#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Gen. Austin 1st Black SEC DEF; Biden pauses student loan payments; Biden MLKFBI doc airs

Episode Date: January 23, 2021

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I always had to be so good, no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes, rather than a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers

at taylorpapersceiling.org. Brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. History was made today when the U.S. Senate confirmed retired General Lloyd Austin as the first black secretary of defense in American history. In Dallas, officials have stopped a plan to make coronavirus vaccines in black and Latino communities a priority. We'll talk with Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is going to see an article of impeachment of the Senate

against Donald Trump on Monday. And also, we'll talk to, in our education segment, we'll talk about President Joe Biden's executive order to pause student loan payments. And we'll preview a new film that looks at the relationship between the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the FBI by talking with its director. It is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Let's go. to news to politics with entertainment just for kicks he's rolling it's Uncle Roro y'all it's

Roland Martin yeah rolling with Roland now he's funky, he's fresh he's real the best you know he's Roland Martin now He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's rolling, Martin. Martin.

Today, history was made with the United States Senate confirmed retired four-star General Lloyd Austin as the 28th Secretary of Defense, making him the first African-American in U.S. history to ascend to this cabinet position. The newly appointed defense secretary was sworn in at the Pentagon this afternoon and will get to work immediately for the Biden administration. Of course, this is huge because there are a number of issues that are on his table that he has to deal with. And let's talk about that with someone else who knows what it's like to actually rock four Army stars as a four-star general, General Kip Ward. Glad to have you here, General Ward. First of all, before we talk about your longtime friend,

Lloyd Austin, I certainly want to give you an opportunity to share your thoughts and reflections on Henry Hank Aaron. Well, Roland, thanks. It's great to be with you this evening and your followers. Hank Aaron's loss is something that we all mourn. He clearly was one of our national treasures, a national hero. I've known him all my life. Ironically, my dad was a baseball player in the Negro Sandlot Leagues in Baltimore. And so I grew up knowing Hank Aaron, and his loss is something that we all certainly feel deeply. For all that he contributed to our society as a human being, clearly as a sports star, but more appropriately as a human being, a man who sports star, but more appropriately as a human being,

a man who we all could look to and admire. So he will be sorely missed, but we clearly treasure him for the legacy that he leaves, the example that he set, and all that he accomplished in paving the way for so many others who came behind him to be able to do what they do. So it's truly someone that I admire and love and I will miss him

and I join the legions of others who mourn his death, but importantly, celebrate his life. Absolutely. Let's shift back to that story about General Austin becoming head of the Pentagon. There are very few black men, no black women, very few black men who've ever attained the rank of four-star general in the U.S. Army. You're one of those folks. There's only one right now. There are 11 white men who are four-star generals, just one African-American. How does it make you feel to see the first African-American secretary of defense? Roland, it's a feeling that candidly can't describe.

Never would I have imagined that this day would come. Certainly happy to have it here, to be here. But to know that these levels of our national defense structure are attainable is something that I'm so happy about, proud of, and the fact that we see Secretary Austin now being our Secretary of Defense, the second person in the chain of command behind our Commander-in-Chief, President Biden, in control, commanding, leading the defense forces

of these great United States, is something that I am absolutely happy about, proud of, and really causes me to know that indeed you work hard, you do what you do in a way that causes selfless service to be at the forefront of what you do. Taking care of people, understanding the mission and accomplishing it, and all for the good of someone other than yourself is what it's about. And I am absolutely thrilled, ecstatic that Secretary Austin has attained this rank as our very first black secretary of defense in the United States of America. Truly, truly, truly an historic day. For a lot of people, really don't understand. Just like we were talking about with Henry Hank Aaron, what he had to endure in the Negro

Leagues, coming into Major League Baseball, the racism that he had to contend with. I keep reminding people that, look, the military was desegregated by executive order in 1948. You still had massive racism affecting black soldiers in the Korean War, in the Vietnam War. You get to the early 1970s, you finally start seeing a level, a true level of advancement, and you're still dealing with that. The fact that, again, here we are in 2021, and we're only talking about less than a dozen black four-star generals, that is still a major, and the military is still having to contend with the lack of advancement by black men and women in the armed services. And so this is important because not only is important for him to rise to that position, he clearly has earned it,

but also the opportunity now to reshape the U.S. military? We are at a place in our society, in history, whereby the ills of our past when it came to how Black people and other minorities were treated in this country being realized, understood by ever-increasing numbers. And this point in our history where that is so now visibly apparent to so many is clearly an inflection point in our society. en masse in the military because we have regulations, we have procedures, we have chains of command, we have behavioral requirements that dictate certain things be the case. But you still have attitudes. And so as we have gone through our situations and scenarios as military members, be it whatever period we've been in, we all face various things that cause us it to be apparent that we always don't get treated the way others get treated.

And so as these things become more and more apparent to so many more folks, these are the things that we continue to work on. I'm really happy that the military chain of command, the uniform chain of command, has certainly taken this aboard, has taken this aboard in a way to address it in a very open, visible way by things that are being written with respect to orders and instructions and guidance to the force across the board, the services, not just the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard. And then we have within a society an awakening to that very same thing. And that certainly is led by civilian leadership. And that's where we have a president now. We have a secretary of defense that clearly understands that. We have a uniform chain of

command that will clearly take the lead from a uniform chain of command that will clearly take the lead from its civilian chain of command, its civilian leaders, when it comes to what we do and how we address issues of the day, and clearly addressing the issue of how diverse we are, how inclusive we are, and how we apply equity to those who are part of the force so that they are, in fact, in a position to achieve any level of our military is such an important place to be. And we have now with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin asc but to cause the attention, the focus that will be required to implement, to ensure these things become a reality, that will be there. And so I'm happy for the day. There's work to be done, to be sure. And that work to be done

will be done, I am absolutely positive, by no one more capable of leading that effort across the board than Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. And again, for those folks who thought I was joking, go to my iPad, please. This is the list. Right now, Michael Garrett is the commanding general of the Forces Command, the Army's lone black four-star officer. This is the list, y'all. This is it right here.

Roscoe Robinson, Jr., Colin Powell, Johnny Wilson, Larry Ellis, William Ward, Lloyd Austin, Dennis Villa, and Vincent K. Brooks. And I did reach out to Generals Wilson and Brooks about coming on today. They were unable to do so. Hopefully, I'll be able to reach them as well. And one of the folks who follows us also reminds us that Michelle Jeanine Howard, the first black woman to attain four stars in the Navy, President Joe Biden appointed her as a member of his transition team as well.

General Kip Ward, always a pleasure to have you on here. I tolerate you being an omega, but at least. Roland, one thing that let me point out, though. Yeah. Secretary of Defense is in charge of not just the Army. We're also talking about the Navy, the Air Force. Yeah, everybody. We have its Air Force Chief of Staff, General Charles Brown, Black.

And so we continue to put focus on this to make a difference. I'm going to remind you, Air Force General Brown is also an alpha man. Just want to let you know that. Just want to let you know that. It's all good. We take it all. It's all good. General Ward, I appreciate it.

Thanks a lot. Appreciate it. Take care. All right, folks. When we come back, the folks in Dallas County, they wanted to have the COVID vaccine go to the people who have been most impacted, black and brown. Why is the state of Texas telling them, no, if you do that, we're going to actually pull your vaccine? We'll be joined by Dallas County Commissioner John Wally Price when we come back on Roller Mark unfiltered. So the King movement of 1955 is the first time in a very violent civilization,

Western civilization, any sizable group of people started to work to change by insisting we can use nonviolence power to create the change. Gandhi said that non-violent power, the power of life, is the greatest and most creative force, power of the universe. And that if we human beings turn away from conventional wisdom towards using the gift of life which is ours at

birth we would be surprised what the future of the human race will look like dumb stupid crazy dangerous stinks stinks. You are leading the way for the rest of this state. And we believe that this state is on the verge of shocking the entire country. Keep your eyes on the prize and hold on, hold on. What y'all know about that damn coffee? Now ultimately, we know we can't let nobody turn us around. In spite of all that you have endured this year alone, this is still the good life city?

Yeah! If it turns out that the Senate is hinging on one seat and there's only one race left... Turn it out! Turn it out! Turn it out! That's right. This will literally be the epicenter of the entire country, right? Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up!

Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up!

Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! Turn it up! and it is the spirit we're going to change this country with. It is going to be standing in a space of our power and in the fullness of our spirit of love and the spirit of humanity.

That is what's going to transform America. Earlier this week, Dallas County Commissioner's Court voted to prioritize vaccines for individuals in mostly black and Latino neighborhoods. It only makes sense, given the fact that communities of color have been hit the hardest by COVID-19. However, Texas health officials said, no, y'all can't do that. Not acceptable and threatened to cut the county's vaccine supply if they did so. Joining me now is Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price. Commissioner Price, this is an insult.

Here y'all, first of all, I'm trying to understand. Republicans always talk this shit about local rule, local control, big government. Here y'all are elected by the citizens of Dallas County to handle Dallas County. But Texas says, no, no, no. We're going to tell y'all what to do in Dallas County. And if I'm reminding Dallas County and Harris County, try to tell the idiot Governor Greg Abbott how to respond to COVID. He said, no, open everything up.

And cases exploded all across Texas. Well, as usual, Roland, you know, you're right on the money. And the real travesty is the Department of Health State Services has no idea about the demographic logistics of what's going on here in Dallas. When we even look at the vaccine distribution, they're sending it to hospitals that have no footprint in the

southern sector or where the majority of African-Americans and Latinos reside. And so, you know, we, you know, January 11th, the state opened up HUD. They told us to use the vulnerability index. That's what we did. And, you know, and add insult to injury. Guess what? We did it, passed a court order. The next day, you know, the next day,

we got our hands spanked. And of course, the court caved. And guess what? Tarrant County, they're doing it now. Doing the same identical thing. The only difference is we put it in a court order to try to bring our judge in the check. And the same identical thing. The only difference is we put it in a court order to try to bring our judge in the check. And the reason we had to do this is because the 1B tier says 65

and older. He decided on his own direction that he was going to do 75. When you look at the life expectancy index, where African-Americans are, and if you look at the community health needs assessment, which is nothing but the third leg of the Affordable Care Act that requires hospitals to not only have a plan, but implement a plan, the life expectancy for African Americans is 66 years old. If you started at 75, then you're leaving a lot of us out of the equation. In addition to that, that same community health needs assessment

says African Americans live 23 years less than our Anglo counterparts south of 30. Now, a lot of you listening may not know what you know, south of 30. Now, you know, a lot of you listen to me, and I know 30 is, but you do. And then to say 30 is a divide. And so that's what we find ourselves dealing with. And now they threaten it, you know. And I was the one that said, okay, you know,

I don't borrow many things from the Republicans. My thing is, okay, come and take it. If you're going to take, you're going to take the second largest county's vaccine in this state. We got 300,000 people who have signed up. We still live in an internet desert, you know, in this city, a digital divide. And when you get to 75 with a lot of our population, they don't have the wherewithal. And so, you know, we got, you know,

all of the things coming together that is against what we, as local officials have said, is best in terms of how we outreach to our community. So what's next? Do y'all just have to accept what they say? What are you going to do?

Well, they rescinded it. I did not vote for it. I was the only one. We were supposed to call an emergency meeting today. Everyone is getting kind of, you know, chicken-hearted about all of this. We're going to call a special meeting next week and go from there. But, you know, as I talked to my senator today, Senator Royce West, I said, look, you know, I just find it peculiar. Why does Tarrant County, which is what we call a red county, and Dallas County, which is a blue county, why do they get a chance to do the same thing?

The only thing they did different than we did is they didn't put it in writing. They didn't put it in writing, Roland. They're doing the same thing. They are selecting zip codes. We selected 10 zip codes, the most vulnerable, not by what we thought, but by Parkland Health and Hospital Systems, their PCCI, which is their database,

which basically goes off the Center for Disease Control, which continues to talk about, you know, the chronic illnesses that we've been dealing with for the last several decades. Nothing is new, but you're exactly right. You got people in Austin, you know, they can't even decide whether to send us Pfizer or Moderna. As you know, you can't mix them, okay? So, you know, we're the only ones doing the safety net. Parkland is reaching out into the community. Ellis Davis Fieldhouse, Eastfield, you know, other hospitals,

and I won't call their names, like UT Southwestern and others, they have no footprint in the South. And so this is what we're wrestling with at the state. So Central West is calling a meeting for this coming Tuesday night to talk about how do we go forward from here. But my position is, you know, I'm staying the course. Absolutely. Well, look, that's why they call you our man downtown. And certainly what Dallas County is dealing with is what black communities are dealing with all across the country. You would think that those who are most in need, those who more people, more black people have died proportionally, more black, more black medical workers have died as a result of COVID. You would think that that's who you would try to give it to first.

But that's not what's happening. In fact, we're lagging significantly all across the country when it comes to African Americans getting COVID vaccine. You're exactly right. And we've got to put up the fight. Of course, hopefully the feds to the rescue here, and we get more vaccine. But we have still got to make decisions for our

community we know our communities absolutely now Scott Commissioner John well in price we appreciate it thanks a lot Thank You Roland as always yes sir folks House Democrats will see in the article of impeachment against Donald Trump to the US Senate on Monday this means Donald Trump's impeachment trial is going to begin on first of all Mitch, Mitch McConnell's announcement is actually going to begin on February 8th to give Trump time to hire his legal team. Trump was charged with inciting the insurrection that took place at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. In order for Trump to be convicted, Democrats would need a two-thirds majority. That means if all 50 Democrats vote to convict him, at least 17 Republicans

would have to follow suit. There's no word if you're going to have the 17 Republicans who are going to do so. All right, folks, going to go to a break right now. When we come back, we'll talk about President Joe Biden signing an executive order dealing with student loan debt. How is that going to impact black students? We'll explain next on Roland Martin Unfiltered. For black Americans, because of slavery, because of the complete destroying of the past, there really is no direct connection to various African countries. Right.

But the reality is for Latinos, and even if you use that phrase, first of all, I'm from Texas. So in Texas, Hispanics is used. Other parts of the country, they say, no, call me Latino. Other folks, Chicago, call me Chicano. And so you also sort of have that going on. There's a connection with country as well.

And so if you're from Mexico, if you're from Colombia, if you're from Mexico, if you're from Columbia, if you're from any other particular country, it's, yeah, I'm here, but I'm also from there. As opposed to, no, no, no, this is my country. I'm involved in everything here. I think that's also something that's also at play. It is at play. And it's unfortunate because it happens even when we're not talking about politics. I think that Latino is the word, but it's very divided because we all have this allegiance to this other place that we came from. But I

believe that that's not helping us. That's not unifying the country. We need to come together and understand that this is where you're raising your kids. This is where you're paying taxes. This is where you're living. This is your country. This is where it matters. For a bite, it's only deferred student loan payments on federal loans until October 1st. But even if he followed through with the student debt plan, what does it all mean for black students? The student debt crisis has disproportionately impacted black borrowers and saddled black students with the most debt. Joining me now is Ashley Harrington. She is the federal advocacy director for the Center for Responsible Lending.

Glad to have you on the show, Ashley. So this this executive order that he signed, what does it mean for black students? Explain to the people who are watching and listening. So it means that we do have a longer pause. So for most federal borrowers who had federally held loans, loan payments have been suspended and interest has been waived since March of last year. That has now been extended through the end of September. So those of us, so many people are struggling right now, unemployment, underemployment, health issues, all of that. So the pause has been extended

to give people a little more breathing room. But what we really need, Roland, what black folk really need is student debt cancellation. That is what we are hoping is the next step on Biden's path. And so what's the path to that particular process? Because what we're dealing with here, first of all, let's just be honest, you saw Betsy DeVos fighting that left and right. Will Congress have to act,

or is this something that Biden can actually do through executive order? This is absolutely something that Biden can do by executive order. And we shouldn't have to wait on Congress. You're absolutely right. We've been waiting on Congress to do a lot of things for a long time, and they have a lot to do even right now to address this pandemic, to address all the other things going on in our society. So there is a mechanism. President Biden already has the authority under existing statute to cancel student debt. And so we are urging him to use that authority, take this step. There are very few things that, very few bold steps that a president can do on his own without Congress. But this is one of them. And this will provide relief to so many people. It's an economic stimulus and it's a racial equity move.

It's a no brainer. And absolutely. And so, you know, of course, that has the people who are going, oh, I don't know, these executive orders that Biden, they have no impact on black people. I'm going, are you stupid? Because here's the other piece. When we talk about black student loan debt for students, we got to remember black parents are signing, okay, those loan applications as well. When you talk about the parent plus loan, you have parents who are on the hook for thousands of dollars when it comes to student loan debt. So this directly impacts black people. And if you have student loan debt forgiveness, then that's also now an opportunity for the next

generation now to have that debt wiped out. They now can build their lives without 20, 30, 40, 50, $100,000 hanging over their head. That's absolutely right. Yeah, we have tens of thousands, tens of thousands of dollars in student debt. And it's intergenerational. You're right, it's parents, it's students. You got grandparents who have debt. You know, people are, there are grandparents who are getting

their social security garnished because of student debt. That is a very real thing. And it is a black folks problem. When we're talking about a student debt crisis, yes, everybody borrows, but black students borrow more, are more likely to borrow and to struggle more in repayment. And it's all because of systemic racism, the legacy of that,

how we have been left out of wealth building opportunities for centuries. But it's now coming to bear in this $1.7 trillion crisis. You just look at the class of 2016, 85% of the Black students in that class, of the Black graduates in that class borrowed an average of 30, almost 35K. It was 70% for the rest of the population and they borrowed about 30K. And it takes us longer to pay off. We're more likely to default. We're more likely to not be making progress, paying it down. And it impacts the rest of our lives. We can't buy houses. We can't start businesses. We can't save for retirement. It is truly impeding us from building wealth when it was supposed to be the ladder to wealth building and financial security. Actually, what do you want the folks watching and listening to do to push this thing along?

You know, call, call, tag, call, email Joe Biden, email President Biden, email President Vice President Harris. Call your Congress folks as well. Let them know that you do need cancellation, that payment suspension is not enough, that absolutely we need this. It is of utmost concern and that, yes, after that, we also need debt-free college. We need a path to never get in this situation again. But right now we have an unsustainable crisis on our hand, and it is burdening our community the most.

Ashley Harrington, we certainly appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, folks. MLK FBI is a new documentary, folks, that, trust me, you want to watch, that deeply dissects the FBI's corrupting relationship with Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It's directed by Emmy Award-winning Sam Pollard,

and it features interviews and activists and former members of the FBI. The film which received rave reviews at several festivals last year uses declassified files and recently unveiled documents to tell the story of how the FBI targeted and tortured Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists. Watch. Violence is self-defeating. He who lives by the sword will perish by the sword. You know, when you construct a man as a great man, there's nothing almost more satisfying than also seeing him as the opposite. When the National Archives puts government documents up on the web, one has to confront them. Tapes from the hotel rooms, FBI reports,

those are pieces of information that we shouldn't have. The FBI was most alarmed about King because of his success. He realized how sick this country was. We were trying to reveal the truth about segregation. J. Edgar Hoover is famous for saying that he feared the rise of a black messiah. The FBI says it's clear Martin Luther King Jr. is the most dangerous Negro in America. And we have to use every resource at our disposal to destroy him. J. Edgar Hoover was the head of the FBI for 48 years. The FBI's focus was collecting salacious sexual material of King with various girlfriends.

Hoover had made the speech that Martin Luther King was the world's most notorious liar. What am I going to do about Martin Luther King? He looks to me like he's too far north. This was a way that they could bring down a very influential black civil rights leader and contain the movement. The FBI mailed a tape of Dr. King with other women to him and to Coretta with an advice that he should go kill himself. The greatness of America is the right to protest far right. Staying calm on the fire is very hard when people are trying to kill you. Anybody who was to the left of mainstream and civil rights was deemed a subversive.

They used surveillance in order to foment violence and break apart these organizations. They were running a surveillance state. This represents the darkest part of the Bureau's history. Joining us now is Director Sam Pollard. Sam, glad to have you on Roland Martin Unfiltered. Nice seeing you, Roland. How are you doing today wearing the Hank Aaron's jersey? Wearing Atlanta Braves jersey, and actually this one was

actually signed by Hank Aaron when of course I when he honored me with the Hank Aaron Champion of Justice Award four years ago and so certainly had to wear today in his honor. Nice, good. Put this in context for people who don't quite understand, J Edgar Hoover and the FBI were a group of flat-out, undeniable thugs and criminals. Absolutely correct. And here they are, you know, they're supposed to be the nation's police. And all of a sudden, when Dr. King comes on the scene in his Power 5 Have a Dream speech, they're terrified that a black man leading this movement is going to change the status quo of America, you know,

America that was segregated. Black people were asking for, you know, no longer they wanted to be second-class citizens, they wanted to be integrated, they wanted to be a part of America. That's why they felt he was a dangerous radical. So he went to Bobby Kennedy, who's attorney general, and got Bobby Kennedy to sign off on wiretapping Dr. King and his associates, Clarence Jones, Andy Young, and others, hopefully to try to connect them with the Communist Party because of his relationships with other women other than his wife. And then all of a sudden they grabbed onto that bone to try to really destroy and discredit Dr. King's reputation, going so far as to create a letter supposedly from a black person written by William Sullivan, one of Hoover's closest associates, basically telling King, we know who you are, we know how terrible you are, we know what you've done,

and you have a certain number of days, and you know what to do, intimating they want him to commit suicide. And on top of that, they created an audio tape that was supposedly Dr. King with another woman, and they sent this letter and this audio tape to Coretta Scott King. I mean, this was not legal, and this proves that these guys were thugs. You talked to historian David Garrow in this. Yes, we did. There was a piece that he wrote that no American magazine or newspaper will publish, which was based upon

these declassified documents that detail, that were the written notes of the alleged audio recordings of Dr. King. These tapes are going to be released in 2027. Am I correct? That's correct. I have talked to people who are close to Bernice King and the King children, that they are greatly bothered by the release of these tapes. Garrow laid out, and I read the piece, where these notes detail women. It details the names of women, addresses. It details prostitutes.

It goes on and on and on. They even write down in these notes of a so-called hearing a woman allegedly being raped by a pastor out of Baltimore while King laughed. I was asked about that, and this is what I said. There ain't a damn thing I can trust from the FBI. Well, I completely agree. You know the FBI doctor's tapes. You know they edit these tapes.

And they had a mission. They were here to destroy King. So anything they heard, they were able to alter that to fit their needs. My reaction to this idea about the tapes being released, and I said this before, I'm not interested in any salacious stuff on these tapes, because I think unless the FBI edited these tapes very heavily, there were other types of discussions that King had in those hotel rooms in Birmingham and Albany and Selma with people like Ralph Abernathy and Andy Young and C.T. Vivian and Y.T. Walker about their strategies when they were in these cities. If that's on

these tapes, then I would be interested in hearing that. I'm not interested in hearing these salacious. But you know what's going to happen, Sam? And again, I've had people who have asked me, hey, Roland, what do you think about this? How would you respond? Because when it comes out and then, I mean, Garrow even sort of lays out, hey, in this whole era of Me Too and how people are looking at historical figures, are people going to demand King's name be taken off of schools and highways and streets, things along those lines. My most basic premise is there is nothing that I can trust from the FBI. So as far as I'm concerned, I don't give a damn what's on those tapes. I can't trust anything because first of all, what they did was grossly illegal. What

they did was immoral. And we know for a fact that they doctored information. So I don't care if someone tries to argue, well, the notes were taken in real time. I don't trust the notes. I don't trust the note taker. I don't trust the tapes. I don't trust anything that came from J Edgar Hoover and his FBI because we also know for a fact after Adam Clayton Powell died, his home was broken into and the manuscript that he was writing all of a sudden came up missing. Hoover dies in the so-called Hoover files were removed by his secretary before before the officials from the White House and others got there. I just there's nothing that I trust. And that should be the stance of every person in black America when these tapes are actually released. Well, this is what I would say.

If those people who didn't like King when he was alive, they still won't like him when he's dead, if the tapes are released or not. You know, there's people out there in America who still have no use for Dr. King, you know? So I think, you know, you I think it's one of these tricky things to me. I mean, we live in a country that's so divided. There were people who hated King when he was alive, and there's people who hate him now. That's my response to that. I ask this to book authors

all the time. What's that one wow moment when they were doing the research for the book? What was it for you that made you go, wow? Or maybe it made you go, damn! The wow moment, quite honestly, for me, Roland, was the footage that we had in the film

where I saw Dr. King relaxed, where he was in there. There was this footage of him with Coretta Scott King and his children when they were young, and they were in some playroom, and his parents were sitting there. And he seemed relaxed. He seemed very calm. And then when he was on the Merv Griffin show, Harry Belafonte, he seemed relaxed. And that's not footage I've ever really seen of Dr. King where he seemed so relaxed and just comfortable with himself. So those were two wild moments for me.

Well, that's why I think when people saw that photo of Dr. King playing pool, I interviewed Dorothy Cotton, uh, and it was the last sit down interview before she died in 2018. And she talked about when they were oftentimes they had to go somewhere and give a speech. She had to pull him out of pool halls, uh, because he was having a grand time playing pool with the brothers and talking to them. And that's the other thing that for all the people who say Dr. King was this middle-class Negro preacher, he was very comfortable around black folks regardless of economic status. Yeah, he absolutely was. He absolutely was. I mean, that's what made him so special to all of us. You know, this man was a great orator,

but he was also one of us. I mean, that's what made him special. I was saying, growing up in my household in the 60s, we had three pictures on our wall. We had Dr. King, we had John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and we had Jesus Christ. Those were the three sort of deities that my family loved to look at when they walked into the living room every night.

The depths of the FBI's corruption. One of the reasons why we know how deep this thing is, they have yet to fully declassify all the papers of COINTELPRE. Well, you know, that's what I find interesting. When James Comey says in the film, this was one of the darkest chapters in the history of the FBI, I think you and I both know there are other darker chapters in the history of the FBI. Absolutely. And the reality is, I think the American people deserve this. And if there's one thing that President Joe Biden should do, President Joe Biden should completely declassify every sheet of paper related to COINTELPRO. Any African-American who was under investigation, because we also should know who were those

turncoats, who were those informants. We know for a fact that in the movie that's coming out dealing with Fred Hampton, Judas and the Messiah, that the right-hand man of Fred Hampton was an FBI informant. We know that when Dr. King was assassinated, one of the very people who was bending over his body when they were pointing out was an FBI informant. Yeah, that's right. And we also say in the film that Ernest Withers, who is a very well-known, renowned photographer, the I Am a Man picture, was also an informant for the FBI. So this is some very, you know, it's tricky and complicated stuff in American history. It just shows the hypocrisy of America as far as I'm concerned.

What do you want the folks to take away from watching this? There's a lot of stuff that we, uh, there've been in other documentaries, we've seen stuff in movies. Um, but, um, what do you want folks to really walk away after they watch MLK, FBI? I want them to walk away understanding that Dr. King was a human being, a man with flaws, but also a great man whose contribution to the world will last forever. You know, that's what I want people to come away with. The other thing that I want to come away with is that the duplicity of the FBI, that we're trying to demythologize how people have saw them for so many years, and J. Edgar Hoover.

So those are the two things I want. Should J. Edgar Hoover's name be removed from the FBI building? It should, but nobody will do it. See, that's what's amazing to me. For all of this talk about all, J. Edgar, what this man did with his secret files and how he wielded such power. We literally have the name of a criminal on the building of

the so-called most important law enforcement agency in America. Exactly. We should all be right on Congress, people and senators. But then again, I got to remind people that one of the building where they house the office of the United States Senate is named after one of the greatest white supremacist segregationists, Richard Russell of Georgia. That's right. You're right. Russell, that's true. That's America. America, man. It's America hypocrisy. Sam Powell, we appreciate it.

Thank you so very much for this important documentary. Thank you, Roland. Have a good night. Thank you very much. All right, folks, that is it for us today on Roland Martin Unfiltered. It has certainly been a sad day for us, having to chronicle the life and legacy and the loss of 86-year-old Henry Hank Aaron passing away today. We certainly extend our thoughts and prayers to his wife, Billie, and his family.

Coming up next, folks, after we end the show, we're going to stream for you the conversation between Henry Aaron and Ambassador Andrew Young that took place at the Global Hope Forum in 2018. In addition to that, we're also going to show you the panel conversation, first of all, the award presentation and the panel conversation. It took place in 2017 when Henry Aaron awarded me as well as Cito Gaston, as well as Alexis Herman and Freedom

Rider Hank Thomas, the Hank Aaron Champions of Justice Award. It was an unbelievable day. It was amazing to be there and to be honored by them. In fact, what they did is they gave us all personalized jerseys in terms of what number we wanted on the back. And so I should have got 44, but I didn't because they were like, no, no, no, we want to make this personalized. So I went ahead and folks have been telling me I need to frame this jersey because for the front, while we also, I did this on the back so you'll see, I had Last Day in Martin

06 put on it. And so it was a really great time we had there. Henry Aaron was truly a remarkable, remarkable figure. And that's one of the reasons why we wanted to pay tribute to him right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered. And this is also one of the reasons, folks, why we do what we do. Because when it comes to black media, when you think about when if someone passed away and Ebony magazine did commemorative issues, well, it must do the same thing. And I've seen some other black media people literally make no mention of Hank Aaron today. In fact, I've seen some where they even they wrote a story that was nothing personal, nothing interesting. In fact, it could have been written, frankly, by any white organization.

So I just think, you know, bottom line, folks, you know, when I look at why we do what we do, it's because we have to give honor to our people. We must give them their flowers, win with their living, and we did that with Hank Aaron, and we certainly want to be able to pay tribute to him. That's why we need you to support what we do here at Roland Martin Unfiltered by joining our Bring the Funk fan club. Y'all, ain't nobody else doing this. I'm watching MSNBC right now

and they're paying tribute to Hank Aaron at the end of the show. They've basically given him a couple of minutes. That's why we did an hour and 15minute tribute. And once we find out if there's going to be a public funeral for Henry Aaron, I've already made it clear we will go back to Atlanta, and we will broadcast that as well because he deserves that, and a new generation deserves to hear his story. Please support us through Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal.me forward slash rartinUnfiltered. Venmo.com is forward slash RMUnfiltered.

Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. We always end the show, folks, with our members of our Bring the Funk fan club. If you do not see your name, yeah, that list is getting longer and longer because y'all have been supporting us. If you do not see your name, please send us an email, and then we will certainly add your name to it. Thank you so very much. I will see you on Monday. Holla!

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