#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Ga Flips Again, Abrams Announce 2022 Gov Bid, Montgomery Bus Boycott Anniv., Smollet & Potter trials

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

12.01.2021 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Ga Flips Again, Abrams Announce 2022 Gov Bid, Montgomery Bus Boycott Anniv., Smollet & Potter trialsStacey Abrams says she's running for Georgia Governor in 2022. Atlanta has a new mayor. Andre Dickens is here to tell us about his plans for the city. Other Georgia cities are making history flipping from Republican to Democratic leadership. Voters in Warner Robins elected its first woman and first Black mayor to lead the city. We'll have the Senior Georgia Manager for Black Voters Matter tell how they pulled off a flip again in the peach state.The Brennan Center of Justice has researched the proposed and enacted legislation to make it harder for Americans to vote. The Acting Director, Voting Rights & Elections will be here to break it all down for us.We'll have updates on the two trials we're watching:It's day 3 in the trial for former "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett.  And jury selection continues in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, for the manslaughter trial of a former Minnesota police officer who fatally shot a Black man during a traffic stop.Jacqueline Avant, the wife of music icon Clarence Avant, is shot and killed during a home invasion.She wrote a book about her rape and her rapist. But the man who was convicted for Alice Sebold's rape wasn't the one who did it. Now she's offering an apology to Anthony Broadwater, who was exonerated last week.The omicron coronavirus variant has the world on edge. Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick will be here to tell us how nervous we should be and if there will be another vaccine we'll have to take.It's the 66th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. We'll take a look back at that historical event and here what Civil Rights Attorney Fred Gray remembers about how he played a part in changing the world. #RolandMartinUnfiltered partners:Verizon | Verizon 5G Ultra Wideband, now available in 50+ cities, is the fastest 5G in the world.* That means that downloads that used to take minutes now take seconds. 👉🏾https://bit.ly/30j6z9INissan | Check out the ALL NEW 2022 Nissan Frontier! As Efficient As It Is Powerful! 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3FqR7bPAmazon | Get 2-hour grocery delivery, set up you Amazon Day deliveries, watch Amazon Originals with Prime Video and save up to 80% on meds with Amazon Prime 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ArwxEh+ Don’t miss Epic Daily Deals that rival Black Friday blockbuster sales 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iP9zkv👀 Manage your calendar, follow along with recipes, catch up on news and more with Alexa smart displays + Stream music, order a pizza, control your smart home and more with Alexa smart speakers 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3ked4liBuick | It's ALL about you! The 2022 Envision has more than enough style, power and technology to make every day an occasion. 👉🏾 https://bit.ly/3iJ6ouPSupport #RolandMartinUnfiltered and #BlackStarNetwork via the Cash App ☛ https://cash.app/$rmunfiltered or via PayPal ☛ https://www.paypal.me/rmartinunfilteredDownload the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox 👉🏾 http://www.blackstarnetwork.com#RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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EVERYONE DESERVES BETTER. WITH PLANS STARTING AT $35, BETTER COSTS LESS THAN YOU THINK. IT'S WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2021. I'M MONIQUE PRESLEY in for Roland. And here's what's coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered streaming live on the Black Star Network. Stacey Abrams says she's running for Georgia governor in 2022. Atlanta has a new mayor. Andre Dickens is here to tell us about the plans for the city. Other Georgia cities are making history flipping from Republican to Democratic leadership. Voters in Warner Robins elected its first woman and first black mayor to lead the city. We'll have the senior Georgia manager for Black Voters Matter tell us how

they pulled off the flip again in the Peach State. The Brennan Center of Justice has researched the proposed and enacted legislation to make it harder for Americans to vote. The acting director, voting rights and elections will be here to break it all down for us. We'll have updates on the two trials we're watching. It's day three in the trial for former Empire actor, Jesse Smollett, and jury selection continues in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota,

for the manslaughter trial of a former Minnesota police officer who fatally shot a black man during a traffic stop. Jacqueline Avon, the wife of music icon Clarence Avon, is shot and killed during a home invasion. She wrote a book about her rape and her rapist, but the man who was convicted for Alice Bull's rape wasn't the one who did it. Now she's offering an apology to Anthony Broadwater,

who was exonerated last week. Omicron coronavirus variant has the world on edge. Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick will be here to tell us how nervous we should be and if there will be another vaccine we'll have to take. It's the 66th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott. We'll take a look back at that historical event and hear what civil rights attorney Fred Gray remembers about how he played a part in changing the world.

It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. 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. Yeah. Rolling with rolling now. It's Rollin' Martin, yeah Rollin' with Rollin' now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best, you know he's Rollin' Martin Now Stacey Abrams has announced she will make another run for the Georgia governor's mansion. It was a big election night in Georgia. She dropped this on Twitter a few hours ago. I've worked a lot of jobs in my life. How are you?

I'm good. Thank you for coming. Absolutely. And for the past four years. Thank you for our daily bread. When the hardest times hit us all. Amen. I've worked to do my part to help families make it through.

Paying off medical debt for 68,000 Georgians. Expanding access to vaccines. Bringing supplies to overwhelmed food banks. Lending a hand across our state, especially in rural Georgia. We help finance small businesses trying to stay afloat.

And I spoke up for families being left behind. While my jobs have changed, what I know to be true has not. Our values are still strong. No matter where we come from in Georgia or how long we've been here, we believe in this place and our people. Folks who deserve to be seen and heard and have a voice. Because in the end, we are one Georgia. Regardless of the pandemic or the storms, the obstacles in our way, or the forces determined to divide us.

My job has been to put my head down and keep working toward one Georgia. For that farmer in Peach County, the teacher in Sparta, the mechanic in College Park, for our next generation, who should have more than we can imagine. Because opportunity and success in Georgia shouldn't be determined by your zip code,

background or access to power. But if our Georgia is going to move to its next and greatest chapter, we're going to need leadership. I think you make a really good governor, All you gotta do is stay tough and stay brave. Thank you. Leadership that knows how to do the job. Leadership that doesn't take credit without also taking responsibility. Leadership that understands the true pain folks are feeling and has real plans. That's the job of governor, to fight for one Georgia, our Georgia.

And now, it's time to get the job done. J.C.! J.C.! J.C.! J.C.! J.C.! J.C.! Abrams could get the victory in 2022. Let's hope so. Georgia Democrats managed to flip at least seven local races across the state, including in Warner Robins, where voters elected the first woman and first Black mayor to lead the city. LaRonda Patrick defeated incumbent mayor Randy Toms. Atlanta also has a new mayor. Andre Dickens will be the 61st Mayor of Atlanta

after winning Tuesday's runoff over Council President Felicia Moore, 64% to 36%. Joining me from Georgia is Fenika Miller, the Senior Georgia Manager for Black Voters Matter. And also, I want to welcome my panel, A. Scott Bolden, former Chair of the National Bar Association, PAC, Matt Manning, Civil Rights Attorney, Lee May, Pastor, Transforming Faith Church, and former CEO, DeKalb County, Georgia. But first, let's go to Fenika.

Welcome, Ms. Miller. Good afternoon. Thank you for having me. I want to tell you first that I talked to the big boss, Cliff Albright, and he had nothing but great things to say about you and the work that you're doing on the ground and the leadership that you are showing. So congratulations and thank you because we all need you and the work that your organization does and the work that you do. Thank you. Can't do it without our team. Well, you know what? And it's a great team. I love Latasha and Cliff, but they have a gift also for organizing. Absolutely. Starting with organizing the best in leadership. What can you tell us? How did this happen? The Warner Robins race is

historic. We are so, we're still excited and riding on a high. We have a partner, a longtime partner in Warner Robins, Georgia, who's been working for the last decade in order to see this transformation happen in community. New Vision is an amazing organization that focuses on black women and girls and teaching them how advocacy affects their lives. And so last summer in August, they hit the streets. They delivered the Warner Robins proper for Joe Biden. They did the same thing again and flipped that city blue for the two Senate races. Then they showed out again in March and delivered a special election at large city council seat. And they hit the ground again in August of this year to get voters to the polls one more time in spite of SB 202.

And these are the results that we find ourselves in. In fact, turnout for the runoff election last night was double what it was in the general and in 2017 for the runoff. So that partner, we're so happy to support them and do this great work with them. So what do you find is most critical when you when you're saying that they're hitting the ground? Is it the pure numbers of people who are there and able to mobilize? Or is it the messaging? Because what I'm wondering is what's the magic formula for what needs to be said for people to understand, yes, your vote does matter. Yes, every vote does matter. And turn that into actually showing up on Election Day.

It is reaffirming that black voters matter. It is taking the time to have conversations with our community, right, and to have real conversations with our community. It is letting folks know that this work is 365 days a year, that the hard work begins on the day after election. So after the presidential election last year, they didn't stop. After the Senate election, they didn't stop. They kept engaging their communities, kept leaning into their power to build coalitions of broad voters and to engage folks in conversations. This partner and our partners all across the state of Georgia, we have over 130 partners in 75 counties.

They attended the first convening, a statewide convening, where each of them who had elections in their communities learned how to craft a field plan for their community. And they worked those field plans. And we experienced results unmatched during the general municipal. And last night, our partners across the state for 12 were 12 for 12, not only elected Ms. Patrick, but electing three other first-time Black mayors across the South and picked up 12 additional seats. And what are your thoughts about the outlook for the governor's race? Well, we're going to focus on Black voters again. We're going to talk to our people. We're going to talk to them about the issues, make sure that we're connecting the dots, and we hope that that resonates.

Again, we are so grateful to see Leader Abrams toss her hat into the ring again. But we don't coordinate with candidates. We don't work on behalf of candidates. We work on behalf of the millions of black voters across the state of Georgia on their bread and butter issues, because at the end of the day, we have to hold all of these elected officials accountable to making sure that they deliver results so that everybody can have a good quality of life. Well, I am just appreciative, and all I can think is multiply, multiply, multiply. I pray that what is being successful in Georgia will become successful

because Lord knows we need it. Looking at the way the news is going and the things that people are trying to do to keep us from our fundamental right of voting. I'm going to turn to the panel. First, we have someone from Georgia on the panel. And Pastor May, do you have a question for Ms. Miller? Well, yeah, Ms. Miller. First of all, let me say thank you for the work of your organization and what you're doing around the state. Look, so excited to hear about what has gone on around the state of Georgia outside of the metro Atlanta area, which is great as well. You know, last night we had a city of Atlanta mayor's race and I was excited about the results because my candidate won. What I wasn't excited about was the voter turnout, both in the general election in November and on last night. It just seems to me that the voter excitement is not as high as it should be. What can y'all continue to do throughout the state to gin up that excitement, you know, in preparation for these for the larger elections that will be coming up next year and beyond?

Yeah, excellent question. Historically, turnout in municipal races is lower than it is in midterms and in presidential because there's just not the same level of investment. The top of the ticket drains all the resources and all of the money, and then folks go home and they forget about the municipals. But this year, municipal turnout was actually higher than it was in 2017 across the state. It still looks like a small fraction, but black voters and people of color made up about 41 percent of the turnout in municipals across the state. Down in Brunswick, Georgia, they doubled by 100 percent their turnout in municipal races this cycle. Again,

in Warner Robins last night, there were about 4,700, 6,700 voters who voted in a runoff election in 2017, and it was 8,800 last night. So the more that we talk to folks, the more that we focus on community organizing and lean into the issues and the importance of running in every election, then that's how our folks are going to stay engaged. That's how we're going to continue to win all across the state of Georgia. Attorney Manning, do you have a question for Finneka? I do. And first, I want to congratulate you again on the amazing results. My question is just how can you replicate those same results or the same approach in other places like Texas, where I live, where, you know, we need that kind of institutional support and that kind of strategic planning to yield the same results. So what suggestions do you have for how we can replicate that where we are? Well, fortunately for Texas, we have an amazing state organizing manager in Texas as well.

And so we know that our sister will be planning and strategizing and seeing how we can do the same thing. It just takes hard work and it is grueling work, right? And making sure that our partners across each one of these states stays focused on the end goal and stays focused on, you know, the prize. And so we'll get that strategy together. We'll see wins in Texas. One thing that I know, in spite of all voter suppression tactics, in spite of the barriers that folks have put in place, in spite of redistricting efforts, you cannot suppress a people who are familiar with oppression. Right. We're going to win every time. Attorney Bolden. Yeah. Hey, congratulations last night.

But I will say this, you know, the Democratic Party at the national level isn't being very helpful right now. As I travel the country, there's a large amount of voter discontent with the Biden-Harris ticket, the fact that black people put them in the majority in the Senate and the House and the White House, and yet voting rights has not been a priority, or at least they haven't been able to get it done. That's got to be a pretty strong headwind, notwithstanding having Senator Warnock as well as Stacey Abrams on the ticket next year. And being able to replicate that black voter turnout, what we're hearing in Washington is that's going to be tough because Democratic voters simply aren't happy that their

issues, criminal justice reform and the Voting Rights Act, simply haven't been made a priority by this administration. How do you respond to those concerns here in Washington? My light went out. There we go. Yeah, no, I am a black voter myself, right? And I echo those concerns. I have aligned myself with the Democratic Party, you know, for many years before I transitioned to this space. And what I'll tell folks that sometimes we just don't trust the system. We told folks last year that if they get out and they vote in record numbers that we were going to get this.

And we did. Our votes did deliver. Our votes deliver, you know, COVID relief. It delivered ARP funds. I call it the Biden bag, right? But we still have to just continue to have those conversations with our voters, but not focus so much on the federal and continue to focus on the local elections. That's our sweet spot.

We know that we need federal protection of our voting rights, but we know that that help may not come, right? And so if it doesn't come, what we can do is continue to flip these mayoral seats, flip a school board seat, flip a county commission in those down ballot races. That's the sweet spot, and those are the races that are going to impact our communities and black voters the most. Yeah. Good luck, and it'd still be nice to get some federal help, though. It would. We agree. Well, Ms. Miller, thank you so much for everything that you're doing. All politics is local after all. So we want to back you up any way we can. Tell us how we can

help support Black Voters Matter Fund and the work that you're doing. Yes, absolutely. Thank you so much. You can visit our website at www.blackvotersmatterfund.org. You can donate. You can stay connected. Sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on social media at blackvotersmatter.org and blackvotersmatter on all social media platforms. Thanks so much for joining us. Thank you. Have a great night. Coming up, the first confirmed case of Omicron coronavirus variant is detected in California. Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick will let us know how nervous we should be about this variant and the others that are sure to follow. And later, we'll update you on the trials of Jesse Smollett and the former Minnesota police officer who allegedly

thought she was firing her taser when she killed Dante Wright. But first, you have to take a quick break and pay the bills. This is Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. We'll be right back. НАПРЯЖЕННАЯ МУЗЫКА НАПРЯЖЕННАЯ МУЗЫКА Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going? Hi, I'm Eric Nolan. I'm Shantae Moore.

Hi, my name is Latoya Luckett, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. A confirmed case of the Omicron variant is in California. Reports say the person is fully vaccinated and experiencing mild symptoms. The variant has the medical community scrambling to figure out if the current vaccines are enough protection. Worldwide, there are more than 263 million reported cases and over 5 million deaths. In the United States, there are more than 49 million cases and over 800,000 deaths. The CDC and FDA are recommending booster shots for all eligible adults. Nearly 50% of eligible Americans are fully vaccinated. Dr. Lisa Fitzpatrick, the founder and CEO of Grapevine Health, joins me now. Welcome, Dr. Fitzpatrick. Good evening. It's great to be with you again.

Well, thank you so much for being here. I know that your time has to be crunched and busy. So let's just get to it. What is it that people need to know about this new variant and what is it that they need to do in response? So the good news is there's nothing new we need to do yet because we still have a lot of information outstanding about this new variant. So whether it's this variant or the one that's coming after it, we still know how to prevent the transmission of coronavirus. It's the same things we've been talking about since 2020 before we had vaccines. And so imagine if we were in a world in which there were no vaccines, we would still be relying on public health prevention measures like washing your hands, wearing a mask, paying attention to whether or not you have symptoms. Because the truth is that people who have symptoms and they don't recognize them or they don't really pay attention when they feel sick, those folks are transmitting to other people. So I think it's still within our

power, no matter what the variant is, to prevent the spread of coronavirus. But it's always sexy when there's a new variant identified. This could end up being much ado about nothing, or we could find that this is as transmissible or more transmissible than Delta. But the important questions we still don't have the answer to. Do the vaccines still work? And does it make people sicker or does it have a higher death rate? So we can't know those things just yet. Well, and what you said to me, frankly, does not sound like good news because it sounds like we have a lot that we don't know that those of us who are not scientists, are not doctors, and are not going to figure it out are waiting and depending on the experts to tell us.

And then two, you said in the meantime, we need to be doing the things we do know how to do in order to prevent the spread. But I'm looking at states and counties and cities all across the nation that are relaxing those requirements. So does that need to change? Because mask mandates are coming down. People are not social distancing. Churches have increased numbers of people in them. Schools aren't doing the things that they were doing when they reopened after the close so should should the government be backtracking on those things and

clamping down again until we know what we have these are really great questions but no I don't think so I don't think it's it's time to pull the panic button yet it could be this virus you know we've mentioned we found the first case in the United States. I'm sure there are more cases. It takes us a while to catch up to the spread. So this Omicron variant is probably, in many places, it just hasn't been detected yet. But the reason I think that's good news is because we're not seeing much higher death rates than we were even with Delta before we started learning about this Omicron variant. So while I understand it can be somewhat unsettling and anxiety provoking to hear about a new variant and not knowing how severe it is,

I think all the signs so far point to maybe it's as transmissible as Delta, maybe it's a little bit more, but we don't have information to say that it's more deadly or that it will increase hospitalizations. And to me, that's the good news. But I also think it's good news that we know how to prevent the spread of coronavirus, no matter what the variant is. That was the point I was making. But that's what I'm asking you. Does that mean that we should go back to doing those things, even in areas where those precautions and requirements have been relaxed? Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that at this point. I mean, we really, we've been through quite a trauma as a nation and I guess globally because of this pandemic. And so we certainly don't want

to panic before it's time to panic. And I think throughout this pandemic, we've seen a lot of anxiety and panic when it wasn't really warranted. So I think, again, one of the most important things we can do is rely on each other to assess our own symptoms. Do we feel sick? Are we having a runny nose or a cough or something doesn't feel quite right? Then it's up to us to get tested, stay home, away from other people and take those precautions. But no, I wouldn't recommend overnight changing mask recommendations and the public health recommendations just based on what we know yet about Omicron. Okay, so walk me slow. Without everybody panicking, we know we need to continue to wash our hands as frequently as possible, right? That's yes on that one.

Always. You know, infectious disease doctors have been trying to get people to wash their hands for decades. And so now I think people realize the importance of washing hands. OK, go ahead. And social distancing. What what's the recommendation on social distancing? Never mind what the CDC is telling us right now. People are watching and they want to stay on sick. What's your best recommendation or what is the best recommendation the government's giving? Well, the social distancing recommendation is challenging because as you notice, things are opening up. People are living their lives again. Maybe they're wearing masks in a lot of places they are and some places they aren't. So I can't see a policy saying we have

to go back to social distancing based on what we know about the Omicron variant right now. Again, I know it's a little unsettling that we don't have all the answers, but we're pretty adept at, we're pretty adapted to dealing with these variants by now because Delta really threw us for a loop. So I would encourage people to continue using their own best judgment because the CDC can make recommendations, NIH can make recommendations, but what's happening on the ground may be the best information people can use about what to do. So there are a lot of questions about what you should do with family gatherings if you have people who are unvaccinated in your family. This is not something the CDC can tell you what to do. I think each family has to make their own calculations about

can you invite Uncle Joe if he refuses to get vaccinated when everyone else is vaccinated. It's a very uncomfortable conversation. But given the situation with the pandemic, we have to be OK to say, Uncle Joe, this Thanksgiving, this Christmas, we'd rather just keep it in the family because we're concerned about the spread of coronavirus. Very uncomfortable conversations, I know, but we have to have them. So masks, what's the recommendation? Indoor masks or no masks? So the recommend, unfortunately,

the recommendations around masks are all over the place. I live in Washington, D.C., and the mask recommendations have been relaxed, but I still wear a mask when I'm in indoors in public, not because I'm concerned I'm going to get coronavirus, but out of respect for the frontline workers who are assisting me and who have no choice other than to wear a mask because they're mandated to do so by their employers. So it's also out of respect. You know, we've said a lot of times during this pandemic, we're all in this together, but we don't act like it. So I think wearing a mask is it's a sign of solidarity because we are not out of this pandemic as much as people want us to believe we are. So, again, even though from state to state, the mask recommendations will vary. I think it's still a good idea to wear a mask when you're indoors around people you don't know,

especially if it's a crowded setting when there is no social distancing. If you're outside, I think that's a completely different story because we know the virus is much likely to be transmitted if you're outside. Okay. Scott, do you have a question? Yeah, very quickly. I agree with everything you're outside. Okay. Scott, do you have a question? Yeah, very quickly. I agree with everything you've said. It seems to me that we're better prepared for Omicron if it spreads.

Secondly, the real key, I think you said this, is that if the boosters and the vaccinations work to stop Omicron, then we're in pretty good shape. That means we haven't gone down, we've gone up, or we've maintained, and that information should be forthcoming at some point. So I feel cautiously optimistic about this, because we're so well-pre prepared, despite washing your hands and wearing a mask and what have you. And so do you have anything to disabuse me or the public that, you know, or the viewers who are listening to you to disabuse us of that notion? I agree with you. I think we are prepared both socially and from a public health standpoint because we are so accustomed to dealing with these variants. This pandemic has gone on longer than any of us would have even

ventured to guess. So the outstanding question about the vaccines is do these mutations they're seeing with Omicron, what are they doing to the virus? So let me back up and talk about the concern about variants. So a variant, we expect viruses to mutate and that's all a variant is. But where we get, when we get concerned is when that variant causes the way the virus functions to change. So does it cause the virus to make people sicker? Does it skirt the protection from the vaccine? And we don't know that yet. So people are raising the alarm bells right now

because there are so many mutations on the spike protein, which is responsible for the damage coronavirus does. But it could be that all of those mutations are making it weaker. So we're just not sure yet. I also think because the Omicron has been circulating much longer than we know. And up to now, we haven't seen much higher rates of deaths or hospitalizations in a lot of these places. Sure, we're seeing more cases, which means it might be more transmissible. But again, I'm going to go back to the good news. We're not seeing more deaths and more hospitalizations because we're already behind the eight ball by only learning about this now.

So think about when we first learned about coronavirus. It was in January or February of 2020. But if you look historically about when they started talking about coronavirus, it was in China back in November, which means it was probably spreading before November. So I just want to remind people that Omicron, it's here, it's in many other places, and we haven't gotten a lot of bad news from it yet. And to me, that's good news. Well, we certainly would hope that the rest of the country would get vaccinated. That'd be even better news and we feel even more confident. Remember, half the country or a large portion of America still isn't vaccinated and now we're dealing with Omicron. So let's keep our fingers crossed and say our prayers. Thank you, Dr. Bolden. Matt, do you have any questions? I do. Yeah,

I actually have two questions real quick. The first is, does your thought change as it relates to vaccination of children? So with Omicron and with kind of subsequent variants, is there any change in the scholarship as to whether children under the age of 12 should be vaccinated now as it relates to Omicron, number one? And number two, do you know if there's any evidence of the severity of sickness as it relates to the breakthrough cases of people who were vaccinated and got Omicron. It may be too early for that, but I think people are interested in that data if you have it. Yeah, great questions. The first question, children should continue to be vaccinated because until we know differently,

there's no reason to believe these vaccines are not going to work. So as I mentioned, the mutations could actually either weaken the virus, nothing changes about it, or it could be worse than Delta. We just don't know. But so far from the cases that have been reported, so this is related to your second question, we're not seeing more severe disease and higher rates of death. There was a case, and I'm sure there will be more reported in the coming days and weeks of people who've been vaccinated and they still was a case, and I'm sure there will be more reported in the coming days and weeks, of people who've been vaccinated and they still got a case of Omicron. But guess what? That could have also been a case of Delta. So again, I really hope this is much ado about nothing. So far,

I don't have anything that alarms me that this is going to be something that's much, much worse than Delta. Pastor? Dr. Fitzpatrick, thank you for your leadership in this. My whole house is vaccinated except one, and that is my seven-year-old baby. And we are headed to make sure that she can get vaccinated soon. Can you just real quickly, I want to kind of stay on the vaccination conversation. Can you kind of speak to parents who have children under 12 years old who now can have access to the vaccination, but are a little bit hesitant because these are little babies, you know, we we're concerned about

the long-term effects. Can you kind of give us some wisdom, give us some encouragement on why we still should get our kids vaccinated as well? You should definitely still get your kids vaccinated. So coronavirus aside, your kids have had many vaccinations, hopefully. And I often ask people, all of these vaccinations that you've had before, did you have these same questions and hold them to the same standard you are this vaccine? Why is that? Because these vaccines, even though the timeline was compressed, they still conducted

these studies in the same manner, with the same process they did for other medications and other vaccines. So I want parents to feel comfortable. Like the little ones in my life have all been vaccinated. I'm very happy about that. If you take aspirin, if you take a high blood pressure medicine, if you take an arthritis medicine, I can't tell you what's going to happen as a result of that medicine five years from now, even when those medications were first approved. There was no way we could give you that information. But here we are in a global pandemic, and one of our best hopes of getting out of this pandemic is to get people vaccinated, including our young children. There were not as many children in the

studies as there were adults, and that's just a function of numbers. It's harder to get kids enrolled in studies than adults. So those studies showed the vaccines were very effective in children, and there's no way I can predict what could happen 10 years from now. But we certainly don't want children to be exposed to the risk of long COVID, which we know happens much more frequently in people who are younger, and then also some of the side effects of COVID. So I want parents to be encouraged that this is a good thing for our community, for our families, and also to provide some peace of mind because this has been a scary time for us. And vaccines can help relieve some of that stress and anxiety around COVID-19. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Fitzpatrick. Please do keep us posted. And if you wouldn't mind,

just tell people what you believe the best sources is online, by web, for them to be able to get the right information. Thank you for asking this question. It's challenging because I know we in the scientific community have a trust deficit right now and people don't know where to go. But I trained at CDC and I know the rigor and the integrity of the science that comes out of CDC and what goes into the recommendations. It's not always perfect, but I would still recommend people rely on CDC, our nation's public health agency, to get guidance for these sorts of things. But they can also reach out to us at Grapevine Health and we'll try to direct them as best we can with relatable, trustworthy health information. Okay, so that's cdc.gov, right? cdc.gov. And we're grapevinehealth.com.

Okay, thank you so much. Like I heard, it's either Grapevine. Thank you so much. Thank you. Today, you may have seen people wearing red ribbons in honor of World AIDS Day. The Global Day of Awareness started in 1988 to educate communities about HIV, support those living with the virus, and honor those who died from AIDS-related illnesses. More than 37 million people live with HIV worldwide, and over 1 million people in the United States live with the virus. According to the CDC, in 2019, male-to-male sexual contact

accounted for 65% of all new cases, and 23% were from heterosexual contact. African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately affected by the virus, accounting for 42% and 29% of cases, respectively. So even though we've taken great strides going to my panel, we're still seeing that for our communities, we are disproportionately affected. Pastor, what is it that you are doing, if anything, locally within your church community and your local civic community in order to be proactive? Well, you know, it's really about bringing forward education as much as we possibly can. I know people get tired of, you know, especially in church, us preaching to you about,

you know, making good decisions, protecting your health, being mindful of even your decisions and its effect on other people. But we have to keep doing that because, you know, being mindful of even your decisions and its effect on other people. But we have to keep doing that because, you know, a lot of times it may be just a seed that we're planting. And it may be something that we may not see the fruit from immediately. But if you keep watering that seed, watering that seed, eventually the fruit will grow. And our church and many of our churches in metro Atlanta, I'm a part of a coalition of pastors as well, that we've come together on many issues, but health-related issues. Of course, we've come together around COVID-19 and all of that. But as well as dealing with HIV and AIDS, we have to continue to educate people,

especially within our community, because as we continue to see disproportionately, our community seems to lead and or lack in all the wrong places. Right. And I guess I'm wondering, Matt, do you think that people have become lax in that, you know, a couple of decades ago, we were at high alert, but now we're in the middle of a pandemic. I mean, every other day, there's some sort of disaster that's at our doorstep. I'm wondering if this has gotten lost in the shuffle and the precautions, the daily precautions that are necessary to be taught to our teens and to grown folks that that is not happening. I don't have the data on that, but I suspect you're correct. And I think part of that is just part and parcel with as time goes on and the, you know, the insistence on talking about it every day and it being in the 24-hour news cycle ends, I think people, you know, get lax kind of the way we are in this pandemic. I think as we were discussing just a minute ago, people do think,

okay, maybe it's not as big an issue because I'm not hearing about it every day. But to pivot a little bit, I would say one of the things we definitely need to do in the black community in general with health issues is destigmatize seeking help for them. HIV AIDS is a virus just like anything else. And if you're afflicted with it, go get help for it. That's not anything that divests you of your power, nor is it anything that makes you a bad person. If you have a sickness, you get treated for it. It should be that simple. And I think that destigmatization is important for, especially for HIV AIDS, considering how it was initially reported and how it was initially treated. So I think that's what we need to do in our community in particular. Okay, Scott, I think you have an opinion on this. Wait for my question. It might be, it might cause an insightful response. I'm coming.

Good grief. All right. I believe that finances pay play a part in the manner in which all diseases that need to be cured or need to be managed the way that that takes effect globally and in the United States. And to me, HIV AIDS is no different. Some people are under great medicine plans, under great pain management plans, contract HIV, and then never, ever, ever, ever, ever have a problem again. And then others, as we see in our community, are still dying. What's the story? Well, access to great medical care and medical plans, I think you're absolutely right about that. But in the end, the statistics in regards to the disproportionate impact that AIDS and HIV are having on black and brown folks, you saw it was 40%. But then heterosexual contact

in the black and brown community was at 23%. And that's even more disturbing in the sense that people, whether you're gay or bi or heterosexual, we're still not protecting ourselves in the black and brown community. In the end, sexual education and sexual protection when you're having sex, whether you're having sex with one partner or multiple partners, protecting yourself,

using condoms, being smart about protecting yourself, doing sexual relations, is still, I think, a big key to reducing the number of AIDS cases worldwide, let alone in this country. And I don't think we're doing as great a job at it as we can. And if we do a better job at that, I think we'd see those numbers go down. It's not simplistic, but that would certainly help, coupled with trying to destigmatize the issue of AIDS and HIV in the gay community, as well as in the heterosexual community, and how it's being transmitted. You know, a lot of black women or black and brown women also are one of the

growing group of those who suffer from HIV and AIDS. And so we need to study that. But again, it comes down to education and protection. And I think as a people, as a community, we need to do a better job at that. I agree, certainly. So access to health care, which that's a money matter. But education, I want to go to my clergy for this question, because where education is concerned, we are still seeing parents groups, church organizations across the country fighting the sex education in the school system that they are trying to bring at younger and younger ages, in my opinion, out of necessity so that we can stay disease free and stay alive. But, you know, the other side of that is that they're being exposed

to the ways of the devil and to sin and that they don't need to be exposed and have this much information this soon. What's your take on that, Pastor May? You're on mute. I'm sorry. I like to preach in a way that is relevant, that will connect to people in their real life. Now, as much as we in the faith community would want people to abstain from sex, to not talk about sex, whether we talk about it or the school talks about it, you're going to hear about it. That's just a reality. And we have to, when I talk about education, I'm talking about all of education. One of the aspects of education, and it is, you know, it is not the cool thing, but abstinence is an appropriate education to say, hey, let's consider abstaining. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, young people, let's try and abstain, you know. But on the other

hand, if by chance, you know, you get caught up, you know, when I was a freshman at Clark Atlanta University, they gave us box loads of condoms. It's just the reality, you know. And I was there. I was one black man to every 16 black women at Clark Atlanta University. And I was 17 years old. So, you know, as much as my daddy being a preacher, you know, I tried to do, you know, what was right, but I fell off, right? So you want those times that people are educated and keep in top of mind what they must do to protect themselves and to protect others as well. And we just have to, and the school place is a way that can, that education in a scientific way can occur, not kind of like mom and daddy used to tell them or how your big

cousin told you, no, in a very practical and healthy way that it can be promoted as well. So I think we have to educate in all manners within those records. All right. Let the church say amen and amen again. We have to take a quick break, but we will have our Black and Missing segment and the latest on Jesse Smollett and Kimberly Potter trials when we come back. And later, a look at how the restrictive voting laws could negatively impact voters. We'll have the acting director of voting rights and elections from the Brennan Center for Justice break down the latest report called Voting Laws Roundup October 2021. Roland Martin Unfiltered will be right back after the break. You're watching the of my dreams.

Alexa, play our favorite song again. OK. I only have eyes for you. I'll be right back. Okay, hold on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? BuickEnvision2021. You should pick something stronger. That's really predictable. That's a really tight spot. Don't worry. I used to hate parallel parking. Me too.

Hey. Really outdid yourself. Yes, we did. The all-new Buick Envision. An SUV built around you. All of you. Once upon a time, there lived a princess with really long hair who was waiting for a prince to come save her. But really, who has time for that?

She ordered herself a ladder with Prime one day delivery. And she was out of there. Now, her hairdressing empire is killing it. And the prince? Well, who cares? Crime changes everything. Hi, everybody. This is Jonathan Nelson. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. As we are gearing up for the 2022 election cycle, 19 states have passed new, stricter voting laws, making it harder for some people to vote, and y'all know which ones.

The 2020 presidential election had the highest voter turnout in nearly a century, but lawmakers found it necessary to restrict voters' rights. These states pass 33 laws that will negatively impact voters. Some of these laws impact election officials, voter identification, mail-in voting, and early voting. In Texas, my home state, the voting laws discriminate against non-English speakers and those with disabilities. On the contrary, 25 states passed laws expanding voting rights. These new laws make mail-in and curbside voting easier, allow previously disenfranchised felons to vote, and offer early voting as an option. Joining now to tell us more about the impact of these laws is Sean Morales

Doyle, Acting Director of Voting Rights and Elections, Brennan Center for Justice. Mr. Doyle, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for having me. Pleasure to be here. So this seems like a mixed bag at best on what the laws are across the country. And I think I'm being as generous as possible in saying that. Can you just first tell us, for people who don't know, what does the Brennan Center do and what are the actions that you are taking with regard to what we're seeing happen across the country? Sure. The Brennan Center for Justice is a law and policy institute, a think tank affiliated with NYU School of Law. And we do a number of things to protect and defend our systems of democracy and justice. That includes doing the

research and policy development work to develop good policies, the legislative advocacy to get those policies enacted, going to court to defend those policies or to fight back against bad ones, and doing public education work to sort of change the national narrative on the issues that we focus on. So and where has your work focused or what have you been doing specifically with the crop up first of laws that are targeting disenfranchising voters? So the first thing we do is we track all these laws. We track every piece of legislation impacting voting rights in every legislature across

the country every year. And we make that information available, as you just described, in our Voting Laws Roundup. And this year we have seen an unprecedented number of laws in both directions, laws restricting voter access and laws expanding access to the ballot. And we are obviously most concerned with the laws that are restricting voting access. We're very happy about the laws expanding access, but we're very concerned about this wave of restrictive legislation that has been enacted, fueled by the big lie that the 2020 election was rigged.

And we're doing a number of things beyond just monitoring and spreading the word about this. We are advocating that Congress take the urgent and necessary action to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act in order to stop this wave. And at the same time, we're using the tools that we have available to us, which are limited until Congress acts, to go to court and try to stop these laws ourselves. So right now we are in litigation against the state of Texas over one of the bills that you made reference to. And our, you know, in a slightly related issue, not on restricting voter access, but on redistricting, we're also involved in litigation in Ohio to push back against a partisan gerrymander there.

Okay. So just from the two things that you just said, I want to and may not understand that right now what happens with voting can differ state to state to state. And that makes for just some craziness in the manner in which your votes are protected in Texas and the way that your votes are protected in a neighboring state in Louisiana and the way that they're protected in Arkansas. It could all be different things. So can you first explain why under the current system of laws the states are able to do this? And then second, explain what the Lewis bill, the Voting Rights Act, will do federally that will stop it. Sure. So, you know, we have a federalist system where we have a federal government that can regulate federal elections, but we also have state governments that run elections, both local and state elections and federal elections.

And so that means that our voting laws and the folks that run our voting systems vary from state to state. And that's why we can see this divergence of trends in two different parts of the country and see that increasingly your access to the ballot depends on where you live, which of course we think is wrong. The two bills that are pending in Congress together, I think, make this—would push back against the trend of restrictive voting laws in a couple of different ways. One is the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. And what that law would do is it would restore to full strength the Voting Rights Act of

1965. And what I mean by that is that the Supreme Court has now, in two separate decisions, in 2013 and again this year, done harm to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the crown jewel of the civil rights movement, the most effective remedy for race discrimination in voting that our nation has ever seen, the Supreme Court has weakened it. And the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would restore it by basically doing two things. One would be to subject jurisdictions with a history of race discrimination in voting to preclearance, which was the most effective part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965,

and required those jurisdictions, states that had a long history of discriminating, to run any change in their elections by the Department of Justice before they could go into effect. And that gave the Department of Justice the opportunity to see whether those laws were going to produce discrimination and stop them from going into effect before they ever hit the books, essentially. The second thing that the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would do is it would restore the full strength to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which is the part of the Voting Rights Act that allows advocates like myself to go to court and sue to stop discriminatory voting practices. And earlier

this year, the Supreme Court made that much harder to do by interpreting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act in a way that is not friendly to voters, frankly. So that bill would give us the tools that we need to push back against race discrimination in voting and to stop these laws from ever going into effect when they are discriminatory. The second bill, the Freedom to Vote Act, addresses very directly the issue that you're talking about, which is this variation from state to state on how elections work. And it would set a floor for how elections need to work, federal elections need to work across the country. It would say every state needs to have this amount

of early voting. Every state needs to have automatic voter registration. Every state needs to have same-day registration. No state can have partisan gerrymandering. It would put a baseline in effect across the country so that we don't have states like Texas that make it very hard for you to vote compared to states like, say, Illinois or Colorado that are giving expansive access to the ballot. Yeah. So when when we had the last election and all of the things were going on with with Governor Abbott and with the one place that you could turn in your absentee ballots. I was working with Black Voters Matter Fund during that time, and it was infuriating the level of insanity and really just sinister behavior at foot in the changes that were

being made. There was no hiding what the purpose was. They were directly trying to make it harder and in the middle of a pandemic. But there are people, because when you mentioned the way that the laws have been weakened by the courts, I was thinking of all of the people who I hear say, yes, the laws were weakened because the laws are no longer necessary. What's the response? that those who are in majority by way of power or race can have an understanding that this is necessary protection? Yeah, well, one thing I would remind folks of is that the Voting Rights Act of 1965, not only was it passed in 1965, but then it was repeatedly renewed and reauthorized

by Congress for decades since then, most recently in 2006. And every single time it was passed and reauthorized with bipartisan support. In 2006, it was reauthorized by a 98-0 vote in the United States Senate. Many of those senators who right now are opposing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and not even allowing debate on that bill voted for reauthorization of this law just as recently as 2006. So even they know that this law is still necessary. Even they were pushing for this law not that long ago. But I think we don't have to look that much further than registration rates to see why

this law is still necessary. When the Supreme Court made its ruling in 2013 weakening the Voting Rights Act, they said, look, the gap between registration rates for black voters and white voters, that was a problem in 1965. It's shrunk. We're not sure this is necessary anymore. Well, since that decision, that gap has grown across the country. It's grown even faster in the parts of the country that used to be subject to preclearance.

And there are places where the gap between black voters and white voters or non-white voters and white voters is the highest it's been in decades. That includes Texas. So we obviously still have a problem with the way that our voting laws are impacting people of color in this country. But it's also, frankly, absurd to say that this isn't a problem anymore when we are facing this unprecedented wave of voting restrictions, laws that make it harder to vote, a wave that we haven't seen since the Jim Crow era is what we're witnessing right now, 19 states passing 33 laws. To say that we don't have a problem with this right now is just turning a blind eye to reality. In Texas, you mentioned all of the battle over this last year and the governor making it so that there's only one drop box in Harris County, which has millions and millions of people living in it. That battle continued to be waged after 2020,

and you just see restrictions laid on top of restrictions. The counties in Texas, some of them, like Harris County, were creative and innovative in finding ways to make voting more accessible during a pandemic, providing drive-through voting, providing 24-hour voting. And the response from the Texas legislature was to go after those election officials, to ban those practices, to add new restrictions on top of already one of the most restrictive systems in the country, to make it a crime, for example, for an election official to encourage people to apply to vote by mail. So they're laying restrictions on top of restrictions.

And that is exactly what the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was trying to go after. When President Johnson called for the Voting Rights Act in 1965, he talked about ingenious discrimination, that you couldn't just play this game of whack-a-mole where you try to stop this practice, a literacy test, stop that practice, a poll tax, because the folks who are engaging in discrimination are doing so in an ingenious way, in a creative way. They always find a new way to accomplish that goal. And that's what we're witnessing right now, is states that already had restrictive voter

ID laws now laying on top of it these criminal penalties for encouraging voting by mail. States like Georgia, which used to have expansive vote by mail process, all of a sudden switching to add restrictions to voting by mail right after we saw record usage of vote by mail among black voters in Georgia last year. And it really, it comes down to, you know, what do we do? You all are doing your work. We appreciate it. Black Voters Matter Fund is doing its work and galvanizing people on the ground. We appreciate it. But there are so many of us who are either frustrated and don't know what to do, or frankly, are ignorant of what

is happening. For instance, when you were talking about Harris County and some good strides that it made, I couldn't help but think of my home county, Galveston County, which just a few days ago, because of redistricting, they have, I think, a nine-member county commissioner board. They had one black person, even though the black and brown representatives are something like 40 something percent of the county. But due to the changes, this one person, this one black person who was a county commercial commissioner, we know is not likely to be reelected. And so these things are happening right under people's noses. You know, I mean, it's right there in the paper. I still read the Galveston Daily. I see when these things are happening and I follow the reporting of the Houston Chronicle, et cetera.

But these are elected officials who are doing things to disenfranchise people who likely voted for them. And that is a shame. And I don't know the fix for it. Like what we can do sitting here watching right now other than call our Congress member, which is. Well, that is one thing, too. I know I knew it was on the list, so I was just going to help you with that one. Go ahead. Yeah. So my list always starts. I know it sounds corny and, you know, cliche or whatever. But my list always starts with number one vote and number two, call your representatives and tell them what you think about this. Those things really do matter. There is a reason why the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are at the top of the agenda for the majority party in

Washington, D.C. right now. And that is because they've heard from their constituents that this is an important issue, because they've seen some states in this country passing expansive laws to grant more access to the ballot. They've heard from folks that this is the top of the list issue for them, and that hasn't been the case in the past. I don't think voting rights was the top of the list issue for nearly as many people in recent history. But they need to keep hearing that message. You know, they've got these bills. They've got majority support for these bills. They've got bipartisan support with Senator Murkowski for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. But they need to be told that getting 50 senators to sign on to a bill or 51 senators to sign on to a bill isn't enough.

They've got to pass it. They've got to do what is necessary to get past the procedural rules that are blocking them from passing bills that have majority support right now and pass this legislation. So that is one thing all of us can do. But I do think you make a good point about paying attention to what's going on in your backyard as well. We are in the midst of a redistricting cycle right now, as you say. And that doesn't just happen at the congressional level or even at the state legislature level. That happens at the local level.

It happens with county commissioners. It happens with city councils. And it's important for people to go and let their voice be heard about that. You know, we have a lot of reason to be worried about it, but we do still live in a democracy. And so it does still matter for you to be heard by your representatives, both at the ballot box and in between elections, and tell them what it is that you think. Right. And sometimes people don't believe that. You know, I think it is less effective when someone who is living in Sacramento is calling the congressperson for 6th District, Oklahoma.

But I know for sure one of my second jobs here in D.C. was working for Congressman Charlie Wilson, 2nd District out of Texas. and when the people from home called and there was always close tabs on when those calls were being made and what they were saying and let me tell you the difference was made and I and any staffer from any office will tell you that they are paying attention to their bottom line and their bottom line is how they're going to get reelected. So I want to tell people how they can get it done. Believe us, y'all, it's important. But is it vote.gov where they can go if they do not know who their particular congressmember is or who their senator is or how they can contact them or what's the best way to find out? You can do that. There's also most states have their own and even cities have their own method for looking this up. But I just want to reiterate what you said. It matters when you call your own representative. It matters when you call

your own representative even if you think they're already on board with you, right? This isn't just about trying to win over the people that you don't have. This is about trying to convince the majority that's in the Senate right now to get the thing done. And so it matters. You know, I live in Brooklyn, New York. Senator Schumer is my senator. He's obviously in support of these bills. He's championing these bills. He still needs to hear from me that I think he needs to pass this bill. And everybody's senators need to hear that no matter where you are. Don't think that because your senator has come out in favor of this bill that that's enough. There's 51 senators in favor of the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.

That's not enough to get it done. They have to constantly be hearing that this is a priority, that this is urgent, and it needs to happen right now. Well, thank you so much. Just agree, agree, agree to everything that you said. And I hope you guys will engage. Thank you for the work that you're doing and thank you for joining us. We appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure. We are going to go to a quick break. And then when we come back, we have more news you can use on Roland Martin unfiltered on the black star network don't go anywhere

alexa play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes for you. Субтитры создавал DimaTorzok ТРЕВОЖНАЯ МУЗЫКА I'm going to go. Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier. Food is her love language. And she really loves her grandson. Like, really loves. Hello, everyone. It's Kiera Sheard. Like, really loves. 14-year-old Aaliyah Phillips is considered a critical missing child from here in the nation's

capital, D.C. She was last seen leaving school yesterday. Aaliyah Phillips is about five feet three inches tall, 115 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. She was wearing blue jeans, a black hoodie, and black and gray tennis shoes. If you have any information about Aaliyah Phillips, call the Metropolitan Police Department at 202-576-6788. We have two trials to tell you about. A Minnesota jury could be sworn in by tomorrow morning in the trial of Kim Potter, the former police officer who gunned down Dante Wright. Five more jurors were seated by lunchtime, or at least by the end of the day, bringing the total sworn in to nine. Twelve jurors total plus two alternates will ultimately be chosen. Judge Regina Chu discussed starting the

trial earlier than December 8th. Kim Potter faces first and second degree manslaughter charges for the shooting. Wright was killed during a traffic stop on April 21st. A key witness took the stand in the trial of Jesse Smollett today. One of the brothers Smollett allegedly hired to attack him told the jurors how he made the empire stand. Prosecutors also introduced text messages between the brothers to prove Smollett recruited, or to attempt to prove Smollett recruited the pair to help him stage his January 2019 attack. Neither of the brothers has been charged with a crime. Let's start there. Do they have a deal, Scott?

Well, they may or may not have a crime. Let's start there. Do they have a deal, Scott? Well, they may or may not have a deal, but they certainly are cooperating and they don't really need a deal because they're not being prosecuted right now and nor have they been prosecuted. This is a weird case. It's hard to follow. Why are we even litigating or criminally prosecuting six misdemeanors which are disorderly conducts because Jesse Smollett allegedly lied? I think it's going to be a tough case. I know Dan Webb. Dan Webb is a longtime former prosecutor, white-collar criminal defense lawyer, who is the special prosecutor in this case. But I'm not sure it's a use of great resources to charge Smollett and to try him, other than the fact that this was a really big press case. There are other pressing matters in the state of Illinois and in this country.

The other thing that's really interesting is the brothers say they helped set him up. But if that's true and they show that he just lied about this racial incident, then what do you do with the brothers then? Because why aren't they co-conspirators, if you will, as opposed to them just not being charged at all? Sounds like a deal to me. The defense in this case is raising all kinds of questions about whether the police and the detectives are ignoring other evidence that perhaps this was true. Nobody believes this was true. And so as the case unfolds, these facts are going to come out as to whether the allegations were true or not. The defendant is still maintaining it occurred. And if it did occur, then why aren't the police looking for the

bad actor or bad actors? It's a mess of a case. And to be honest with you, I'm not sure public opinion supports the prosecution of Smollett because the court of public opinion has given up on him already. Well, I mean, and it's a tremendous waste of money. And the whole reason that they tried to sully and dirty up Kim Foxx is because she did what was the right thing to do with these charges. I mean, to say that there's bigger fish to fry, that there's more to be concerned about than this is the understatement of the year. Matt, what are your thoughts? So my thoughts are they have to have a deal, because if I represented them, I would not let them be on the stand because they are co-conspirators. I mean, their testimony is allegedly that they colluded with him to perpetuate this fake assault. So I assume there is some kind of immunity or some kind of

backdoor deal to not charge them. That's what I would expect. But beyond that, we see this. We see prosecutors, unfortunately, and governments in general wanting to fry the big fish, if you will, somebody that they think is going to get them good press. And I know Kim Fox did the right thing, but the fact that this is still pending is absurd. Before I came to civil practice, I was the first assistant at the district attorney's office where I live. And this is the kind of case that I would not be prosecuting because there are far more important things to do than seek after somebody in a case like this. So I think they have deals, but I don't know why it's still being prosecuted. But also, how do you pick one group of one?

How do you pick the brothers? Sure, Scott, by all means. Do you have something more to say, Scott? Go ahead. What is it? I'm trying to support my brother, which I wanted to just kind of friendly amendment to him. That how do you, credibility is really important in this case.

In fact, it's going to come down to what the jury believes or doesn't believe. How do you, they're going to, the prosecution is going to put on as to why they believe the brothers, the defense is going to put on why they shouldn't believe the brothers. And Jesse Smollett, whether he gets convicted or not, I mean, the amount of time and resources just doesn't make a lot of sense. But I'm done. I won't interrupt anymore. OK, thank you for that. I won't hold you to it, though. I won't hold you to it, though.

So Matt asked this question before your untimely addendum. He's like, I don't know why we're still here. Well, I mean, I know why we're still here. Well, I mean, I know why we're still here. And I'm going to tell all three of y'all because all three of y'all look like some black men with money doing well. There is a target on your back. There's a target on your chest. There's a target on your family. There's a target on your career.

And don't you dare jaywalk because you will not get away with it. That is the way that this system works. So, you know, Pastor May, it's obvious to me, same way it is in anything else, that race is the reason because if it was a white superstar, we've watched them literally get away with murder and not be charged. Like there has to be outrage and outrage and then they

die before they see a day of jail. But here's my question. It seems like though, when this happens to us and race is clearly afoot, we're willing to run in the streets for the poor downtrodden black man, never had anything good happen to him been in and out of the system didn't have no mama didn't have no daddy but when it's a black man with means i don't know if we get as worked up why is that well it's how we treat people you know i mean it's a reality it's a it's a fact of life that we give people with resources, with name, with notoriety, we give them our attention. And I was raising my hand before because you said, why are we talking about this? I think this is a waste of not only money.

I think it's a waste of our time. I hate that we're even talking about it. I'm sorry. Smollett really doesn't represent the things that we find important right now. Whatever has happened, it is confusing to me. I've read through it. I don't understand who did what, why they did what, where they did what and all that. And I'm like, can it just go away? Because you just talked about two cases together, right? Two cases together. You talked about a woman, a white woman who killed a black

man and says that she thought it was her, her gun was her taser, you know? And, and, and, and talk about that even in the same conversation with whatever's going on with this brother. It, to me, it just doesn't even, it doesn't balance out. It doesn't weigh out or whatever. And I wish it would go away. But, yeah, I think we do need to look at our legal system, right, because we can't always call it the justice system. We need to look at it and see how we deal with people of means and people who don't have means or whatever. And we know time and time again. We talk about it every time I come on here. We're talking about a case where somebody who didn't have means has served time because they didn't have adequate legal representation or they just got shammed by the system and things like that.

So we have to take a close look. And yes, it's race, but it's also resources that we look at, too, that we have to really take a hard look at. Yeah, for sure. But I mean, I wish everybody had more resources, not less. But poof, be gone to the Smollett case right now because we need another break. And then we'll be back with more of Roland Martin Unfiltered on Black Star Network. Stay tuned. Are the stars of the night Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay.

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Let's go. I'm spilling myself. She ordered herself a ladder with prime one day delivery, and she was out of there hi i'm vivian green everybody this is your man Fred Hammond, and you're watching Roland Martin, my man, Unfiltered. The nation's highest court took up the abortion issue again today. Today's case is Mississippi's 15-week ban on abortion and may go much further to overturn the nationwide right to abortion that

has existed for nearly 50 years. The fate of the court's historic 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion throughout the United States and its 1992 ruling in Planned Parenthood v. Casey, which reaffirmed Roe, probably won't be known until next June. After nearly two hours of argument, all six conservative justices, including three appointed by former President Donald Trump, indicated they would uphold the Mississippi law. Whoo, y'all. Scott, your boy Kavanaugh showed his whole card today did you get to watch any of it or did you get to hear about any of the shenanigans where he all of a sudden knew all of the scholarly law concerning stare decisis and why it didn't prevent the court from overruling roe v wade

he did his homework. He came prepared. He knew his homework at the hearing, Scott. Right. He knew that. So you shouldn't be surprised at him, Amy Barrett, Alito, as well as our black justice on the Supreme Court. They're getting ready to do what they were put there, sent there to do. And I don't think the chief judge can stop them. What black justice are you talking about?

The one that's of the darker ilk. The one with melanin in his skin. You know, I can't help it. He black, he black. I thought that was the statue that they had sent that statue they were trying to put up to him. They had sent it down here.

You know what? He wasn't quiet today. In fact, he led the question. The reality is if Roberts can carve out a middle ground, the problem with carving out a middle ground and upholding Mississippi's law is that the 15-week piece where you can't do an abortion after 15 weeks, the problem with that is that the other states will follow that, and that will

essentially as a practical matter gut the law and the federal implications of Roe v. Wade. But so there's not really a middle ground here, but they don't need Roberts anymore. They've got the majority, and my sense is from the questioning, they're going to do what they were sent there to do. Now, the liberal justices, Sotomayor and others, said we're turning into a political kangaroo court because this is a political issue. This isn't a legal issue given the precedent that we're discussing. And so unfortunately, she and Kagan are in the majority and Roberts can't help them, nor can he help the conservatives either, because I think they're going to roll them by June. And remember, it's not just this case. It's the Texas case that they've

allowed to stand in the interim. It's the gun case in New York whereby they may rule that you don't need a higher standard to have a license to carry a short gun or a nine millimeter versus the higher standards most states have taken on a restricted basis. And so you could see a plethora of conservative decisions that will change and give the Republicans victory by June. So we'll have to sit tight and see. But this is a dangerous moment in legal history because the court is ready to shift, it seems like from the arguments, it's ready to shift to a more conservative bend, not only with the appointments, but also with their decision making now.

Sure. But, well, there was this point, Matt, today, and I would invite all of you who are watching to go and look. There was a rare moment with Justice Sotomayor where she said something like, how do we overcome the stench? awake enough because we're in the middle of all of this other to to see what is happening right in front of us. But but Matt, what's happening is what was meant to happen. I mean, this is this is what the votes were for. Right. This is why the evangelicals supported the devil and put him in office and kept him there as long as possible. I mean, was this not the plan? We are smelling the stench of a sour election. Elections matter. This is exactly what was intended to happen. So none of this is surprising. It's ridiculous the way that it's happening. I mean, with our home state,

Monique, you know, finding a way to incentivize people to basically be bounty hunters when they think somebody's been involved with an abortion or has facilitated, I think is the terminology, is absurd. The fact that we're talking about this in 2021 when the clear precedent is that you have a right to get an abortion is absurd. And the idea that we have allowed these conversations of our rights to be co-opted by a small majority of people, or rather a large contingent of people who, you know, want to push their own value system through rather than let us have a system of laws based on precedent is disconcerting. But it's precisely what was intended to happen, and we're seeing the fruits of that sour election right now.

So, Pastor May, I'm coming to you for all our ethical conflicts on this show, because there was a day a few weeks ago, I can't remember what it was I posted, I think that should have been President Hillary Clinton had posted something on Instagram about women's rights, human rights, and that includes the legalized abortion rights. And I forwarded in my stories and, oh, did some of the church goers give me the business? How could I be saved? How could I be a preacher? How could I love Jesus if I, and, you know, I started to respond and engage, but then I just kind of recognized that it is such, um, it's an ethical, philosophical, spiritual conversation to get people to understand the difference between what you do with your personal choices

and what you dictate for the choices of another. And everybody doesn't land the same place on that. So what, if anything, are your thoughts? Well, first, let's be clear. the United States Supreme Court, all courts are political bodies. As much as our judicial system wants to act like it's free from politics, the reality is it is all intertwined. It is a reality of that. So I wanted to say that because I know some of the justices mentioned politics and all of that. There is no way to separate politics from what we see in the judicial system, number one. Number two, I think you were wise as wise can be not to respond. Because here's the reality,

when you're dealing with pro-life or pro-choice, people have very strong opinions about that. And this is what people don't really know how to do. They don't know how to engage each other in that conversation without taking their opinions and completely morphing or just sitting their opinions on top of the heads of another person. And here's the other fact with that. People still have difficulty. I'm talking about regular people. I'm not talking about lawyers. I'm not talking about politicians who are steeped in policy. People still have a difficult way of connecting what they believe personally with how that plays out in policy. Because that is a difficult thing, right? And so people are taking their personal opinions and trying to lay that on people and then trying to talk about policy in a

way that they have no idea about. So it is a very, very difficult conversation. In the church, I will say this in the church, you know, there's a scripture that talks about not arguing about doctrine, right? Not arguing about kind of those dogmatic things in scripture. Really not spending, wasting your time trying to have these deep debates about issues that you'll never come about. We want to do things in our church and many churches that I know that will bring people together. And for us in our faith, our number one target is God, right? We can put folks of faith and believers can focus on God. And we want to do that and focus on that.

But I don't have the silver bullet. I don't have the solution on how to react to people when they feel that way. You see people protesting up there. They had to put the barricades between both sides up there at the Supreme Court today. And it is something that inevitably, and here's, I'll say this, Alastair, I don't think our elected officials are uniquely equipped, nor are our judges, and I don't have a solution to this, are uniquely equipped to really deal with the human factor in this. They're trying to create laws or enforce laws dealing with this, but the humanity of it is something that I've just not really seen many

of our electeds on any side really do well in dealing with that. And so I'll be looking to see. But I think my brother mentioned about just not just this issue, but so many other issues that this conservative body now is about to just turn upside down what we have been kind of standing on for the past three, four, even five decades as well. Right. Well, I mostly just didn't respond. I didn't want to hurt their feelings. Don't come quoting the one scripture you know you can't even spell. You didn't want to cut them out. Take your exit.

Exit us from here. But it's the hypocrisy for me because you care about the unborn baby. You don't care about the seven-year-old. You want the woman to have the baby even when she was raped. You're not going to try to help take care of the baby because you're trying to kill all Medicaid, all funding that would help the baby. You don't care about the man who gets killed on the street by the police. You think Rittenhouse was a hero, but don't kill

the fetus. Got it. And those are super valuable. Whenever that life begins, which is a great debate. Yes, but the thing is, even if you are for it, be for life from the beginning to the end. Support life. As Pastor said,

humanity, but we, oh, it's too much. We have to take another quick break, and then we'll be back with Tech Talk and more. Scott, you will never be done with your more to say. We are going to pay the bills and then we will be right back with Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Alexa, play our favorite song again. Okay. I only have eyes for you. ДИНАМИЧНАЯ МУЗЫКА Norske Klinik Maureen is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now she's free to become Maureen the Marrier.

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For this week's Tech Talk brought to you by Verizon. We are highlighting Who's Your Landlord? A platform that allows renters to rate their landlords and gives home providers more insight into their residents. CEO and founder Ofoizugu came up with the concept while he was a student at Temple University. Who's Your Landlord? has worked with renters across more than 300 American cities and featured in notable publications such as Blavity, Newsweek, and Afrotech. Ofo, who was recently honored as a Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the social impact category joins us now to tell us about who's your landlord. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Please tell me first of all that I pronounced your name correctly because I hate it when people mess up mine.

No, all good. You got it perfectly. Opho Izuku. Okay. Well, Mr. Izugu, welcome, welcome, welcome. And this looks like you have figured out something that's really important that people need. Can you tell us what led you to want to give people the power to rate their landlords and what you think it affects? Yeah, I mean, I think growing up as a millennial, every decision I've made when it comes to the internet and purchases have been driven by reviews. So if I'm on Amazon, I look at reviews before I make a purchase. If I go to a cafe, I look at reviews on Yelp before I go to the cafe, right, and so on and so forth. And so for me, my senior

year at Temple University, I served as the vice president of the student body. And one of the issues students were complaining about a lot were housing issues. Just, you know, a lot of change in the Philadelphia community. One was displacement of community members that had been there for years. And two was for college students. Many of the landlords in the community, you know, didn't provide them the most quality service because they felt like, well, their parents are paying rent or they're going to pay rent regardless. And so when we hear issues of like harassment between male landlords and female residents, when we hear issues about infestation in homes, we thought that was wrong. And so my thought was there has to be some way to at least review your landlord or property manager or building before

signing that lease. So at least, you know, what to expect. Yeah, that absolutely seems necessary. And as you mentioned, when it's students, they really can be taken advantage of. So what level of success are you seeing so far? How far along are you in the process? Sure. So we're growing. We've helped now over 2 million residents across 400 cities now. So you've grown even beyond our little bio yet. We have reviews across 25,000 different landlords, property managers and apartment buildings in the U.S. Our team is a small shop. It's almost about 10 of us. But, you know, we have closed on some funding. So, you know, we have closed on some funding, so more announcements to come soon. But historically, we've raised over a million towards the business and have made a great impact.

And even now have delved into creating software and technology that helps those exact home providers, so those landlords, those property managers, better understand and engage their residents. Because I think a big part of this was, well, what's the value add to that landlord, to that property manager of the data being out there beyond just, of course, identifying who is performing well and performing poorly. And I think the more we were able to make those reviews into actionable insights, the stronger our platform has become. So we've launched software in that realm this year. And now it's been really cool to see the growth. Okay.

So I'm going to allow my panel to ask some questions. But first, how do I use it? Sure, sure. Hop on the platform. You can search for, you know, search apartment buildings, search for your landlord, property managers. If they're there, feel free to look at the reviews, add your own review. You said hop on the platform. Baby step us.

What does that mean? That means go to wyl.co. at the reviews add your own review you said hop on the platform baby step us what that means that means you know go to wyl.co so who's your landlord wyl.co okay that's our that's our site okay um from the site you can search proactively uh for either homes you're looking to move into or apartment buildings you're looking to move into or even for your own. If the profile already exists, awesome. There will be reviews there. You can add your own. If it doesn't, you actually are empowered to create the profile for that building or that landlord or that property management company. So that's kind of the simplified way of how you'd use it.

But we also provide, you know, over 700 pieces of content around housing education. So, you know, what you need to understand when you're looking to move into an apartment, you know, maybe local laws in your area that may affect you as a resident. And so those are the areas we really key in on when you use our platform. Okay. I know how to get there now. Pastor May, do you have any questions? Brother, this is such an amazing resource. And yeah, I'm thinking about myself when I was in college, when I was at Clark Atlanta University, moved off campus my sophomore year and I moved to College Park. College Park is how we said it back then. And I bought, I had three roommates, man, three bedrooms.

And I think we pay like five hundred dollars a month, which is crazy. Right. But it also lets you know the kind of community we were living in. It wasn't too safe. Like, you know, the dope dealers was over there. You know, the people with the substance abuse issues, the night walkers were out there as well. They kind of looked out for us because they knew we were college students. Do you have like a public safety kind of resource in there so I can go in there, check out the landlord? But what about the surrounding community and kind of maybe crime stats and kind of what I can expect when I move in? Yeah, so, you know, there's platforms like WalkScore that have done, I think,

a good job of capturing some of that data. And I think they have APIs, so just like ways we can integrate some of that information into our own site. We tend to focus our safety questions on, you know, is the landlord, is the property manager, is the building staff doing everything they can to ensure your safety? Because the reality is, like you pointed out, sometimes you live in an unsafe neighborhood. And that, you know, the property manager can only do but so much. But, you know, are there deadbolts? You know, are there other parameters, other cameras or things in place that ensure your safety as best as possible? So I think the integration of the two makes the most sense.

But at least where we are currently, we tend to ask questions more targeted to your exact experience in that space. Okay. Appreciate you, Matt. Thank you, Matt. Matt? Thank you. My question is, do you envision that this can be used to help counteract some of the kind of issues we're seeing in housing policy in terms of people being priced out of certain areas like my hometown, Austin, you know, the rents and things are so high that people who otherwise have long been

able to afford to stay there cannot. So what, if any, function do you see the platform being able to serve in that space? Sure. So two things I'd say to that. One is that we crowdsource all the information around the average length of stay, the average rent being paid by the residents, recommendation percentages, all those things we ask proactively the residents about. The other thing is, you know, I'm very interested in how we'll continue to grow the platform in our engagement with municipal governments, because we've partnered with the city of Buffalo before to focus on fair housing. We did that earlier this year. It's a really effective campaign just to get folks to understand the nuances of rent payments during COVID. But also, too, myself and our director of growth, Brent Howard, sit on the mayoral task force against eviction in Philadelphia. So there's ways we plug in in that regard. But as I look at it holistically, I feel like over time, the more and more data we have on these insights, the better we'll be going to get these tax exemptions as a developer, it's supposed to spur for you, you know, providing

affordable housing units. But what we've heard and what we've seen on our platform and beyond, there's still the existence of poor floors, you know, where, you know, all these residents are being gathered onto one floor or poor doors, or we've heard stories of folks being asked to use the freight elevator versus the main elevator because they're looked at as being less than than other residents. So we capture data as well on, you know, dignity, right? How do people feel in the space that they live in? I mean, I think that if this data was more, you know, more so available to local governments,

like even in New York City, you can see, I mean, that's really, you know, public exemption. These are public tax dollars that are helping out these development projects. You know, the people should know more about what's going on. So that's how we look at ourselves at plug-in over time. Dr. Bolden? Not so fast. I'm a landlord. I own several apartments. Here we go. Here we go. I love it. I don't have a problem being evaluated, but we know there are common disputes between landlords and tenants, whether it's failure to pay or any other dispute, right? So what you post on your website or on your application, do you just take the tenant's word for it and post it? If it's a landlord-tenant dispute, do you allow the landlord to post his or her response? Or how do you sort through all of that? Because it's a great application and it certainly is helpful, but I certainly don't want to be taken advantage of

or talked about badly if I haven't done anything wrong. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. You know, and I think we take that extremely seriously. For us, we have a few like self-policing mechanisms, if you will. One is an upvote and downvote feature, you know, within the reviews themselves. So other residents and or even landlords, you know, that see information, they would echo that sentiment and upvote it and or downvote it similar to Reddit. Another thing is landlords actually have the ability to reply to reviews. So they can sign up for our platform directly, reply directly to the commentary being provided on our platform.

The other piece to it too, which I think is the most powerful piece, is the software we've launched this year, which is called WIL for home providers. And so what it allows is that those reviews actually have turned into more actionable insights. So instead of us just simply asking, hey, is this landlord responsive? You know, we actually have a resident survey that we send out to residents. As they fill it out, there's a numeric value tied to each answer that they don't see when they're filling out the review. That way, we're getting the most fair and unbiased information possible. And that way, if you're a home provider, you can particularly see where the improvement can happen versus someone saying you know the hallway smell and i'm going to give you a one out of five those kind of reviews aren't accepted on our platform it's a full resident survey

highlighting the entire rental journey yeah all right okay let's hear it for the landlord now let's be fair hey look we got we got landlord clients. We got developer clients. We understand. We want it to be both ways. It's got to be information. I'm on the site right now, Scott, and I am under search

by name, just trying to see. B-O-L D-E-N. Just see what I can find out. Scott, nobody can hear what you're saying if you're talking at the same time I'm talking. Counselor, I know you know that. Let me say this. Go ahead.

I'm going to find my name because it's buried deep in holding companies, but I'm a great landlord in my opinion. And your opinion will be the one that we go with good lord okay you know what ofo thank you so much um what you're doing is important we love to see people in tech spaces guys go to wyl.co who Y. L. dot C. O. And he didn't add it, but I'll add it. You can find them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, you to support our folks, y'all back the black. OK, we're getting ready to go to another break after which we've got hopefully a wrap up and I almost there more coming next on Roland Martin Unfiltered

on Blackstar Network. Oh, that spin class was brutal. Well, you can try using the Buick's massaging seat. Oh yeah, that's nice. Can I use Apple CarPlay to put some music on? Sure, it's wireless. Pick something we all like. Okay, hold on.

What's your Buick's wifi password? Buick Envision 2021. Oh, you should pick something stronger. That's really on. What's your Buick's Wi-Fi password? Buick Envision 2021. You should pick something stronger that's really predictable. That's a really tight spot. Don't worry. I used to hate parallel parking. Me too. Hey. Really outdid yourself.

Yes, we did. The all-new Buick Envision. An SUV built around you. All of you. Betty is saving big holiday shopping at Amazon. So now, she's free to become Bear Hug Betty. Settle in, kids. You'll be there a while. Ooh, where you going? Hey, I'm Donnie Simpson. What's up? I'm Lance Gross, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Author Alice Sebold apologizes to the man exonerated in the 1981 rape that was the basis

for her memoir, Lucky. Anthony Broadwater was convicted in 1982 for the rape of Seabold when she was attending Syracuse University. He served 16 years before his conviction was overturned earlier this month. Prosecutors reexamined the case and found significant flaws in Broadwater's arrest and trial. Seabold released a statement which read in part, my goal in 1982 was justice, not to perpetuate injustice and certainly not to forever and irreparably alter a young man's life by the very crime that had altered mine. I am grateful that Mr. Broadwater has finally been vindicated, but the fact remains that 40 years ago, he became another young black man brutalized by our flawed legal system. I will forever be sorry for what was done to him.

Okay. Red Badge Films and Red Hawk Films are working on a new documentary about Broadwater's wrongful conviction. The title, appropriately, Unlucky. We had some other news, terrible news, early this morning. The wife of famed music executive Clarence Avant is dead after an apparent home invasion. Jacqueline Avant was shot and killed early this morning at the couple's Beverly Hills home. The Los Angeles Times reported that the shooting occurred during a home invasion at the residence. Clarence and Jacqueline were married for 52 years and have two children. No arrests have been made. Phew. That case, first of all, this is horrible news.

And many of you know Mr. Avon is referred to really just as the godfather in so many Hollywood circles. But the story itself, Scott, is off and iffy to me. I don't know what really happened, but the notion that there was security present and the security was shot at but didn't shoot back. And then inside this home invasion, I don't know what they would have been so in fear of from an 81-year-old woman that it was necessary to shoot and kill her to get out of the house with whatever they thought they needed to get out of. But the whole thing is eerie and odd. I think it's eerie and odd because we don't have a lot

of those facts. We got more questions and answers and hopefully more will come from that. We know there's been a series of not only break-ins, but hold-ups and robberies of high net worth individuals and celebrities that have been followed from restaurants and entertainment venues to their home. But this doesn't fit nicely. This doesn't fit well in that kind of package for all the reasons, all the questions that you raised. There's got to be more to it than that. And right now, with no additional facts, it doesn't make a lot of sense. I think we ought to be careful, though, not to start raising questions as if there's either

more to it or there's some conspiracy here. These are some iconic black folks who have done tremendous things in the arts and culture and music industries and what have you. And it's a tragic death. She was quite the lady, as I understand it. I met her once or twice along with Florence Avon, like many of us did over the years at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation weekend.

And just very tragic, beautiful couple, talented couple, and a couple that gave back no matter what. Obviously, they were in rarefied air, not just in black Hollywood, but Hollywood, not just black music, but all of music, revered and respected for giving back and helping a number of careers along the way. So that's why to me, I just think it was targeted. That's why, you know, not a conspiracy theory, not inside job type thing. But whenever these these type home invasions happen, they're usually casing the places. They're usually coming up with some in and out plan. And and I just don't believe that they didn't know where they were going or what they were doing. I mean, it's just awful, awful, awful.

Yeah. Most of the home invasions, they may be armed. But the last thing they want to do is shoot someone. And an 81 year old Brian Dom, if you will, either it was an accident, it would seem, or something else was going on. But that wouldn't seem, an 81-year-old woman wouldn't seem to be able to stop someone who invaded the home to rob them. It just doesn't make a lot of sense. And I think you're right there. We need more facts. Yeah. So with the Sebald case, Matt, that apology falls flat for me. It's like, OK, and but I'm not familiar enough with what her role was in the wrongful conviction.

Do you have any facts you can add? Yeah. So from what I read, she apparently did not pick him out in a lineup. And what's important about that is a police officer apparently found him in the area and concluded that he must have been involved with the rape. So it's really important. I know you've defended a lot of people at a high level and same way I have. And I would look at it and say, you didn't pick him out in the lineup. So I don't really know how integral her involvement was to the actual conviction, as much as I see the same problematic, you know, approaches with police officers,

just jumping to conclusions and picking the wrong guy who ends up spending 16 years of his life in prison. But what's particularly insidious about this case to me is he was actually released in 1999, but he wasn't removed from the New York sex offender registry until last year. So the real question is, if you have enough evidence to let him out of prison, how is he still on the sex offender list if we know he's not a sex offender? That is a travesty of justice, along with everything else. And I would really like to see accountability for that, because that seems to divest him of his dignity a second time after he was wrongfully convicted. Oh, believe me you.

I'm sure the civil suit paperwork is flying right now as we speak. But just just as a follow up and hold on, Scott, I I query whether there needs to be and I don't even know how to get this done as I'm saying it out of my mouth. But a reevaluation across the board board because this happened so much. You know, what system can be used? Because Innocence Project has their hands full. You know, Partnership for Social Justice has their hands full. There are organizations that count on endowments and charitable donations in order to do their work. But we need examinations. And for people who were put in prison and are still there

that, to me, were put there without the benefit of DNA, why wouldn't you automatically run it? What am I missing? So a lot of district attorney's offices actually have conviction integrity units. If you look, for instance, at the case of Richard Miles up in Dallas, he was in prison for 20 years for a murder he didn't commit. And the Dallas County District Attorney's Office Conviction Integrity Unit is really what spearheaded that, along with a professor at the University of North Texas, to get him out of prison. And so the long and short answer is basically we need to fund these conviction integrity units very well, and we need to imbue them with all the authority to more quickly get people out of prison because the other problem is once they start filing things, it's years of protracted litigation

when you generally have an elected DA who's doing everything he or she can to keep somebody in prison because they think that equates to votes. So they need to have conviction integrity units, and they need to be able to move faster, which is the issue that we've seen thus far. Or when you have an elected DA like Kim Fox, like Marilyn Mosby, like the ones in Dallas who care about not having people who have been wrongfully convicted staying in prison and create programs in order to take another look and create programs in order to let people out who are sitting in prison from marijuana in a state where marijuana is now legal. So I think that goes

both ways. And just like we've been saying the whole time, the vote matters. If you are in a jurisdiction where you are voting on the person who could end up prosecuting a member of your family, one of your friends, or you, don't you want to show up for that vote? Pastor May, and then Scott, I will give you the last word if it's short. First of all, Scott, she's been on you all evening, man. She's been on you. And we've been quiet the whole time. I want that noted. We've been quiet. Right, exactly. She's not going to get on me.

Sorry, Scott. Sorry, bro. She's not going to get on me, Scott. I'm sorry. So let me say this. You know, it's literally every time I'm on here, we are dealing with someone who has been wrongfully convicted, and not just wrongfully convicted, and not just wrongfully convicted, but left to linger and just

almost diminish away in prison for years and years and years. And we know it's clearly because our legal system, because I just refuse to call it a justice system, does not see our black skin and look at it with the same level of humanity that they would all people. It's just a fact. I just, there is no way that we can keep seeing these things happen the same way with people in different states, different jurisdictions, et cetera. And it's a shame, you know. And so then, you know, and I'm the only one that's not a lawyer on here, but I'm like, there has to be some kind of federal cure to this. And I know

every state and local jurisdiction has their own rights and everything, but there has to be something done federally to cure some of these things. For example, Brother Strickland, Mr. Strickland in Missouri, who got out after 40-some years, but based upon what I read last, he's not going to get paid or the law doesn't allow him to get any kind of monetary income back from his time in jail. That's crazy. We shouldn't rely just because Missouri's laws are bad on that. There has to be some kind of federal cure. So y'all maybe help me out with that. What could be done with that? Because these local, us relying on local jurisdictions and states to resolve this, it's just justice, it's just up and down. It's not the same and

it's not balanced, you know? Well, thankfully, in that case, though, I think people raised about a million and a half dollars for him because he wasn't going to receive compensation for the jurisdiction. They should not have to do that. But I'm just saying there is always a way. Scott, 20 seconds, please. Well, a couple of things. Every jurisdiction is different. We have a bifurcated criminal justice system, one at the state level, one at the federal level, and Pastor, we're just stuck with that. Every state has limitations on what these wrongfully

convicted prisoners can do or how much they can generate or how much they can be paid for. It's wrong, but it's a state issue. And then lastly, the progressive prosecutors, most of them, including Marilyn Mosby, has a conviction integrity unit, and they're releasing people all the time because they have a set team looking at these issues pre-DNA and pre-other scientific evidence. So it's working, but that's the answer. You got to have a conviction integrity unit to constantly be looking at these cases. Well, that is going to be it for my distinguished panel today. I want to thank you all for everything that you have shared and just for participating. That's Pastor May, who I appreciate. And my two co-counsel brothers.

I tease Scott, but he's one of my heroes because he knows what he's talking about, at least most of the time. But thank y'all. I appreciate you. Counselor Manning, Pastor May, Counselor Bolden. Come back again. Can I just say you're one of my heroes. Thank you. See, I heroes. Aw, thank you. See, I should have let you talk more. If I had known that was coming,

I would have let you talk more. Next time. Thank you all. We're going to have you back. Bye. Bye. Lord. Males speak abounds.

66 years ago, a seamstress in Montgomery, Alabama, refused to give up her seat on a city bus, sparking the 1955 bus boycott. The Montgomery city lines lost between 30,000 and 40,000 bus fares each day during the seven-month-long boycott. Attorney Fred Gray organized the legal challenge to the city ordinances requiring segregation on Montgomery buses. Rowland sat down with the civil rights icon and heard how they planned the historic boycott. We'll be streaming the entire Fred Gray interview after this show. Here's inner circle of the planning of the Montgomery bus boycott, I think there's probably only one now that's left other than me. And that one was one that ended up getting out of the movement before it was over and going on something else.

So of those who stuck with it. I'm just about the only one who's there. Let me tell you how the plans were made. And most people didn't know about it even then. And they were part of it in connection with keeping people off of the buses. Well, we all realize that at some point, we're going to have to file a lawsuit to declare the city ordinances and state statutes unconstitutional. However, it takes a long time to do a lawsuit. You can do it. You've tried.

You've got two or three appeals. Take two or three years. And if you're going to tell people immediately that you've got to stay off of the buses until a lawsuit is resolved, they say you whistling dicks it. However, if you tell them, let's stay off for a day as a protest for something,

that's different. Well, Joanne Robinson, who was a professor at Alabama State in English, had had a bad experience on the buses as far back as 1948. And that bus wasn't even completely full but she sat about millways and she had a bus driver who wanted her to sit further in the back and she just got off the bus but she became uh the chairman of the women's political council which was a group of black women in Montgomery who was trying to produce or increase the living conditions for all African Americans, she started documenting every incident that she could find. So, and she said, what we need to do is stay off of these buses. So you had people who got arrested one or two times. We knew about Claudette Carvin, the 15-year-old girl who did what Mrs. Parks did, but did it nine months before without any instructions and any prodding or any encouragement.

She just thought it was wrong after she had been studying black history, incidentally, the week before. But I represented her, and she was my first civil rights case. And when I lost her case before Judge Hill in the juvenile court, where they found her to be a delinquent and then placed her own unsupervised probation which was saying nothing I tried to get the judge and tried to tell him that what they were trying to do was to enforce the segregation laws but he wouldn't listen to me he still found a guilter so what we did so they Joanne had that and she had gotten the leaders in Montgomery and E.D. Nixon,

was the Mr. Civil Rights involved. And after that, she was convicted, had a meeting with the city officials about it. They said, well, we're sorry what happened to that girl, but it won't happen again. We later, later then, Rosa Parks' case came up on December 1st. Well, I knew her from my earlier days. And on the day of her arrest, we had had one of our conferences that we had had for about a year since I started practicing. And we had been talking about how, what you should do

if you are arrested on the buses i was going out of town that afternoon and we hadn't ended our little conference so when i got back i had phone calls from mrs uh parks and a lot of other folks telling me that Ms. Parks had been arrested and she wanted to see me. I called her and she told me to come over to her house. This was in the afternoon of December 5th. I went by and talked to Ms. Parks. She told me what happened and she said, my case is set for trial for 8.30 Monday morning, December 5th. That's just three days away. This is Thursday evening.

She retained me to represent her. I said, fine, Ms. Parks, don't worry about your case. But let me tell you this. She said, you know, Joanne Robinson has been talking about for some time, and particularly since Claudia claudia carvin's case uh that people ought to stay off of the bus as a unified effort to let them know we mean business and i say i'm gonna talk to her and see i think if we're gonna ever do that you're doing what you have done is enough so you don't need to get involved in any of the rest of this

you just go on take take it easy and i'm gonna talk with you again between nine monday i said but i'm gonna go and talk to mr nixon who has a majority of the black people following him and he had signed her bond to get her out i went a few blocks to mr nixon's house talked to him he was a pullman carpenter mr nixon was not an educated man but he was a well elevated man and he was a man who oh didn't believe in a whole lot of plans but he remained he did action he said and i told him i said well you know joanne has been talking about getting these people to stay off the buses. He said, well, you all go ahead, talk about it. Let me know what you want me to do, and I'll support it.

I go to Joanne Robinson's house. She lives on the other side of town, not far from Alabama State. We sat down in Joanne's living room, the two of us, and made the plans for the Montgomery bus boycott. It couldn't come out that either one of us were doing it because she was employed by the state as an employee at Alabama State. I was a lawyer, just admitted to the bar a year, and if I'm not careful, they'll disbar me like they had disbarred another lawyer not too much earlier. So I knew, without saying to anybody, that I had to be very careful what we do and how we do it. She said, Fred, what we need to do is sit down and decide

how we can get these people to stay off the buses. And I'm going to prepare a leaflet that says another black woman has been off the bus and her trial is going to be on Monday. that says another black woman has been off the bus for, and her trial is going to be on Monday. But we want them to stay off after Monday. I said, well, John, if that's true, then we're going to have to make plans.

Suppose they stay off, then we're going to have to be prepared to go farther. Said fire. Well, this is what we decided we had to do. One, if that's going to happen, number one, you're going to need a spokesman because somebody's going to have to speak for these black folks and not them try to speak all for themselves. In addition to a spokesman, if we're going to keep them off the bus, we've got to somehow raise some money to take care of the expenses. And we're going to have to get somebody

to plan a system of getting folks to and from wherever they are going. Normally, Mr. E.D. Nixon would have been the head, whatever you call it, because he had more followers than anybody else. But Rufus Lewis, who was a former coach at Alabama State, also had some followers. He was concerned primarily about registration and getting people admitted to when they are elected. They must be responsible.

He ran also a nightclub called the Citizens Club. And guess what? In order to get in there, you had to be a registered voter. So I said, we need to find, so these two people, which one are we going to use? Joanne said, neither one. I said, my my pastor martin luther king haven't been his long haven't been involved in civil rights activities or no other activities other than his church but one thing he can do he can move people with words i said that's all we

need now had you met him by that point had you met dr king i had met him yes i had met him but i didn't know him i wasn't a member of his church did you think it was a good idea that you i i i told her i agree with you and then i said joanne let me give you a suggestion for these other two men because we need them because they have some poters. Martin doesn't have anything but the few people who had Dexter. I says let's make E.D. Nixon treasurer because he's a Pullman car poter and you know A. Philip Randolph in New York and he'll raise some money to help these black folks. What we're going to do with Rufus Lewis, thanks to his wife.

His wife is half owner of Ross Clayton Funeral Home, the largest funeral home for blacks in Montgomery then and still is. And they have cars. We need cars to transport people. And they have somebody. We need cars to transport people, and they have somebody who drives those cars. So make him chair of the transportation committee. And then you're going to, believe it or not, you're going to need something else. You're going to need a lawyer.

Well, he or I, send me. Those were the plans that we made Martin to be, Dr. King to be the chair. Mr. The spokesman is what we call them, Mr. Nixon the treasurer, Rufus Lewis, chairman of the Transportation Committee, and Fred Gray was legal for doing the legal at Verison Park. Our responsibility was to get that word out to other people so that when the official meeting took place at Mount Zion AME Church, Mr. Nixon was selected as treasurer, and Fred Gray had the responsibility of doing the legal work.

And that seed was planted and passed on to other people. And when other people made the motions in the meeting, they didn't know where it came from originally. Some of them thought they originated it themselves. And I take it you and Joanne shot each other looks like? Well what happened when we won when the buses started running Monday morning and black folks went on it we both know that was good. Then we knew we had to go and have Ms. Park's case. Well, I knew they weren't going to find her not guilty.

So I knew it was going to take all a bit of about 15 or 20 minutes for her case because I wasn't going to put her on case. I was going to prepare and reserve my motions. And we're going to appeal the case. I was going to prepare and reserve my motions. And we're going to appeal the case. And then these people can go and have these official meetings that they need to have and meet at Holt Street Baptist Church. And when they met and when they heard Dr. King and when Joanne and I sat there and listened, we looked at each other and said, well, Fred. And she said, well, Joanne, I think it worked. Talk about an icon living.

Attorney Fred Gray Esquire is exactly what that means. The entire interview will be playing from start to finish as soon as we finish the show tonight. And we're finished. That's it for us tonight. Thanks for joining us here on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. If you haven't done it yet,

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He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Roland. Stay Black! I love y'all! All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video looks phenomenal. See, there's a difference between Black Star Network and Black-owned media and something like CNN. You can't be Black-owned media and B-scape.

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