#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Charter School Fight Heads to Court, GOP Breaks on Obamacare, Trump Cuts Spark Hunger Crisis

Episode Date: December 18, 2025

12.17.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Charter School Fight Heads to Court, GOP Breaks on Obamacare, Trump Cuts Spark Hunger Crisis A yearslong fight over a Middletown charter school in Bridgeport Connecticut heads to court -- why a campus approved in 2023 still hasn't opened, and what's at stake for parents and kids... Dr. Steve Perry joins us from Capital Preparatory Schools. Four House Republicans buck Speaker Mike Johnson and side with Democrats to extend Obamacare subsidies, hear from GOP members and what's next with millions of Americans healthcare. ProPublica uncovers a man-made hunger crisis in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp after Trump's USAID cuts, Reporter Anna Maria Barry-Jester joins us. And 50 years after NABJ's founding, co-founder Norma Adams-Wade is here to talk legacy, Black media power, and the new Jubilee Endowment push. #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, XBox and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform 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 I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire. Dad, we learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first?

Smokey Bear said to... First, drown it with a bucket of water, then stir it with a shovel. Wow. You sound just like him. Then he said... If it's still warm, then do it again. Where can I learn all this?

It's all on smoky bear.com with other wildfire prevention tips. Because only you can prevent... wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the ad council. The social media trend is slanding some gen Zers in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired and the massive TikTok boycott against Target that actually makes no sense. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media

and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the I heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app.

Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at Audible.com. Hello, I'm Isaac Hayes III, founder and CEO of Fanbase, and I'm here with a very important message. We are at a turning point in the black community where we must have equity in the apps we use that scale to billions of dollars. But this time, we own the infrastructure, we own the culture, and we shape the future. And fan base is the future. fan base combines the free functionality of Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube into an all-in-one platform built for the evolution of social media and monetization. With over 1.4 million users, that's real proof that we are shifting the conversation of tech ownership and equity for creators.

So right now, I want you to go to startengine.com slash fanbase and invest today. The minimum to invest is $399. that gets you 60 shares of stock at fan base at 665 a share. This marks a turning point in black ownership of social media. If we don't take this opportunity to own social media right now, we will always be customers to our own creations. And that can't go on. So once again, go to start engine.com slash fanbase and invest today.

We must own the platforms where our voices live, our stories matter, and where our culture drives the world. Thank you. Black Star Network is here. Oh, no punch! A real good time. Black media. He makes sure that our stories are told.

I thank you for being the voice of Black America rolling. Say, Black, I love y'all. All the momentum we have now. We have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, this is between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be black-owned media and be skating.

It's time to be smart. Bring your eyeball. You dig? December 17, 2025, coming up on Roller Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network, a years-long fight over a charter school in Connecticut. Results in the Black-led Charter Network suing the state of Connecticut. We'll talk to Dr. Steve Perry about Capital Preparatory's Law School. Lawsuit.

Four House Republicans, Buck, Speaker Mike Johnson, and signed with Democrats to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies. hear from GOP members and what's next with millions of Americans health care on the line. ProPublica uncovers a man-made

hunger crisis in Kenya's Kakumma refugee camp after Trump's USAID cuts reporter Anna Marie Barry Jester

will join us. Folks, 50 years after the founding VNABJ will talk with the founder Norma Adams Wade right here on the show plus

white people are really upset. These racist white folks are really upset that the statue of Robert E. Lee has been removed from the U.S. Capitol because it's replaced by a black woman, Barbara Johns. Also, a white man posting an article

talking about how DEI just really hurt so many millennials, and boy, the white people have been posting and going crazy. The entire piece is trash, and we'll talk about it. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. The charter school in Connecticut has now moved to the courtroom. Capital Preparatory Middletown Charter School in Bridgeport, Connecticut,

was approved by the State Board of Education in 2023. But here we sit two years later, and they still haven't received any funding, and they've never opened their doors. Now the Charter Network is suing the State Department of Education, challenging an October decision that says the board can approve a charter but only the legislature has the authority to actually provide the money.

Junk as now, Dr. Steve Perry, head of schools with capital preparatory schools. So let's go right here, Steve. So for the folks who don't understand this story, the state goes through a process. Capital preparatory, you're a school there, is ranked number one. Not two, not three, you're ranked number one.

They decide to not fund the number one ranked school, but fund the number two and three ranked school. Is that what's going on? Not only is it what's going on, there's a case. There's the whole entire case. It doesn't make sense when you say it out loud. It doesn't make sense when you read it. So it's like sometimes rolling when people ask, why do something so stupid?

You're like, I don't speak stupid, so I don't know why they did it. But yeah, that's what it is. And I want first to thank you, again, Roland, for your consistent support of the work that is on the ground. I know you get the opportunity to talk to a lot of really important people, but you also take the time to recognize that important people are not always people who people know. And the children of Middletown, Connecticut, town that most folks wouldn't even know exist, they're important, too. And they won. Just like any other request for proposals that the state government puts out, there's a request for proposals that the State Department of Education put out. They score the applicants.

The top applicants are sent to the state legislature. The legislature determines whether or not they're going to fund charter schools at all. When they put the money in the budget to form charter schools, the law then says if in any given fiscal year, two or more charter schools have been approved and are awaiting funding than the state. state board of education shall determine which school is funded first, which in this case would mean capital prep, the number one school in the applicant pool. But as a result of some skullduggery by two white legislators, one is named Matthew Lesser, Senator Matthew Lesser, and the other one is union boss. She's literally the vice president of the NIA in the state of Connecticut, and she's a state senator. These two people conspired. What's her name? Her name is Jan Hockadel,

Senator Jan Hockadel, Union President, Jan Hockadel, no conflict of interest there. What they did was they conspired with the Senate leader. His name is Senator Marty Looney, and they agreed that because these two senators, sorry, because these two senators decided that they don't want a charter school in a district, despite it being number one, despite having literally what the state commissioner referred to as historic approval in the community, these two white legislators decided that this black founded school would not be allowed to open, despite the fact that in Middletown, which again is a town that most people wouldn't know about, the black children are performing so low that if they were their own school district, they'd be one

the lowest performing school districts in the state of Connecticut. So... The disparity is that great. So not only is it that they don't want a charter school, they don't want your charter school. That would be true. That would be true. So they don't want our, me, they don't want me to have a charter school in my hometown. So I'm from Middletown, Connecticut.

And they went so far as to say, Matt Lesser, Senator Matt Lesser told the commissioner of the State Department of Education that during the public hearing, our black and Latin children were aggressive and intimidating. Now, our children, as you've seen Roland, 100% of them go on to four-year colleges and have since we started our first school 20 years ago. Our children, our doctors, lawyers, teachers, preachers, and all parts in between. They were there cheering on each other as they spoke extemporaneously about how important it is that, And I got to say it the way they said it, brothers and sisters who we have never even met

deserve to have what we have. So even if we never meet them, we understand that it's our responsibility to speak on their behalf. And yes, you see, they are gorgeous. So the state senator who has since claimed that he's Latin, it's just... Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijon Robinson.

When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes you feel great before I run the play. Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game playing for your mental health at love your mindplaybook.org.

Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the ad console. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Ziers in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it.

And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 2026 IHeart Podcast Awards Podcast of the year by voting at iHeartpodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartpodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen.

Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. It's fascinating to get into the Black and Puerto Rican caucus. he's from Argentina, which is whiter than Sweden. He said to the state commissioner that our children intimidated people and the people didn't get a chance to speak, which was a lie. Yeah, I mean, first of all, let's be real clear, there was a hearing. We live streamed it.

This is it right here, y'all. Y'all, it was in three-hour, 11-minute, and 51-second speech. If I scrub through, y'all, these are all people who actually, for some reason, it's not scrubbing live. But these are all people, like, there was three hours of testimony. So to say someone couldn't speak is sort of insane. It's not just insane. It's a straight lie. But more important than any of that is this, regardless of the skullduggery, the inappropriateness of the senators,

that's Senator Matt Lesser, Senator and the Union boss, Jan Hockadel, and Senator President Pro Temp of the State Senate, Marty Looney, despite the fact that they have, in fact, conspired and broken the law. If the State Department of Education did what it was supposed to have done, which was to determine which school was funded first based upon what the law says, 1066, subsection E.E.K, then we wouldn't be in a... conversation because this general assembly only gave itself the authority to determine whether or not charter schools are funded writ large. Not if any individual charter school is funded. Think about this

for a second. What the state is arguing is that state legislators can individually determine which charter schools are or are not funded, period. Even after they've gone through a transparent RFP process, even after they've gone through public hearings that in a backdoor deal, they're saying that the law says that a backdoor deer allows for any senator or representative any district can determine. I know that they're number one. I know they've gone through the RFP process. I know we've got an overwhelming support, but I by myself don't want it, so I have a one-man veto. And they get, and they say that's the argument of the state Department of Education. I've spoken to people at State Department of Education. I've spoken to

legislators. All of them say, look, we know we've broken the law. Like, we actually know, and we don't understand why they're doing this, except for the fact that they don't want you to have a new school. They want to do everything they can to stop you, and they're going to do that, even if it means breaking the law. So for the folks, again, who are not familiar with your story, your first charter school was right there in Connecticut, and what's driving them crazy. But before that, you actually worked in the traditional school system. You saw, and go ahead.

And in some, so I started, it worked in, why we started our schools rolling is because I had an upward bound program. Those who familiar with upper pound programs, that are programs that work with children from historically disadvantaged populations in their schools. So I was in the schools

supporting this neighborhood schools, working with their teachers and the principals. And then I would take the children during the summer and I would provide them with academic enrichment in anticipation of the upcoming year. But what started to happen was I would work with them for six weeks. Let's say I would have them in algebra during the summer in anticipation and taking algebra in the fall. They'd be enrolled in algebra for the fall, and I would go look at their schedule two weeks in.

And I'd find that they were something like extended algebra, basic math. And I'm like, well, why are they in these classes? Like, what happened? And after so many times asking this question and coming away with the flim and the flam, I just said, you know what? I could run a school at least as well as these people. I mean, I could suck at least as bad as them. So we started our own magnet school in the Hartford Public School system. And from the first year, 2005, 2006, to today, 2025, 2025, 2006, every single graduate of Capital Prep, whether it's in Hartford, Bridgeport, or Harlem, and now in the Bronx, every single child who's graduated from Capital Prep has been accepted to a four-year college, full stop.

So you've had massive success. You've taken students that have operated in the traditional system that failed, brought them up to speed, educated them. So they literally are saying, we're going to penalize you, Dr. Steve Perry, and capital preparatory because you're too successful. We are actually the number one high school in the state of Connecticut. Now, I want you to understand what that means, Roland. We're talking about 209 high schools in a state of Connecticut, which is overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly wealthy. I want to say that again, overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly, overwhelmingly wealthy. Depending upon who you ask, Connecticut is either number one or number two in the United States of America in terms of academic performance.

Capital Prep, a school in Bridgeport, Connecticut, that's 100% black and Latin, 70% poor, is the number one high school. in the state of Connecticut for college preparation. The number one, not just this year, but for the past three years, right? I'll take that one step further. In addition to that, we're also the school that's always either number one, two or three, depending upon what happens in a given year, but in the top three in terms of hiring black staff. So we have the most black teachers and the highest performing school as it relates to sending children to college and getting them ready for post-secondary life.

So one would think if you have all black and Latin children, you have primarily black and Latin staff, and you're beating the wealthiest white school systems in the United States of America, we should give y'all some more schools. You should have some more opportunities to work with some of the poorest children. In fact, if all of the black children in the state of Connecticut last year

had gone to capital prep, 100% of them would have graduated. If all, because 100% of our black children graduated last, year. Graduated. I just say went on a college. Then if you, uh, if all the Latin children in the state of Connecticut went to a capital prep, then 98% of them would have graduated. Take that one step further. If all of the special needs children in the state of Connecticut had just gone to capital prep last year, 100% of them would have gone, would have graduated and gone on to a four year school. So you got to ask the question. What is it about a

state that has a long reputation of denying black people access to an education. Most folks don't know that the first historically black college was supposed to be in New Haven, Connecticut, but Yale University squashed that. A woman by the name of Prudence Cradle was run out of the state of Connecticut because she chose to educate black children. And today, ironically, or hypocritically, there's a statue in the rotunda in the legislature. This is a state that has made its business about stopping black people from educating within the state of Connecticut. Less than 4% of all teachers in the state of Connecticut are black.

So we have an underqualified state commissioner who is not a serious candidate should not have ever been made the commission sheet, who happens to be of color, who is allowed to be, who allows herself to be led. by her nose by the teachers union. And she knew that she had broken the law because we talked about it. Roland, and you know me, we know each other a long time. She called me, we had had a meeting and she said to me, Dr. Perry, if there's ever an issue, please just call me directly so we can work this out. I said, you got that, Commissioner Russell Tucker. So I called her and I said, this was in December of 2024.

I called her December 10th and I said, I texted her and then we spoke on, we got on the phone. I said, Commissioner, I got something to tell you. And she said, what do you got? I said, I think y'all broke the law. She said, what do you mean? I said, well, and I showed her the law that says that if in any given fiscal year, two or more charter schools have been approved and are awaiting funding, then the State Board of Education shall determine which school is funded first. She said, oh, my goodness, we've never done that.

I know I'm aware of that. And I said this to her, Roland. You shouldn't say that too many times because you're admitting to breaking the law. Because it clearly says it. She said, I see why you say that. And so I said, well, if you could, I feel like we have an elegant solution here. The school that you actually did fund didn't open. I don't know if I told you that before.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. So they funded a school and the school they funded, it never opened? It didn't open. It didn't open. This is the person you're talking about Charlene Russell Tucker right here. Go to my iPad, Anthony. This is her.

Go ahead. So Charlene Russell Tucker told, so I said to her, it says, you know, we got this elegant solution here. You have the money on, like literally right now to give to us

because you didn't spend it in the first place. Why don't we just work something out? You just, you know, you made us wait a year. Not cool, but it could be bygones if you just put us in in the next agenda so that you can vote on it.

We thought we were moving forward, Roland. We thought it was going to be a real easy conversation among adults acting like adults. But then we got on a call, and she and her attorney, Mike McKeon, who was a joke, got up there. And during that call, he said, I understand, I see both sides of this.

And we thought that we were moving in a reasonable direction. Members of her team even approached I know because we know a lot of the people on the inside of her organization. And member at the State Department of Education said, you know, Russell Tucker, like, we really, he's right. The state board should have selected. And if the state board selects, then they have to choose a number one applicant, which in this case is capital prep. Now, keep in my ruling, I never said that we shouldn't give money to the second school. I want you to completely understand that.

And I still don't say it now. I mean, it's not their fault that they got the money the wrong way. they didn't you know they didn't do anything to anybody they just you know the children in new haven should get that money too yeah but yeah but the but the but the second school still never opened it didn't it has since opened okay this fall got it okay open this fall but it had not open for two years no it had not over and and here's a big problem right here while they're messing around screwing y'all they're screwing the students who could be getting a high quality education So the children in Middletown, again, I want to say this.

Middletown is the town. People know Wesleyan University, that's in Middletown. The achievement gap between the black children and white children in Middletown is so vast that Middletown has been named an Alliance district. And what that means is that it's one of the lowest 35 districts in the state of Connecticut. And the achievement gap is so vast that it bears additional. by the State Department of Education through another designation of the Commissioner's Network, so it's in both of those.

So the state already acknowledges that this town is in trouble. So the state is just real clear. So the state is spending more money than allocated to educate children in this city, and they're still failing, but they would rather deny the number one ranked school, an opportunity. to open another school because they actually don't want you to be even more successful. It don't. I wish I meant that much to them where it was me. I just think that, you know, to borrow from the old Kanye, they just don't care about black people.

They really don't. Roland, the largest ministerial alliance from the county, which is black, they're behind this. They're the ones, Roland, who called me. And they said, Elder Harville said, You know, you're opening these schools in Hartford. You open these schools in Bridgeport. You're from Middletown. Like, you know, my family goes to his church. Many of my family members were both married and buried in his church under his stewardship. He wasn't being disrespectful, but he was saying, you know, somewhat disrespectful for you to keep opening schools everywhere but home. And that was a fair critique. You know what I'm saying? The longer part of it was I didn't have an opportunity because of the way that they did RFP. but that's not the point. The point that he was making was an honest point, which is you go in the Bronx,

you go to Harlem, you open a new school and New Rochelle. You open in all these schools in other places, but you're not even coming home first. And so I acknowledge that. And the community came out. The community has come out consistently. That's why tomorrow we're having a press conference,

and I won't be speaking at it. It's all community members. It's just the community speaking boldly and impassioned about what it is. Nobody wanted to sue the state. This is weird. So this is stupid. So the state legislator that's blocking it.

Do they represent this area? They do. They do. In fact, and this is where it gets gross rolling, and this is where we need to start calling out our community. To vote people out? Yeah, yeah, vote people out. But before we vote people out, Roland is this.

This Senator Matt Lesser, he was somebody who this particular church that I'm talking about, they honored. Like he would come in with his little goofy citation and, you know, whatever, citation. They'd give him whatever. And they treated him like a brother. And so much so that when they pulled him aside, they said to him, are you really serious? Like what they said to him in a meeting again that I wasn't even a part of, they said to him,

this is not Dr. Perry's school. This is our school. We called him to do this. He works for us. and what Matt Lesser said to Elder Harville, he said, you are beating a dead horse in his sanctuary. Wow. This is a man who has been in there glad-handed.

If you were to go on his website, you see pictures of him there. He has used black people. He continues to use black people. And what Elder Harville said, he said, we don't ask y'all for nothing. We do everything you ask us to do. And all we're saying is we're not even taking anything from you guys. We're just saying we want to do our own school. We want to serve our own children.

Matt Lesser has done everything he could to make sure that doesn't happen. People like him tend to hide back in the shadows and we don't know who they are. That's why I'm saying his name. I'm saying his name so that people can understand that this clown, and he is a clown, is somebody who is openly working against the black community. Because if he were a true representative, he would have to do the following. You have to say, wait a minute, y'all won fair and square. Even if I don't want a charter school, you won.

So it is what it is. But that's not what he's doing. That's not what he's doing at all. The reason why I was suing is because he started the breach of the law. But the real reason is the commissioner and the State Department of Education education had the opportunity to write this wrong. Even the governor, Roland, you won't really, so even the governor now got himself ensnared in this. And now he's taking this stance. And everybody knows that Governor Ned Lamont does not have a real strong footing in the black community.

He's a Democrat, so he gets it just by default. But I mean, Ned can't go into the hood. He can't, he can't rally Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. He needs emissaries. And more and more people are seeing that he's a man who has no juice in the community. And he can ill afford to lose 5, 10, 15% of black people like, you know, like many of the national politicians did against Trump. Can't do it. He won his last election against a Democrat, I mean, against a Republican, 51 to 49. He can't lose 5%. When is this?

He's coming up this year next fall. He's running for governor again. So, so, you mean the governor? The governor. He could have stopped this too, yeah. When is, Matt Lesser on the ballot? Next year, too. Same thing.

The same, they both are in the same. All right. All right. So, so, so, so it's been filed. And, you know what? I think we might want to do a road trip. Come on up. And potentially do a whole broadcast from,

Everyone needs to take care of their mental health, even running back Bijan Robinson. When I'm on the field, I'm feeling the pressure, I usually just take a deep breath. When I'm just breathing and seeing what's in front of me, everything just slows down. It just makes you feel great before I run the play. Just like Bijan, we all need a strong mental game on and off the field. Make a game playing for your mental health at loveyourmind playbook.org. Love your mind. Brought to you by the Huntsman Mental Health Foundation, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, and the ad console.

The social media trend that's landing some Gen Ziers in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media.

but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the Insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26 IHard Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeartPodcastawards.com.

Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at Audible. that church and invite the governor and invite lesser

and invite the all of folks involved and have them look these people in the eye and say why are you denying opportunity? So yeah, we'll work on that. Let's do that. Steve Perry, I appreciate it, man. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much. Take good care.

Folks, going to a break. We'll be right back. Roll the Martin unfiltered on the Black Star Network. They said the quiet part out loud. Black votes are a threat. So they erased them. After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republican legislatures moved fast. New voter ID laws, polling place shutdowns, purges of black voters from the rolls. Trump's Justice Department didn't stop it.

They joined in. In 2018, his DOJ backed Ohio's voter purge system, a scheme that disproportionately erased black voters. Their goal, erase black votes and political power. Yeah, that happened. These are the kinds of stories that we cover every day on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Subscribe on YouTube and download the Black Star Network app. Support fact-based independent journalism that centers African Americans and the issues that matter to our community.

You're watching Roland Martin unfiltered deep into it, like pasteurized milk. Without the 2%, we're getting deep. You want to turn that shit off? We're doing an interview, motherfucker. Folks, we made clear that when Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and Doge, when they cut USAID, it was going to lead to thousands of folks dying. That literally was projected.

Well, ProPublicas revealed a man-made hunger crisis in Kenya's massive Kakuma refugee camp. After Trump officials ignored warnings and slashed USAID funding to the World Food Program. Despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims that food aid was spared, 308,000 refugees saw rashes hit

historic lows, half got nothing at all forcing impossible choices as malnutrition soared and child death spiked with at least 54 kids dying from complications this year. That is pathetic. Anna Maria Barry Jester's a report, investigative reporter, ProPublica. He Jones is right now,

I'm glad to have you here. And the United Nations made clear they estimated the people who were going, the people were going to die as a result of this. And the people who claim to be pro-life do not care. What we found in our investigation is that Trump officials were warned repeatedly that there would be harm, great harm to people. In Kenya, we also went to South Sudan and looked at the effects of cutting health care

and a cholera outbreak there. But what we found was that they were warned repeatedly, that people would be harmed, that there would be violence from these cuts, and they proceeded with them anyways. What's interesting here is that the Trump administration said they wanted to do a review of all of the programs that U.S.AID ran. They did that review, but even programs that they kept, they did not fund throughout the year. So WFP's work in Kenya where the United States fed, you know, nearly three quarters of a million people, refugees who are in Kenya who have escaped violence, who are living there in refugee camps. The United States provided food to them. They kept that program on paper, but in reality, they did not fund it until the end of September,

which meant that WFP had to slash rations to historic lows never seen before, so low that in August they did not give food to half of the people in the camp in Kakuma. And how does the State Department respond? Well, we asked the State Department a detailed list of questions. Senior State Department official said that fast, drastic changes to foreign aid were necessary to reform. a calcified system. They said that, you know, you need to look at what happens in the long run. Some disruptions in the short term are to be expected.

They maintain that nobody has died as a result of the funding cuts. They told us that was a disgusting framing and that there are people dying in horrible situations all around the world all the time. You know, and this is not just happening in Kenya. It's happening other places as well. I mean, it's clear how devastating these cuts have been all across the world. Yeah, so we also spent a couple of weeks in South Sudan, which is the youngest, poorest country in the world. The United States has spent billions of dollars there since South Sudan became a nation. And we really are the backbone of South Sudan's healthcare infrastructure. They were in the middle of what is now the largest cholera outbreak in the nation's history when Trump took office. And the United States paid for a lot of the basic health care services there. So we went to this area that is really just never seen anything like it.

70% of it is covered in water. There's been these massive floods. It's been experiencing years of violent conflict. There are Sudanese refugees pouring in over the border, escaping violence and conflict there. And many of the programs that the U.S. paid for had to shut down because they didn't have funding. So, for example, there was a series of health care clinics that had cholera outweigh, break response units. And in February, they shut down. And we, we voted out to one of these, these really rural places. And we met this man tore top. He lived directly next to one of these

clinics. But when his mother got cholera in mid-March, the clinic had already shut down. And so he tried to canoe her the eight hours to the state hospital, but she died on the way. And what's important about cholera is that it is very deadly, but it's very easy and simple to treat. you just need hydration. So all of what she needed were a couple of IV bags that cost, you know, $0.62 each. But the clinic wasn't there. And so they couldn't get that help. Again, just shocking and stunning.

But it's just part for the course for this Callas administration who just made cuts nearly willy. And there were people, I mean, I remember when it first happened, and there was a woman in Myanmar. She was in a refugee camp who depended upon oxygen. And when the email went out, the auctioned was immediately cut off. She died 48 hours later. Yeah, what's challenging about this situation is that, you know, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that they would maintain life-saving programs. And they went through a review and canceled thousands of programs but kept, you know, close to a thousand programs on paper. But what we found was that they didn't actually fund them.

And as we all know, it takes money to pay salaries, to buy supplies. those kinds of things. And so a lot of these programs that are life-saving, you know, have not been operational through much of the year. Absolutely. Great job, Anna. We appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you so much for having me. Folks, you can go to ProPublica to read this story. It really is a quite an important story, and they do fascinating work there at ProPublica. I want to bring in my panel right now. Go ahead and pull it up. This is the story right here. Go to ProPublica.com to actually check.

the story out. All right, folks. Let's bring in my panel right now. Talk about last couple of stories here. Michael Brown, former member of the finance community, the DNC. He joins us right now, former city council member in Washington, D.C. Zabora, Glider, also D-E-I-A consultant employment specials out of D.C. glad to have both of y'all here. Here's the thing that's interesting to me, Michael. I'm going to deal with the Steve Perry's story first. You've got Democrats. So some Democrats, hardcore, can't stand charter schools,

don't want to see it. They claim this is money being taken from traditional schools. But numbers don't lie. They're failing. I don't care who you are. If you actually say you care about the kids and the parents, if I have the number one ranked school in the state, looking to open a school with their success,

and I have a decrepit school right here. This is a no-brainer saying this has failed. Let's give them a shot for the benefit of the kids. And Emerald Hayk, and Happy Holidays to you. You know, it's interesting because we went through that, this particular issue in Washington as well, between the battle between where does that education pot of money go? Does it go to the traditional public school system?

Or do you siphon off some of that money to give to charter schools? And then I'm going to come to your question in a second. And then on top of it, you have the union issue, teachers union issue, which is in public schools, at least in Washington, D.C. The teachers are unionized and can union. collective bargaining, the whole thing. In charter schools, again, at least here in Washington, D.C., I can't speak for other localities.

You cannot unionize. So it's... I was sorry you broke around there. You said you cannot, what? You cannot unionize in charter schools. Okay. You can in public. So there are obviously so many of these hurdles

when you're trying to open a charter school that makes it very challenging with not just the economics, of the siphoning of the money that's supposed to go to the traditional public schools, plus the politics of the teachers union. Specifically to the Connecticut issue, it's strange to me that if that school is so successful, it would seem to me elected officials and stakeholders would want to cut ribbons every week at that school to brag about how good, how well it's doing, rather than why they're doing it

this way. So that part, I just don't understand the politics of the school. it to be so egregious about this particular school, especially since it's doing so well. The board what makes no sense to me is if you actually care about education, you want what's best for the kids. And I still don't get, how do you skip the number, a whole review process? And you come out number one and you skip them, but you get them under the number one. the number two. Yeah, that definitely doesn't make any sense. It's like you already know that these are the rules and the laws are set in place for a reason and the school is doing significantly better

than most schools. They're doing well with black kids. They're doing well with Latino kids. They're doing well with disabled kids. How do you not look at the numbers and look at the progress that they're making and not support that? It shows that historically you have been not doing what it takes to support these communities that are set up incorrectly in the beginning. And here we go again. You see they're doing successful. You're not paying attention to that success. You have given the approval.

The school that you said you wanted to give the money to, they didn't open. How would you not make sure that the school that should have the money that has proven to be very successful is receiving the funds for that? That it just doesn't make sense. it shows that you don't want black and brown kids or disabled kids to be successful. You want to do things that continue to hinder them, that continue to marginalize them, and to continue to not allow their education to be put first. You keep creating all these obstacles that stop these individuals and these communities

from being successful. Why continue to marginalize them when you see that they are being successful? Yeah, it just makes no sense to me as well. as Don, let's talk about the USAID story. Michael, you heard me say that and talk to the reporter. How can these people actually call themselves pro-life and they are willingly watching people die due to starvation? Well, as they're doing the math on their tax cuts for the 1% to 1-percenters,

they need to find that money somewhere. And when you have a leader of our country, so-called leader, who has zero compassion and, frankly, does not care about the story you just told, about folks already dying from the lack of United States aid. It's terrible. It's unconscionable. But certainly not surprising. Anything this administration does that's harmful to people may not be a surprise, but you certainly still can just be disgusted by these types of decisions for two things, as we've talked about. Tax cuts for the wealthy and for wealthy companies and white supremacy.

Those are their two issues they care about the most and too bad for people that rely on the United States for aid. It just showed you as a board exactly who these people are. And guess who's very silent about the deaths of poor people starving? white conservative evangelicals. Definitely, and they're supposed to be Christian. They should be caring for the world. You know, that is not happening.

We are, as a country, losing those Christian values to greed. We are keeping immigrants from other countries that are not white. If you're not a white country, if you're not a part of that white group of people, hey, we're not going to feed you. we're not going to support you. We're not going to allow you to come to our country. And it's just very disheartening to see all of these things from illnesses to dehydration, you know, simple things that we could fix and that we could do with the aid

when we're spending so much money on wasting money and not being good stewards of our resource like they're supposed to be doing, right? We should be a good steward over the resources we have. But we're building wings of the White House that no one goes to, right, a ballroom instead of feeding the millions of people across the world and giving them the health care that they need. The USA has stood

on being a power and being able to be support to these nations. And that is one of the reasons why we stay in power. If we continue to do things that take away our support and how the world is able to view us through bad decisions through just decisions

that are rooted in racism, I don't know where we are in the next 15, 20 years. I don't know where kids stand. And it should be just ethically in you to say, hey, these individuals, these countries need our support. We have access. That's why we're able to build things like unnecessary ballrooms. Why are we not support these countries and feeding these individuals that are in need?

Absolutely. All right, folks. We're going to go to a break. Come back more to break down right here on Rolla Mart on Filcher on the Black Stud Network. Support the work that we do. Join our Brena Funk Fan Club. Your dollars, make a power. sports, do what we do. If you want to contribute via cash app, we're just to hit right here, bottom left hand corner.

If you want to use PayPal R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo, R.M unfiltered, Zell, at Roland Smartin.com, rolling at rolling at rlinctonfiltre.com. Check some money order. Make it payable to roll it, Rolmartin unfiltered. Purebox 57196, Washington, D.C.

2037-0196. Back at the moment. If in this country right now, you have people get up in the morning, And the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt and they've got the power. That's the time for mourning. For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral emergency.

We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of youth. We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and a crisis of democracy itself. And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. This week on the other side of change.

Book fans, anti-intellectualism, and Trump's continued. war on wisdom. This is a coordinated backlash to progress. At the end of the day, conservatives realized that they couldn't win a debate on facts. They started using our language against us, right? Remember when we were all woke and the woke movement and all that kind of stuff, now everything is anti-woke, right? When we're talking about including diversity, equity, inclusion, higher education, now it's anti-DI. All this are efforts to suppress the truth because truth empowers people. You're watching the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, what's up, everybody?

It's Godfrey the funniest dude on the planet. And you're watching. Roland Unfilter. Hey, folks, welcome back to Rolla Martin Unfiltered. Oh, the white races. Y'all, they are beside themselves. When I say beside themselves, they are angry and upset. That's because on Capitol Hill the other day, I go to my iPad, there was the unveiling of a statue.

This is a statue of Barbara John. She was the African-American woman who led the effort to deserogate Virginia schools. Now, what they did was they replaced the statue in the capital of the white domestic terrorist General Robert E. Lee. Now, here's a deal. Each state in Statuary Hall, each state gets to actually have two statues. They get to pick. And so Virginia chose to do what's replaced the statue of Robert E. Lee. in this is video that Senator Tim Kane shot of his statue being removed from statuary hall and replaced with Barbara John's.

And Tim, Tim Kane, the senator said at 4.30 a.m. on a night in December 2020, I recorded the removal of the Robert Lee statue from the U.S. California. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded outtogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal.

The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers

whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things

happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone Podcast hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride who the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the Insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is,

You can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeart Podcast Awards. Now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartpodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Capital today he'll be replaced by Barbara Rose Johns, who led a protest of conditions

in her all-black school in Farm Bill that eventually, helped in segregation in America. Now, that's great news. But boy, if you look at Twitter, ooh, the racists are upset.

These white folks are just mad, foaming at the mouth, saying Robert E. Lee was a distinguished American. We all know who he is. Who is this woman? We don't know some bar, I mean, they have been acting a fool.

And, of course, the usual suspects, racist, Matt Walsh, and others, they've been doing their thing. Look at this here, this Brianna Lehman. Robert E. Lee was a symbol of reconciliation and deserved to be recognized for it. He was a white domestic terrorist. That's who he was. And they have just been, I mean, going. Look at this here.

Will Tanner. They tore down the statue of Robert Lee. One of the greatest Americans to ever exist for this a statue of a nobody who did nothing. Everyone clapping or participating is far more of a despicable traitor

than any Confederate. Oh, y'all, it gets better. I mean, there's so much of this trash. Look at this here. Matt Walsh. Again, absolute racist, Matt Walsh. Nobody, knows who Barbara Rose Johns is.

Robert Lee was about a million times more historically significant. He was also a million times more honorable and courageous than all of the politicians applauding in this video. Their racism is just overflowing. And she's a boy, here's why. Because you've got a white supremacist sitting in the White House. You've got Stephen Miller. What Donald Trump has done, he's... said, oh, guess what?

If you want to be racist, I give you permission. In fact, I'll hire you. I'll promote you. I'll promote your ideas. That's what we've got going on here. Pure and simple. Yeah, but this statute says it all, right?

This is what we need. We need the moments like today that we are able to say, we're not going to forget our heroes. Yeah, you may not know her because our history is being suppressed. In a day and age where you're trying to shut down our history in our museums, where if you're suppressing our voices and research and in colleges all over the U.S., you're right.

We're going to celebrate her. We're going to make sure other people know who she is and get him up out of here. He don't need to be there. He's been not too long. We've had enough of the racists having these statues and these monuments, and people are just really praising them when in reality they did things to destroy our communities. and to see without people like Ms. Jones, guess what? We don't have Brown versus Board of Education.

We don't have, this lets us know that we have to keep fighting. We are in a place where even when the races look like they're winning, we're still having victories. And without our fight, without our heroes like Ms. Barbara Jones, guess what? We don't know our history. So thank you for putting a statue up. Thank you for getting it right once in this administration, even though it's not really them, but still just for black girls,

for young girls to be able to see that we've always led movements. Our young people have always been at the forefront of change, and we're going to continue to be. Michael, this is a right white wing pastor in Arizona. Part of what makes a nation is its heroes. Not everyday heroes, which is a left-coded phrase, attempting to make ordinary people feel, better about themselves, but extraordinary heroes who accomplish something 99.9% of ordinary people

never will. Barbara Rose Johns is an everyday hero who ought to stay among her class of the ordinary. Robert Lee was an extraordinary hero who should be remembered by national memorials and statues. What in who we celebrate matters? This woman, as kind as she may have been, is a grain of sand compared to the virtuous mountain of General Lee. Is it any shock that the right white wingers loves them a Confederate general who wanted to keep black folks as slaves? Not a surprise at all.

And I think it's wonderful for Ms. Johns and her family that may now have a presence in statutory hall on Capitol Hill. But it also shows that elections have consequences. Can you imagine if Tim Cain was not in the United States Senate representing the state of Virginia, then maybe a Republican would never, not maybe, a Republican would have kept Robert Lee up in statutory hall. The second question I have, Roland, I've never understood this question, and your description of Robert Lee is exactly right.

He's a white, domestic terrorist, period. So if that's the case, Does that mean he likes terrorists or this particular person likes terrorist organizations and think that they should have a role? Like should we have a statue of some folks that have hurt the United States, terrorists that have hurt the United States? Of course not. Do you find that in Israel? You will not find any statues of anything related to the third right in Israel. Even in Germany, you don't see that. But not here.

here we make exceptions and say oh, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis and these terrorists, they want them to have presence. Now, we do remember a time when those statues were first being taken out of particular places, that they were sent to another place. So if there are folks that would like to pay tribute to, I guess, their heroes, you can go find that somewhere, but not really in a public square, which statutory hall is. for any terrorists that should be standing there to be memorialized. So good for Ms. Johns, happy for her family, and happy for how she fought.

Not just for us, but for the country. Because keep in mind, African-American or black heroes are U.S. heroes. And so good for Ms. Johns. Absolutely, absolutely. All right, Mike. I do you got to go. I appreciate you joining us. Thanks a lot.

Folks, going to a break. We'll be right back. Roll and unfiltered on the Blackstone network. Next, on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. America is being reshaped in real time by a group of six people, unelected and without any checks and balances. By the end of the current Supreme Court session, education, the workplace, who gets to elect our leaders,

and so much more could radically change. This week, we reconvene our legal roundtable and look at what the new America may look like and how we should respond. That's next on the Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. Earthquake, you know, giving Roland Martin something to do,

because you know he don't know what to do. He's from Texas. Ain't his fault. Folks, doing us right now is one of the finals of National Association of Black Journalist, Norma Adams Wade. Norma glad to have you here. I want to bring you in on this,

on this very story we were talking about, again, just right there. And this is why it's critically important to have black journalists in the newsrooms. This is also why the media changed. Bottom line is, I had to correct some folks, you know, this white dude, he wrote this piece.

Everybody's talking about this dude, Jacob Savage, some piece called a Lost Generation. He's writing about how, oh, my God, all of these folks, you know, all of these millennials, guys, come on iPad. All of these millennials lost, it couldn't get jobs during, you know, because of DEI, and they're bemoaning, oh, my God,

how in newsrooms and in academia, how these things, how they just, it wasn't merit. And Norma, I'm sitting there listening to this trash. And I'm like, where were y'all in these all-white newsrooms in 1975, in 1979, in 1980, in 1985, in 1990? It's amazing how they bemoan DEI when these were essentially lily white spaces when you and others came into this business. Yes, you asked the right question. Where were they?

They were in their supremacy positions and gloring in that, feeling that they were protected and that nothing would ever change their. positions. That's why Trump is so comfortable to say make America great again, because to him, great was when Anglos were in superior positions. To him and his minions, that is the greatness that they want back. But we're not going to have that. And as Kamala Harris made famous, we're not going back again. Right. And the thing is right now, I mean, black journalists and others are under

attack because we are seeing whiteness rise up. They want whiteness to prevail. I mean, my book I broke down this whole thing. I called it white fear. That's what we are dealing with and confronting because what they're now

looking at is, oh, shit. America is actually. going to be a nation majority of people of color. And these white folks can't handle it. And that's why everything black is under vicious assault, Norma. Well, you hit it right on the head when you said fear.

That's the operative word. This is all about the fear of losing power. The fear of losing supremacy. And you're right. The thought of being a nation of immigrants, a nation of people of color who have power. is extremely frightening to a people who have always been at the top and do not know how to live beyond that position of being at the top. So it's all about fear.

Yeah, it absolutely is. And so now this whole deal of all we're losing opportunities. And again, I love when these people talk about merit and how we need to be merit, merit, merit. No, what they really want, Norma, they want the world of madmen. They literally want the world where white men got all the jobs,

can walk around, do whatever they want, white women, black people were a complete subservient or non-existent roles, and what these white folks today are mad about is like, damn, we miss the good old white days. That's what Make America Great Again is all about. You're absolutely right. But again, the wonderful thing about the current scenario is that we as a people of color,

we as various immigrants who legitimately came to this country under an open invitation and a beacon from a statue in the harbor saying, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free. And we came, we're here. Now, we are descendants of Africa. No, we did not come by invitation. We were dragged here in shackles. But we rose above that position. And in 75, when we founded the National Association of Black Journalists, that was part of our premise, is that we were going to take. tell our own story. We were going to open doors that would make people who look like us rise to higher positions because we'd been held back. And we were going to make conditions

better for the communities that we represented. So no, we did not buy the scenario of staying in our place because that wasn't our place. But I had to remind some people normally, in terms of how these things happen. So your first job in a mainstream white newsroom was when? I came in as a general assignment's reporter. I ended up covering federal courts. What year? What year?

I came to the Dallas Morning News in 1974. Now, I have to pay tribute to my mentor, my adopted mother, I call her, Julia Scott Reed. She was Queen B. of the Black Press. She, the Morning News brought her in in 67 as a result of the Kernan Commission, which said that America needed to open its doors to other cultures other than whites.

And they brought her in. And she came in with her own agenda. Now, she strictly covered the black community when she was hired as the first black at the Dallas Morning News in 1967. She strictly covered the black community. And then seven years later, I came in and I was hired as the first black to cover news citywide of all cultures. But I always, always have to mention Julia Scott Reed because she was nobody's puppet. I mean, she was her own person.

And she said, look, when I come aboard, I'm going to still do what I do. She's very political. She's very politically active. She said, I'm still going to be in politics, which she was. Jessie Jackson was a good friend of hers and many of the leaders in that 1960s era. So she was well thought of. So I always have to pay tribute to her. But I came to the Morning News in 1974, and then the National Association of Black Journalists was founded a year later in D.C.

And the point I made, because you just made it, the Kernan Commission report. That report, of course, was commissioned to examine the race riots of 1967 when it was released in 1968. They stated point blank. They didn't agree much on that report. There was lots of infighting, but they did agree. There were two Americas, one white and one black. And they blamed.

And there was a lot of blame on the media for those race riots, and they said that the media needs to diversify, that white media need to hire black reporters. And so you begin to see, a wave. Now, people need to understand Ted Poston and others, there were individual blacks

who worked at New York Times and other different outlets. But we're talking about where you really begin to see and that was after that report in 68. And the bottom line, like I had to remind people and folks don't even understand this.

The reason that Monita's fleet won the Pulitzer Prize for Eighty Magazine for that historic photo of Dr. King's funeral, Bernice King laying on on Corridis Scott King's lap

is because she forced that to happen. The white media, the white media at Dr. King's funeral, they were going to have a Jim Crow press pool. And when Simeon Booker

of Jet Magazine, Lorone Bennett, Ebony Magazine, went to Corretta Scott's King and said, Mrs. King, They are not allowing Ebony and Jett in the pool to cover his funeral. She said, if Ebony and Jett are not in that pool, there will be no pool.

So people need to understand that history is real. So, and again, you join in 74, not that many in the 70s. Now we go into the 80s. We go into the 90s. There were so many media outlets in the 90s, a lot of newspapers that had, no black reporters at all in the 90s. But see, Roland, you're telling that Martin Luther King's story is a perfect example of why we are so needed in media.

That story would not have come out without people like you telling it. And you just told it to a whole new generation. But it was told by you. And that was part of our premise. we came in 75, we came as a bunch of grios who were used to telling our stories to our people. And we decided to organize and form a bond to tell our story to the world as a group of grios who knew what it meant to tell our own story. Going back to our heritage in Africa where stories were told orally. and the grios just told it and told it and told it and the generations kept carrying it on.

But what you just did, Roland Martin, by telling that Martin Luther King's story, you were a griot. You told a story that needed to be heard by a new generation. And it came from a person like you where it meant something. And if you hadn't told it, how many people would never have heard that story before? That's why we formed their organization. That's why we are what we are. And that's why we have people have to understand that while we continue to fight for voices to be in mainstream newsrooms, to be show host, to be editors, whatever, we also are seeing a reality, Norma, of individuals creating their own media companies, doing their own thing, because the technology has changed, the creator economy has changed. Now there's actually an ability for somebody to make a real living.

sometimes more money they made working in one of these outlets by being able to do their own thing. And so just your thoughts on that, being able, being a founder, looking back 50 years and seeing where the industry was in 1974 compared to where it is in 1975 when NABJ was founded to where it is in 2025. I wish the public could see this industry from my eyes, from that perspective of looking back. over 50 years. And when we gathered in that room in D.C. and signed that document and say, yeah, we want to organize. We had thoughts about our people owning our own

and making our own decisions and rising to the top. But here it is. It really kind of took 50 years. It really kind of took 50 years. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire. Dad, we learned about this in school.

Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey Bear said to... First, drown it with the bucket of water, then stir it with the shovel. Wow, you sound just like him. Then he said... If it's still warm, then do it again. Where can I learn all this? It's all on smoky bear.com with other wildfire prevention tips,

because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some... Jen's ears in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it.

And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective.

Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26 IHard Podcast Awards, podcast of the year by voting at IHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award.

Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. years for me to see what we saw in our minds eye back in, back then. But now I'm literally seeing it with, you know, technology and I'm not a tech person. I'm an old school person. But when I see what we have been, the progress we have been able to make in communication

to tell our own story and that now someone can go on social media and literally tell their story rather than having to do it through a media outlet. But if you could look back through my eyes of seeing this from 50 years ago, when we just talked about it as if it was a Never, Neverland premise, but now it is actually happening. And my mouth is open constantly. My mouth is open constantly when I see from where we have come and what we've now been able to accomplish.

and yet there still are limitations. Oh, absolutely, absolutely. And our voices absolutely matter. And we have to recognize that if we are not positioning our voices in these spaces and actually using them, they're going to be problems. Zabor, you have a question for Norman Adams Wade. Yes, first of all, thank both of you all, because I've learned so much just in listening to this.

With you being here in different eras and just thinking of the era that young journalists are in now, what do you suggest could help them carry them through these changes and difficulties that they're experiencing in media as young black professionals now? You know what my response to that is that young journalists should be who they are? I am so impressed with the self-confidence, I guess, is the best word for me to use. Self-awareness, the self-awareness of this generation of journalists. They just need to be who they are and do what they want to do, which they're going to do. I am convinced this generation will do what it wants to do. Yes, the limitations, the DEIs and all of that, the banning,

and the barriers, they'll be there. But I am convinced that this generation with this hootspah is going to do what it's going to do. I think we'll be okay. The battle has never been easy. This battle is just different. Instead of having to fight in the streets with picket signs, this generation will fight digitally and advance through AI.

I'm one of those who's kind of scared of AI. I have to admit it. I'm a little afraid of it. But this generation, I'm convinced, is going to use that and they're going to move us forward. I believe it. Well, the moment that we are in, and I say this all the time,

that we have to recognize the moment. I've been saying for years that we need to be extremely careful and not allow black on media to die because then we're hoping and, that somebody else tell our story. And I'm just, and listen, there are some, there have been some very good, qualified, nice white editors in newsrooms.

But when you are leaving your story, your history, being up to being told by somebody else, that is not something that is smart. And so that's one of the reasons why we announced this, when I came up with this idea, actually, when I was running for office, because I'm now back on the board of NAVJ, Vice President Digital, I say, guys, we actually have to create a endowment campaign

that will secure the future. If we raise this $15 million and we invest that money, then let's just say it returns us 10%. We can now take that $1.5 million in investing programming that goes throughout the year. Because my greatest concern, Norma, my great, as somebody who grew up in NABJ was called one of the first NABJ babies, joined the organization in 1989. So I joined when NABJ was only 14 years old. The convention was in New York.

And I know what it's done for me. And I've said to people that what this generation cannot do is not ensure the future. So for somebody 15 years from now, 30 years from now, they need to be able to have a place they can go to where they can meet fellow black journalists, talk with them, learn from them, be educated by them, be educated by them. nurtured by them. They need someone who can scold them, who can raise them in the ways and maintain that connection to the folks who found it because

for me I had the pleasure of knowing and meeting many of these founders. Folks in the future won't necessarily have that so we've got to make sure that this tradition and that the entity is here and thriving, not

surviving but thriving. Roland, and I just let me just give you all kind of accolades, even for the thought of an endowment, of a permanent endowment, because one of the beginning issues that we had as founders always was having to go to corporations and companies to get funding.

That was a, I don't know, I don't even know the label to put on it, but it wasn't, but we had to do it to survive. So your premise currently with this funding mechanism and this endowment plan is not to have to do that, not have to go out and solicit. We will already be endowed. The money will be there.

You won't have that headache. And so I'm blown away with the concept of the idea of the idea of, the endowment. I think it's brilliant, actually. I just think it's brilliant. Well, we appreciate it for folks. We are creating a mechanism for folk to be able to give

in different ways for the endowment campaign. So our target goal, of course, is to have what I call our Golden Circle. That's the people who give $100,000 or more, and they can do that over four years, so that comes out to $25,000 a year. But that's one of things that we're

working on. But we do want to be able to have, create a mechanism for people who even aren't members of NABJ. If they want to give five or ten bucks or twenty bucks or fifty or a hundred, so we're working all that right now. And so normal, we appreciate it. It's always great to talk to one of our founders. Let me, let me end with our mantra that has sustained me all these 50 years and beyond, which comes out of Africa,

until the lion tells his own. story, tales of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. We got to remember that. Absolutely. Noam Adams Wade, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. All righty. Thank you very much. Folks, you want to give more information. You go to nabjonline.org,

nabj.online.org. We come back headlines. Black Star Network headlines with Brittany Noble. You're watching Rolla Mark on the filter on the Black Star Network. If in this country right now You have people get up in the morning, and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt, and they've got the power. That's the time for mourning. For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority.

We are at a point of a moral emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis, and a crisis of democracy itself. And guess what?

You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate, don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. Hello, I'm Bishop T.V. Jakes, and you're watching Roland Martin unfiltered. Black Star Network headlines with Brittany Noble. Roland next month, a notorious slave site in St. Louis will be formally recognized with the plaque. Before the Civil War, Bernard Lynch operated slave pens, the largest one beneath what is now a parking garage. After the killing of George Floyd in 2020, then-state representatives, Trish Gumby and Rachine Aldridge, called on St. Louis Cardinals to help fund a plan.

acknowledging the site across the street from the stadium. The Cardinals declined to participate, but the Missouri Historical Society and the Missouri Foundation for Health agreed to step into help. As the Trump administration ordered federal agencies to eliminate what it calls a legal diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, a new ProPublica investigation found more than 1,000 nonprofit organizations

quietly removed DEI language from their mission statements filed with the IRS. Some organizations went further with new job titles, scrubbing diversity initiatives from their website, along with commitments to building more inclusive institutions. Well, a group of students and professors at Alabama's public universities is asking a federal appeals court to block a new state law that bans diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in public education. The law prohibits public schools and universities from using state funds for any programs or curriculum that endorses so-called divisive concepts related to race,

religion, gender identity, and other protected categories. Well, Antonio Ingram, an attorney with the Legal Defense Fund, representing the plaintiff, says that the statue is vague, leaving faculty vulnerable to complaint and investigations, limiting their ability to teach. Well, the founder and curator of the Black History 101 Mobile Museum says Texas State University abruptly uninvited him from a planned campus exhibition. In the email, Khalid El-Hakim said, The university officials cited Senate Bill 17, the state's political climate, and certain topics

covers as part of the museum as reasons for the decision. El Hakim founded the Black History 101 Mobile Museum while working as a middle school teacher after noticing just how much black history was missing from standard curriculum. And Representative Ilhan Omar says her son was pulled over in Minnesota by immigration and customs enforcement agents and asked to show proof of citizenship, Omar, who immigrated to the United States as a child after fleeing Somalia civil war, accused eyes of racially profiling members of the Somali community. They're looking for young men who look Somali that think they are undocumented, she said. Those are the headlines for today. You are watching Roland Martin

unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back after the break. This week on a balanced life with Dr. Jackie, we're talking about the ups and the downs of the holidays, the ebb and flow of life. Those things that keep us running and gunning. But you know there comes a time each of our lives. That's what we need to just sit down, sit back, and relax, giving you a chance to really find out who you are and how you're going to move your life forward. How do I learn? How do I grow from this? And that's where, you know, resilience comes. I'm literally walking this out in real time.

It's just giving myself all the grace, all the space, all the permission that I need. We're talking about all of these things this week on a balanced life with Dr. Jackie here. Black Star Network. Natasha Cobbs and you are watching. Roland Martin unfiltered. But I need a little filter. I need a something. Blow me out.

Make me a little 35. Folks, House Republicans, four of them broke with Speaker Mike Johnson, handing Democrats the votes they needed to force action on affordable care tax credits. That's right. The lawmakers, Brian Fitzpatrick,

Mike Lawler, Rob Breschner and Ryan McKenzie sign on to a discharge petition led by Democratic House Minority Leader Hiking Jeffries that pushed the petition passed the critical 218 signature mark, setting up a likely vote in early January. Now, the GOP Health Care Bill, if it moves forward, the measure would extend the Affordable Care Act's enhanced tax credits for three years. Those subsidies are set to expire December 31st, and without them, millions of Americans

to see their health insurance premiums jump sharply. Mike Johnson is brushing aside. claims, he's lost control of the House. You're going to fill in your conversation right now with Congressman Lawler. It's a pretty animated conversation. Oh, we just had some intense fellowship. It's all good. Look, we're working through very complex issues as we do here all the time.

And it's good. Everybody's working towards ideas. We're keeping a productive conversation going. That's what happens. Have you lost a whole? Have you lost a whole? Have you lost a whole? because this is the third time.

Look, we have the smallest majority in U.S. history, okay? These are not normal times. There are proceeds and procedures in the house that are less frequently used when there are larger major majorities. And when you have the luxury of having 10 or 15 people who disagree on

something, you know, you don't have to deal with it. But when you have a razor-thin margin, as we do, and all the procedures that are the book people think are on the table. That's a difference. Step aside. Let's have this on themselves.

It happened in January. Everybody, stay tuned. We're having conversation. Who do you hold the vote on the district? Hi, guys. Okay, if y'all want to laugh, though, here is crazy,

demented Republican ship Roy. I mean, broke clock is right twice a day. This was before the vote. Now, he didn't vote with these four, but let's just say he didn't have many kind words for his own party over their failure. to address health care. Listen to this.

And now we're sitting here and we're listening to nonsense about health care. We're my college the other side of the aisle sit here saying, well, you guys aren't doing anything about the massive expensive cost of health care. Why do you think it's expensive? Because you literally cut a deal with insurance companies

to run health care. You think that's going to run wild? Yeah. That's why they have 2,000% profit increases and the American people can't afford to go to the doctor of their choice while we enrich insurance companies. And yet, Republicans will complain about it, and then they'll offer milk toast garbage like we're offering this week, and then go home at Christmas and say, look at what we're doing.

We're campaigning on reducing health care. Well, congratulations. At some point, people will look at this body and say, maybe we should get rid of all 435 members of the House and all 100 members of the Senate and start over because Congress is literally failing the American people. I yield back. Oh, here's Congressman McGovern, roasting Republicans on the House floor. 2016, then presidential candidate Donald Trump said, we're going to replace Obamacare with something.

The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me. and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being

at soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded outtogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal. The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z years in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely.

The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulation. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with

them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu. who takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is,

you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at iHeartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcast Awards. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com.

So much better. Nothing followed. On February 27th of 2017, the president said, we have a really terrific, I believe, health care plan coming out. Never did. May 10th, 2018. Donald Trump said, but wait to you see the plans that we have. coming out literally over the next four weeks. We have a great health care plan coming out.

Nothing happened. At a press gaggle near Air Force One in May of 2019, he said, we're coming up with a great health care plan. We're going to have a fantastic health care plan is coming out in the next four weeks. Nothing ever materialized. June 16, 2019, President said, we're going to produce a phenomenal health care plan,

and we already have the concept of a plan, and it will be so much better at health care. Yeah, well, we'll be announcing it about two months, maybe less. nothing happened. Fox News interview, the president said, we're signing in a health care plan within two weeks, a full and complete health care plan. Nothing happened. July 2020, the president said, well, we're going to be doing a health care plan. We're going to be doing a very inclusive health care plan. I'll be signing it sometime very soon. It might be Sunday, but very, very soon. Nothing happened. August 3rd, 2020, the president said we're going to be introducing a tremendous

health care plans sometime prior, hopefully prior to the end of the month. It's just about completed. Nothing. September 2015, 2020, you know, you're going to, the president says you're going to have a new health care. We have a whole bunch of alternatives to Obamacare that are 50% less expensive and are actually better. Nothing. It never happened. September 10th, 2024, ABC News, presidential debate.

He says, I have concepts of a plan. you'll be hearing about it in the not too distant future. Nothing happened. December 8th, 2024, he said, you know, we have concepts of a plan that will be much better. You'll see it very soon. Produce nothing.

In May of 2025, at a White House event, he says, so we're going to be maybe coming up with something. I think this gives the republicans a chance to actually do a health care that's much better than Obamacare. Nothing. People are sick and tired of the empty rest. They're sick and tired of you saying you have a plan and you never produce one.

All you want to do is undermine healthcare for hardworking average Americans. Mr. Speaker, I yield two minutes to the gentlewoman from California. I mean, I think he pretty much nailed it. Congressman John Larson. For health insurance than he does for his mortgage. Let's cut right to the chase. This is about a vote. The American people, this great democracy that we live in, this once chamber that could actually discuss and debate issues,

Speaker Johnson should be bringing this bill to the floor today. Do you have the courage to vote or are you going to run and hide? You have four of you who stood up and said, you know what, in a democracy, this deserves a vote. Listen carefully, American people, how they decry this bill, and yet they won't even have a vote. You, Robbie, go online and- That's who they are, Zabora. Here's why these four cross, because their asses are in trouble. They come from between districts, and the bottom line is, see, let me remind people, okay?

especially the people who said all Democrats should have never shut the government Democrats should have never stood their ground when it came to the government shut down it was going to be a failure. So let me just read. Let me just help some people out here.

You had Democrats who were saying let's get a six month or a year extension. We had Congresswoman Laura Underwood on the show and she presented a bill that said, hey, let's extend subsidies for a year. the discharge position was three years remember Trump

last month came out and said that he was going to put forth a proposal to extend the subsidies for three years they know they know they do not want health care to be on the ballot in 2006

or 2008 and they're sitting here because they I'm telling you because here's a deal white folks who vote Republican in West Virginia and Mississippi and Alabama and Idaho and Nebraska and Wisconsin

and Illinois and Pennsylvania and I can go on and on they're going to lose health care and these Republicans are like we're going to get our asses kicked at the ballot box and we're not going to have jobs that's what this is all about.

Of course it is. They know what's on the table. This is the concept of the plan they voted for, right? He told them, well, I have a concept of a plan. You've never had a plan. And in all of these southern states, in all of these Republican states, individuals use these ATA subsidies. And without them, it's like saying, hey, let's double my rent and see what's going to happen.

People can't afford to have their insurance premiums double. disabled people are going to be affected. Black and brown people are going to be affected. We are disproportionately affected by this. So if you think that the individuals that are in your counties that are white, that are poor, that are middle class, that are working these jobs that have 725 minimum wage with no insurance can afford to be able to get their medications and the things that they need, it don't even make sense.

So they know that and they know that they are headed into the 2026 where they're going to get voted up out of there. Districts are flipping. Too much is happening to where you can't keep ignoring the fact that this is a voting year. And it's time for, it's going to be more people flip. It's going to be more people come on the side of, hey, what are y'all going to do? Are y'all going to vote? Are we going to bring it to a vote? Can we have a discussion about it?

What are we going to do to make sure that our individuals in our communities are not lacking? health here. This doesn't make sense. Oh, absolutely. And they're just sitting here going, man, we're going going to lose bad on this. He's actually Mike Luller talking about it. I am pissed for the American people. This is absolute bullshit. And it's absurd that we are in a body with 435 members. Everybody has a responsibility to serve their district, to serve their constituents. What do you say to go to the speaker who's not going to do a vote on this AC extension.

That's a failure of leadership. I mean, we have, you know, members on both sides who believe this is an urgent issue, and it is for all of our members in terms of what their constituents are going to have to deal with in the start of the new year. So what's wrong with having a vote?

Yeah, that's kind of what happens. And so now they are really concerned. Zaboard, Donald Trump is going to speak to the nation today. I don't what the hell he's going to talk about. I mean, I don't really give shit. Trust me, we're not going to be carrying his dumb ass address to the nation.

I guess it's tomorrow night. I don't know when. I really don't care. There's nothing he can say. He's an idiot. And, you know, I think the best thing he could actually say is I resign.

That would be great. That would be the best thing he could say. What can he say? What is he going to say that we're losing more jobs that every time we're going to say, time a Republican gets in the office, we get going to a recession, I don't know what he could be addressed right now. We're losing insurance, we're losing jobs, and you haven't even made a year yet. If you're not going to say anything besides resign, you could just keep your whole address.

Yeah, so I don't, I don't really give a shit. I just really don't. Let me go to a break. I'll be right back. Rolling my unfiltered. All right, I have a lot. This week on the other side of change. book fans, anti-intellectualism, and Trump's continued war on wisdom. This is a coordinated backlash to progress. At the end of the day, conservatives realized that they couldn't win a debate on facts. They started using our language against us, right? Remember when we were all woke and the woke movement and all that kind of stuff?

Now everything is anti-woke, right? When we're talking about including diversity, equity, inclusion, higher education. Now it's anti-DI. All this are efforts to suppress the truth because truth empowers people. the other side of change, only on the Black Star Network. Next, on the Black Table with me, Greg Carr. America is being reshaped in real time by a group of six people, unelected, and without any checks and balances.

By the end of the current Supreme Court session, education, the workplace, who gets to elect our leaders, and so much more could radically change. This week, we reconvene our legal roundtable and look at what the new America may look like. how we should respond. That's next on the Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. If in this country right now, you have people get up in the morning, and the only thing they can think about is how many people they can hurt, and they've got the power, that's the time for mourning.

For better or worse, what makes America special, it's that legal system that's supposed to protect minorities from the tyranny of the majority. We are at a point of a moral, emergency. We must raise a voice of outrage. We must raise a voice of compassion. And we must raise a voice of unity. We are not in a crisis of party versus party. We are in a crisis of civilization, a human rights crisis and a crisis of democracy itself. And guess what? You've been chosen to make sure that those that would destroy, those that would hate,

don't have the final say, and they don't ultimately win. Michael McMillan, president and CEO of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis, and you were watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Going to the show, Steve Perry, talked about a very little-known story that America's first HPCU

was supposed to be set in New Haven, Connecticut, but Yale University were like, nah, we ain't having that. We ain't having that. And so there was a documentary that was done on this. It was put together by the Yale Library.

And so, you know what? I wanted to share that with you. Check this out. Did you know that New Haven could have been home of the nation's first HBCU? What follows is the story of a path-breaking plan

for a black college in New Haven in 1830. and of the opposition that stopped it from happening. New Haven in 1831 was the co-capital of Connecticut, as it would remain until 1875. An impressive new state house had just opened on the New Haven Green, behind the center church and right across College Street from Yale. For white business and civic leaders,

New Haven was a city on the rise. It was the center of education and publishing. Noah Webster had just completed. the epic American dictionary of the English language in 1828. Connecticut had the highest college matriculation rate in the nation and the highest literacy rate. In 1830, New Haven was the nation's 23rd largest city with a population of almost 11,000. Wealth was accumulating for white elites. Manufacturing was growing.

Immigration from Europe was on the rise. The first steamboat service between New Haven and New York City started in 1815. The Farmington Canal opened in 1828. Signs of prosperity included the Hillhouse Mansion. Sachem's Wood built just north of the town center in 1829. On the green, local Congressman Ralph Engersall built an impressive red brick house in 1829. Slavery, though not widespread, remained legal. Connecticut was the last state in New England to formally abolish slavery in 1848.

New Haven was home to nearly 600 free black people and four enslaved people in 1830. Free black people still faced severe restrictions on their liberty. Black men were barred from voting. Economic and educational opportunities for black people were extremely limited. At the same time, black women and men were organizing churches and building community institutions, creating their own spaces of liberation. Meanwhile, by 1830, Yale was the nation's largest college. Yale had 469 total students enrolled, male, Protestant, and of European descent.

This was dissenting in New Haven at the time, when a bold proposal was made, to create the nation's first college for black men. Why did this happen in 1831? And why New Haven? 1831 was the dawn of the abolition movement. The previous year in September 1830, black leaders from throughout the antebellum north had gathered at Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. That convention was, the meeting that launched

the movement, the abolition movement, the movement for black freedom. Bishop Richard Allen gave the main address at his church at that 1830 convention. Delegates included New Haven Shipio Augustus. This Black Freedom Movement had a few white allies, including New Haven Simeon Jocelyn and his Boston friend William Lloyd Garrison, who began publishing the abolitionist newspaper, the Liberator in 1831. New Haven black leaders, John Creed, and J.L. Cross, became agents for the Liberator that year. Augustus and Creed were leaders in New Haven's newly organized Black Congregational Church,

formerly known as the African Ecclesiastical Society, and officially known as the Temple Street Congregational Church. They had established the church beginning in 1820. Other early leaders included Prince Cooper, Prince Duplex, William Lanson, and Bias Stanley. These black founders had called Simeon Jocelyn a white pastor and abolitionist as their minister, beginning in 1824. On May 28, 1831, Jocelyn wrote to Garrison about an idea to establish a college for young black men. Jocelyn told Garrison that he had met with the rest of the rest of his family. Reverend Peter Williams, a black leader in New York, about a mutual interest in education.

Williams and Jocelyn decided to merge their interest for a new college. This would connect the mechanic arts in some degree of agriculture and horticulture, as well as be connected with many useful pursuits and with the advantages of domestic and social life, as would prepare the young men for active life and to aid their brethren in other places in all those things which make men happy and which give them as individuals and as communities influence in the world. Jocelyn stated that Arthur Tappan, a New York philanthropist and abolitionist who had a second home in New Haven, supported the plan and had committed $1,000. He noted that a site had been chosen in the southern section of New Haven. A newspaper notice

later in 1831 reports the extensive establishment in New Haven, formerly known as the Steamboat Hotel, and laterally as DeWite's Gymnasium or Gymnasium for Boys, has been purchased by a Mr. Jocelyn and is to be converted into a college for blacks. This means that the site for the college would have been on Water Street between East and Wallace Street, an intersection that sits now underneath the junction of two major highways, I-91 and I-95. Jocelyn asked Garrison to accompany him and Arthur Tappen to present the whole plan at the convention of the people of color who meet the week after next in Philadelphia. Jocelyn Tappan and Garrison went to the first annual convention of the people of color

at Philadelphia's Wesley Church. As recorded in the proceedings of the 1831 Convention, they made a presentation to the delegates, the leadership of the black community in the Antebellum North. and there was agreement to organize the college. The proceedings record why New Haven was proposed as the site for the nation's first black college. First, the site is healthy and beautiful. Second, its inhabitants are friendly, pious, generous, and humane.

Third, babes, what are you doing? What? I'm just mowing the lawn. No, it's blazing-house. hot and dry out here. Don't you remember? Smokey Bear says. Avoid using power equipment when it's windy or dry. Where'd you learn this? Oh, it's on... Smokybear.com with many other wildfire prevention tips. Right. Thanks, honey, bear. Because remember, only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the ad council.

The social media trend that's landing some Gen Z is in jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast hosted by me, Brad Palumbo.

Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride who the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26thiHeart Podcast Awards. podcast of the year by voting at iHeartpodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at iHeartpodcastawards.com.

Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Its laws are salutary and protect all without regard to complexion. Fourth, boarding is cheap and provisions are good. Fifth, the situation is as central as any other that can be obtained with the same advantages. The sixth reason is New Haven carries on an extensive West Indian trade, and with abolition of the slave trade and growing free black communities in the Caribbean that...

Many of the wealthy colored residents in the islands would no doubt send their sons there. to this new college to be educated. And thus, a fresh tie of friendship would be formed, which might be productive of much real good in the end. And last, though not least, the literary and scientific character of New Haven renders it a very desirable place for the location of the college.

This alliance in 1831 between black leaders and white allies to establish a black college in New Haven marked a truly revolutionary turn in the history of race relations in the United States. The proceedings noted, the convention would wish it to be distinctly understood that the trustees of the contemplated institution shall a majority of them be colored persons. The number is proposed seven, three white, and four colored. The convention was held June 6 to 11, 1831. Jocelyn, Garrison, and Tappin were invited to speak on June 8th.

The delegates endorsed the proposed college and identified agents to lead the fundraising, with the Reverend Samuel Cornish as General Agent and Tappin as treasurer. Several provisional committees were established with free black leaders in 14 communities, including New Haven, with Bias Stanley, John Creed, and Alexandria. C. Luca. Garrison visited New Haven not long after the convention in late June and gave two public addresses. He would speak and write about the college proposal in the following weeks and months, including pieces circulated through The Liberator. The proposal was noted in the July 30th, 1831 edition of the New York Evangelist newspaper, which described the work of black leaders and

philanthropic white allies to establish a college at New Haven, with $10,000 to be raised among white donors and $10,000 from black donors. The newspaper said, the idea is a good one. We wish success to the undertaking with all our heart. On September 5, 1831, the Provisional Committee of Philadelphia published an appeal to the benevolent in that city's Chronicle newspaper, outlining plans for the Black College in New Haven. Back in New Haven, Simeon Jocelyn gave an address on Wednesday, September 7, 1831, at the Third Congregational Church,

on the subject of the moral, intellectual, and civil improvement of the people of color in the United States. No doubt, he promoted plans for the new black college as he discussed abolition and anti-slavery efforts. Around the same time, on September 6th, the first noticed appeared in New Haven newspapers of the insurrection in Virginia, known as Nat Turner's Rebellion. One paper noticed, quote, The insurrection in Virginia appears to have been very easily suppressed.

Many historians cite the news of Nat Turner's rebellion as a factor in the reaction by whites to the College of New Haven in the following days. The day after Jocelyn's address on Thursday, September 8th, New Haven Mayor Dennis Kimberly, a graduate of Yale, gave notice of an extraordinary meeting of the Freeman, i.e. the white property owners, for two days later on Saturday, September 10th. To either of the sheriffs of the city of New Haven, greeting,

you are hereby required to warn the freemen of said city to meet at the city hall in said city on Saturday, the 10th day of September 1831 at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, to take into consideration a scheme said to be in progress for the establishment in this city of a college for the education of colored youth, and to adopt such measures as may be deemed expedient relative to the same, and to do any other business proper for said meeting. Hereof, fail not, and do return make, given under my hand by advice. vice of the alderman in the city of New Haven this eighth day of September 1831, Dennis Kimberly

Mayor. Juxtaposed to the notice by the mayor about the meeting on the Black College, there's another notice, just underneath, of the preliminary meeting of the alumni of Yale College to be held a few days after the Saturday town meeting on Tuesday, September 13th. The Saturday, September 10th meeting was held in the State House, the co-capital building, and the city-house, the co-capital building that had just opened that year, which had a space for town hall meetings. A contemporary account describes that intense afternoon, quote, so great was the interest to hear the discussion that notwithstanding the excessive heat and the almost irresperable

atmosphere of the room, the hall was crowded throughout the afternoon. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of white men packed into a 3,000 square foot room in the state house on a hot, satire. Saturday afternoon. The meeting voted 700 against the college and only four in favor. Its inhabitants are friendly, pious, generous, and humane. The reports in the newspaper note that the meeting was addressed against the college by four people. Isaac Townsend, Ralph Ingersoll, Nathan Smith, and David Daggett. Only Simeon Jocelyn spoke in favor. on the table where resolutions put forward by a committee that Dennis Kimberly, the mayor, had appointed. It had 10 people, at least six of whom were Yale alums.

Simeon Baldwin, William Bristol, Samuel Hitchcock, Ralph Ingersoll, Augustus Street, and Isaac Townsend. They were top figures of civic, legal, and political leadership. Ingersoll was the congressman? Baldwin, Baldwin had been mayor of New Haven, and Hitchcock was a leading lawyer. Of the four who spoke against the college, David Daggett was at the time Associate Justice of Connecticut Superior Court. The next year, he would be Chief Justice of Connecticut Supreme Court. He was, along with Hitchcock, a founder of the Yale Law School. Their resolutions had two parts.

The first began, quote, The immediate emancipation of slaves and disregard of the civil institutions of the states in which they belong, and as auxiliary thereto, the contemporaneous founding of a college for educating colored people, is an unwarrantable and dangerous interference with the internal concerns of other states and ought to be discouraged. In other words, New Haven's leadership voted 700 to 4 in support of maintaining. slavery in the nation. The second part of the resolution said, Yale College, the institutions for the education of females and the other schools already

existing in the city are important to the community and the general interests of science and as such have been deservedly patronized by the public. And the establishment of a college in the same place to educate the colored population is incompatible with the prosperity, if not the existence of the present institutions of learning, and will be destructive of the best interests of the city. We will resist the establishment of the proposed college in this place by every lawful means. In other words, the new black college would be a threat to Yale and other schools in town. The white supremacist sentiments in New Haven

are well documented in contemporary newspaper accounts, as are its ties to the South. One paper wrote, Here we have Yale College, among the highest ornaments of which are sons of southern planters. We have several most respectable institutions for the instruction of young ladies, some of whom are from the South.

There is no other town or city that would suffer as much of such a college, of Black College were built. Another New Haven paper said, The establishment of a college here would ring throughout the land a summons that would hurry in the blacks as bees to a hive.

It would communicate to the world the impression that New Haven was overrun with a vicious population. For throughout the United States, Vice is uniformly associated with a large colored population. On Saturday, September 10th, White New Haven voted down

a new new. Black College. Just a few days later, it would celebrate its existing college. The town meeting was not the final impact of the Black College decision. The town meeting on Saturday, September 10, 1831, and the massive opposition to the college fueled white rage that continued in the weeks afterward. Riotous spirit and riotous action were documented in the papers of the time. The Liberator in October has an article about riots at New Haven. It notes, the New Haven home of Tappen, the New York philanthropist and abolitionist, had been attacked. It notes that a house owned by a black person on Mount Pleasant in New Haven had

had been, quote, level to the ground. A Philadelphia newspaper reported, around this time on Thursday evening, a black man was knocked down in the streets. And on Friday evening, the House of the most respectable gentleman was assailed with shouts in decent songs and a shower of stones. There were many reports of such activity. New Haven was the talk of the nation, and even the toast of white southerners. New Haven's decision, 700 to 4, against the Black College in 1831, was celebrated by many voices in the slaveholding South. A Georgia newspaper, September 24, 1831, said, We are glad to find that the good sense of the people of New Haven

has induced them to act promptly and vigorously in opposition to the ill-judged and unjustifiable enthusiasm of misguided zealids. A Richmond newspaper describes what New Haven had done as an admirable lesson. And the newspaper in Natchez, Mississippi, carried a person. piece in October 1831 that reads, The attempt made by a convention in Philadelphia to establish the college in New Haven for the education of the blacks has been met by the citizens of the latter city in a spirit that will be duly appreciated by the people of the South.

New Haven's decision to oppose the college was widely covered throughout the country and had real impact in national conversations. New Haven's action thwarted plans to promote education, and liberation, and reinforced the status quo of slavery and racial oppression. Garrison responded in poetry to what he called, quote, the disgraceful proceedings, end quote, with lines that begin, New Haven thou hast rashly done a deed, which shrouds thy glory in a black eclipse. New Haven's action had real impact in law and policy. The New Haven experience was cited by a

opponents of Prudence Crandall and her Academy for Black Women in Canterbury, Connecticut. Both the 1831 College and Prudence Crandall School were followed by severe reaction at the state legislature, which on May the 24th, 1833, passed what became known as the Black Law that prevented the education of blacks from out-of-state in Connecticut. Crandall was arrested, placed on trial. When it came to trial, the judge. was David Daggett, Yale alum and former faculty who led the opposition to the college in 1831. The U.S. Supreme Court would draw on Daggett's ruling in their infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857.

That decision cited Connecticut and Daggett's ruling that black people were not within the meaning of the word citizens and the Constitution of the United States. The actions in New Haven in 1831 had real impact, locally, statewide, and nationally, and the fact that the college was blocked had a real impact on generations whose access to higher education was limited. The Bineckee Library holds a pamphlet published by Semyon Jocelyn about the 1831 college proposal, its supporters, and the opposition. Jocelyn compiled it at the request of the Superintendent Committee of Free Black New York Leaders, including the Reverend Peter Williams, Thomas Downing, Peter Vogelsang, Boston Cromwell, and Philip A. Bell. This copy was owned by John Warner Barber, a New Haven engraver historian and abolitionist,

one of the four whites to vote for the college. In his hand, it says, to be carefully preserved. He knew this story needed to be told, needed to be remembered. 190 years later, let us remember. Let us engage this story of the past in our own present times. Let us make sure that the story shows what happened and why it is not forgotten. And more than that. All right, son.

Time to put out this campfire. We learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey Bear said to... First, drown it with a bucket of water, then stir it with a shovel. Wow, you sound just like him. Then he said... If it's still warm, then do it again.

Where can I learn all this? It's all on smoky bear.com with other wildfire prevention tips, because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester, and the ad council. The social media trend that's landing some gen Zier is in. jail. The progressive media darling whose public meltdown got her fired. I'm going to take Francesco off the network entirely. The massive TikTok boycott against Target that makes no actual sense. I will continue getting stuff from Target and I will continue to not pay for it. And the MAGA

influencers whose trip to the White House ended in embarrassment. So refreshing to have the press secretary after the last few years who's both intelligent and articulate. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast hosted by me, Brad Palumbo. Every day of the week, I bring you on a wild ride through the most delulu takes on the internet, criticizing the extremes of both sides from an independent perspective. Join in on the insanity and listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the Iheart radio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is, You can decide who takes home the 26 IHard Podcast Awards, podcast of the year by voting at IHartPodcastawards.com now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHartPodcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app.

Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. Let us consider. what the black college would have meant for New Haven and the nation. As you pass through the intersection of I-91 and I-95,

think about the proposed Black College of 1831. And consider what could have been. That's why history is so important and to recognize where we are in this country when it comes to history. So all of these white

supremacists are upset because Robert Lee's statute is being removed. Well, guess what? He was a domestic terrorist. I don't want to hear this shit about how honorable he was. They said to him, oh, night, President Dwight Eisenhower called him one of four of the greatest Americans. I don't give a shit. I don't care.

He was a white domestic terrorist who wanted black people to stay enslaved. And I will never, ever change my position on that. So what we have to understand is, one, we must always understand our history, respect our history. But you've got to have platforms that are also telling

our history. And the reality is, when you're black on, you can do that. Here, we do not ask permission to tell our story. We tell it. Unapologetically. Folks, that is it for us. I want to support the work

we do. Please join our Braina Funk fan club. Your dollars are critically important to that. When you invest, and let me real clear, kill the music. I had somebody asked me and they said, man, what do you do? I said, guys, we don't send people's t-shirts, mugs, backpack, all kind of stuff.

Because the people, when they get to the show, it goes into the show. I'm not joking. We're literally, we're about to do, we're about to order $175,000 in equipment. We're completely upgrading our entire audio. A lot of y'all been to, oh, my God, fix the audio complaining.

Well, we've been going through that. We're completely doing that. We're ordering another Live View 800. That's $20,000. I mean, we are, I mean, I'm literally right now, focusing on about $500,000 in upgrades. Why? Because we have to have the infrastructure to do this.

We've got to have the ability to be able to do, to utilize V-Mix software and being able to utilize green screens and bring in host and guests from other cities as well. Because nobody else is doing what we're doing. We have been methodically building this show, methodically building this network, and nobody else in black Americans

doing what we're doing. We do shows on Streamyard. We're not trying to do every single show on Streamyard. We're not trying to do that. We go on the road. We go on the road? We go hard.

We walk in places. And when they see us coming in with our gear, they realize, oh, damn, they're not playing around. And that's what we want people to understand, that when we show up, that we are coming with our A game, we are coming with the type of equipment that is going to give us the opportunity

to do whatever kind of broadcast is necessary in order for us to inform people what's going on. And, you know, y'all, those of you who are watching our show when we were in Houston for AfroTech, I just want to show you. I mean, this is what our footprint looked like when we were there. When we were there broadcasting for AfroTech, and we appreciate AfroTech, you know, supporting us and assisting us with that.

But when we went in there broadcasting, you know, we made it perfectly clear how we wanted everything to look. And we wanted people to understand that when we walked into that space and then they saw what we were doing. saw our coverage that they understood. And so this right here was the video. And you see right here when we were there, you see right here how we had our footprint, our 18-foot crane, our switchers, and our sliders, and all those things.

Y'all, that's what this thing is all about. So that's why your support is critical, because we are trying to elevate our game. We do not want Rollin Martin unfilter, and all the shows in the Black Star Network in 2006 to look like anything we did in the last seven years. We're upgrading our cameras, robotic cameras, robotic cameras on the road,

and so we're doing a whole lot of that. And so trust me, when you give, you know, we appreciate every single dollar, and we put every single dollar to use. And so if you want to support us via cash, the app, the Stripe Curate Code, shit right here, bottom left-hand corner. PayPal's R Martin unfiltered,

Venmo's RM unfiltered, Zail, Roland at, Rolins, Martin.com, at rolling at rolling mark unfiltered.com. Check some money order, make you payable to Rollin Martin Unfiltered. Pia Box 5-7196, Washington, D.C. 2,003-7-1-196. Download the Blastard Network app, Apple Phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox 1, Samsung Smart TV.

You can sit on all those platforms. We're going to give you, I think, I think, we will no longer be, we're switching over our app from another company. I don't believe we're going to be on Xbox 1. I'll let y'all know that. If you want to get my book, White Fear, the Browning of America is making white folks lose their minds, please do so.

Get it at bookstores and online everywhere. Download the audio version I read on Audible. Get our Black Star Network gear. Somebody sent me in text and said, hey, are you selling those shirts? Don't blame me of a black woman. Absolutely. You can get that T-shirt at Shop Blackstar Network.com.

All the products to my left, these are all black-owned products. If you want to get Christmas gifts, please support these folks right here and go to Shop Blackstar Network. and peruse all of our products, and you can actually support these black-owned businesses, and we support them, you support us.

And don't forget, folks, you've got seven hours left, less than seven hours if you want to invest in fan base. They're close to $17 million raise. It's at $15.9. It's actually at $16 million. They're in the final stretch as we speak. And so if you want to invest, start engine.com, for slash, start engine.com,

again, start engine.com, 4 slash fanbase. StartEngine.com forward slash fanbase. You see it right here, folks, and check that out. And, of course, download the app fanbase as well. Folks, that's it. I'll see you tomorrow right here, Rollermark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be.

So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards. success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at soundedouttogether.org. That's sounded out together.org. Brought to you by the ad council and pivotal. Social media trend is slanding some Gen Z ears in jail. The progressive media

darling whose public meltdown got her fired and the massive TikTok boycott against Target that actually makes no sense. You won't hear about these online stories in the mainstream media, but you can keep up with them and all. all the other entertaining and outrageous things happening online in media and in politics with the Brad versus Everyone podcast. Listen to the Brad versus Everyone podcast on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the winner of the IHeart Podcast Award is you can decide who takes home the 26 IHeart Podcast Awards podcast of the year by voting at IHeart Podcast Awards. Now through February 22nd. See all the nominees and place your vote at IHeart Podcasts.

Podcastawards.com. Audible is a proud sponsor of the Audible Audio Pioneer Award. Explore the best selection of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals all in one easy app. Audible. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free trial at audible.com. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.