robert here. Again, if you got problems, you fix your problems. What you don't do is crap on your students or your alumni. What you do is you come back and you say, hey folks, we've done a complete campus-wide breakdown.

This is what is getting fixed today. And then what you do, Robert, is you send out daily alerts. We actually had folks walk through 10 buildings today and assess this, and this is what's being done. And then this is what's going to be done tomorrow. And then you issue those daily reports. And so all of a sudden, people see stuff is actually's going to be done tomorrow. And then you issue those daily reports, and so all of a sudden people see stuff is actually happening, things are getting done, and now they realize, oh, our issues are being addressed.

That's what happened at Florida A&M. When we kicked they behind over what happened with the football players and the band, they had to come out and say, oh, we only had one academic person who was clearing them. Now we got six people working on the problem. They had to fix the problem. What you don't do is whine, holler and complain and go hide. What you do is communicate your constituents how you're fixing the problem. Well, you're exactly right. And this is one of those situations where be careful what you wish for, because if you remember back with that famous photo of the HBCU president presidents meeting with President Trump, Kellyanne Conway barefoot laying on the couch, but the conceptualization of that meeting, the subsequent meetings have always been getting more funding for HBCUs, bringing more attention to the needs of HBCUs, ensuring that we have equality, ensuring that we have the ability to compete in the 21st century educational environment and economy going forward. Part of what Coach Prime did was bring more attention to HBCUs and bring in millions of dollars to all institutions,

not just to Jackson State. We gained this renaissance of coaches like Hugh Jackson and Eddie George and Ed Reed tentatively coaching these institutions. But with that comes intense and increased media scrutiny. People, when they start looking under the sheets and in the cabinets, they start finding things. And because of this, all HBCUs need to take this as a lesson to step their game up. If you want to have the additional resources, if you want to have the additional funding, if you want to have the additional enrollment, the additional press attention coming to HBCUs that's currently coming, you have to be ready to improve your conditions so that they are on par

or exceeding those of the corollary white institutions. I remember being a student at HBCU and then going across town to Georgia State or to UGA or University of Georgia, and it looked like you went to a spaceship to the future, looking at the facilities there. We cannot just say, well, come to an HBCU because of marching band, homecoming, and the culture. We need to be competing dollar for dollar for facility with other schools, and having mold or mildew is not an excuse. Having an unsafe campus is not an excuse. We have the same issue in the AEC with an open campus, university homes being right in that store, there being hookers and stuff on Asby Street, et cetera. And that went on until a couple students ended up getting shot, and one young girl died,

and then they decided to close the campus as well. These students have every right and every need and every necessity to protest. The only question is, why did the university wait until this point to fix these issues? And at this point, they need to be going to rocket speed to address the issues of these protesters, because otherwise they have no reason, no raison d'etre to exist and no claim that people aren't supporting them if they're not supporting themselves first. And Rebecca, look, we talked about funding. I just want to show folk facts.

We talked about the funding that HBCUs have received nearly $7 billion in the last couple of years. Go to my iPad, Henry. You'll see right here, CAP F1 forgiveness. You see right there, Bethune-Cookman University got $1.99 million in forgiveness. The next chart right here, CARES Act 1. Bethune-Cookman, you will see, received $6.6 million. Then when you look at CARES Act II, Bethune-Cookman, $7.963 million. CRRSA, $10.7 million. CRRSA II, $8 million. American Rescue Plan, $18.8 million. Then ARP Act II, $14 million. So from the federal government in the last two years, you see the number

right there. Bethune-Cookman has received $68,398,187. I think, Rebecca, what the students are saying is, if you received $68 million in the last two or three years from the federal government, damn, even though the hurricane hit, we might not want to see some mold.

So I want to talk about two things. I do want to talk about that funding mechanism, but I also want to talk about leadership. So first, let me address leadership. These students, first of all, I commend them. I stand with them. These students deserve only the best leadership. If we view within our community

as HBCUs, as being that thought leader in education and a major institution to really propel the Black community forward, we should demand as a community, those who are alums of HBCUs, attend HBCUs, or just a Black community, period, we should be demanding that only the best leadership, the best trained leadership, not a former general counsel, should be demanding that only the best leadership, the best trained leadership, not a former general counsel, should be running these hallmark institutions. So that's the first thing. This has to be accountability with leadership. I know earlier Michael mentioned, oh, well, there's both sides with Ed Reed. But I hold President Drake to a higher standard here because he is supposed to be the president of this institution. But second, when it comes to funding, that particular chart that you just showed, last year the White House and House of Democrats were negotiating funding where HBCUs would have been forced to share the very limited money in Title III and the Higher Ed Act that they received, that they were going to be forced to share with other minority-serving institutions, including Hispanic-serving institutions who are PWIs and get normal

funding that HBCUs don't have access to. So I think there's two things here. First, there's leadership. There's also that dedicated financial funding mechanism and understanding there's a lot of infrastructure. Even though this administration is putting a lot of money towards broadband for HBCUs, there's still a lot of electrical grid issues that these HBCUs have to deal with to be able to actually utilize some of that broadband that's coming to campuses. But here's the deal, Joe, and all these people out here whining and complaining, man, why are you covering this? All the issues she talked about, we've covered. Just had UNCF on, Thurgood Marshall on, NAFIA on. So the notion that we don't focus on this, we do.

We're going to cover the good, the bad, the ugly, and the excellent when it comes to HBCUs. But what folks should stop doing is expecting that we're going to turn a blind eye. Why don't you focus on the positive stuff? No, we're going to cover all of it because this is impacting these folks getting a quality education. This happens at all kinds of schools, all kinds of small schools. What's bad is that when it happens to HBCUs, who still, despite the resource issues that have always been around, most teachers, black teachers pass through HBCUs at some point. Most doctors, most lawyers, most black professionals do.

Most college educated black folks do. What's so bad about it is that we have more to lose. It's not a situation where we get to make an exception. You know, society is going to make an exception when we do right. We already have that problem where we do well and we're more miraculous than indicative. We're more of an exception than a rule. It doesn't make people say there's more like him.

It makes them say he's not like the others. But if a white institution has this problem, nobody's getting down on colleges and giving on colleges. People will still believe in the value of a college education and hopefully do what it is that they need to do. We've got more to lose. 94% of the kids that go to HBCUs or to Bethune-Kugman have financial aid. These folks come from difficult situations sometimes. And it's all the more important that there is accountability. There's no reason we should be sending our children to a school that is inherently unsafe. And I paid money for it.

It's not like I went, somebody's money is represented there. Michael, final 30 seconds. Yeah, exactly what you're saying, right? We don't, you're not supposed to care about Bethune-Cookman. You're supposed to care about black people and the black children and the black people that go to Bethune-Cookman. You're not supposed to care about a name or an idea or

an institution. You're supposed to care about the things that serve people. That's why all of this is important. Indeed. Michael Herron, we truly appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us. Folks, when we come back, we're appreciate it. Thank you so very much for joining us, folks. We come back. We're going to talk about Ben Crump and Florida legislators suing Governor Ron DeSantis over his blocking of an AP African-American studies program. We'll discuss that and more right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black get wealthy with me deborah owens america's wealth coach i'm sure you've heard

that saying that the only thing guaranteed is death and taxes the truth is that the wealthy get wealthier by understanding tax strategy. And that's exactly the conversation that we're going to have on the next Get Wealthy, where you're going to learn wealth hacks that help you turn your wages into wealth. Taxes is one of the largest expenses you ever have. You really got to know how to manage that thing and get that under control so that you can do well. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network. Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important

and impactful elders in the African American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future. African genius is saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius. I think we ought to drill that in ourselves and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table here on the Black Star Network. My name is Charlie Wilson. Hi, I'm Sally Richardson-Whitfield.

And I'm Dodger Whitfield. Hey, everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. All right, folks. Look, the stuff that we covered, look, you're not going to see anywhere else. That's one of the reasons why we have been nominated for Outstanding News Special by the NAACP Image Awards. You have an opportunity to actually vote for that. All you have to do is go to vote.naacpimageawards.net. Scroll down to the category Outstanding News Information Series or Special. Select that category.

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We want you to support us in what we do so we can bring home our first image awards for this show. You have to confirm you're not a robot, and then you can vote. You have until February 10th at 9 p.m. Eastern. February 10th at 9 p.m. Eastern to actually vote.

We want you to do that and to support us in what we do. So again, vote for us, vote.naacpimageawards.net. Time for Black and Missing. Folks, the New York family is desperately looking for law school student Jordan Taylor. He disappeared on January 6th after leaving his apartment in Queens around 5.30 a.m. The 29-year-old is 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs 170 pounds with black hair and brown eyes.

He was last seen wearing a dark blue coat with a hood, black pants, a black and red Argyle sweater, and black sneakers. Jordan's phone and wallet, which had cash and credit cards inside, were discovered at different times and locations on the next day, January 7th. Anyone with information about Jordan Taylor is asked to call the New York Police Department,

107th Precinct at 800-577-8477, 800-577-8477. Folks, a grandmother in Austin, Texas was held against her will in a grocery store and accused of stealing $50. Watch this. Betty Smith was shopping at Lindeman grocery store when she found a $50 bill on the floor. Turn the audio up. Watch this. Listen to this. No audio.

Well, store employees confronted her and told her she could not leave with the money. The competition escalated when one of the employees put Smith in a chokehold. The police called the Austin County district attorney's office and confronted her and told her she could not leave with the money. The competition escalated when one of the employees put Smith in a choke hold and the other employee snatched the money from her hand.

The police recalled Smith's family was placed and handcuffed and her daughter was arrested. The Austin County district attorney made this statement following the incident. The Austin County District Attorney, Travis Cohn, made this statement following the incident. The Austin County District Attorney's Office has received offense reports, witness statements, and extensive video evidence from the Austin County Sheriff's Office investigation concerning the January 16, 2023 incident at Lindeman's Store. The District Attorney's Office is carefully reviewing this matter, as we do with all investigations forwarded by law enforcement.

This remains an ongoing investigation. The office will continue to request and review any additional evidence that may be relevant to charging decisions in this incident. When this matter is completed, the Austin County District Attorney's Office will issue a press release to notify the public regarding the outcome.

Now, all three employees have been fired. The store owner apologized, offered to pay the bail for Smith's daughter, and told her she could have the $50 she found. Smith declined and wants to press charges against the store employees. Rebecca, sounds to me like one, it's some store employees that's going to get arrested for assault, and two, that store owner, his ass going to get sued. Oh, yeah.

I think a couple weeks ago we were using the phrase F-A-F-O, F around and find out. And that's exactly what happened here. Because at the end of the day, if he would not have fired those employees immediately, then I would say by the end of next week that grandmother was going to own that convenience store. You know, I'm glad with how this is turning out that folks are safe here because this really could have turned a different way. They could have been arrested and they may not have been safe while in custody. But I do hope that they do press forward because enough is enough. We're tired of things like this happening in Texas.

We're tired of things like this happening across the country. Can black folks just live? I'm just trying to understand, Joe, how the hell you just put somebody in a chokehold? What? It's nuts. You know, in every situation that you come into, you have these predetermined thoughts that are based on background history, what you watched on television, what you've seen. And you will understand out of abundance of the heart that mouth speaks. You will understand what somebody thinks about you and yours as soon as you see them dealing with you in a situation. There are a whole bunch of different ways that they could have dealt with the situation. And at the end of the day, God forbid she has stole the $50. It was $50. $50

that gets you two gallons of gas now. There was nothing to that. You know what I mean? Here in California, you got people walking out of stores with full garbage, you know, with full baskets, you know, with nothing in it. And because we have gotten a certain way with the law, sometimes they aren't doing anything. But you've got this woman who says she found $50. She doesn't get the benefit of the doubt. Or you false imprison her. You actually break the law yourself in order to, you know, do the quote right thing. But I would submit to you, sadly, it's not about them just doing the right thing because of what they see on the outside. It's about what they believe this person is or is not or who they are or are not on the inside.

And that's what influences everything. And that's why they're going to have a serious problem. At least this time, they're not only morally wrong, but they're probably going to be legally wrong too. And Robert, when the owner has already fired the employees and apologized, that lawsuit looked real good. Correct. I think this goes back to the Dred Scott decision. If people remember what he said, the black man has no rights that a white man is bound to respect. And that's still the prevailing ideology of many people in this country, this conceptualization that black folks are still second-class citizens. And this idea that you can put them in a headlock, wrestle them down, hold them against their will simply by your authority as a white person to do so. And remember, Texas, just like Georgia,

is a constitutional carry state. They don't know if this woman was strapped and if she was willing to defend herself. And if you see somebody putting you or your child in a headlock, you'd stand in your ground to protect themselves. People have to understand that you have co-equal rights of other people in a civil society, not countervening, not above, not below.

And because of that, if you believe somebody has stolen $50, you call the police, you make a police report, you give them the video, you let them handle it. You do not proceed to falsely imprison somebody and assault them to do so. So I'm glad that every day in society now is videotaped so we get both sides or so we get an impartial side of the discussion. We're not having to depend on witness statements or what he said or she said. And I'm glad that this family will get justice going forward because it was an absolute violation of both their civil and human rights.

And again, there's a lot of video. And that DA is like, I saw you put a chokehold. Salt charges. Folks, let's go to Arkansas where two Arkansas law enforcement officers are out of a job and they're being charged with civil rights violations in the violent arrest of a man outside a convenience store. Former Crawford County Sheriff Deputy Zach King and Levi White faced federal civil rights violation charges following an investigation by the Department of Justice.

King and White stopped Randall Worcester because he matched the description of a suspect assailant. Worcester gave officers a false identity when the incident escalated. White said that Worcester assaulted him first before they began hitting Worcester repeatedly. Worcester was taken to a hospital, then released and booked into the Crawford County Jail on multiple charges, including second-degree battery, resisting arrest, and making terroristic threats, and later released. Tuesday, the two former deputies pleaded not guilty during a federal court appearance. After the indictment against them was unsealed, the deputies faced up to 10 years in prison. Well, Joe, this is what happens, again, when you have an aggressive Department of Justice

who isn't letting cops off the hooks like Trump folks did? No doubt about it. When you've got a department that is dedicated to this, it's too, it's sad that maybe it's happening a little bit more on the state side, but it's just not going to happen quite as often. And we've talked about this time and time again, where, you know, when the same people that are counting on police for testimony actually end up having to prosecute them, it's just not going to happen. But when you do have an aggressive DOJ and U.S. attorneys, that will bring things that need to end.

This is speedy, you know, bringing it quickly. All right. You know, and the video doesn't lie there. You know, you got experts to get get hired and get paid good money to act like you didn't see what you actually saw. That's what they were talking about in that Fort Worth case down there a couple months ago. But even then, there was still a conviction. So, you know, clearly this is important.

It's important that you have the video, of course, on some level. And it's also important when you have an aggressive department that will bring this. Maybe not every police officer. You know, some people think, well, we just need to be more careful next time and make sure there's no video going. But at least some police officers will be a little less likely to do this or to inflict such pain

and heartache on somebody in this particular situation, and I'm glad that they're doing it. Rebecca, say the Department of Justice, go to my iPad, please. The DOJ announced today that they have concluded there is reasonable cause to believe that the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections routinely confines people in its custody past the dates when they are legally entitled to be released from.8% of the people released from Louisiana Department of Corrections custody were held past their release dates. Of those over-detained people, 24% were held over for at least 90 days, and the median number of days over-detained was 29.

In the four-month period, they had to pay parish jails an estimated $850,000. At that rate, the unconstitutional practice cost Louisiana more than $2.5 million. Damn. Again, thank goodness, thank goodness that Kristen Clark is leading the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. That is pathetic, and Governor Bill Edwards in Louisiana should be mad as hell. You know, so the current DOJ gives us a reprieve. My concern is always, OK, wonder when Kristen Clark is no longer leading OCR with DOJ. So what happens next? And so just like we know that the Supreme Court has decided to uphold qualified immunity, and we know that some of this will go away if we no longer had qualified immunity. So I am interested if a lot of our legacy civil rights organizations are figuring out a strategy, some type of test case that we should run through different courts to actually get it back to the Supreme Court? How do we finally figure out how

to get rid of qualified immunity, which allows for these folks who are bad actors in our legal system, in law enforcement, to continue to do the things that they're doing? Well, I'll tell you this, Robert. Look, I can deal later what's going to happen if she's not there. I can celebrate what they're doing now. And one of the things that they have done, they've been very aggressive in going after correctional officers and departments across the country, not just bad cops. It's very important the work that's being done by the Department of Justice, but it just spotlights the need for comprehensive police reform in this country. Going beyond even the George Floyd Justice and Policing Act, we need to have a comprehensive bill

that reforms our law enforcement system. As Rebecca said, it will be great if we could go before the Supreme Court, both a 6-3 majority. We already know that this court will be voting against voting rights, will be voting against civil rights. They are trying to roll us back to the 1950s.

This is a make America great again Supreme Court. So it's going to have to happen legislatively. Because of that, we have to make sure we hold Democrats responsible so that next time, next election cycle, they do get a majority in the House of Representatives, they do have a majority in the Senate and have a Democratic president, that we are at the front of the line, not the back of the line. The same way you can pass a $1.7 trillion infrastructure bill, the same way you can pass a skinny bill, better bill, the same way you can get an omnibus spending bill through, you have to do the same for criminal justice reform. This is a life and death issue for black people. And we cannot simply allow this to be pushed back.

I'm out of time. I got to go to break. We'll be right back. Roland Martin unfiltered on the Blackstar Network. Folks, Blackstar Network is here. Hold no punches. We'll be right back. We have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and be scary. It's time to be smart.

Bring your eyeballs home. You dig? on the next a balanced life with me dr jackie a relationship that we have to have we're often afraid of it and don't like to talk about it. That's right. We're talking about our relationship with money. And here's the thing. Our relationship with money oftentimes determines whether we have it or not. The truth is you cannot change what you will not acknowledge. Balancing your relationship with your pocketbook. That's next on A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, here at Blackstar Network.

Hi, how are you doing? It's your favorite funny girl, Amanda Seale. Hi, I'm Anthony Brown from Anthony Brown and Group Therapy. What up, Lana Well, and you are watching Rolling Martin Unfiltered. I'm sorry. Să ne vedem la următoarea mea rețetă! Thank you. Să ne urmăm. All right, last night on the show, we talked to Mary Young, who was the police chief at Texas Southern University. And the university told us that as of January 9th,

she was no longer an employee. We, of course, checked her website, and she was still listed as the police chief. We checked today, and they have scrubbed her name from the website. Now, also last night, she talked about having a temporary restraining order against the university and that the restraining order, it actually expired on December 22nd. But TSU requested an extension of that restraining order. And then this is right here, folks.

Let me pull it up right here. You'll be able to see it. They actually requested an extension. And so that restraining order is actually still in place. And so you will see right here, right here, go to it, that this is the extension right here. And they did grant TSU the extension. And so therefore that restraining order is still in place. Based upon the initial restraining order, they were not supposed to actually take any action against her. So according to her attorney, Ben Hall, TSU has violated that restraining order. It says right here, TSU seeks this appeal not for the purpose of delays.

They actually are saying here why they wanted the extension. And so the question has to be asked, if you're Texas Southern University, if the restraining order says you were not supposed to take any action against her, even regarding employment, why was she terminated as of January 9th? Makes no sense whatsoever. Robert, this is interesting right here

because, again, you have TSU filing this and granted because they're a state university, Ken Paxton, the attorney general, that's what they represent. And so what's interesting in this particular case here is that the university, again, the restraining order was very clear what you can and cannot do. And so for them to terminate her in a restraining, TRO says you can't. Why are they making it harder for themselves? The TRO was real clear. Well, you know, one thing that lawyers always do generally when they come into a case is ask your client, why did you make

it harder on yourself before I got here? This is a very clear situation where the documents are the documents. The written documents are what's going to govern the conduct of the parties in this situation. If the DRO says you cannot take this action and then you take this action, well, now you're a violation of such. More than likely, this will result in additional litigation, additional problems for the university, and whoever made the ultimate decision to do so will probably end up being terminated over this. The best thing to do is always consult counsel before making any rash decisions in regards to what has happened, because that can save you a lot of money, a lot of headache in the long run. And I'm sure the judicial process will play out,

as we said earlier. With the additional attention on the HBCUs in the past run. And I'm sure the judicial process will play out. But as we said earlier, with the additional attention on the HBCUs in the past several years, these schools and institutions have to get their act together because what may have slid under the radar in the past will no longer fly. It really makes no sense to me why they're doing this, Rebecca. In fact, give me one second. I'm going to pull up what the TRO said here. This is what it said. It is therefore ordered, adjudged, and decreed

that Texas Southern University, all the agents and any other person acting on concert or participation with them are enjoined and restrained from. Now, Robert, you're a lawyer. Enjoined and restrained from, what does that mean? You can't do it. That's kind of the fancy way of saying no, you cannot do that.

So I can't imagine I can make that more clear. So let me read the rest. They are enjoined and restrained from, pull it up, threatening to, attempting to, purporting to, or taking any adverse employment or disciplinary action against petitioner until the court can conduct a hearing on petitioner's request for a temporary injunction and or permanent injunction in this case utilizing the unsigned untimely and anonymous complaint against petitioner for any adverse employment or disciplinary action and taking any further actions or failing to take necessary actions that would damage impair frustrate put at risk jeopard, and or delay in any way the completion of the items addressed in Section A and B or above.

Now, it's clear, Robert, that they said, TSU, y'all can't do nothing to her until there's a hearing. TSU requested an extension for the hearing. They terminated her on January 9th. You're a lawyer. What does that tell you that you requested an extension of the TRO, which means the TRO is still in effect, correct? Correct.

And if you're a judge looking at this, you're going to say that, well, the request for the extension shows that this was willful conduct. It wasn't that you didn't understand what was in the order. You actually requested more time so that you could violate the order. Not only does that make the case harder for you, that also indicates that there may be sanctions by the court later on down the line. This is a boneheaded decision and a boneheaded move. The only question is what will be the penalty to the court, that the court institutes, and also just a general rule for people going before judges. Pissing off the judge and disobeying their order is not a way to have a positive outcome in whatever the underlying issue was.

They've made this a lot more difficult on themselves than it had to be. This is the same Texas Southern University Board of Regents that fired Board President Austin Lane over some BS in the law school, said they fired him for cause. Then when there was an investigation, what no cause, had to pay off his contract, got a million dollars, and a couple of weeks later became the chancellor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. So he got a million from TSU. This HBCU had to pay that money. And then he got a big promotion and got more money. And it was dumb. They literally said we fought it for cause. That was no cause.

And it cost the university a million dollars. Once again, this is about leadership. I heard a lot about this story because I was in Houston last July. This is about leadership. This is also when you're dealing with personnel matters. You have to bring in your HR department. Just because you're a president or a board of trustees,

just because you feel like you could do something doesn't mean that you should. Because the judge was even very clear that there has to be due process here before there is a separation or change, termination in employment by the police chief. So I really don't understand what's going on here and why they're just not listening.

Like, just put her on administrative leave if you don't want her on campus, if you don't want to interact with her. No, you can't even do that. The TRO, you can't even do that. It said it right there. You can't take any kind of action, disciplinary

or employment, against her. Again, I ain't no lawyer, but damn, Joe, I can read. And so, to the point you know supporting everything else that's been said now what we're talking about is the violation of the TRO normally you know you get a TRO at the beginning

now you're trying to get a preliminary injunction to take you through a litigation so that you keep you keep something in place you keep something from happening that would otherwise potentially happen while you go through it. Now, in the real world, any time before doing plaintiff's employment, I was a defense employment lawyer for 12, 13 years. And so what I told anybody and everybody that would listen is, what you need to do if you

really want this person gone, what you really want to do is get yourself a certain result by privately writing them a check by confidentiality and just go on to the next program. Now, here we are sitting on Roland talking about what went on at Texas Southern, and they can't even get to the merits, even if they thought they were actually merits related to letting this person go, letting the police chief go, because they violated the court order. And so now they look like heck, right? They're probably going to end up having to write a check anyway or be in an extensive litigation where the first thing that's talked about is them violating the TRO. Sometimes you have to really kind of look around the corner and not just look to it. If you really want to preserve the institution. If you really thought legitimately this person ought to go and what you do is you write them a check and you go to the next program and you do it quietly and you do it in a way that doesn't make you look worse and make it where that's all you and I are sitting here talking about, as opposed to whatever you think the merits might be.

Well, what pisses me off is you're spending taxpayer money, and that's a problem right there. Look, in the case of Lane, go to my iPad here. Again, this is from the Texas Tribune. They gave him a four-page notice of termination for a cause that alleged he failed to report allegations of fraud in the university admissions process in the law school and committed other contract violations. But guess what happened?

When there was a settlement, the readers announced that they, the settlement does not accuse him of wrongdoing, and they had to cut a big fat check. See? But here's what I do know for a fact, that it was personality conflicts. It didn't have a damn thing to do with what Austin Lane's performance was, and that's the BS that keeps

happening. But TSU has had a history of a jacked-up-ass board of directors making stupid, boneheaded decisions, and here's what's going to happen. Again, I doubt very seriously in Mary Young's case. I doubt they're going to win that one, and they're going to be cutting another fat check, and that's more money that could actually go to campus improvements or student safety or security as opposed to paying settlements. It's dumb leadership. I don't know how in the hell you violate a TRO. That's just dumb as hell to me. All right, y'all.

Got to go to a break. We come back. We're going to talk about Attorney Ben Crump going after Governor Ron DeSantis over getting rid of the African-American studies AP class. We also have Fit Live Win as well. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. Most people think that these television shows that tell stories about who we are as black men, and then they paint these monolithic portraits of us. They think that they're being painted by white people.

And I got to tell you, there are a whole bunch of black folk that are the creators, the head writers, the directors of all of these shows and that are still painting us as monoliths. The people don't really want to have this conversation. No, they don't. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, I'm sure you've heard that saying that the only thing guaranteed is death and taxes. The truth is that the wealthy get wealthier by understanding tax strategy. And that's exactly the conversation

that we're going to have on the next Get Wealthy, where you're going to learn wealth hacks that help you turn your wages into wealth. Taxes is one of the largest expenses you ever have. You really got to know how to manage that thing and get that under control so that you can do well. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Blackstar Network. We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From

politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day, right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm B.B. Winans. Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. We've been focused on a new you in 2023, and our guest today focuses on plus-size training. That's right, plus-size training. A lot of people, again, bigger they get, they're intimidated, don't want to go to the gym.

They don't like how people look at them, talk to them. And so they're scared about that. And so he says, you know what? That's not going to keep you from being able to work out and get fit. Maurice Robinson is the owner of Happy Hour Fitness Plus Size Training. Joining me from Tucker, Georgia. Maurice, glad to have you here. So let's first talk about that, Maurice, because you do have people, again, who say, look, man, I'm not fit. How I look in the workout clothes. I don't like people looking at me, staring at me. That's a barrier for plus size folks to working out. Yeah. A lot of times, I'll tell you straight up, Roland, most people that come to me, the plus-size women, their biggest complaint is not being welcomed into the gym.

So, you know, this is the new year, right? And like I said, I've seen different memes and things on social media about people making fun of all the new people coming to the gym, get out the way, you know what I'm saying, for the ones, the regulars. But, see, what I want to do is make an environment comfortable for everybody to come work out in. You know what I'm saying? So that's how I come up with the happy hour fitness. You know, I wanted people to be able to just come into the gym, feel welcome, not feel like people are shaming them, not feel like people are shaming them, not feel like people are looking at them crazy.

You know, so I just wanted to create that environment with the happy hour fitness. So how long have you focused on plus size folks? It's been about six years now, six years now. So about six years ago, I was dating a young lady that was plus size, and she wanted to lose weight. We started off. She started off at about 4'16", I think it was, and we got her down to 250, and it was on from there. And we talk about plus size. I mean uh i take it you also had male clients uh i've had a couple male clients um i would like more but you know when it comes

to fitness a lot of times the men um they have egos uh a lot of times they don't want to ask for help um but the women just seem to be more open to coming to me and asking for help. And that's just the way it kind of ended up happening. But like I said, I'm not against training men, though, too, because I have had a couple of men work out with me. How do you get folks to get over the mental block? Because I'm sure, look, you don't get to that size unless you lose confidence, you're overeating, you're doing all kinds of stuff along those lines. And so clearly you probably have to spend a lot of time dealing with them, their mental state, before you deal with the physical state.

Oh, man, that's good. That's definitely, definitely it. You know, a lot of people, they do come in with low self-esteem, confidence issues. And I think that's where having a welcoming type energy to kind of get people over that initial hump. You know what I'm saying? Having somebody just come into the gym, you know, when you're weighing 300, 400 pounds,

especially down here in Atlanta where everybody has got a body, whether they bought it or not. But, you know, there's a lot of fit people down here. So just being, just my energy, being happy. A smiling face goes a long way a smile and face goes a long way uh as far as getting them over that initial hump and then from there you know with a lot of my clients you know they come to me and you know i'm saying they reveal certain things that they've uh dealt with whether it's eating um or just some maybe bullying uh or just having low confidence

within itself uh but i think you know once you start working out and like you're saying you're in an environment with like-minded people people that are like open to um helping you and just being welcoming pretty much so that that's how the happy hour fitness actually kicked off, was just me trying to be welcoming to people, not being so standoffish. You know, a lot of trainers kind of like bark at their clients a lot. They yell, they scream, they holler, they curse. Me, like I said, you could catch me with a smile on my face the whole time. A lot of my clients think, they're like, why are you smiling so much?

I'm like, it's just my personality. But, you know, I think that really helps them get over that initial hump. Obviously, working out, as all of our different dietitians talk about, is 20% of the battle, 80% really is eating. How do you also help them on the food side, in terms of what they're consuming in their body? Oh, man, that's a good question. So with the food side, like I said, I'm not a nutritionist, so I don't really give out meal plans. But what I do give out is, like, recommendation and advice.

And one thing I would say that really helps is being intentional with your eating. So when I say that, meaning like you have to know exactly what you're going to be eating. So when you get up in the morning, you just can't be winging it because that way you're just going to go to McDonald's or grab some coffee or something out of the vending machine if you work somewhere like that. So like for me, I have a smoothie every morning. I got a smoothie in the morning. I get a snack during the midday and then I eat a healthy, a healthy lunch and dinner. So when I say healthy, I mean, and like I said, I don't want to make it too complicated. So pretty much a protein, a veggie and a carb. You get that and you drink in your 64 to a gallon

of water, that'll at least help you get on track to making better food choices. Because I've tried different meal plans and diets in the past with certain clients and it really doesn't stick. So just making baby steps towards that. But you have to be intentional with your steps even if you fall off. So when I say, even if you fall off, even if you

get up and say, okay, I'm going to eat, I'm going to do my protein shake, I'm going to have a salad, and I'm going to eat chicken I'm going to do my protein shake, I'm going to have a salad, and I'm going to eat chicken and rice for dinner tonight. Yep. And if you get up and you eat your protein shake and you have your salad for lunch, and then for dinner you have a slice of pizza, I mean, I don't take that as a loss.

I still think it's making positive steps towards the goal. Questions from our panel. Joe, you first. Brother, I appreciate what you're doing here. Here's my question. You know, it's great that they come into this supportive environment where they feel certain support and are encouraged when they walk in. But what about when they walk out? And so what I mean by that is, is there any discussion about them, you know, tuning away from television and some of the things that, and tuning out some of the things that focus so much on body image and on some level unhealthy body image. Super skinny isn't necessarily the healthiest thing either.

Is there some encouragement regarding that or does it kind of take care of itself once they decide I'm going to keep feeling this way even as I walk out and therefore I'm changing who I'm around, I'm changing what I watch, I'm changing what I receive, I'm changing what I let come through my windows? I think it's a little bit of both. So once you start working out and you start feeling a little bit better about yourself, there is discussions about eliminating the negative people, negative things within your life, especially when it comes to social media. If anybody's talking anything negative towards you on social media, and this is something I just recently started doing myself, you must eliminate

them, period. When it comes to people, family and friends, you know, I'm not saying you got to eliminate them, but, you know, you'll start to just distance yourself as you become better. As you become better, you'll start to not really want to be around negative people, especially if you're working out with somebody like me who has a happy energy. So that happy energy becomes contagious. And then the negative becomes, you know, you won't even want to be around it. So the more and more you start to work out, the more you're around the right type of energy and the right type of environment, the right type of people, before you know it, either those people are going to become positive or you're just going to like not be around them no more. Rebecca.

I've been told that as women age, that we need to incorporate more weightlifting. So what advice would you have for me? I'm now on the other side of 40. What advice do you have for someone like me? But how do I get started with weightlifting? Pick it up. I'm just messing with you.

I'm messing with you. Go ahead, Marge. Thank you, Roland. I'm just messing with you. I'm messing with you. Go ahead, Marcus. Thank you, Roland. You start off kind of slow. Just start off slow. One of the biggest mistakes I think people make when it comes to working out, especially when you're over 40, is going too hard too fast. So lift and waste, you must do that because that's going to help build the muscle.

It's going to help keep you toned. But I would say don't overdo it. Start off slow. So with my clients, most of the time we're using fives, eights, and tens. And I teach like a beginner style of workout. But once you get to a certain point where you're past those fives, you get past those eights and you get past those tens, then you just build up. But starting off slow, and I would say light, focus on your balance. That's another big thing for my plus size people. Their balance is off a lot of times.

So, you know, balance and starting off slow. Keep the consistency. And as you move, move on, you'll just move up to heavier weights. All right. Maurice, how can folks reach you? Oh, you can reach me at, uh, well on Facebook, uh, Maurice Robinson on Instagram and Tik TOK. That's happy hour fitness plus, uh, My website, happyhourfitness.com. I'm always accepting new clients. Just hit me up in my inbox or email me. All right, then. Maurice, we appreciate it, man.

Thanks a lot. Thanks for having me. All right, folks. Coming up next, we will talk about Attorney Ben Crump suing Governor Ron DeSantis over his controversial decision to end the AP African American Studies program class. We'll discuss that next right here on Rolling Mark on Footage with Black Star Network. Be sure to support us in what we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do, like traveling next week to Bethune-Cookman.

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An hour of living history with Dr. Richard Mariba Kelsey, thinker, builder, author, and one of the most important and impactful elders in the African-American community. He reflects on his full and rich life and shares his incomparable wisdom about our past, present, and future. African genius is saying that my uncle was a genius, my brother was a genius, my neighbor was a genius. I think we ought to drill that in ourselves

and move ahead rather than believing that I got it. That's next on The Black Table, here on the Black Star Network. Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence. White people are losing their damn lives. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial.

This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory University calls white rage as a backlash. This is the rise of the Proud Boys and the Boogaloo Boys. America, there's going to be more of this. There's all the Proud Boys, guys. This country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people. The fear that they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women.

This is white fear. That's Kim Whitley. Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. Hey, yo, peace, world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right, folks. Governor Ron DeSantis, Attorney Ben Crump, and others are coming after you.

DeSantis chose to block an AP advancement, of course, dealing with African-American studies studies claiming it had no educational value. Well, Crump will be filing the lawsuit on behalf of several students and lawmakers. This took place today at a news conference in Florida. Thank you all for being here especially to the leaders, the clergy, and to all of the activists in the community who said hell no. We have to remember that it's so important this cause, this fight, so much is at stake. I'm Attorney Ben Crump, along with Attorney Craig Wisenhunt, and with Attorney Precious Chavez, and the NAACP, as well as the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights, we're here to give notice to Governor DeSantis that if he does not negotiate with the College Board to allow AP African American Studies

to be taught in the classrooms across the state of Florida that these three young people will be the lead plaintiffs in a historic lawsuit. And you all need to remember their names because it's their courageous tenacity and their intellect that reminds me, Reverend Holmes, many of the examples that were shown to the world by a young John Lewis, a young Julian Bond, a young Fannie Lou Hamer, you will remember the names of Elijah Edwards, of Victoria Heckman, I'm sorry, of Victoria McQueen, and Juliet Heckman. I'm sorry. Victoria McQueen.

And Juliet Heckman. Y'all, this is what it's about. It is about them. This is what the fight is for. Never, ever forget that. And the fact that they're coming forward in this consequential moment in history can never be taken lightly. Folks, joining us right now to discuss this, one of the students involved in this, along with Florida State Senator Chevron Jones, Jr. He joins us as well as, give me one second,

my bad here, pulling this up, with Elijah Edwards. Glad to have both of you here. Senator Jones, I want to start with you first because this is a governor who has been consistently attacking black people. And this is about the culture wars. This is about stoking white fear in advance of him running for president in 2024. Yeah, Roland, I stopped using the word culture wars and I started just using the word racism because that's exactly what we're seeing.

It's flagged out racism of what we're seeing right now. It is clear that high school students, they have the same rights as the college students to receive the education that they and their parents, that they desire. If you will remember just recently, Judge Walker ruled in November in his injunction against the implementation of the Stop Wote Act in our universities. And we believe that banning AP African-American studies similarly violates the rights of our high school students. But you know what? Mr. Crump said it best. This is about the kids. This is about these students. It's about Elijah. It's about Victoria. It's about Juliet, who came forward.

They are the ones who pushed us forward to say that they were prepared to take this class. They were prepared to not only just take it themselves, but recruit other students to take this class in this next semester. And I'll end with this, Roland. Sixty schools across the country went in a pilot program to build this curriculum when one of those schools are here, right here in Leon County, and for the governor now to say that it brings no educational value, let's throw the AP entity out the window. Let's talk specifically about us as African-Americans, as black people, 22% of the population here within the state of Florida. We have a chance

where children will go through the educational system in the state of Florida and not see themselves represented in education and not be able to identify themselves here even within the state of Florida. And that's just the type of Florida that's happening. And, Roland, you see that. You saw it in 2019 with HB1. You saw it last year with the stop vote. And here we are again. We're the new punching bag in the state of Florida. Elijah, why did you want to be a part of this? I wanted to be a part of this specifically because I wanted to take the AP African American Studies

course and there was a lot of talk about it. So we was all, a lot of kids, a part of my family and a lot of kids in my school and class were really getting hyped at the thought of being able to learn about ourselves and our culture. So once I heard that Governor DeSantis deemed the study of our people uneducational, or he is saying, I feel like he's saying that we are important. So, I wanted to show him or make him see that we are. Rebecca. Sure. So the question I have for you all, is there more that the college board could do? Could the college board tell the state of Florida that we won't recognize any AP credit if DeSantis doesn't back down? What could the college board do to support you all?

Well, Rebecca, while I would hope, would have hoped that the college board would have done that, the college Board, unfortunately, has made it clear that next Wednesday that they are going to bring some revisions to the state of Florida to what the AP African American Studies class will look like. It's so unfortunate that that's where we're about to end up and the College Board are just going to give in to Governor DeSantis. Joe? This is an amazing thing you guys are doing. I admire all of you young people who are young adults who are leading the way just by what it is that you're doing. Talk to us about your dreams and what it is that you're doing. Talk to us about your dreams and what it is that you feel like you would like to do long term. Or is this sparking something in you? Maybe you want to be an attorney. It's OK if you don't stand in front of you. But what have you thought about how even taking the African-American study class, taking AP classes,

how is that going to help what you have planned for your future? Well, long term, I wanted to either become an engineer or a lawyer. And if I wanted to be a lawyer, I was going to be a civil lawyer. I wanted to stay in my community and help those around me with cases and problems they might have with other people. Or even like right now, we're having a problem with the governor. If I wanted to be the person that can empower those whose voices may not beikes over the big body that is American government right now.

Well, you got help, not only sitting next to you, but in Ben Crump and in two lawyers sitting on this term. Man, however you want to go, you want to go long, man, we can do it forever. Whatever it is you try to do, you know we got your back. Yes, sir. Thank you. Well, it is it is critically important, I think, to to challenge this governor.

He is trying his best to push these buttons of white fear. We see exactly what he is doing. And so he must be put in check. And I think using the court system to do so is important. And what type of financial support is going to go along with this to fund the lawsuit? So what's happening on that end, Senator Jones? So, Roland, I believe Attorney Crump, he's working with a series of different organizations. I know the NAACP is working along with him and the ACLU and some other organizations, which I'm sure are going to provide some support. But I'm sure that other individuals will work to help to make sure that we alleviate some of the costs that will come with this. And that will

also include what these students will need to fight this fight in the coming weeks. Oh, absolutely. Any additional questions, Rebecca or Joe? students would need to fight this fight in the coming weeks. Oh, absolutely. Any additional questions, Rebecca or Joe? Just our admiration, man, and our wishing you peace. And, you know, welcome to the struggle. It's a heck of a way to get involved. But we're looking not to the corner but around it. And we're going to win, man.

We're going to win. That's it. Yeah, we support We're going to win, man. We're going to win. That's it. Yeah, we support you and we're proud of you. All right then. Elijah, any final word? No. I think we said everything that needed to be said. And I think we looked at the finish line and that we're going to win.

All right then. But look, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch, and good luck in this suit. Appreciate it. Thank you. All right, thanks a bunch. Bottom line, Rebecca and Joe, look, this is the only way you deal with fascism, racism. You have to go after it.

You got to be aggressive in targeting and not let Rhonda Sanders play the games that he's playing, because I keep telling people he is more dangerous than Donald Trump. Yeah, yeah, I agree. He is more dangerous than Donald Trump because he knows a little bit more about pushing the buttons and the levers of power. That being said, I don't think there's anything spectacular about him. I think there's a lot that's dangerous about him. And ultimately, he's getting ready to go down the road on understanding firsthand how difficult it is to win the presidency with no black votes.

And, you know, two of the last three times Republicans have been elected, they've been elected without having, without winning the number of popular votes that they need to win, actually. So in that way, I think it's going to negatively affect him. But I think he's morally wrong as well. And so we have to go down the road, do everything that we can, fight as hard as we can in the courts, politically and otherwise, so that he never forgets the day that he took on this battle. Rebecca.

DeSantis has been very devious with how he pitted black and brown communities against each other. Like when I think about when he ran against Andrew Gillum in 2018, he was able to convince a lot of Haitian, first-gen immigrants that he was supporting school choice and he was gonna make sure that their children

could go to schools with particular vouchers. He said those things not because he actually supported the education of those children, but because he actually wanted to pit communities against each other because he only won by 33,000 votes. And that was what he was able to pick up in Miami-Dade by being very divisive. All right, then. I certainly appreciate both of you for joining us, as well as Robert, who had to leave a little bit early. Thanks a bunch.

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