#RolandMartinUnfiltered - DC Juneteenth Celebration; OH cop runs over man after he was shot; St. Louis gun couple plead guilty

Episode Date: June 19, 2021

6.18.21 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: DC Juneteenth Celebration; OH cop runs over man after he was shot; Cop found guilty of beating undercover Black police officer; Cop St. Louis gun couple plead guilty; Dr. Ramona H. Edelin details why we need more charter schools; Actor Omar Gooding talks "AM Radio"Support #RolandMartinUnfiltered via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfiltered#RolandMartinUnfiltered 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. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. June 18, 2021. Coming up, I'm Roland Martin on the filter. We are broadcasting live from this field right across from the MLK Memorial, where the National Juneteenth celebration will be taking place here tonight. So we tried with some people here as we, of course, get prepared tomorrow to celebrate Juneteenth all across the country. Also on today's show, a new book out says Donald Trump laments criminal justice reform because he said the blacks are not going to vote for me anyway because they don't like me. That's about the one true thing he actually has said. We don't like you, Donald.

We'll break it down with my panel. Also on today's show, we'll be joined by actor Omar Gooding, starring in a couple of movies you can catch online. Also in our Educations Matters segment, we'll talk with a D.C. woman who's fighting hard for public charter schools. Folks, it's a jam-packed show. We've got lots to talk about. It's time to bring the funk, Juneteenth style, on Roller Mark Unfiltered. Let's go. He's got it.

Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks, he's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all It's Rolling Martin

Rolling with rolling now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real The best you know, he's Rolling Martin Now He's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling. Martel now. Martel. All right, folks, glad to have all of you here. We're at West Potomac Park here in the nation's capital, located right across the street from the MLK Memorial and also, of course, Cater Corner to the Lincoln Memorial in the nation's capital. There's going to be a Juneteenth celebration event taking place tonight.

That's why we are here. I'm going to be actually speaking there a little bit later as well, and so we're looking forward to that and so glad to be out here. Of course, tomorrow is officially Juneteenth, and those of us you see me sitting here wear my Juneteenth shirt, breaking every chain since 1865. And so, of course, now with the president signing, making Juneteenth a national holiday.

And so we look forward to that. And it's a lot of things we want to talk about on the show. Folks are still talking about that issue and raising the point about Juneteenth. And there were some tweets that I saw that I thought were interesting. I saw Mark Anthony Neal write, you know, who actually asked for Juneteenth to be a national holiday with all the other issues that we had. I had to reply to him, well, hell, folks like me did. And we discussed this on our show yesterday.

And, you know, it just, I still really don't understand why we can't walk and chew gum at the same time and what the issue is. And look, I get more like anyone else the issues that matter to us, the things that are important to us. But I read that quote yesterday from Texas, the late Texas State Representative Al Edwards, where he talked about Juneteenth. What people don't understand is how Juneteenth was used and how it was used for the purpose of registering folks to vote, talking about the issues of freedom. All of those things are critically important.

It's important for us to also recognize them. And so it boggles the mind. I just look at some of the reaction from some black folks. I've been seeing it all on social media. I mentioned a representative Al Edwards, late Al Edwards. He passed away last year at the age of 83. He was the one that fought to make Juneteenth a state holiday in Texas. It happened in 1980. And I wanted to share with our viewers some video that we found of him speaking and speaking on the issue of Juneteenth. Go ahead and roll that. Well, that was I do want to show. So there's this actual video of of State Representative Al Edwards.

And, again, the thing that I want people to understand, and everybody understand, Juneteenth wasn't always treated in Texas like it was a big barbecue party, let's go all line dance, have some barbecue and have a good time. No, it actually is Freedom Day. Other places call it Emancipation Day. Other places talk about how we use that. And so to me, that's really where we should be. How are we going to use Juneteenth to advance our issues, our causes? See, that's why I think it's silly when you see

these people sitting here saying, oh, you know, this really is no big deal. No, the question is, what do you actually do with it? That's the real question. How do we use it as a mobilizing opportunity? Do exactly what the people in Texas have done for years, for decades. Use it as a day to actually speak to and advocate for the freedom and the advancement of our people. My panel is Terrain Walker, founder of Context Media, Caleb Bethel, Communication Strategist, Brittany Lee Lewis, Political Analyst. Brittany, you know, on that point, again, I'm somebody native Texan.

I know what this holiday has meant to us in Texas. I know how it has spread. And so when I look at all of these folks making all these ridiculous, dumbass comments on social media, you know, like, you know, who asked for this? Maybe those folks need to ask folks from Texas, how did y'all actually use Juneteenth? What did y'all actually do with it? And that's the thing that is just crazy to me, that people who make it is they don't even understand how it was used to advance black politics, advance black

business, advance, advance black culture in Texas. Absolutely, Roland. It's really unfortunate. You know, you hit the nail on the head. We've had way too many ancestors and just current elders, many of whom you've had on this show over the years, fight to get this special day recognized. Think of Miss Opal Lee. You know, she's currently hailed as the grandmother of Juneteenth. We know that she collected over a million signatures to make Juneteenth a federal holiday. I think of Lula Briggs Galloway, who began hosting the Juneteenth Festival in Michigan all the way back in the 1990s. And then, of course, I think of Reverend Dr. Ronald Myers, Sr., who was the founder and chairman of the National Juneteenth Holiday Campaign and president of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation. And he helped really lay the groundwork for the federal holiday. And he was instrumental in passing Juneteenth legislation in 45 states and D.C. So,

you know, because of the work of our people, I'm extremely excited that this day has finally arrived. And you hit the nail on the head. We can chew bubblegum and walk at the same time. We know we need material changes to go along with this. And we can use this holiday now that it is recognized as a federal holiday to make and continue to demand that those changes take place. You know, Kelly, again, as somebody, we celebrated this every day growing up. I'm 52 years old. And even before it became a state holiday, it was a day that black Texans acknowledge. But we used it differently.

We used it as an opportunity to have panels, to have discussions, to have, it wasn't, we didn't do Juneteenth like white folks did July 4th, where it's fireworks and apple pie and partisan, we are good. No, it was an actual day of freedom day for black people. And maybe what we need to do is have folks understand that we need to be using it as a freedom day, as an organizing day, as a mobilizing day, as a voter registration day, as an education day, as an empowerment day. We should be sitting here talking about how do we actually advance black economics? We talked about going to Tulsa and black wall street. Okay. How are we talking about how do we do that versus sitting here bitching and moaning about it? I understand your point in that in Texas, Juneteenth was used as basically a day of service,

but Juneteenth in Texas means more to Texans because it occurred in Texas. So I understand people's concern and apprehension about this becoming a holiday. I have no problem with it. I'm actually quite excited about it. And I will be doing my best to use this as a day of service. But with all of that said, it still feels like symbolism always comes before or in lieu of what we actually ask. Again, I'm not disagreeing with you regarding what Juneteenth should be used for, but people right now are likening Juneteenth to MLK

Day in that you don't really see a whole lot of service on MLK Day on a national scale. You see sales, you see parties, you see a lot of symbolism. And considering the fact that we have on the table a Voting Rights Act, on the table a Police Reform Act, and all of that has basically been ignored for the sake of Biden signing the Juneteenth proclamation that it will be a federal holiday, I can understand people's hurt and almost dismissiveness of the work that people put into making this a federal holiday because what they see is the symbolism and not what the symbolism can be used for but here's the question i have then for those people who are doing the complaining what work have they done to actually get those things see that's the

difference here see i i love folks who want to comment on something but to what britney laid out there'll be people who've actually put in the work regarding the particular holiday the issue with the holiday is not the holiday is what you do with the holiday for the people who have who say we are we aren't doing enough for a bou-K Day, I then say, well, what are you actually doing? See, I'm not sitting here worried about what white folks are going to do. I'm not wondering what they're going to do on Juneteenth Day. My deal is, how are we, as black people, how are we going to use it?

How are we going to use that day off? How are we going to empower? That's the piece right there. And I am just as, first of all, I am even more fervent when it comes to the issue of voting, when it comes to the federal government changing what happens when it comes to black folks getting contracts. And so it's a difference to me if folks were only focused on the holiday. Our deal is not to go oh this ain't about symbolism no the question is what's the pressure being brought to bear on politicians in congress and let me be real clear here we're talking about the george floyd justice act

congress we're talking about uh the issue of hr1 uh 1, John Lewis Act, Congress. There are fundamental issues in state capitals, in county governments, in city halls, at school boards. And so when I see the people complaining about this, I'm still saying, what are they doing, Brittany, to mobilize and organize to deal with all of those issues in their neighborhood, in their city, in their county, in their state? Yeah, you know, absolutely, Roland. I think we got to find a balance here. And I say, you know, we can't contribute to the erasure of our own historical figures. Right. And I think that's what's getting lost here is not recognizing not only all of our ancestors and our elders who have worked to make Juneteenth a holiday, and people have put in

labor, I mean labor, decade after decade to really get this recognized, and then to also recognize that we can use this. We can't always depend on Congress. And I love the point that you made, what are we doing on a day-to-day basis and how can we mobilize Juneteenth? Or like you said, in Texas, I know Texas has very special celebrations, but how can we now continue to mobilize this on a national level for our community to make those changes that we want to see? Because we know that Congress hasn't been dedicated to making the material changes that we need. And of course, I recognize there is an irony in the fact that we are seeing Juneteenth become a federal holiday, and yet we are seeing this banning of critical race theory and conversations of racism in our classrooms to even be able to begin to teach the history of Juneteenth

and why this is so important. But that doesn't mean that we need to take away from this historic moment. And it certainly doesn't mean that we cannot, like you've said, utilize this day to make those necessary changes and to do everything that we can within our community to fight for, to continue to fight, because we have been fighting, but to continue to fight to make those changes. So we need to be able to recognize and do both. And Kelly, for the people out there who have no clue how congress operates i might want to remind them congress passes some symbolic bills every day they vote on renaming post offices

they vote on resolutions they vote on stuff like this every single day. To me, for every person who's whining about, oh, who asked for this, why this, I'm still asking people directly, how many U.S. senators have you called? Have you called your own U.S. senators? I don't care if they're Republican. There are two Republican senators in Texas. Senator John Cornyn was a sponsor in the Senate of the Juneteenth bill. Black folks in Texas should be calling Cornyn saying, OK, thanks for the Juneteenth bill. How are you going to vote on H.R. 1?

How are you going to vote on the George Floyd Justice Act? See, that's the deal. I think it's a whole bunch of people who are real good at commenting on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, who ain't picked the damn phone up, who ain't sent no email. They went to one damn rally. They have not signed up for nothing, but they want to complain about Juneteenth getting passed. That's what I'm saying. I'm saying I want to challenge them. What are you doing on these other issues if that's what you care about? Sure. I mean, again, there will always be a sect of people who don't do anything except complain about the issues at hand, right? But there are still people out there who are doing everything that you said, everything that for racial equity, their campaigns for these initiatives

that are on the floor of not just Congress, but their own state legislatures as well. Everything got pushed to the side for the sake of symbolism. And that is my point. It's not that people are going to complain. I'm not worried about the people who complain and do nothing. I'm worried about Kelly. That's wrong. Kelly, that's wrong. Kelly, what you just said is wrong. You said everything got pushed aside. No, they are literally right now negotiating, still negotiating. The George Floyd Justice Act right now, you've got Senator Manchin who's come out. No, no, no, no. When we say pushed aside, those things are actually happening.

Let's also remind people this could have passed last year. Only one U.S. senator stood up and blocked it, Senator Ron Johnson. So it's not like, oh, this thing just popped up. So if it passed last year, we're still in the exact same position. It's still a battle over the George Floyd Justice Act. It's still a battle over the voting right over H.R.1 as well as John Lewis Act. And for all the people out there who keep saying, well, Biden, he's been president more than 100 days. I got to remind them how long it took to get the Fair Housing Act.

Guess what? Our history has shown it ain't like bills got passed easily. I completely understand what you're saying, and I'm not disputing that. All I'm talking about is the perception of it all. It is perceived that these bills have been put to the wayside. It has been perceived that our needs and our desires as Black people in this country to just be on the same footing as our white counterparts, all of that has been pushed to the side. I'm not saying that it has been, but that is the perception when you see bills that have been on the floor for months and years, and when you see people who have been on the front lines for years for those initiatives, all for the symbolism to take over, and yet the initiatives themselves being rejected.

I'm not saying that the initiatives themselves have been abandoned. I'm not saying that they're not still being negotiated. What I'm saying is, even though it took a long time for Juneteenth to get here as a federal holiday, the perception is that it overrode everything that we've been doing this year in the past couple years under 45. So again, I agree with you that people who are complaining need to stop, especially if they're not doing anything. But the perception of symbolism overriding work, that is the issue here. Here's my perception that's also a fact. It's a bunch of lazy ass people who spend more time talking and complaining than actually putting in work. Talk to any pastor. They'll tell you 20% of the people in the church do the work for the other 80%. And in our community, it's the

exact same way. I'm right now. So here's the deal. For every person who is sitting here bitching and moaning about Juneteenth, today Black Voters Matter is beginning their caravan from Mississippi all the way to the nation's capital. They're starting today in Mississippi, and they're going to end here in the nation's capital June 26th. There are various cities. So here's the deal. Let me just go ahead and call them out for the people, again, who live in these particular places, who, again, who are talking all this smack. I want to know where y'all at. And let me be real clear.

And my deal is I ain't somebody might say, well, man, you're taking this thing personal. No, what I'm taking personal, what I'm taking personal are people who put nothing on the line except a tweet. Who say nothing except post on Facebook. Who do nothing but comment on Instagram. That's the thing for me. Just like you got these black celebrities out here, they anti-vaxxers and everything else, but what the hell are they doing when it comes to health care?

What exactly are they actually doing as well? I'm simply saying it's real easy to sit here and just say, well, man, that ain't nothing. That's a waste of time. No, I dare say where we need to be is utilizing every opportunity that we have when we gather to mobilize, organize, and get our people straight. If we have Juneteenth events, we should be collecting names, collecting emails, collecting cell phones, collecting social media handles. And so then when it's time to send the call out to show up to the school board meeting and show up to the county commissioners meeting and show up to city hall and show up to the state legislature and show up to Capitol Hill. Then folks will actually do it.

Now, there's somebody who's watching me right now, Brittany, and they're saying, well, Roland, I hear you, but I can't get to D.C. Fine. You ain't got to come to D.C., but you can take your ass to the school board meeting. And then you might say, well, I don't have any kids. It don't matter because you are paying taxes and you are still a taxpayer. If that person who is sitting here who is unwilling to go to the school board meeting and a county meeting and go to the water district meeting and go to the legislature or Congress, then you are one of the people who are at 80 percent in the church who go to the church on Sunday, listen to the sermon, take your behind home, and do no other work. That, to me, is the issue. Because what we have is, when the Bible says the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, that's the problem.

It's a whole lot of stuff we got going on. We got too few laborers out here in the fields who are tilling the soil, who are doing the work. And so we got enough folk who will show up for a white party, white clothes, who will show up for other events, but will not put anything on the line for the very issues we are talking about. And Brittany, my last point here, George Floyd Justice Act that's federal most issues of police abuse are local so the question is where y'all showing up in Chicago where you're showing up in Charlotte where you're showing up in St. Louis where you're showing up in Houston where you're

showing up in Baton Rouge where you're showing up in all these places. That's the issue where we got to challenge folks if they want to complain. Brittany, final comment on this. Go ahead. Yeah, well, I mean, it's hard to follow after that. You done laid it all out. You done laid everyone out, you know, in terms of what this is and what it should be and what it can be as we go forward as a community. And I think it's important for us to remember that Juneteenth marks just one moment in the struggle for emancipation.

The holiday gives us an occasion to reflect on the profound contributions of enslaved Black Americans to the cause of human freedom. And we need to continue in that tradition of ensuring that we are doing everything possible to ensure, you know, the furthest vision possible that our ancestors could have imagined of our liberation. Go work, Kelly, go work.

Kelly, go ahead with your final comment here. No, again, I agree with everything you just said. Like Benny said, you just laid it all out. All I want to caution people on is the perception of this bill being signed ahead of everything else. Again, I'm not saying that the work hasn't been put in to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, but it is about what you do with it now that it is a federal holiday. Are you going to sleep like you do on July 4th and just do cookouts, or are you actually going to do something of service, which is what June 10th is all about in the first place?

Well, again, that's the whole issue we want to see there, folks. We actually interviewed my man, Arthur Gerald Horn, and told us something amazing yesterday. We're going to try to pull that for you. Some facts of what took place on June 19, 1965. I had not even heard. So we look forward to actually doing that. Going to go to a commercial break, folks. We come back. We're going to talk about some other issues of the day.

That voting bill, this compromise. Now we have Beto O'Rourke and others who are coming out endorsing this Senator Joe Manchin compromise. Is that actually good for black people? We'll discuss it next right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from the nation's capital on this Juneteenth weekend. We'll be back in a moment. I believe that people our age have

lost the ability to focus the discipline on the art of organizing. The challenges, there's so many of them and they're complex. And we need to be moving to address them. But I'm able to say, watch out Tiffany. I know this road.

That is so freaking dope. Racial injustice is a scourge on this nation. And the Black community has felt it for generations. We have an obligation to do something about it. Whether it's canceling student debt, increasing the minimum wage, or investing in Black-owned businesses, the Black community deserves so much better.

I'm Nina Turner, and I'm running for Congress to do something about it. Sixty years ago, the Freedom Riders rode buses to fight against segregation. They won. And now, as voter suppression is sweeping the country, we're riding out again. Join the Blackest Bus in America and hundreds of organizations on a week-long freedom ride for voting rights from June 18th to June 26th. Come out to our rallies in New Orleans, Jackson, Birmingham, Nashville, Atlanta, Columbia, Raleigh, Charleston, Richmond, and Washington, D.C. If you can't join us in the event on the route, you can just meet us in D.C. on June 26th.

Or if you can't ride at all, then show your solidarity by hosting a rally right in your own town on June 26th. No matter where you are, everybody can be a Freedom Rider. To learn how to get involved, text FREEDOMRIDE to 797979. We got power, y'all, and we're bringing it to D.C. -♪ George Floyd's death hopefully put another nail in the call for the racism.

You talk about awakening America, it led to a historic summer of protest. I hope our younger generation don't ever forget that nonviolence is soul force. Christ. I believe that it's movement time again. In America today, the economy is not working for working people. The poor and the needy are being abused. You are the victims of power, and this is the abuse of economic power. I'm 23 years old. I work three jobs.

Work seven days a week, no days off. They're paying people pennies on the dollar compared to what they profit. And it is time for this to end. Essential workers have been showing up to work, feeding us, caring for us, delivering goods to us throughout this entire pandemic. And they've been doing it on a measly $7.25 minimum wage. The highest check I ever got was literally $291. I can't take it no more. You know, the fight for 15 is a lot more than about $15 an hour. This is about a fight for your dignity. We have got to recognize that working people deserve livable wages.

And it's long past time for this nation to go to 15, so that moms and dads don't have to choose between asthma inhalers and rent. I'm halfway homeless. The main reason that people end up in their cars is because income does not match housing cost. If I could just only work one job, I could have more time with them. It is time for the owners of Walmart, McDonald's, Dollar General, and other large corporations to get off welfare and pay their workers a living wage. And if you really want to tackle racial equity, you have to raise the minimum wage.

We're not just fighting for our families, we're fighting for yours too. We need this. I'm gonna fight for it till we get it. I'm not gonna give up. We just need all of us to stand up as one nation and just fight together. Families are relying on these salaries

and they must be paid at a minimum $15 an hour. $15 a minimum, anyone should be making this and be able to stay out of poverty i can't take it no more i'm doing this for not only me but for everybody we need 15 right now i'm proud of the officers i worked with on January 6th. They fought extremely hard. Our worst nightmare really come true, an attack on American democracy right here in the nation's capital. I experienced the most brutal, savage, hand-to-hand combat of my entire life.

I received chemical burns to my face that still have not healed to this day. I just remember people still swinging metal poles at us, and they were pushing and shoving. They were spraying us with, you know, bear mace and pepper spray. They were all shouting at us, calling us traitors. It's been very difficult seeing elected officials and other individuals whitewash the events of that day or downplay what happened.

As an American and as an Army veteran, it's sad to see us attacked by our fellow citizens. Ah. -♪ -♪ Yo, what's up? This your boy Ice Cube. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks.

All right, folks. Welcome back. Roller Mart Unfiltered broadcasting live from West Potom Park, where they're having the Juneteenth celebration here. In a moment, we're going to talk about this new voting proposal. But first, our Essence Fest throwback. Of course, you're going to have the festival taking place, virtual festival this year on two weekends. And so here's a throwback to one of the great moments that we had before. Check it out.

Amari, this is totally different from season one. It's crazy. Why? Because Ghost is unraveling? No! Just the reaction from people. It's crazy. Yeah, we slowly... I feel like Curtis said it best when he said

we paced ourselves properly. Whereas other shows have in the past and will in the future blow their wad like in three episodes, we paced ourselves properly. Whereas other shows have in the past and will in the future blow their wad like in, what, three episodes? We paced not only over one season, but over five seasons. So we allowed the fan base to ride,

but keep enough distance from them so they had to kind of stay in it in terms of who done it and how whoever done it did it. So I think we've kept enough mystery and we paced ourselves good. And of course, Ghost being the character that I play is as convoluted and as complex as that

mother sucker has ever, ever been. And I take it the church ladies at your mama church are happy you're keeping your clothes on. I'm happy. Because a year ago... Two years ago. We talked. Oh, two years ago. Oh, a year ago. I'm a two years ago. We talked. Two years ago.

Oh, a year ago. Yes. We talked about episode three, two, and one. I mean, season three, two, and one. Yes. Season four, I was good. I got to be in jail. Yes. The only thing that my clothes.

No clothes coming off in jail. No. Just the orange jumpsuit instead of the suit. But now I'm enjoying this moment where Timmy has to be that. That. And Joseph has to be that. It's nice. It's nice for people to pay attention to the suit. But now I'm enjoying this moment where Timmy has to be that. And Joseph has to be that. It's nice. It's nice for people to pay attention to the acting. Yes.

It's nice for people to pay attention to the acting. Well, bro, you're killing it. Thank you, brother. You're killing it. And, folks, don't forget the Essence Festival of Culture, a virtual experience we take in place virtually this year on Essence.com, EssenceStudios.com, June 25th through 27th, and July 2nd through the 4th. And so we certainly appreciate partnering with Coca-Cola on this and looking forward. And we'll have, of course, recap shows on that Monday, June 28th and, of course, on July 5th.

All right, folks, let's talk voting. Things are happening on the congressional level where Senator Joe Manchin's voting compromise is picked up in support from federal award DNC chair Jamie Harrison. Both of them are saying this is progress that Manchin is stepping forward. Now, let me be real clear, y'all. Why all of a sudden is Senator Joe Manchin now trying to craft a compromise. I'll tell you why. When he catching that heat from those protesters, Kelly, in West Virginia, Reverend Dr. William Barber and the Poor People's Campaign out there putting pressure on him. It's real easy to say, oh, I'm not going to support this. And remember, he was all about absolutely how he was adamant

about not ending the filibuster. Yet this leaked audio call came out when he was talking with some billion, billion, billionaire donors about, oh, how he might lower the threshold from 60 to 55 and stuff along those lines. And it's like, so now all of a sudden, now you want to talk about some compromise, but there are others. Cliff Brown, of course, Cliff, Cliff Albright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, Latashabright, co-founder of Black Voters Matter.

Latasha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter. They say, sorry, this compromise still not good enough. And so that's the thing. Not Democrats simply cannot accept. weakening and kowtowing to Republicans who want a national voter ID, as well as who want to get rid of absentee voting in terms of being able to, you know, versus having an excuse. They want to stop that. They see what's going on, Kelly. They saw what happened in Georgia. They want to try to limit voting as much as they can.

Democrats cannot accept that. And I'm sorry. I'm not buying that have low full low crap. If it's a bad bill with bad provisions, if it's if it's still going to be bad for us, the answer has to be no. I mean, that makes sense, right? Because if it's not good, it's just not good. A Voting Rights Act bill needs to be comprehensive and it needs to actually fix what is broken. Manchin's bill doesn't do that. But what I found even more interesting is how, you know, Manchin has been pushing for compromise, pushing for bipartisanship, like swearing up and down, if we can just, you know, tweak this and do that and just meet them somewhere in the middle. And this bill, you know, being completely objective, it actually did that. I'm not agreeing with what the bill did, but as far as meeting people in the middle and actually

having some negotiating points in this bill, Manchin did a pretty good job in trying to do that. And Republicans still said no. So that just shows you how unwilling the Republicans are to compromise and to actually do their job such that it makes everybody's lives better. And Manchin not understanding this is completely frustrating, regardless of whether he, you know, comes to the table with a better bill or not. Republicans have already said they're not willing to negotiate. So if Democrats can just be as hard-headed as Republicans are on this issue, I think we might actually get somewhere in getting what we want. But compromising with the Republicans, as Manchin just proved, it's not going to cut it.

It's not going to do that. And here's the thing here. I don't think for a second you're going to see Republicans support this. Not only that, Brittany, things are going to come to a head next Tuesday because Senator Chuck Schumer is going to force a vote on the For the People Act. Now, the 10 votes are not there. Kristen Sinema, I don't know what the hell she's doing, but this is where Senator Schumer is right. The For the People Act is polling nearly at 70 percent. Force every Republican to go on record. And you also force Sinema and Manchin to see what they're going to do. This is what you have to do. I'm of the belief that you only put a

bill up for vote because if only you know you're going to win. No, sometimes you got to put something on the record to force folks to put their name next to it. Yeah, absolutely. That forces, like you said, it forces them to go on record and it forces them to take a very public stance so their constituents can see if they're actually voting in favor of what they want. I agree with Kelly in terms of meeting in the middle. I don't agree. But, you know, automatic voter registration, making Election Day a holiday holiday mandating at least 15 days of early voting

for federal elections I mean he did he did put some things on the table there and I thought it was even more interesting that Stacey Abrams and we know her to be the high profile voting rights activist came out in favor of the measure so I'm glad that it's hitting the floor I'm glad that they have to take a vote I don't think

I mean we know it's not going to pass I mean Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said. I got to correct you. Yeah. Hold up, hold up, Brittany. I got to correct you because what happened was when she gave the interview on CNN, they put out Stacey Abrams supports the compromise. She then came out and clarified that because Sherrilyn Ifill tweeted this.

I presume that Stacey Abrams meant that Manchin's proposals were a first step. Election day as a holiday, counting provisional ballots regardless of precinct and others are great. But there are serious questions. Does the proposal purport to mandate federal voter ID? Stacey then responded, correct. I applaud a necessary step towards action and agree with many of the principles of registration, access, plus counting votes. But as we know, getting this done will require more debate and engagement. Hashtag hot call summer continues until voters gets the democracy we deserve.

Hashtag FTPA. So we got to be real careful when mainstream media goes. See, see, see, this is why black media matters. That makes more sense. Because I'm looking, I'm like, really, Stacey? All the work that you do and you're fully behind this? That makes a lot of sense. But I think going to Kelly's point earlier, I think that it's really important here that this opens up Manchin's eyes because at the end of quote-unquote states' rights and the fact that he didn't like federal overreach, which we know is a joke.

So I really hope Manchin jumps on the correct way with the rest of the Democrats and what Stacey Abrams has essentially argued, that this really still isn't enough. And that's the thing, Kelly. We just got to be mindful how mainstream media tries to spin this stuff so-and-so supports no some people say this is progress support means yo i'm down with with

the proposal no they're saying i didn't see more in it so we just gotta be real careful when people say somebody supports it yeah that's my point regarding Manchin's bill itself. It had good pieces of it in there. And you know this, and hopefully some of your audience know this, when it comes to creating bills, especially in Congress, the first draft is usually never going to have absolutely everything in it such that it is ready to go and be signed right away. You negotiate. You put some pieces in there that could be used, could not be used, something that other congressmen can think about so that they can tweak it. And Manchin did that. The fact that people are saying,

oh, Stacey Abrams supported it, I mean, I knew that wasn't true 100 percent on its face. But Republicans are taking that and running with it like they do everything else. They take that millimeter and make it two miles. And that's exactly what's happening here. Stacey Abrams did not endorse this bill as it is right now, specifically because it was talking about voter ID laws. And frankly, as we all know, Stacey Abrams was not for that. But when it comes to making it a federal holiday and the other proposals that Manchin put out there,

there's some wiggle room there. But again, Republicans are not here for wiggle room. They're not here for compromise. They're not here to negotiate. They're here to destroy and complicate and roadblock anything that Democrats put at the table because they want power. And they know that the only way they can preserve power is to make sure that no one else is able to exercise it. They're not even trying to do anything with the power. They're just trying to preserve it within their own party because they know that once Democrats get their hands on it, it's over for them. Well, I think bottom line is this is

what's going to happen here, Brittany. Mitch McConnell's going to tell his caucus, y'all going to stand strong. They're not going to find 10 votes. And again, I keep saying, Brittany, tell Joe Manchin, where the 10? You keep hollering, okay, compromise, bipartisanship. Show me the 10 Republicans. I don't believe they exist. He can't find them rolling because they don't.

We know that they don't. Literally, he's quoted as basically saying that the Senate Republicans would vote against Manchin's compromise. Period. It ain't happening. We know that. The Republicans are planning to block any and everything that the Democrats put forward because they already know we can't get any additional power, and they're trying to get power and keep power by any means necessary.

They've been playing hardball. So I hope the Democrats start playing hardball back, and I hope Manchin gets over this whole bipartisan stuff because it ain't happening. Yeah, no, it's not happening. So we just want folks just to understand, don't fall for the okey-doke. We know what's going on here. But again, this is where pressure still matters. This is where the few black folks in West Virginia get with them broke white folks

and put that pressure on his behind. June 24th, they're going to be rallying in D.C. against Senator Joe Manchin as well. He needs to feel he is always saying, I'm going to vote alone. My constituents find they're going to be bringing the poor people's campaign and be bringing bus loads of people from the nation's capital from excuse me, from West Virginia to the nation's capital to put pressure directly on him. And so that needs to happen. Our folks, well, Black Voters Matter, that caravan starts today.

They're going to be hitting all those states, holding rallies in each one of those states. Same thing. And I know people sitting out here, Kelly, who, again, you got Reds, you got two Republican senators from North Carolina, okay? You got two South Carolina from North Carolina, okay? You got two South Carolina.

But if you black, still call them. They still need to hear your voice. They still need to see your email. Call them every single day. Blow their phone lines up. Clog their lines up. Stop them from doing some work. Pressure matters.

I mean, pressure matters anywhere, but specifically when it comes to congressional action. I used to intern for Elijah Cummings in Maryland, and those phones would blow up every single day. Like his district did not let up. They did not play when it came to anything that was coming down the pike in Congress. And it showed me as a younger person who was still in school just how powerful constituents' voices are. Because we only see them on TV and we see what they do whenever it's televised

in their chambers and what have you. But it's something to be said when you realize that your voice matters. There's something to be said when you realize that your voice matters. There's something to be said when you pick up the phone and you actually get the congressman on the other line and he's listening to you or she's listening to you. They do that. You're not just gonna pick up a receptionist sometimes.

You're not just gonna hear some voicemail box or whatever. Sometimes they'll actually pick up the phone and talk with you. A lot of the times they do that. You will get a response to that email. Sometimes you will get a response to that voicemail. Your voice matters. And the pressure necessary to actually make sure that their voices reflect your voice because you put them there as voters, that's super important. It's super important. It is vital to this democracy and the way that this government runs. And the sooner more people

understand that, the better off we will all be as constituents and voters and citizens in this country. Well, absolutely. So we'll certainly see what's going to happen next. I was going to talk about this story out of Ohio, folks. Imagine calling 911 for help, and then the cop who gets there runs you over. Yeah, that's what happened to a man in Springfield, Ohio. Eric Cole was lying in the middle of the road as he fearfully talked to 911 dispatchers about an altercation that left him wounded. Okay? Listen to this. This is a 911 call.

Ma'am, please come and 911 call. Ma'am? Please come and get me. Where are you? Where are you? I'm 7th Center Boulevard. I'm on 10th Boulevard. What happened? Yeah, I'm up the gun.

What happened? Somebody shot me. Where are you shot at? Somebody shot me. Where are you? What's your name? In my arm. Somebody shot me.

Okay. What's your name? I'm fine. What's your name? Somebody shot me. Okay, what's your name? What's your name, hon? Hello? What is it? My name is Pete. Pete? Pete. Pete? Yeah, I'm dying. I'm dying. Who shot you, man? I'm dying. Who shot you? I'm dying. I don't know who shot me. I'm dying. Okay. Are you inside or outside? I'm dying. Okay. Are you inside or outside? I'm outside in the street.

I'm in the middle of the street. Okay. You have no idea who shot you? Huh? You have no idea who shot you? I don't know. You don't know who shot you, sir? I'm about to die.

Okay. I got help for you. I have help for you, okay? I'm about to die. I'm about to die. Sir? I'm about to die. I'm about to die. I'm about to sir? I'm about to die. Okay. I got help for you. I have help for you, okay? I'm about to die.

I'm about to die. Tell me, sir. I'm about to die. Who shot you? I'm about to die. I don't know. I'm about to die. I'm about to die.

We have help for you, okay? Okay? I'm about to die. Can I get your phone number, sir? I don't know my number. Okay. I'm about to die. I'm about to die.

I'm about to die. I'm about to die. I'm about to die. I'm about to die. I'm about to die. I'm about to die. help for you okay okay can i get your phone number sir i don't know my number okay okay Who hit you? The police. The police hit you? Yeah. You hear the 911 dispatcher's shock. The police hit you? Yes. Officer Amanda Rosales was behind the wheel of a police cruiser that actually ran over him.

Cole was rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead from his injuries. During a news conference, things between Eric Cole's family and Springfield Police Chief Lee Graff got real heated as the family demanded transparency from authorities. It was no remorse, and nothing was said when I ran down to the scene. Your officer told me, and it was not a female officer, it was a man officer. Your son just been shot. Never once was I told that an officer ran over my son. Why? It was a two-day late time. Why did we hide it?

I should have been warned to that the same night. Why did we hide it? I should have been warned to that the same night. Why did we hide it, Scott? Like the hospital told me that my son was ran over. The gunshot wound was not his death. It was because of being ran over. And your father's wife. We're being transparent with everything here. Why was that hidden?

She claimed she didn't see him. She seen him from center and parent. She slowed down twice. She stopped that little Joe's. She stopped again in front of that tree, and she kept going. There's no way that she did not see him. And I seen the video from sinner and parent from when she ran him over.

She had to see him. There's no way. I watched her. I watched the whole video. She stopped. She slowed down. Then she went and she ran him over. Like, excuse my language. There's no way in hell that she did not freaking see him.

I seen him before. She ran him over. He had on a bright white shirt like me with light blue jeans. He never had on dark clothes. My brother made a 911 call. He was on the phone with dispatch saying he was in the middle of the street. We found out two days later he was ran over. We think the gun people that shot him ran him over, but the Springfield Police Department ran ran over. We think the gun people, the shot hill ran him over, but the

Springfield Police Department ran him over. So yes, we're upset. You know what I mean? Like, we all upset because y'all see it as an accident. I don't. I watched the video. She stopped twice, y'all. Y'all seen what we see.

Y'all see it. They see it. And everybody out here sees it. Officer Rosales has been placed on administrative leave. Cole's cause of death has not been released. I mean, that has to be just shocking and stunning, Brittany, for the family. Honestly, Roland, I can't even imagine. I mean, again, it just goes to show you who they are, who they are actually, quote unquote, protecting and serving. And what also is very clear is that cops lie to protect each other. Payment will never be enough.

We know that the department clearly needs to pay, but payment will never be enough and payment will never bring this man's life back. And what's so unfortunate, you know, like she said in the video, she's thinking that this man's life was taken from a gunshot wound and it was actually taken because the cop ran him over. And, you know, I haven't seen the video footage. I don't think we have it yet. But the fact that she stopped twice, you know, my guess is whether she meant to do it or not, the complete disregard for life, because once she did hit him did she stop did she do anything to save him i mean this is it it's the same old it makes me sick to my stomach rolling uh it's just it's i mean it's just be it's beyond sad kelly and you know we don't know if he died from being run over yeah i was about to uh make the point regarding what Brittany just said, because I still haven't

heard whether the officer stayed on scene with him. He sounded like he was alone. He was disoriented and he was literally saying his last words on a 911 tape, trying to convey to 911 what exactly happened. The fact that we don't know what has happened yet regarding this issue, again, whenever police have done something questionable or outright wrong, we always get the tape later. We always get the full story later, as opposed to when they feel like they are completely

in the right, such as Makai Bryant's case. When she was killed by that cop, the footage was released within, I want to say, 24, 48 hours. In this case, we still haven't seen anything yet. And I don't know how long it's been, but it's been long enough for us to see some type of tape, some type of accountability measure. And we haven't seen that yet. We haven't had a statement from the officer who ran him over. We barely got a statement from the press conference. It feels like a cover-up, like these other cover-ups that we've seen over the past couple months, especially down in North Carolina with Andrew Brown's case. So again, when it comes to accountability, again, when it comes to protective measures, again, for the public's sake, regarding these officers who just want to go rogue, it is just incredibly frustrating.

But for this family specifically, it's heartbreaking. The fact that this man's last words are, I'm going to die. I cannot imagine what it's like for that family to know now that a police officer was responsible for his life, and we still don't have any measures or any tape showing her responsibility in this matter. Absolutely. Let's go to Missouri, where a St. Louis police officer accused of violently assaulting a Black undercover police officer who had faced jail time. This retrial took place regarding Dustin Boone. It was previously a mistrial. Then it was a second trial.

He was found guilty of aiding and abetting the deprivation of colleague Detective Luther Hall. Jurors could not decide if his co-defendant, Christopher Myers, was guilty of trying to destroy his cell phone, Hall's cell phone, to interfere with the investigation. Hall was working undercover at an anti-police protest in 2017 when Boone, Myers, and three other white officers arrested and beat him viciously. Hall was left permanently injured by the attack with severe damage to a disc in his neck. Boone faces up to 10 years in federal prison. Now, remember the St. Louis couple that went viral for waving their guns at protesters as they marched by their house last summer have pled guilty to separate misdemeanor charges. And Republicans came to their aid. I think that actually the guy who he's actually trying to run for the United States Senate,

Mark and Patricia McCloskey, they're not going to face jail time, but both will have to pay fines and guess what? Surrender their weapons. A special prosecutor held the ruling after St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner was removed from the case. The McCloskeys filed a motion to kick her off because Gardner used the McCloskeys in campaign material. Patricia pled guilty to misdemeanor harassment,

while her husband Mark pled guilty to misdemeanor fourth-degree assault. Well, that's what happens when you do wrong. And so they got to give their guns up. Boy, I know that pains them. Brittany, you first. I mean, who? I mean, you know they're mad, Roland. You know they're mad.

In terms of their guns, I mean, they certainly have no remorse, though. I saw that this man had the audacity when he was on the steps to say, I'd do it again. And it just goes to show you that they have no reverence for black life or protesters or black people. And like you said, he's running for a U.S. Senate seat in Missouri. He even had a new little bit of celebrity after this happened, making that appearance at the Republican National Convention. So, you know, I'm not surprised whatsoever. But I am glad that they got their weapons taken away. Kelly.

Again, I definitely am OK with the fact that their weapons were taken away, but I can't help but think that this was an entire less than a slap on the wrist. It almost feels like the court and justice system gave them a cookie for breaking the law. Further, I don't know if anybody was aware, but I believe both of them are lawyers. And even though those specific weapons were taken away, because it was a misdemeanor, they are allowed to get other weapons. So it doesn't make me feel any better that their weapons were confiscated and that they have to pay a fine or anything like that.

At the end of the day, they can still practice law. Someone can still be their client. They can still get another gun and do this again. And as Brittany just said, the man who's trying to run for Senate said that he'd do it again. So the danger is still there. Nothing really changed. And it, again, I remember when this first came out and it was just so baffling to me that they were that brazen. And to continue seeing that brazenness on trial, frankly, just shows you how pervasive whiteness is, how strong their white privilege is, considering that, frankly,

nothing really happened to them. There you go. So guess what? Got to lose their guns, see what happens, and you're not going to win a U.S. Senate seat. All right, y'all, we come back. I'm going to talk to one of the leaders in the country when it comes to charter schools here in D.C., Ramona Etlin. We're also going to talk here with Black Bach, Wes Bellamy, and others as we are broadcasting live from West Potomac Park,

where they're having the Juneteenth celebration here in the nation's capital. We'll be right back on Roller Martin Unfiltered. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. You got to deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. and unfiltered. White supremacy ain't just about hurting black folk. Right. You gotta deal with it. It's injustice. It's wrong. I do feel like in this generation we've got to do more

around being intentional and resolving conflict. You and I have always agreed. Yeah. But we agree on the big piece. Yeah. Our conflict is not

about destruction. Conflict's going to happen. Carl Payne pretended to be Roland Martin. Holla! Hi, I'm Chaley Rose, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. Getting ready for the end of school, but there are a lot of other students who still are in school who go year-round. And, of course, our students are trying to play catch-up due to COVID. My next guest is one of the folks, a huge believer in public charter schools.

She's a leader here in Washington, D.C. Many folks look to her from all across the country. She's an educator, activist, consultant. And so she was the one who actually introduced the term African-American into our vernacular. And so we certainly welcome to the show Ramona Edlin. She, of course, is the senior advisor with D.C. Charter School Alliance. Ramona, glad to see you here. You know, this really amazes me. I was having this conversation with somebody yesterday, and we were having this discussion regarding charter schools. And I said, look, I don't care what the school is. If our kids are getting educated, let's roll with it.

Roland, you have said that many, many times over the years, and I agree with you. The main thing should remain the main thing, and that is how are the students performing. And charter schools are doing remarkably better, stunningly successful with children of color from impoverished backgrounds here in the district and in other urban areas around the country. So as far as we are concerned, they have to be promoted. They have to be supported and defended because they are doing a better job with young people the whole nation is so concerned about and we are most concerned about. And for me, that's those schools that are doing the job. And when I say to people, if there's a charter school that's sucking at the job,

they got to go. Oh, absolutely. And that's the difference. They do close. If every school that did not perform well for the children that we are concerned about had to close, then we'd have a different level of accountability for many of our traditional public schools as well as charter schools. Absolutely. The bargain is higher performance for greater flexibility and freedom. But the accountability is absolutely there, and they will close. What was it that caused you to say, you know what, I got to jump out on front on this thing here. Howard Fuller has talked about sort of his moment.

George Parker has talked about his. What was that moment for you where you said, I can't keep supporting the same thing? Well, I didn't have a conversion moment quite like George's, certainly. I never headed up the union. But similar to Howard, I've been looking for 50 years now for what works

for these young people who have been left out, left behind, denigrated, stigmatized, and not educated well too often in our public systems. And this is a model of governance at the site-based level with accountability that is working. And so once I saw the results, I was convinced, and I have been doing everything in my power to support those people who are leading and operating these successful schools since I realized these data make all the difference. They're doing better by our kids. Question from our panel. I'm going to start with you, Kelly. Your question for Ramona. Thank you for doing all of the work that you've done. I guess my question to you is,

what do you perceive the solution to be for the public schools that are in existence? Any advice that you have for them? Because they're not charter schools. They don't have the same guidelines for curriculum and the like. Do you think that they can coexist with charters? And if so, what would be necessary to get them on the same par? They absolutely can coexist. And I believe that the sharing of best practices, the tearing down of these artificial walls,

you know, from the children's point of view, if you keep the main thing, the main thing, which is the students, you can have a household where one student goes to a charter school and another one goes to a traditional public school. And that from that point of view, that family, they don't care. They just knew that one fit this child's talents and this child's interests better than the other.

But there's no reason why all children shouldn't benefit from what we learn. Share these best practices and don't put up fences and guardrails that say we don't need to know. You do need to know. And one of the models is look at how each school within the building can have more of a culture and more autonomy over its own affairs, as opposed to a one-size-fits-all central administration where it may work very well in an affluent community. Those kids might be doing beautifully. They would have been doing beautifully anyway, whether they even ever came to school or not. But it's not working in a lower-income community of color where there are no relationships with families

and no real connection to the culture and history of the children. So let's give more autonomy to local schools and learn from best practices and share them. We don't want only the kids who go to charter schools to do well. We want everybody to do well. And if there's something that we've learned, then we should be sharing it. And if we're willing to share it, they should be willing to learn from it. Brittany, your question for Ramona. Yeah. First and foremost, I want to say thank you for all of the work that you've done and your commitment to students and education. But I do have a foremost, I want to say thank you for all of the work that you've done and your commitment to students and education. But I do have a question because I do understand that the origins of charter schools, you know, were to address that issue that a one size fits all model does not work.

But I worked in an impoverished charter school in Wilmington, Delaware. You know, it was 99 percent low income, 99 percent people of color. But it was essentially functioning as a business. It was made up of a board of corporate executives and with folks who had absolutely no background in education, up to and including the principal as well as the second and third in command. And I know you mentioned earlier that there was no connection to the community. It was also filled with a bunch of Teach for America folks, many of whom did not look like me or you, who had no connection to the community. We actually got into a lot of cultural debates, right, trying to correct the students, if you will, in terms of how they spoke and things like that. So I guess my question to you would be, if we continue to go with the charter school model, how do we address some of these schools? Because that school has been closed since then.

And, of course, it did a disservice to so many students that were there. So how do we address charter schools that are coming up without any real oversight in terms of who is able to establish them and who is able to run them? This is an excellent question. And it speaks to the fact that every state sets its own law. Every state has the opportunity, as you know, in the United States, the federal government has very little to do with education policy on the ground. States and districts control that. If you have a situation where there's not good authorizing oversight, you can have a

nightmare in a charter school just like you do in a traditional public school. So it must be well-governed. It must be that the law sets up a good policy environment for the kind of accountability that we've been discussing, that the families and the teachers have direct input into how the school is run, that the community supports what's going on there. And that kind of policy environment creates a space where folks can learn. If the law does not set up appropriate boundaries, it can be, and it sometimes is, not successful because of that. So, yes, you are correct. The policy environment has a great deal to do with the success of a charter school and any school. Thank you.

All right right then. Ramona, we certainly appreciate it. If somebody out there wants to start their own charter school, what resources would you recommend they go check out to get more information? The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools can help folks all over the country to understand what the different laws in the different states are and what the procedures for applications and so forth are with the authorizers. They are the national resource for people to look at from all over the country. Here in D.C., our authorizer is the D.C. Public Charter School Board, and you would go to them. Well, and actually at the National Public Charter School Alliance, I'm going to actually be moderating one of their panels, their conference is virtual next week. We'll be moderating that

panel on Monday at 1 p.m., so looking forward to it. Ramona, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, then, folks. And, of course, we have our Education Matters segment every Friday sponsored by School Choice is the Black Choice. All right, folks. Got to go to a quick break. We come back. We're going to talk here with Black Bach from the Juneteenth celebration here at West Potomac Park in Washington, D.C. on this Juneteenth weekend.

You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered, where we keep it real, keep it black, and keep it honest. Back in a moment. Before Till's murder, we saw struggle for civil rights as something grown-ups did. I feel that the generations before us have offered a lot of instruction.

Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. I'm not going to do that. Organizing is really one of the only things that gives me the sanity and makes me feel purposeful. When Emmett Till was murdered, that's what attracted our attention. And I'm Godfrey, and you're watching... Roland Martin Unfiltered. And while he's doing Unfiltered, I'm practicing the wobble. Hey, folks, Roland Martin here. We are at West Potomac Park here in the nation's capital this Juneteenth weekend, where behind me, they're actually having a Juneteenth celebration. I'm going to be speaking in about 30 minutes there.

And joining us right now is one of the artists performing, Black Bach. He's from Detroit. How you doing, man? I'm great. How are you? All good. So did y'all celebrate Juneteenth in Detroit growing up? Absolutely.

Really? Yeah. My parents were very aware of everything that happened on Juneteenth and the history behind it. And we did celebrate. And see, that's the thing that, you know, now that it's going to be a national holiday, you know, people are going to realize that. But again, for those folks like me born and raised in Texas, I mean, look, it's in our DNA. And so we've talked about this at the top of the show. There have been a lot of people whining and complaining.

You know, who asked for this? Why do we need it? And what I keep saying is we should be using this day as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, and talking about the other things that we have to do to still achieve freedom in this country. Absolutely. I agree wholeheartedly. I mean, this is a day that's not just an African-American holiday. This is anAmerican holiday.

This is an American holiday. This is where America came, showed what it was like, a place where people should be free. And this is something that should be celebrated, like I said, not only by African-Americans, by everybody. And it's also a day where we are going to have to let them know y'all are going to have to acknowledge the history behind this day. So if you can't just focus today and say it's about freedom, you got to ask, freedom from what? Absolutely. From horrible, miserable conditions. From evil, really. This is one of those places, I mean, one of those times where

we're able to express our freedom openly. And that's really what matters to me is like the fact that we can, I can wear this t-shirt that says, you know, Juneteenth is my independence day and it's open. And that's one of the things that, you know, people need to understand is that this is a, not just a holiday for us, it's a holiday for everybody. Celebrate it. And I say celebrate, but also teach. Absolutely. Education is important.

And let me real clear. Folks are always saying, well, you know, like I teach white folks. It's a whole bunch of black folks who don't know our history. Absolutely. Absolutely. And that's very unfortunate. That's very, very unfortunate. I mean, it's not like the school systems are teaching that history.

That's stuff that we have to kind of pass along amongst our community. And I'm just happy and fortunate that, like, I had parents that were able to educate me on a lot of black history and things that I didn't know. How do you infuse that history in your music? That, um, wow. That history is pretty much the focus of my music. Like, I am an African-American man raised on the west side of Detroit. So my black experience is very important to the music that I create.

Even though it's neoclassical music, it uses some... And then there's the part of classical music that a lot of people don't know about, which are the famous black composers and famous black pianists and violinists throughout the history of time. We have a place in that music as well. So this kind of all ties into that. What do you hope with this now becoming a national holiday? What do you hope we do with it? Because people are like, oh, you know, it's going to get commercialized. But what do you want? And I keep telling black folk, I ain't wasting my time with what white it's going to get commercialized. But what do you want? This is what I keep telling black folks. I ain't wasting my time on what white folks are going to do. What do you want our people to do with this holiday on an annual basis? Absolutely.

This should be a day of grassroots education to me. More than anything, we should sit down with our children and tell them the story. Tell them all the stories. Tell them how the people who came before them have fought and died for their freedom. I think that's like the key thing that we need to be teaching within our own community is the education. When did you decide to say,

you know what, I'm going to do this classical music thing? When was it? Because were there people who were saying, man, what the hell are you doing? Absolutely. What's wrong with you? Absolutely. At age four, I started.

My mother, you know, she had a vision. She had a bigger vision. And she was able to put me into this music, and I kind of was drawn to it. And throughout time, it just grew and grew and grew and grew. And then at that point, it just kind of exploded, and I was like, this is where I belong. And then I found, like I said, the history. The people who were before me, you know, William Grant Steele, like these people who were,

you know, serious musicians and composers that have a place in our current history. And one of the things that I think is important, because you know, it's always, you have the people who are like, man, black folks don't do that. You're kind of like, uh, actually we have. We have. We were very important. You're kind of like, actually, we have. We have. We were very important.

There was a French composer. His name was Joseph Boulogne. And he was actually Mozart. They call him Black Mozart, but he was actually getting performances before Mozart. Mozart was Black Joseph. Yeah, exactly. Mozart was White Joseph. White Joseph, exactly.

They had it twisted. But, you know, as the history books tell us, it's different. But for me being a black composer, that's the history that I'm drawn to. I'm sure you, now, growing up, did you have arts in school? Yes. And that, to me, I really believe it is sad where we are now. I played trumpet in elementary school. I played bass, baritone, horn in middle school, high school.

And I really do believe, even what I do right now, the role that music played, the ability to read music, to be able to see music, all of those things I think were critically important. Absolutely. Those are very important for me, just growth as a musician, period. Like understanding the deeper meaning, the deeper reading music, not just playing in church, but also being able to read music and know the history of that. So that's one of those things that as a musician, I think, and as a black musician, it's important that we expand our vision on our musical education.

Music still needs to be in schools. It needs to be deeper. Like a lot of my mentors and teachers were the ones that I found in school. And then that carried into, you know, clubs and locally in Detroit. So it just kind of grew from the point where school was the first, like, set point of it all. Absolutely. All right, then.

I know you've got to go perform right now, so I certainly appreciate you stopping by and chatting with us. Thank you so much. I appreciate it, bro. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Folks, this is Black Box. Where can people get more information?

They want to get your music or read about you? Absolutely. Where do they go? I had an album that came out today. It's called Black Book. It's on all streaming platforms. My name is B-L-K, B-O-K, if you need to spell it out. But you can find me anywhere. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, anywhere.

All right. We really appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you very much. All right, then. Folks, we're going to have our second Coca-Cola Essence Festival throwback moment. Here we go. Well, Luke, talk about this new project. Hey, man, we've been working hard on it, man. It's a project about, you know, the kids in Liberty City. You know, my program, 30 years going strong, but, you know, it goes in deep, in know, the kids in Liberty City. You know, my program, 30 years going strong.

But, you know, it goes in deep and depth into the kids, you know, and see the struggles that they have to live through. I mean, there ain't no blind side. There ain't no situation like that. I mean, you know, it's a real deep story. But what we use is football as a tool, you know, for these kids to then, you know, get out of the situation that they're in, whether they do make it to the league or not. But then we're there for our kids.

Of course. I mean, you talked about Liberty City in your book, which wasn't just about your music, about really what that community of people go through and how they fight to get out to make it. Yes. I mean, and that's what the story is about. I mean, when you look at the piece, I mean, it's a six series, doctor series. When you look at some of the kids, it's real touching. I'm going to tell people right now,

get your crying rag prepared because you're going to need it. When you sit there and listen to some of those stories, you're going to know exactly, I don't care where you're from, but you've heard those stories before. So to be able to see that on TV, you know, like I said, there ain't no blind side. It's a situation where, yeah, we all, whether you're in Boise, Idaho, to Miami, to Compton, you've heard those stories and you've seen those stories before. And don't forget, folks, the Essence Festival of Culture. Live, loud, virtual experience.

You can check it out at Essence.com, EssenceStudios.com. Mark your calendars Friday through Sunday, June 25th through the 27th. And then on the 4th of July weekend, July 2nd through the 4th. And we, of course, Essence Festival of Culture, a virtual experience presented by Coca-Cola. And we appreciate them being partners with us with these Essence throwbacks. You can actually go to my Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook pages and watch the photos that we're posting in addition to the segments that you're seeing on the show.

Real quick here, Kayla, you listen to classical music? Don't lie. Don't front. You said, do I listen to classical music? Yes. Yes. I'm a classically trained singer. My mom was an opera singer and she trained me. So, yes, I listen to classical music. I actually know Black Bach. I'm a huge fan of his.

I've been following him on TikTok and all the things. So like, yes. Yes, I do. All right. All right. Just checking. How about you, Brittany? Only to the extent of my ballet training.

So I listen to classical music because I was raised doing ballet. So that would be the extent of it. Look at you. See, so basically what you're saying is you don't. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's what you're saying. A little bit.

Nice try. Nice try. Uh, yeah. Yeah, my ballet is training. They will play it. But really, I ain't done no ballet in about 15 years. So, no, I don't really. Yeah, uh-huh.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's really what you were just doing. So don't even try. I don't want to hear all that. All right, y'all. Let's talk about my next guest out here. Former city council member in Charlottesville, Virginia, out here for the Juneteenth event.

Folks, welcome Wes Belbin to the show. We've been on the show before. Wes, how you doing? I'm good, my brother. How you doing? Doing great, man. The Confederates in Charlottesville, they ain't going to like Juneteenth.

Oh, man, they ain't going to like it, but who cares what they got to do and what they don't like and what they do like. We're going to do what we got to do. Well, and you know it's driving them crazy because they love a Jefferson Davis Day and they rob a leet. They're not like, damn it,

y'all just gave a federal holiday uh to the folk who they want to keep enslaved and we took away uh jefferson davis day in virginia shout out to governor northam but you know before we go into that i don't know if the people can see it but i want to give you some kudos roland got some african airbags yo these kicks are on fire oh i've been i've been i've been admiring. This is from the gas, okay? So here's the deal, y'all. My man is dripping. Remember when I went to Ghana?

I went to Ghana. Let me back up. Let me back up. So first of all, y'all see we got the unfiltered director's chair. He dripping. He dripping. So when I went to Ghana, y'all, I had these pants made. So I took the extra fabric I had, and they put it down the line, and

they hit me with the cuffs. Yeah. And then we had Nagas Footwear, a black-owned athletic shoe company. Okay. They make all different kinds of shoes. They're out of Atlanta. Okay. We had them on the show, and so, of course, and so when I was in Georgia, these are the

shoes I wore. Yeah. They comfortable. They gave me three pair of shoes, and they're to be, y'all got back to me, we supposed to be working on a special edition Roland Martin unfiltered shoe. Okay. So I'm going to hit them when the show is over, let them know.

I wanted to make sure everybody saw it because Lord Joyce is tough. So everybody out here, they all dressed up. So I said, no, I'm going to dress like we do at Juneteenth in Texas. I said, we ain't going to sit here, you know, and be all bougie with it. So this is how we going to dress. So I said, I'm going to come out here wearing this all bougie with it. So this is how we're going to dress. So I said, I'm going to come out here wearing this. Much love and respect, man. I appreciate it.

I appreciate it. You're all right for Alpha, man. You're all right for Alpha. Come on now. What little youth group you in? You know it's only one fraternity cap off. So we had to come behind y'all to clean it up. Y'all dress like Delta.

So I didn't want to hear all that. So I didn't want to hear that. Talk about for you again, Juneteenth. I asked Black Box this. What do you want us to do with this day? Well, I think for us, it's most important that we understand that it's OK for us to celebrate as a holiday. That's all good and well. But the work is at the city halls. The work is working with your local commissions and boards the locals with your county commissions the work is with your state legislators and for us to be able to celebrate and enjoy our freedom let's be free enough to go do work and that's and that's the thing right there

man and look as somebody who served on the city council there's always the attention on congress and stuff along those lines and i and i keep folks, if you don't pay attention to City Hall, the school board, the county commissioner, that's where that stuff is really happening. Exactly. That's literally where the change in your community is made. And I see all these individuals on social media saying X, Y, and Z about they're not impressed about this day or that day.

And my question often to them is, okay, if you're not impressed with that, are you coming to the meetings? Are you helping us on the front lines? You gave a shout-out to Black Voters Matter earlier. I want to give another kudos to them. They'll be in six different cities. I'll be joining them in Richmond as well as D.C. So, you know, we need everybody to come out.

Let's show some support. Call your senators. Call your congresspersons. Let's get H.R. 1 passed. Let's get the For the People Act passed. Let's get the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill passed. But locally, there's statewide issues revolving around qualified immunity that we all could be supporting

on the state level and on the local level. Check out what your police practices are with your police chiefs, what your city counselors are doing, what are their budgets looking like? Everybody says defund the police, but do you know what your budget allocations actually look like? That's where the work is, and that's all. You can find that stuff on Google. And that's the thing,

man, where, and again, as somebody, my parents, regular ordinary people, but they were community activists in our neighborhood, co-founders of our civic club. So I grew up, I testified before the city council when I was in middle school and high school. Well, you know, Roman. I traveled with, to the state capitol for rallies when my mom was one of the three citywide co-chairs

for the TMO, the Metropolitan Organization. So that was my life growing up. And so I saw the impact when regular people who nobody knows made differences for their neighborhoods. Oh, man. You know, there's nothing that terrifies, and I say this as a former vice mayor and city council person, there was nothing that terrified my colleagues more in the council

than a bunch of black folks showing up to the city council meeting. That's right. There was nothing that scared them more than that. And we have to be able to show up and show out. Don't show up two, three weeks in a row. Oh, oh. Yo, they were asking me all the time, well, Wes, what's going on? What do we need to do?

They always knew that I was mad because we would have a voter or something and have a discussion. And I said, don't worry about it. I'll bring my folks next meeting. And when we show up, the vote always went my way. Always. So that's what we have to do. But I'll just say this part, Roland. We have to educate our folks on why this is important.

We have to educate and show them tangible examples of how when you come and show up at the meetings, you can have tangible resources allocated to your community for us to see the day-to-day change. And that's what we have to do. And that's the piece right there. So when the people are out here complaining, we need this, we need that, I keep saying, you got to show up.

You got to let them know. And again, people think I'm lying about this sort of stuff. I saw my parents do it. My mom and dad never went to college. My dad worked for Amtrak. My mom worked in insurance claims. They got with the people in the community. That's how we got refurbished streets, sewer system, lights,

turned the old five stations into a senior citizen center, the park refurbished, put on the bond election. I saw this growing up. So when I'm talking about this stuff on the show, folk got to act like, well, man, you ain't never been in politics. No, no, no. But I saw it. I literally saw with my own eyes how the neighborhood where I grew up in,

I saw streetlights because of the bond project, sewer system because of the bond project, parks. I saw crack houses torn down. We did lots cut down. I literally saw it. That only happened because the people showed up. Right.

See, the power isn't with the politicians. The power is with the people. And when the people show up, that power is shifted for us to be able to do what we have to do. So you're absolutely right in that regard.

But that's also one of the reasons why, again, organizations like Black Voters Matter, this new organization that we have, our Black Party, they're so important for us to be able to educate and politically educate our folks on how you do this. Because, you know, Roland, the truth of the matter is we can tell folks show up at the meeting, but many of them are honestly terrified to come to the place. A lot of us are still scared to speak in front of white folk. A lot of us still have inferiority complexes.

So we have to empower our folks just like we would be loud to complain about when brunch isn't good or how we're going to show up and turn up on Sunday Funday. We've got to be able to show up to these meetings and use our voices for our power. And that's what actually happens. Wes Bellamy, man, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. I appreciate all you do for the culture, my brother. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Folks,

Wes Bellamy there. Tell people the group Our Party, tell them where they can get more information. Sure. So be sure to look us up on our social media platforms, at Our Black Party, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, as well as hit me up on Instagram at Dr. Wes Bellamy. Got it. I appreciate it, bro. Thank you, sir. Thanks a lot.

Folks, it's all about activism. That's what matters the most important. And it's not a matter of what you do. So you can be a former city councilman. You can be here in media. You can also be an actor. My next guest is Omar Gooding. You've seen him in any number of films.

And those films, one of the films that you can actually check him out right now on the platform is AM Radio. You can check that movie out. But also there's another movie that I'm in that he's also in. It's called A Day of Trouble. A friend of mine, Shakola Thompson, actually one of the producers, and so she hit me up. She said, hey, I need you to get Omar and talk about this movie. It's on all the platforms, folks, Prime Video, Apple TV, Google Play.

Omar, glad to have your roller mark unfiltered. How's it going, my brother? Man, what you not doing? I see you in A Day of Trouble, AM Radio, this show. I mean, your deal is I'm going to work every platform trying to get all the checks. Yeah, I ain't turning down nothing but my collar, man. I got to do it, man. I got two boys now.

You understand me? I got a four-year-old and a one-year-old. And they ain't doing nothing but growing and eating and whoop. You know what I'm talking about? So, yeah, I ain't turning down nothing. Nothing. Got an album coming out, too, man. Did an audio book. Let them make an actual book.

I did a documentary. Man, I've been working. Working, working. And I signed a deal with Disney, man. Don't get me started. I got too much to do. Too much. Hey, man, that's what I'm talking about.

And so, I mean, the thing is, this is what I tell folks all the time. You can complain about lack of opportunities or you can put the work in. Damn right. Damn right. People call me all the time. What can I do to further my career, to get a foot in, man? Keep on doing it.

Whatever you're doing, do it times ten. If you ain't getting the results that you desire so far, do more. Be creative. Think outside the box. Use the platforms that are available to you, man. All you need is a cell phone these days. And on that point, and my people have heard me talk about this here, and we had Bill Duke on the other day and I watch High Flying Bird every

three months on Netflix. And I've discussed this on my show before. Steven Soderbergh, this great director, made that whole movie with two iPhone 7s. Shut up. Shot the whole movie. I did not know that. Dude, seriously.

I heard about that. No, he's now shot. Yeah. Dude, Soderbergh has now shot four or five movies solely with the iPhone. Then when he shot the iPhone 7, he sent a whole bunch of notes to Apple on how to improve the phone. And so I'm curious to know if he thinks the 11 and the 12 has what he needs. But he literally shot. Anthony, bring me that light right here.

I'm just going to. This is serious. I was reading this article and I was there. Somebody who's in here. I'm just going to – this is serious. I was reading this article, and I was there. Somebody who's in media, I'm always fascinated by it. He basically has a light like this, a light like this. So, Anthony, go ahead and take that shot. Or here, take a different shot. So he basically has a light like this and an iPhone,

and that's his favorite thing, how he shoots most of his scenes. And I'm watching this, and I'm like, yo! But again, when you said even iPhone, that's a feature-length film on Netflix right now. So when y'all go watch A Day of Trouble on AM radio when it comes out on Sunday, watch High Flying Bird, shot it with two iPhone 7s. That's amazing.

Won't he do it? I'm about to go shoot a movie as soon as I hang up. Not just because you said that. I'm about to just light it up, get the camera going in here. So I got the iPhone X, damn it. I'm ahead of the game now. I don't need the 11.

See, I got the 11 Pro Max. See this there? This is why I tell people, Omar, don't shoot verticals. You get the black bars on both sides. You got to shoot horizontal because it fills the whole screen up. Yes, it does.

That's dope. That's dope. Message. Message. I'm going to ask you about A Day of Trouble. So my girl, Shakola, produced that. I was in L.A. I landed. She was like, hey, we're shooting this movie. Why don't you come stop by the set? I go by the set and she's like, hey,

why don't you just hop into the movie here so when y'all watch the movie y'all gonna actually see me rocking my astros jersey that was not playing i literally just dropped by to say hey um but tell folks about just the how well i mean that's what's funny is it's called a day in the trouble and i had one day of trouble on the set myself every scene i was in we did that in one day that's just how they get down a lot of time and they say here's the script here's when we need you here's what we'll pay you can you do it i said all right fine i ain't doing that we're out in la let's make it happen and uh it was a great time uh filming it you know i've done so many things since then but uh from what i remember was a enjoyable experience and i urge everybody to go out and check it out, man. It was a good film.

And that's the thing, man, that, look, one thing I want to ask you about how the walls, and Brittany and Kelly, get your questions ready, how the walls have tumbled in that you now have direct access to your fan base. And so now with the streaming services, now even with YouTube and other platforms, if you want to be a creator, you talk about Issa Rae. People love what she's doing. But the bottom line is that started as webisodes. And now with all the stuff she's doing, you've got to just do it.

You can't wait for permission. You've got to go do it. No excuses. Talk about that. Yeah, there's no excuses on getting your stuff out, getting it seen. And the content filmed and shot and looking like you spent more than you actually did. But there's categories and there's platforms for just about every type. You know, AM radio, we shot on a limited budget during the pandemic.

You know, we scaled down the crew. We bought in just the essentials. You know, it stars myself, Eddie Rubin, Felicia Morgan-Lloyd. And that was it. Everybody else were callers that called in that we filled in the blanks later. Called a couple celebrity friends and said, you know what, I need a voice for this, voice for that. I threw my sister in at the end. She wanted to call her.

Jason Weaver, he wanted to call her. I don't want to tell too many. When would y'all see the end credits? Oh, that was who I thought it was. But yeah, man, it's nothing but ingenuity and creativity to get things done. And when y'all see this finished project, just don't ever ask me what the budget was. You'd be surprised at how we got this thing done, man.

Yeah. Absolutely. All right. Brittany, your question for Omar Gooding. Go on, Brittany. Oh, sheesh. This is a simple question. So, you know, you come from a lot of folks

who are in the spotlight, and they've been doing their thing. You've been doing your thing. What's your advice to someone that wants to get into acting? Yeah, do it for the right reasons. People think that it was just like an overnight thing, or if it's meant to be, it'll happen right away. Some people are fortunate to where that's how it was.

I mean, I started when I was nine years old, and it just took off. My brother, he took classes. He knew what he wanted to do. He stuck with it. That's why he got an Oscar. You know what I'm talking about? Me, I kind of followed him in.

I picked up a script for him one day, and I went on an audition. You know, I went on two auditions in one day and then booked one. So for me, it was like, it's in the blood. It's that type of thing. But if you know it's what you want to do, hone your craft. And that might just be watching more movies, watching TVs,

doing your research like that, going online, following social media, see what people are doing, following what they do, act it out. My father, rest in peace, who would always tell me, if you want to learn how to sing, follow what the singers do. That's your easiest lesson right there. Turn the radio up and try to emulate what they're doing with vocally. And you'll at least be on track to becoming a better singer. But acting is the same thing. I watch a lot of movies, a lot of movies. I'm a big fan of the craft. So like for me doing AM radio was more my producer hat. I was editing the film and that's what was fun for me

because when I watched it, I didn't say, I didn't like how I looked. I said, he, you know, I'm watching it as a fan. And it was just the process of being behind the camera as opposed to in front of the camera or as well as in front of the camera was something that I really, really dig. So I'm really happy to put my producer hat on. But anyway, back to your question. Yeah.

My advice is just stick with it. Keep your head in the game and keep doing your research because you never there's really no shelf life as far as acting, you know, about I can do this forever. I mean, I can stop 20 years and then come back and then just play morgan freeman roles you know what i'm talking about you can be that old guy old woman in something eventually don't ever just think oh if i don't get a shot by now now you never know what god has planned for you so stick with it all right kelly your question for Omar Gooding. Go on, Kelly. Hi. Huge fan of yours, by the way.

So thank you. When it comes to you and your career, you've basically done it all. You've been in, you act, you produce, you edit, you direct. But you've also done comedy and you've done dramedies and you've done dramas. And with all of that brings a set of uniqueness because not everybody does that. Conversely, when it comes to being Black in Hollywood, and I know this because I have a lot of friends in Hollywood, not necessarily in Hollywood, but certainly in the arts, they try to pinhole us into certain monoliths, right? So how do you balance your Blackness and your uniqueness with the need for unity in the Black community and within drama and fine arts?

You know, so I choose my roles carefully as to not let down my fans and do every role justice. You know, the balance comes with um you know it's kind of just in me you know like so what do they do more drama or comedy i say what would you rather do laugh all day or cry all day you know but there's there's a release that comes with like with am radio it's i pushed myself and it wasn't too hard because of everything that we were going through because of the pandemic because of the George Floyd because of all of that uncertainty that we were dealing with and the movie deals with mental health and you know that feeling a lot

of people that I you know I talked about I talked to about this as I was getting ready for the role and just in general just friends we had conversations everyone had their version of hell that they were going through no matter what their financial situation was or whatever it was but they always felt like it was just them why is this happening to me you know what i mean so i you know i also do music too he left that off the list and i have a song that i created called you are not alone which kind of speaks to people who are thinking that they're by themselves that's kind of the draw with what happened That's kind of the draw with... What happened? Did I miss something? No, no, no.

Sorry. Keep going. Keep going. Oh, something else? Sorry. I got to actually give a speech. No, no, no. I got to give a speech here.

So I was like, yo, find out what time I'm actually speaking. They told me it's 7.50. And it's 7.50, which means it's a black event, which means I ain't speaking at 7.50. But Omar, go ahead and finish your point. About 7.55, 8-ish. No, you good. No, I'm wrapping it up, too. Omar, go ahead and finish your point. About 755, eight-ish. No, you're good. No, I'm wrapping it up too. I got a million other things to do.

But still. More like 855. Go ahead. You already know how they do. So anyway, so I kind of used all that channel, what I was going through for this performance. And that was that. So I don't know if that's quite answering your question

because you're not getting no scatterbrain. I'm talking about a little bit of everything. But the balance for me is just like common sense and choosing. Choosing the roles that make sense for me, make sense for my fan base and my skill set. You know what I mean? So I think that's what you would get. You answered it perfectly.

Thank you. All right, then. Y'all, Omar Gooding, he is in. There's a couple of movies you can catch on all the platforms. First of all, AM Radio comes out this Sunday. You want to check it out on Amazon Prime Video also. It's out right now. Okay.

If you told me it was wrong. Watch on Prime Video. Yes. Okay. Vimeo, Amazon Prime right now. A Day of Trouble, which my homegirl, Shakola Thompson, executive producer, and she starred in it.

She was an actress in it as well. She, you can watch that as well on all the platforms. Support black-owned production companies, folks. That's important for us as well. Not just the folks in front of the camera, but behind the camera. Omar, always good to have you on the show, brother. You're welcome back anytime. Man, keep grinding,

and we'll keep supporting. I will. I got a bunch of projects that I've done. Thank you so very much. I'll come back at you. Stay blessed. All right, just hit me up. Let me know. All right, my brother, stay well. And happy Juneteenth. Yes, sir. You too. Folks, that is it for us. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Let me

thank Brittany and Kelly. All right, Brittany, Kelly, what y'all doing for the Juneteenth weekend? What y'all doing? I got a block party planned. I got a block party planned, Roland. We going to be in Philadelphia celebrating, West Philly. But you ain't invite nobody. I'll save you a place.

You ain't invite. Uh-uh, too a place you ain't too late you ain't inviting nobody whatever Annie Kelly what you doing this week what you doing for Juneteenth weekend I mean I haven't anything solid playing but I live in DC the entire city is going to be you know just on fire this

weekend so I'm excited just to you know pick my head in wherever I end up to just celebrate this momentous occasion of it being a federal holiday. Like, I am excited about that. All right, folks, this weekend, I'm going to be splitting my time. Tomorrow, I'm going to be in New York City. I get invited to the screening of the Tribeca Film Festival of the Showtime documentary on Dick Gregory. The Dick Gregory family asked me to personally attend,

so I'm going to fly up tomorrow afternoon to watch the documentary. Then I was told Dave Chappelle has his documentary, part of the Tribeca Film Festival, airing at the Radio City Music Hall. I texted Dave last night, Joe, I got a ticket. I'll be watching that tomorrow night, then I'll fly back on Sunday morning, and so I'll be watching that tomorrow night. Then I'll fly back on Sunday morning. And so I'll be celebrating Juneteenth. So I'll be supporting black artists. Also, Robert Townsend at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend as well with his documentary on, of course, his movie, The Five Heartbeats.

Robert sent me the DVD to that a couple of years ago. I'm going to try to slide by his screen to say hi to him as well. So I'll be a little busy in New York City tomorrow. My sister Kenya, tomorrow's her birthday. She, of course, was born 1975 on Juneteenth. And so, of course, celebrating her birthday. And so lots of things happening. I want you all to enjoy your Juneteenth weekend.

Don't forget, folks, please don't just make it a day of having fun, partying. Make it a day of having fun, partying. Make it a day of family and education as well. And so we want you all to also support what we do. You're on YouTube. Hit that Like button right now. Hit the Like button right now. You can also, folks, support us by joining our Bring the Funk fan club.

Every dollar goes to support this show. Allows us to be broadcast live on location. Cash app, Dallas side, RM unfiltered. Venmo.com, forward slash RM unfiltered. Venmo.com forward slash RM Unfiltered. PayPal.me forward slash RMartin Unfiltered. Then, of course, you have Zelle, Roland at Roland S. Don't forget the S. Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com.

So y'all be sure to check that out. And again, I'm going to give them a free spot. They're going to send me a check. And so, Nagas, y'all better get ready. All right, so, Anthony, go ahead and get a shot. Nagas, I'm telling y'all, when we going to do this special edition Roland Martin unfiltered Nagas shoe. And so, y'all see the shoes here.

Y'all ain't got to buy Nikes. Y'all ain't got to buy Adidas. Y'all can buy a black-owned athletic shoe company. You go to their website. they got some great shoes. So check it out. And so these pants were custom-made, so you can't get these online. But I'm sure my man could hook you up.

And so that's it for us. Y'all know how we do. We support black, as always. Thank you so very much. We always end the show every Friday, showing our charter list. If you give to us, your name gets on this list. And so please support what we do. And so I'll see y'all guys on Monday.

Happy Juneteenth Independence Freedom Emancipation Day. And if you all, the rest of the haters, you don't like it, suck it up. Because it's now a law. You can't do a damn thing about it. Juneteenth, breaking every chain since 1865. I'm out. Holla! this is an iHeart podcast