#RolandMartinUnfiltered - MS Capitol Police House Bill, TN Teacher Guns Bill, IL Johnson Wins Chicago Mayoral Race

Episode Date: April 6, 2023

4.5.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: MS Capitol Police House Bill, TN Teacher Guns Bill, IL Johnson Wins Chicago Mayoral Race  The Mississippi legislature has voted to expand the Capitol Police in Jackson, the state's predominantly black capital city.  We will explain what the bill does and how this will impact the city, and who governs Jackson. Wisconsin Supreme Court's had a record-breaking turnout for Tuesday's election, with Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeating former Justice Dan Kelly.  We will discuss what this means for upcoming legislation and how the new balance of power can reshape the state. Chicago has a brand new Mayor as Cook County Commissioner Brandon Johnson is the projected 57th Mayor of Chicago.  We will examine how Johnson's strategy of debating on local issues and branching out to local/ small media helped him overcome his tight race in Chicago. A Tennessee House subcommittee approved a bill allowing teachers to carry guns in schools.  We will break down what is happening in Tennessee and give an update on the three legislatures who could be expelled to support constituents who want tighter gun control in Tennessee. Bowie State University honored legendary artist Dionne Warwick by naming its performing arts facility after her.  I was there.  We will show you some of that ceremony. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com #RolandMartinUnfiltered and the #BlackStarNetwork are news reporting platforms covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. I know a lot of cops. They get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. Listen to Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Last year, a lot of the problems of the drug war. This year, a lot of the biggest names in music and sports.

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on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today is Wednesday, April 5th, 2023, coming up on Roland Martin Unfiltered, streaming live on the Black Star Network. How many times have I told y'all Republicans are evil as hell? In Mississippi, they voted to expand the state police in Jackson, even though Jackson supplies most of the sales tax to Mississippi.

In North Carolina, a Democrat flips over to the Republicans, now giving them a super majority, and they can now override the veto of the Democratic governor. In Wisconsin last night, Democrat Supreme Court Justice wins. A special election, the Republican is leading. The Republicans will have a super majority. They're already talking about impeaching the Democrat woman who just won.

She hasn't even been sworn in. Also, Republicans across the country are trying to pass more voting restrictions on college campuses. I told y'all white students they were going to come for you too. Also on today's show, Chicago has a new, new mayor. Brandon Johnson will explain how he won and beat back all the naysayers. Also on today's show, a Tennessee subcommittee, they have approved a bill. This is their response to kids being killed in school to allow teachers to carry guns. Parents are outraged in Tennessee. In particular, Tennessee, they're moving closer to expel three

House members. We'll tell you the latest with that as well. Plus, Bowie State University honors Dionne Warrick. We'll show you that ceremony. It's time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Let's go. He's got it. Whatever the piss, he's on it. Whatever it is, he's got the scoop, the fact, the fine. And when it breaks, he's right on time.

And it's Roland. Best belief he's knowing. Putting it down, he's right on time. And it's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all. It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with Roland now. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real, the best, you know he's Roland Martin now. Martin! Mississippi Republicans always talk about local control, but now they are one vote. They are one signature away from expanding the Capitol police in the state

Capitol of Jackson, the state's predominantly black capital city. Now this particular bill folks, uh, again impedes on what's happening there in Jackson. Now, they can't actually explain this special district and why it's important and why it matters. What this is about further control. Oh, but guess what? And we showed you this previously. The area where most of the white residents live in Jackson? Yep, that's where

this special district, special police jurisdiction is going to be. Yep, that's right. The measure is going to create, also create a temporary court system outside of Jackson's control that passed last week. Democrats say the new law could lead to an unnecessary police presence, undermine efforts to have criminal justice reform in the city, and also some say this is simply Jim Crow 2.0. My panel, Scott Bolden, attorney here in Washington, D.C., Robert Petillo, attorney, host of People, Passion Politics, News & Talk, 1380 AM, W-A-O-K, Rebecca Carruthers, vice president, Fair Elections Center. Glad to have all three of you here. Robert, let's just be

clear. And for everybody who's watching to understand, probably by the first 45 minutes of the show, I'm trying to walk people through to show them how crazy and evil Republicans are. Now, for all of these simpletons out there, especially so-called new black media people, you're a shield for Democrats. All right, all you fools. I want to see are y'all covering these issues? Are y'all talking about what's going on here? Are y'all talking about how black people are being targeted by these Republicans all across the state? Or are y'all still stuck on stupid and trying to say, well, Democrats come from the same cloth?

This is just very simple, y'all. This is just very, very simple. Jackson, Mississippi, is a predominantly black city that black Democrats are running. What they are doing here, Scott, they are trying to, again, further encroach on the local government there because they don't like black people being in control. Or they don't like what black people are doing while they're in control. That is being autonomous, if you will, much like we don't have autonomy here in the District of Columbia. So it really is that encroachment. I guess I was reading about this. I was wondering about how they sold this to be a race-neutral approach or what the underlying need is. But all the Democrats voted against this.

And I'm not sure why you'd have to carve out a section of Jackson simply to have this expanded police force. So it really doesn't make any sense. It sounds like it's a solution in search of a problem when Jackson is doing just fine, like any other urban center. It's got its challenges, but that doesn't mean you need more police to harass more black people and black young kids? Well, what this is, Robert, is Republican control. Republicans saying we got the power, we got supermajority, we control the House, we control the Senate, we control the governor's mansion. We can tell y'all what the hell to do. Well, you know, I always find it interesting that Republicans call themselves the small government party. You know, they're supposed

to be the ones of give me liberty, give me death, that government should be so small they can drown it in a bathtub, as Grover Norquist used to say, that they want to have as little interference in the everyday lives of Americans by government officials as possible, because that's what the founding fathers wanted. They've been telling us this for the better part of 100 years, that that is the Casis Vela of the Republican Party. However, whenever it comes to black folks, all of a sudden you need to expand government. You have to expand government agents to control those populations.

You have to expand laws to make sure you can criminalize more behavior. You have to expand the footprint of the government when it comes to the everyday lives of individuals in those communities, and we know exactly why, because go back to the fundamental founding of policing in this country. It was founded on the idea of slave patrols. It was founded on the idea of controlling black populations. So of course they want to create

a special police forces outside the jurisdiction of the rest of the court system to patrol the black community, control the black community in those areas, because they do not seem the need to fix conditions that may cause problems. Why do that? Well, you can continue to do what America has done for the past 400 years and criminalize black bodies, black souls, black spirits, and do that through excessive government interference in the actions and the lives of black communities. And the people of Jackson should push back against this.

And if Republicans really want to be true to what they say they believe in, they should vote down a big government measure, which will put more government in the lives of regular individuals. The thing here, Rebecca, that again, that I'm trying to explain to people so they can understand is that what we are seeing, I wrote, there's a reason I wrote this book, White Fear. There's a reason I wrote it. Because I need everybody watching. I need all these black folks watching to understand what is going on here. They are desperately trying to control blackness. They want to control black politics. They want to control black power. Now I'm about to walk through, this is happening in Mississippi,

Alabama, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, North Carolina, South Carolina, we can go Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and so folk need to understand, you're sitting your ass at home

bitching and moaning on social media, you better understand what they're doing because this is about power. Roland, last week I was at Grambling State and I was talking to a bunch of student leaders from Grambling State. Dillard and Xavier students were there as well. And I was walking them through with what's happening in Jackson, what's happening in North Carolina, what's happening in Tennessee, what's happening in Florida, what's happening in Texas, what's even happening in Louisiana. And the overarching thing here, as you've said, as we start to see minority majority states, we're seeing that

there's more attacks against Black institutions. We're seeing attacks against HBCUs when it comes to who can run HBCUs, who can be appointed to the Board of Trustees when we look at what's happening at North Carolina A&T or we're looking at what's happening at Tennessee State. And then we're looking at actual political power. When it comes time to actually have prosecutorial reform, we see in Fulton County, Georgia, we see that the Georgia legislature, they're trying to strip power from local prosecutors. We've also seen before when we had a prosecutor in Baltimore County, Maryland, who decided that she was going to hold police accountable. All of a sudden,

we start to see a lot of these political attacks that then became legal issues as well. So across all of our Black institutions, as we start to see the browning of America, it's not all people of color that's being attacked, but it's anti-Blackness specifically. Because one thing that we know, we have civil rights in this country because of the role that black people have played in the civil rights movement. So this isn't just an attack on people of color, but this is specifically anti-blackness because of white fear. Oh, exactly it. And again, I just need people to understand. We're talking about these things. Folks, there's a through line here. I'm trying to connect the dots. I'm going to go to break. We come back. I'm going to show you a couple of maps

that Rekia Lumumba, the sister of the mayor of an activist and the sister of the mayor of Jackson, Chukwe Lumumba, she posted on Instagram a couple of months ago. Then we're going to talk about what's happening in Wisconsin and North Carolina. folks, I'm telling you, they're coming for black people. They're coming for brown people. If you think I'm joking. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution.

But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back.

In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner.

It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug ban.

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subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We gotta set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We gotta make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them.

Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Until I'm done. And then tell me if I'm wrong. You're watching Roller Mark Unfiltered. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. deadly violence. On that soil, you will not replace us. White people are losing their damn minds. There's an angry pro-Trump mob storm to the U.S. Capitol. We're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is

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

they're taking our women. This is white people. We feel the hidden impacts of climate change that land harder in black, brown and native communities. Not many people talk about it because they clearly don't know our lives. But with President Biden's landmark infrastructure and climate plans, our issues are finally seen. Removing lead pipes means we know our water is safe. Cutting carbon pollution helps our kids breathe easier. 1.5 million new jobs means stable work in communities. The impact we need. Right now. Hi, I'm Israel Houghton with Israel and New Breed.

What's up, what's up? I'm Dr. Ricky Dillard, the choir master. Hey yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks. Welcome back. Go to my iPad, please. This is a map here of the city of Jackson. Rekia Lumumba posted this on her Instagram page.

She posted this on February 8th. And so what this is, is the black outline is the the this is Jackson, Mississippi. Now, when you see the you see the red area there. OK, that is what is called the Capital Complex Industrial District expansion. That's what this bill addressed that. OK, now, again, the dots in blue, first of all, let me clear. So you see all the green dots there? See the green dots, Rebecca, Robert, and Scott? See those green dots? Those are black people. See those blue dots? Those are white people. So this map clearly illustrates that this capital complex industrial district is largely going to be servicing the white residents of Jackson, Mississippi. Now, there was a there was a second map that was put out. Let me go to that. And then let's see here.

This is the second one. All right here this is the second one all right this is the second one right here all right so let me pull up this map right here so this is from the guardian this is what they posted okay same thing all right and so this is what she posted. The measure would increase the geographic size of an improvement district in the downtown area of Cedillo Jackson from 7.8 square miles to 25 square miles. It will create a new unelected judicial district within the city with two judges, two prosecutors, and two public defenders. They will be appointed by the Mississippi Chief Supreme Court Justice, a conservative white man. The prosecutors will be appointed by the State Attorney General, a white male Republican. The district will be policed with an expansion of the Mississippi Capitol Police led by Bo Luckey, a white man.

He a role appointed by the Mississippi commissioner of public safety, a white man. It's abundantly clear, Scott, what we're dealing with here. It's almost like they're trying to succeed or not succeed, secede, or accede, I guess, whichever word it is, from the Jackson jurisdiction. They want their own criminal justice system because they don't trust the city of Jackson. But there should be lawsuits, almost like an unlawful taking or a violation of the due process rights and the sovereignty of the city of Jacksonville. I think this goes into effect May 5th, I think, based on my research. And there will be lawsuits about this, whether the legislature has the power and authority to control sections of a city

and put in a criminal justice system for just part of the city. And what happens if you get caught in that neighborhood after hours? You can only imagine. And so it'll be interesting to see what the lawsuits are that will try to undo this. So we talked about the Supreme Court out of Wisconsin last night, Rebecca. And, of course, Democrats, they ran away with that Supreme Court position, a 10-year position, okay, 10-year position, and giving Democrats a four to three majority on the state Supreme Court.

Now, many folks have talked about gerrymandering, political gerrymandering, abortion. And so the woman who won, Janet Brutasiewicz, she won last night. But check this out. She hasn't even been sworn in. And look at this here. This is from Boltzmann. Republican lawmakers have signaled

that they will use their gerrymandered majorities to fight the court. Several Republicans said in the run-up to Tuesday, before she even won, they would consider impeaching her and removing her from office. The GOP needs a supermajority in the state Senate to pull off that move, and the resignation of a longtime Republican senator late last year left them one vote short. The special election to replace her was also held on Tuesday

in a red-leaning district in the Milwaukee suburbs. The race had not been called as a publication, but Republican nominee Dan Nottel has a very small lead with a handful of precincts reigning. If his edge holds, it would give the GOP sufficient votes to impeach and remove public officials on party line votes. Such a move may be politically and constitutionally explosive, but Republicans lawmakers may be largely insulated from electoral consequences as long as they head off any new judicially ordered maps that curb their

power in the statehouse. Rebecca, I have said repeatedly to people over and over and over and over, these people care about power. They will exercise power any way they choose to do so. This is a craving attempt at just lustful power. There's no other way to explain it because what we're seeing across the country is very anti-democratic. My organization spent a lot of time on the ground in Wisconsin, going across college campuses, across Wisconsin, making sure that students understood you need to show up and vote. You are not just voting for your future, but you are voting for your present. If you care about how these maps are drawn, if you feel like you're being targeted and not being represented as a

student because there is strong gerrymandering around your campus, if students don't understand that they are a community of interest and they have the right to have a fair and equal representation as other people, these were the type of issues that we let them know. We let them know if you care about abortion rights, if you care about other health care rights, if you care on all of the hurdles that you have to go through in order to even access the ballot box with voter registration, then we need you to turn out. And I'm so happy to see that students are turning out. I'm so happy to see that different communities that weren't expected to turn out in the record numbers that they did last night.

I'm very enthusiastic that people are fighting back and that there is participation in democracy. But it's also saddening that across the country, not just in Wisconsin, not just in Jackson, that there is these repeated attacks that are happening over and over. We have to stay vigilant because it's going to be whack-a-mole from here through November 2024. But but but here's part of the problem, Robert, when we talk about, you know, voting. So let's go to North Carolina, go to my iPad. Tricia Coffin, she is a Democrat in North Carolina, was elected, reelected in November.

She decided to flip to the Republicans, Robert, giving them a super majority. Now they have a super majority in the state house. They were one vote short in the state Senate. She now gives them that vote, which now means they can override any veto by the Democratic governor, Roy Cooper. Doesn't matter if he vetoes it, they got the votes to actually do it. And so she gave this weird news conference explaining why she flipped. Oh, the Democratic Party left me. But what's crazy is that if you look at what she ran on, those are typically issues Democrats support. But here's a perfect example, though, of why I keep emphasizing on this show, why we can't play play around when it comes to these

state races, because, again, when you allow the Republicans to have super majorities, it doesn't matter what Democrats do. They can run the table. North Carolina, same thing. When Sherri Beasley lost by 400 votes, if she had won, Democrats could have had a six to one majority on the state Supreme Court, serving as a backstop to what other legislature could do. She loses. They had a four to three majority. Well, they lost a seat in 2022. Republicans now have a four to three majority there. So now by having super majorities in the House and the Senate,

they can override Democratic governor veto and the state Supreme Court can go right along with them. Again, elections have consequences. Well, you know, Roland, it's what the Tocqueville called the tyranny of the majority, where you have these institutions that are built upon this idea that by gerrymandering lines, by playing bully football down in the paint, Republicans have been able to carve out majorities across the country. While Democrats were not paying attention to state and local races, pretty much from 2008 till last year. Republicans were able to win over a thousand races during the period of time that President Obama was in office, for example.

They did this for this exact reason, to redraw state lines, to change state voting laws, to control schools, control the educational system, to control the police in cities and states. They know they cannot win on the federal level. They haven't won the popular vote since 2004 in a presidential election, and that's the only time they've won since 1988. The 50 Republican senators represent 41 million fewer individuals than the 50 Democratic senators, for example. But because of this, they have concentrated on changing laws on the state and local levels to ensure that they win. And you know what? Bravo to them. I hope that Democrats take this as a lesson. Stop playing patty cake, patty cake, Baker, man, with these people. You have to play bully football with them just like they're playing bully football with you. When you have an opportunity, you take it.

Stop trying to get the moral high ground. You have to win at all costs. And that's what Republicans are doing. And I hope Democrats can pick up on it before it's too late. Going to a break. We come back. I'm going to tell you the latest that's happening in Tennessee. Again, Republicans, they are showing what they do with power. They are moving to expel three Democrats, two African-Americans, because they have the audacity to actually stand with people demanding gun control in Tennessee after six people, including three children, were shot and killed at a private Christian academy. All right, y'all can sit here and throw all kind of names you want, shield, whatever you want, but I'm telling you right now,

all y'all who are watching and y'all keep listening to all these yahoos out there run their mouths. Let me be perfectly clear. The Republican Party, they are exercising power and they will flatten your black ass whether you vote or not. But go right ahead and keep telling me I'm the one who sounds crazy. But I'm telling you, if they control the state house, the state senate, governor's mansion, and a supreme court, and we're gonna see what's happening with the US supreme court, they can do what the hell they wanna do, and you can't do nothing about it.

But keep sitting your ass there saying voting don't matter. I'll be right back. A lot of these corporations or people that are running stuff push black people if they're doing a certain thing. What that does is it creates a butterfly effect of any young kid who wants to leave any situation they're in. And the only people they see are people that are doing this.

So I got to be a gangster. I got to shoot. I got to sell. I got to do this in order to do it. And it just becomes a cycle, but when someone comes around and is making other, oh, we don't, you know, they don't wanna push it or put money into it, so that's definitely something I'm trying to fix too,

is just show there's other avenues. You don't gotta be a rapper, you don't gotta be a ballplayer, you can be a country singer, you can be an opera singer, you can be a damn whatever, you know? Showing the different avenues, and that is possible, and it's hard for people to realize that it's possible until someone does. Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr,

here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Antonique Smith. Hey, I'm Arnaz James. Hi, this is Cheryl Lee Ralph, and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. I mean, could it be any other way?

Really, it's Roland Martin. Thank you. All right, folks. We talked about what's happening in Mississippi, Wisconsin. Now let's talk about Tennessee. In Tennessee, a lot of angry mothers and fathers were ticked off when the Tennessee representatives in the committee voted to allow teachers to carry handguns. Watch this. There are children alive today that would be dead because of your attitude. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that Taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg

Glod. And this is season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves.

Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet. MMA fighter Liz Karamush.

What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Here's the deal. We got to set ourselves up. See, retirement is the long game. We got to make moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them.

Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispreetirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. You are not going to say. You don't have teachers. They don't get paid to die. You met these people.

They shouldn't have done. Oh, oh, oh. If you met these people, they shouldn't have guns. Former teacher, I would never carry a gun to school. And I know how to use a gun and I own it. I would never carry a gun in front of my students. I loved my students. I would die for them, but I would not shoot them. I am so glad I'm not a Tennessee educator. Now, there have been a consistent protest in Tennessee after six people were

killed at Providence Christian Academy just a couple of weeks ago, including three children. Thousands of protesters, especially a lot of young people, have been descending upon the state capitol. Well, they have been, they got some support from three Democrats on the floor of the Tennessee House who, when they were in the well, spoke of their behalf. Now, the Republicans right there, this is the actual videos. The Republicans then said that they were, they spoke out of turn. Now the Republicans are moving to actually expel them from the legislature. That vote is going to take place tomorrow, beginning at 9 a.m. tomorrow. They're going to begin the proceedings. Those

three will be allowed to actually speak up. We had one of the representatives on the show last night. This is a tweet from one of the three. There were two African-American men, one white woman, and this is Representative Gloria Johnson. She tweeted, I just had a visit from the head of HR and the House ethics lawyer. I appreciate them letting me know that if I am expelled, I will lose my health benefits. I also appreciate the ethics lawyer letting me know that in one case, a member who was potentially up for expulsion decided to resign. If you resign, you maintain your health benefits.

And she goes, I appreciate that information. Heavens to Betsy, all this does not mean I am considering resigning. Never. I am ready to have my hearing in the public view. Now, Robert, what's hilarious here is that the House Speaker actually said that he is doing this. I'm trying to find this interview. He's doing this because he said that, oh, they were going to the three of them. They were going to they were inciting violence as a result of the action. Here's the problem. This is the headline from News Channel five.

House speaker calls for expulsion of three Democrats Democrats but can't prove claims of violence. So, Robert, he says, oh, they were going to incite violence. We got to kick him out. But he has no proof. Well, you know, this is the thing. These are the same people that if you tell them or show them videos of the insurrection, don't say there was no insurrection. It was just a tourist visit.

These people were showing reverence to the Capitol. They weren't trying to overthrow the government. They were just there to show their support and exercise their First Amendment rights. But then as soon as people are speaking up and saying, well, maybe we shouldn't have 80-year-old language arts teachers carrying a.45 trying to shoot a 16-year-old school shooter, maybe that will make things worse in some of these situations. They are using this as a justification to try to expel them from the House of Representatives. As I said before, this is bully ball. This is the way the Republicans do politics now. And when you look at the way

the Democrats did those January 6th hearings, not focusing in on Hawley and what he did to incite the insurrection, not focusing on Ted Cruz and what he did, not focusing on Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert and some of the others in the MAGA caucus. They should have been trying to expel them from Congress. But they don't play ball the same way these other people play ball. This is the way that you exert power. This is Machiavellianism at its highest level. We have to understand that if you are sitting here playing slow pitch softball and they're playing fast pitch, you're going to continue to lose. Democrats have to pick up on what the game is

and play it the same way they are. So check this out. Go back to my iPad, please. So the House Speaker, when he was questioned, he goes, they're the ones that has done something that's never happened. And they are the ones that pull out a megaphone on the House floor and led the protest

to the gallery, which shut us down. This is the House Speaker of Tennessee, y'all. Okay, so check this out. He was asked, what is your opinion? Should they be expelled? My opinion is they should be expelled. Now check this out. He says, they did in the chamber with other members

break every rule that we almost have. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. He then goes on to say they were trying to incite violence. When News Channel 5 asked him, there's no doubt they were disruptive, but what's the evidence that they were trying to incite violence? He goes, well, they were trying to jazz people up. They said, but incite violence? He goes, when we had representatives go to the restroom, they got spit on.

They still said, do you have any evidence that these three members were encouraging protesters to spit on members or troopers? The Speaker of the House, I mean, you can't prove that. But he goes on talk radio and says, what they did today was equivalent, at least equivalent, maybe worse, depending on how you look at it, of doing an insurrection in the Capitol. Give me a damn break, Rebecca. The only violence that was going on was the gun violence that we just witnessed in Nashville.

What you see is you have members of the opposition party who refuse to be held accountable and when you have three representatives actually using the bully pulpit of what that House floor is for to actually bring up relevant issues that their constituents care about and that their constituents want to see action from the Tennessee House on instead you see that they're shut down and that they're being threatened to either resign or coerce into resigning over health care benefits or there's going to be a vote tomorrow. I just say this. My organization stands with Justin. We represented him about eight years ago as he was fighting to

keep voting rights for young people in Tennessee. You know, this is going to backfire because at the end of the day, a lot of people are watching what's going on. And this is actually going to motivate people to not just register the vote and to turn out to vote, but actually showing up to hearings, showing up to community events because people are tired of this. It's like, take your thumb off the scale. You know, I don't know if it's going to cause that, Scott. I don't. I mean, here's the deal. Tennessee is a red state. I would hope these white conservative mothers and fathers are realizing what's going on and say, this makes no sense. Look, the Republicans in Tennessee carved up the city of Nashville into multiple congressional districts because they

did not want there to be a Democrat representative in Congress. So they had an eight to two majority in Congress. Now it's nine to one. The only person is Steve Cohen in Memphis. So a couple of things. One, if you look at that video, that's a peaceful protest. You know, the U.S. Congress, the Democrats several years ago, protested in the chambers and sat out and wouldn't move and locked arms. You have a bully, a bullhorn. You have someone there holding up a sign. You have members taking pictures, walking freely throughout the chamber. In fact, they're walking up to the speaker. They may not like it. The supporters are up at the top yelling and screaming. But this is

a peaceful protest. You may not like their messaging, but they got a message, if you will. And to throw them out for that, and you've got security there. This isn't some melee. And so this is democracy at its best, exercising their First Amendment, if you will. The process for putting them out of Congress or the statehouse is maybe driven by politics, but that's why you have the judiciary, if you will. If this goes through, there are no punches being thrown. There's no one being kicked. There's no one fighting. There's no one even making any gesture towards even throwing any punch. You've got to appeal this if they throw it out to the state house, I'm sorry, the state court, or even federal court for violation of their

constitutional rights here. The Speaker's got to know he's on dangerous ground here, because you have a chilling effect on the First Amendment and democracy here. And the optics of this is at least two of them, maybe three of them, are black folks. They could file a discrimination suit against the Speaker and the body itself. And so I think he's asking for more problems than this is a solution. He may not like the decorum, if you will, but protest and change is never easy. Power concedes nothing without a struggle. It never has and it never will. And they're not conceding what they're protesting in these chambers,

if you will. And so I think the speaker needs to take a long-term look at that, because I could make an argument that it's race-based, as well as violating their First Amendment. But they do not care, Robert. Absolutely. And this is what I mean by playing bully ball down here in the trenches, because you can criticize them. You can try to embarrass them. You can talk bad about them. You can say how they're working against the Constitution. They are fighting against the fundamental principles of democracy. They are going against the Western conventions of the popular vote and doing the will of the people. They don't give a damn about any of that. What they care about is power. What they care about

is ensuring that they can maintain their way of life, maintain their hegemony when it comes to American politics and the American populace, which they no longer have a demographical advantage when it comes to. We see this in state after state. How many times they got to hit you over the head before you realize y'all are no longer sparring, that they are trying to punch for real? It's one thing when you're both in the ring, you're saying, well, we'll have the soft gloves on and the helmets and the headgear and stuff. It's another thing when they're pulling out brass knuckles and punching you, and you're still doing the same thing over and over again. When you see these people, they are fighting tooth and nail. They are using every legislative tactic that is known to man in order to be able to exert total power and domination.

That is their name of the game. It's no longer compromise. It's no longer bipartisanism. It's about domination. And you have to start playing on the same playing field. Well, look, I wrote my book. Yeah. Yeah. Roland, Robert raises another point, a really good point. You didn't spend a lot of time on it. But by expelling these members, if it happens, is removing the will of the voters, if you will. These people were properly elected, and you are eliminating elected officials, thereby violating the will of the people and the cost to replace them and the cost of litigation that the state has got to be and have to pay for. And so it's going to get really expensive by doing this, acting badly

and violating any traditional notions of democracy. And so it's going to be an expensive proposition, too. Yeah, I mean, I just want people. Rebecca, go ahead. I was also going to say what happened to the rest of the Democratic caucus? If they also would have got up and joined in that protest, what is the speaker of the House going to do? Kick all of them out? Put all of them up for a vote of expulsion? If one do, then all need to do. All of them need to stand up because this simply cannot be allowed to happen. And to Robert's point, we can't just speak highbrow like, oh, this is a front to democracy, but actually do something. Now is the moment to do something, because if

this is allowed, it's going to be a long 18 months. They need some political gangsters at the federal level and state level. But again, though, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up, hold up again. We'll see what happens tomorrow. The question is tomorrow, will Democrats do what you said, Rebecca? All right, folks, got to go to a break. We'll be back on Roland Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget, download the Black Star Network app, Apple phone, Android phone, Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox One, Samsung Smart TV. Support us in what we do. Join the Bring the Funk fan club. Send your dollars. Check in money Senior Dollars, Check and Money Orders, PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196, Cash App, Dollar Sign, RM Unfiltered, PayPal, R. Martin Unfiltered, Venmo, RM Unfiltered, Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com, Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. how the brownie of america is making white folks lose their minds bookstores everywhere including barnes noble amazon target you can also get your copy on audible we'll be right back

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The Cash app is Dollar Sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal is R. Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zelle is Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Coming up on the next Black Table, a conversation with Professor Howard W. French on his new book, Born in Blackness, covering 600 years of global African history and helping us understand how the world we know today is a gift from Black people. There could have been no West without Africa and Africa. That's on the next Black Table with me, Greg Carr, only on the Black Star Network. Roland Martin unfiltered. Folks, Brandon Johnson is the next mayor of Chicago. He beats Paul Vallis to become the 57th mayor of the city of Chicago, the third African-American elected mayor. Of course, he beat him by about 16,000 votes. Of course, Vallis had the support of the Internal Order of Police.

You have Johnson, a former Chicago Teachers Union organizer. This is what he said last night at his victory party. You know, they said this would never happen. So, you know, if they didn't know. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time,

have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops call this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and

it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st,

and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players

all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this

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What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real.

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And I'd like to thank and take a second to thank those individuals. You know, but first, I want to make sure that I say this. The first thing that I want to say is to the Chicagoans who did not vote for me. Here's what I want you to know. Here's what I want you to know. That I care about you. I value you. And I want to hear from you.

I want to work with you. And I'll be the mayor for you too. Because this campaign has always been about building a better, stronger, safer Chicago for all the people of Chicago. And when I say all the people, I mean all the people, especially folks, especially folks who have ever been on a payment plan. So from Lincoln Park to Humboldt Park, from Jefferson Park to Garfield Park, there are so many people that made this possible. Of course, let me see if I can find this.

Paul Vallis tweeted out his concession. And of course, you know what? Remember, Paul Vallis couldn't find time to come do Roland Martin Unfiltered. Brandon Johnson was smart to do our show on three different occasions, but there we go. And so this is the tweet that he sent out last night. I called Brandon Johnson a short time ago to congratulate him on winning. This election is critically important that we all come together now and work collaboratively to move our city forward. I think my supporters and team and especially my family. Thank you, Chicago. What's interesting here, Rebecca, again, what Johnson, this was a little-known county commissioner. He runs, was what, 1%, 2% in the polls when this thing started.

But what he did was he organized on the ground, neighborhood by neighborhood, precinct by precinct, block by block, street by street, house by house. That's how you win. That's the blueprint. He's also a former teacher. He knocked on doors. He showed up in communities. He didn't just rely on big names. He didn't get the endorsement of Senator Dick Durbin. Instead, he was able to get the endorsement of people in the community, different community leaders, different ward leaders. And he spoke about things that everyday folks in Chicago are going through. And he was authentic. The bottom line is people are tired of politicians being all pretty and shiny. Instead, they want someone who's speaking to the issues and the things that they're going through in their everyday life. And Mayor-elect Johnson did just that, and that's why he is the new mayor of Chicago. Robert, it's a whole bunch of Black political leaders in Chicago with egg on their face, they stood with Paul Vallis, folks like former Congressman

Bobby Rush, Emil Jones, who was the former Illinois Senate president, a number of black aldermen and others. A lot of them were in the Vallis campaign. Now they're on the outside looking in. Well, you know, this happens every election cycle. The young insurgent isn't believed in. If you remember, this happened to President Obama when he was first running. Everybody endorsed Hillary, including Andrew Young, and we need the civil rights leadership class, and eventually you make it back up. But I think it's important to what Rebecca just said, the fact that this was a grassroots-driven campaign, a campaign about the people, a campaign about the issues, not a campaign that is driven by the person who has the most money in their pockets because many of our elections have

turned into auctions, but a campaign driven by someone who had a genuine connection and a love for the city that they are representing. And I find it interesting that a few years ago, we kind of have this wave of black girl magic mayors, I call them, around the country. Keisha Lance Bottoms, Mayor Bowser, Mayor Cantrell, Mayor Lightfoot, on down the line across the country. And now it seems that we're having a wave of, I guess, the black boy joy mayors, whether it's Brandon Scott in Baltimore, Andre Dickens in Atlanta now, Mayor Adams in New York, and now Brandon Johnson in Chicago. I want to see how the traditional power structures react to them and that they will be treated with more respect or dignity than their sisters were when they were in very similar positions. Because if we remember, part of what

made it so difficult for many of the black female mayors were continuous battles with the police departments and the police unions, continuous battles with the education sector, continuous battles with the construction sector and with the developers that made it very difficult for them to push forward their agenda. I just, as a political science aspect of it, I am interested to see if we have a different outcome, that we're seeing a different wave of mayors taking the country. But shout out to Mayor Brandon, to Mayor Johnson.

We are looking forward to seeing everything that he can do for that city and all the needs of the people, not just on the north side, but on the south side, west side and everywhere else. Well, he's from the west side. So trust me, they will be looked after. Hold tight one second. I'm going to come back. We're going to pick up on this.

And we'll talk about again what happens when you can be a strong progressive and still be a, what, centrist? Somebody who's, they call Claus a Republican and Paul Vallis. We'll talk more about that on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, re-entry anxiety. A lot of us are having trouble transitioning in this post-pandemic society and don't even realize it. We are literally stuck between two worlds in purgatory. How to get out of purgatory and regain your footing and balance. What emotions they're feeling and being able to label them. Because as soon as you label an emotion, it's easier to self-regulate.

It's easier to manage that emotion. The next A Balanced Life on Blackstar Network. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach, we're talking about the difficulty of being able to acquire wealth for Black Americans. My guest, Emily Flitter, is the author of The White Wall, How Big Finance is Bankrupting Black Americans. The bad stuff that you feel when you're dealing with the financial services industry is not your fault. It's not your fault, and you don't deserve to be treated like this. That's right here on Get Wealthy, only on Black Star Network.

We're all impacted by the culture, whether we know it or not. From politics to music and entertainment, it's a huge part of our lives. And we're going to talk about it every day right here on The Culture with me, Faraji Muhammad, only on the Black Star Network. Hi, I'm Vivian Green. Hi, I'm Wendell Pierce, actor and author of The Wind in the Reeds. Hey, yo, peace world. What's going on? It's the love king of R&B, Raheem Devon, and you're watching Roland Martin, Unfiltered. All right.

We're still talking about Chicago and the election of Brandon Johnson. One of the things that many people, they tried to label him with a socialist tag. They felt that he did not have the right economic policy. Clearly, the voters there said they like what they heard. But something else that I think is important that we have to look at, Scott, and that is here was somebody they tried to tag with defund the police, but he kept saying we have to reimagine public safety. And he stuck with that message. He did not allow them to tag him with that, but he did stick with his convictions when it came to looking at the issue of public safety in a different way? He did. And his victory is even more powerful and really interesting. Chicago is a very segregated city. It always has been. I was born in Chicago, raised in a suburb, Joliet. But it's been ethnically

segregated, economically segregated. And crime was a big issue, and the teachers and public education were big issues in this campaign. It's a divided city. Everyone wanted to unify the city. So his victory, given where he came from, is really incredible. But more importantly, he had the resources on the ground. He was endorsed by the SEIU and the teachers union, right? And so as a result, he was able to organize, since he's a fundamental organizer, and eventually he got in the runoff. He wasn't even supposed to be in the runoff. That was going to be Lori Lightfoot and the guy he beat. And so this is just really incredible. You can be a progressive. You can be a reasonable progressive. But if you've got the organization and the bodies behind you, people vote. All you have to do before you govern is

get elected. You've got to get one more vote than the next guy. And he and those union members really understood that. He's got an incredible smile. He's very charismatic. And you know what? He reminds you of another former mayor, the first black mayor of Chicago, Harold Washington. There's a movie put out by a frat brother of mine, Hassan Lambert, called Punch Nine. If you haven't seen it, go see it. It's the incredible story and biography of Harold Washington. Brandon Johnson reminds you of him. He's got challenges ahead, though, because those who supported him, like the teachers union, their contracts are going to be coming up. And secondly, the voters have spoken. Can he bring both sides together or three or four sides together

and manage that coalition that got him elected? Blacks, whites, gays, union members and working class people, hard to manage that constituency while you lead and govern. We'll see. Rebecca, I think it's important, though, that again, we have to understand that, yeah, you can actually be a progressive and win. You don't have to this whole deal, run to the center and all different things along those lines. I mean, look, he beat he didn't have the support of the paternal or the police. He didn't need it. Right, right.

Be authentic. Be responsive to the things that people are going through. It's really interesting that Mayor Lori Lightfoot had tweeted out that he would never become mayor. But now we see that he is going to become mayor because he's being responsive. Like, one of the criticisms with her is that she wasn't responsive to people and that she too was, you know, she ran as a progressive, but then governed as a centrist. I think that Mayor Johnson, Mayor-elect Johnson is going to be just fine with the unique coalition that he was able

to pull together. It was basically everybody in Chicago but a lot of white people. That's really what his coalition was and is representative of what Chicago is. So as long as he stays authentic, as long as he shows up in neighborhoods, the very neighborhoods that voted for him, if he keeps doing those things, keep doing outreach, keep looking for ways of bringing more people into the political system, I think he's going to be just fine. But it also shows that there is a blueprint with talking about reimagining public safety. And there's one thing that we even need the White House to understand. There has to be a serious conversation about police reform, about public safety. And this White House right now is saying, oh, well, we can't quite talk about that because it's going to hurt our chances at

the ballot. We saw last night that you can talk about it. You can be authentic. You don't have to kowtow to a particular union that's not interested in reform, that's not interested in policies that actually keep the Black community safe from law enforcement and with law enforcement. But you can actually talk about it in a way that people. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time. Have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1.

Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is Season 2 of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way.

In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is.

Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corps vet, MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter and it brings a face to them.

It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to

Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. moves and make them early. Set up goals. Don't worry about a setback. Just save up and stack up to reach them. Let's put ourselves in the right position. Pre-game to greater things. Start building your retirement plan at thisispretirement.org. Brought to you by AARP and the Ad Council. Understand it and they will vote for you. Well, it's interesting, Robert, because you even had the head of the Attorney Order of Police claim that, oh, if Brandon Johnson is elected, 800 to 1,000

cops are going to quit their job. Okay. Exactly. You know, to Rebecca's point, this on the federal level seems to be the perfect time to work on police reform. The reason being is we have this odd place where the enemy of my enemy is my friend, where you have a lot of conservatives now saying that, well, we have to reform policing, reform law enforcement, reform prosecutorial discretion because they're going after Trump and going after this, that, and the other. Fine.

We can make a compromise bill that we will protect your folks. You compromise and say, well, we'll put in the type of police reform necessary that people have been marching for and protesting for for years to stop the abuse and the genocide of black men in this country. It seems like a good time to bring the subject matter up because we see that the term defund the police is not as toxic as it used to be. We've now had two plus years to explain exactly what people mean by that. And people understand that it's not about taking resources away from policing. It's about ensuring that we are deploying the resources as best possible to ensure that we're getting the best outcomes when it comes to both public safety

and the rights of individuals, that you should not have a police officer in a full uniform, a gun, a badge, a taser, a stick, handcuffs, and a loaded weapon to patrol a high school hallway, for example. And now that people understand that better, then just these Republican tropes of just simply throwing out defund the police are no longer effective. And we can get the type of reform necessary through, but we have to have people with the courage and the gumption who are willing to, as I said earlier, play bully ball and bully politics to get it done. And we don't seem to have that type of gumption. As Scott said, have those kinds of gangsters, those thugs, those goons on our side, they're willing to push that agenda through.

Well, Scott, again, I think that, you know, we talk a lot about, and I get asked this question all the time, people around the country, like, well, how do we make these things happen? And I keep trying to explain to people, I say, guys, it's basic math. If you get one more vote than your other person, you win. And the thing is, there's a way to get there. And the way to get there is you have to work to get it. You have to invest on the ground. Brandon Johnson was outgunned financially by Valis. He did, though.

He had those ground troops from the teachers' union. They went door to door. That's what gets it done. And I've been saying this, and some people have been upset with me, and I don't give a damn. And I've been saying, black folks, don't send money. When we start talking about these congressional races next year and the presidential race, don't send money to the DNC. Don't send money to the candidates. Send that money to black third party groups because they are going to be the ones to go beat the bushes and go door to door. That's the only way we win.

It's aggressive ground game. It ain't listening to these white consultants who are taking down millions by dumping all the money on television, Scott. Yep, yep. And you know what? If you don't have that ground game, or better yet,

if you don't believe in that philosophy, right? If you campaign based on how you would govern, then you're going to lose in most jurisdictions in most parts of this country. I mean, it's about touching voters. It's about being earnest. It's about them believing that you're going to make a difference in their life, that you understand, appreciate and can sympathize or even empathize with those those those table issues, if you will, those breakfast table issues. And then more importantly, making smart decisions during the campaign, not overspending, but going after votes and counting your votes. Mayor Barry used to say a week to three days before the actual election, you should know whether you're going to win or lose or not, because everybody you've touched and your people have touched, you should have a car. Those are your voters. That's where you send the buses and what have you. And if you're not organized like that,

he used to say there's a reason why they call it political science, because it's a science to getting elected, to getting people to vote for you, and getting them to the polls. And it never stops being that. It could be 1,800, or it could be 20, 23. The same formula is you got to get one more vote than the next guy and count your votes at every precinct. Bottom line, and it never stops being that. Rebecca, you were agreeing with that again. It's ground game, ground game, ground game.

And I would rather dump money into a ground game than a bunch of damn ads on television. Right. People think that, OK, we could just run a bunch of political ads on TV or we could do a bunch of direct mail. But for the biggest voting bloc in this country, which are the millennials, also are the Gen Zers, it's not television. They're not watching television. Even Gen Xers aren't watching television. They're watching. They're using OTT applications instead of watching traditional like this show. Apps to stream using YouTube to get their content. So instead, you have to go back to the old-fashioned organizing, which is relational organizing. That's a new name for it. What does it mean? You have to get out on the streets where the people are, and you have to talk to the people directly.

You have to be authentic. You have to use different groups of people who are connected to that community. You can't just fly in people from all over the country to converge into a city, into a town, into a neighborhood. But you actually have to deploy people who are from that town, from that neighborhood. And you have to listen to people because different communities and the different black communities across this country, they'll tell you, we'll tell people this is how we want to be organized. And like you said, the different national political committees do not always listen. They rely on different folks and a lot of white consultants who don't have the shared experience of what it means to be black in this country.

So that means that's not the lens or the worldview that they're using as they're reaching into different black communities. And that's why you don't see black folks turning out because there isn't the right amount of resources being put into the turnout effort. They're not talking to folks. We should, these groups should be talking to people now. We are what, 19, 20 months until the November 2024 election. Now is the time to take the streets, to knock on doors, see what everyday people are going through and figuring out how to pull them into the system. And that was one of the things, and that was one of the things, Robert,

we've talked about here as well. Look, you better be engaged in a massive education campaign now, explaining to people what you did, having small town halls, having gatherings. Don't just, again, wait until the absolute last minute. No, I keep saying enlighten, educate, register, then vote. You know, I don't know what it is, but for some reason, Democrats have just decided they are going to give up on the political communications game,

give up on the political organizing game, and give up on actually trying to get their own people out to vote, they are obsessed with this idea that you're going to get those Rust Belt voters from Iowa and Ohio and Buffalo, New York and Scranton to come back to the Democratic Party instead of actually organizing where your voters are at. We see what the Republicans are doing already heading into 2024. They're already midway through their campaign season, and Democrats are still trying to figure out what they're going to do going forward. They've already drawn their battle lines. They've decided they're going to run on the culture war. They're going to run on,

quote-unquote, wokeism. They're going to run on transgender issues and the persecution of white people in this country. They're going to run on white victimization as a political punching bag and the indictment and persecution of Trump, for example. So what are Democrats doing to counter this? Is President Biden sending somebody out to Roland Martin Unfiltered to talk about Vice President Kamala Harris' trip to Africa last week? Doesn't that seem like something that's simple to do? You're down the damn street. Send somebody over to talk about what you did in Africa to the black people. It's not magic that we're

talking about. Don't you think, from the national security side of the Biden White House, so we're talking about Secretary Blinken negotiating with the Philippines to expand the U.S. military presence in the South China Sea. Doesn't that seem like something people should know about? Are you keeping it to yourself? Do you think you're going to pop it out at the last

minute? These people do not understand what it takes to win. And they're taking things that should be a runaway. And they're turning into close races because they do not want to play, as I've said throughout the show, the type of bully ball necessary to win these races. And because of that, they will continue to lose because in their minds, they would rather still have proximity to white supremacy than to actually give power over and turn power over to black and brown people who are actually the driving force behind the party. Hold tight one second.

We come back and we're going to talk about how Republicans are now targeting college students and college campuses. I only warned our civil rights groups about this, oh, 12, 14 years ago. We'll unpack that. Plus, we'll salute, show you how Bowie State University is honoring Dionne Warwick. That is next on Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network.

Hatred on the streets, a horrific scene, a white nationalist rally that descended into deadly violence white people are losing their damn lives there's an angry pro-trump mob storm to the u.s capital we're about to see the rise of what I call white minority resistance. We have seen white folks in this country who simply cannot tolerate black folks voting. I think what we're seeing is the inevitable result of violent denial. This is part of American history. Every time that people of color have made progress, whether real or symbolic, there has been what Carol Anderson at Emory university calls white rage as a backlash this is the wrath of the proud boys and the boogaloo boys america there's going to be more

of this this country is getting increasingly racist in its behaviors and its attitudes because of the fear of white people the fear that they're taking our jobs they're taking our resources they're taking our jobs, they're taking our resources, they're taking our women. This is white fear. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no.

Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Lott. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way.

Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studugs podcast. Yes, sir. We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne. We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug man. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown.

We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working, and we need to change things. Stories matter, and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does.

It makes it real. Listen to does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. You say you'd never give in to a meltdown.

And never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it. And never let them run wild through the grocery store. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, know it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car. So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens before you leave the car.

Always stop. Look, lock brought to you by NHTSA and the ad council. We feel the hidden impacts of climate change that land harder in black, brown and native communities. Not many people talk about it because they clearly don't know our lives. But with President Biden's landmark infrastructure and climate plans, our issues are finally seen. Removing lead pipes means we know our water is safe. Cutting carbon pollution helps our kids breathe easier. 1.5 million new jobs means stable work in communities.

The impact we need right now. What's up, y'all? I'm Will Packer. Everybody, this is your man Fred Hammond. Hi, my name is Bresha Webb, and you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. And, well, I like a nice filter usually, but we can be unfiltered. Folks, welcome back to Roland Martin Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. I remember I was moderating a panel at Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, ALC. This probably, my goodness, it was 2012.

Maybe it was 2014. I think it was like probably 12. And it was a panel convened by Congresswoman Terry Sewell. And I remember Sherrilyn Ifill was on it, NAACP Legal Defense Fund. I remember Christian Clark, Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. I was Secretary of State for California.

And Vanita Gupta, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. They were on the panel and we were talking about voter suppression and voting rights. And I said something to them then. I said, hey, I said, we have to stop framing what's going on solely through the prism of black and brown voters, this idea of voter suppression and what Republicans are doing. Now, why did I say that? I said that, and I said it then,

I said because they are targeting these young white voters. These young white voters are increasingly voting Democratic. In the 2012 election, Obama and Romney, there was a white Wisconsin election clerk who admitted that she moved an early voting location off of a college campus to somewhere far out because she said too many young voters are voting Democrat. She literally said that. 2022, what happens? The Dobbs decision, huge. Young voters in Indiana, many other college campuses were turning out in huge numbers. And guess what? They were supporting

Democratic candidates. Well, Republicans, I told y'all how they play. They said, oh, hell no, we ain't having that. So they are now being targeting college campuses. You've got a bill in Texas where they want to bar early voting locations on any campus, 8,000 or more students. Hmm. Wonder who they're targeting. Texas A&M, University of Texas, University of Houston, Texas Tech, the state's largest universities. This is the New York Times.

First of all, it's a trash headline from the New York Times. I mean, it's just utterly trash headline. But I'll go ahead and talk about it. Republicans face setbacks and push to tighten voting laws on college campuses. Party officials across the country have sought to erect more barriers for young voters who tilt heavily Democratic after several cycles in which their turnout surged. The reason why this is important, Rebecca, is because they see what is coming. The reality is the Republican Party, let me be perfectly clear, the Republican Party is the party of old white people. And that's who supports them. That's who backs them. And they see they're

losing young voters and they want to make it hard. That's why they are trying to get rid of ballot drop boxes, because Republicans are on record, Rebecca, they are on record across the country. If more people vote, we lose. Yeah. So those campuses in Texas that you just named are all campuses that we have partnerships with, and we do work to make sure that students have the opportunity to vote. Here's the thing. It's the law. In the Higher Education Act of, what, 1983, 1984, it says any higher, any college campus, whether it's community college, HBCU, minority serving institution, a predominantly white institution, if it receives federal funds, it's supposed to let its students know when there's

an opportunity to vote. And they also need to provide information on how to register the vote. And that's just something that we're seeing an opposition party in this country, they simply do not like. Because the thing that we notice is that when students turn out to vote, they are voting for progressive candidates. They're voting for progressive policies. The reason why they're doing that is because they're seeing the political rhetoric, and they're also understanding the unfairness of going after abortion rights, the unfairness of gerrymandering based upon race, the unfairness of targeting folks who are low income.

And so students don't like that. And so that's what we're seeing. The Republican Party right now are going after people who would vote against Republican interests. And my thing is, like, my organization is a nonpartisan organization. We want people to voting for you, then maybe you need to look inside and figure out what's going on. And maybe you need to understand that you are not representing the people that are out there right now. And maybe you need to reevaluate your platform. We've been running this ad beginning on Monday that deals with the issue of climate change. And guys, go ahead and play it because this right here, Scott, is one of the issues. This is one of the issues that Republicans... Guys, hold on. Hold on. No, cue it up. I'll tell you when to play it. This is one of the issues that appeal to young voters that they

absolutely are against, but it has been gaining traction. Press play. We feel the hidden impacts of climate change that land harder in Black, Brown, and Native communities. Not many people talk about it because they clearly don't know our lives. But with President Biden's landmark infrastructure and climate plans, our issues are finally seen. Removing lead pipes means we know our water is safe. Cutting carbon pollution helps our kids breathe easier. 1.5 million new jobs means

stable work in communities. The impact we need. Right now. This right here, Scott, that's why they want to shut it down. It's not just abortion. It's climate. It's also their constant attack on whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, guess what?

There's a bunch of white kids who are out there after the death of George Floyd. The reason you're seeing the changes, the changing view when it comes to criminal justice reform and police reform because white, young white voters are waking up to reality.

Yeah, absolutely. And that ad that you just ran has a direct relationship with the health disparity factors in the black communities. It is directly related to climate change or our current environmental concerns where poor people, disenfranchised people, and people of color, black, brown, and red, are living in conditions where railroad tracks are running through poor communities, if you will, where pollution, I guess it was 56 percent more. And listen, I'm not surprised young white folks are waking up and saying, you know, we want the George Floyd Justice Act or that we want a clean environment. We want to save climate change, if you will want a clean environment, we want to save

climate change, if you will. We want to be attuned to that. And we want free abortions or abortion on demand, because this is the right thing to do as part of the human condition and our freedoms in this country. Listen, I've said it before, and I think, Rowling, you've said this too. White people, I mean, the GOP, they do all of these things of voter suppression at all levels because if people vote, they can't, the GOP can't win because they're the party of no, they're the party of negative, they're the party of guns, they're the party of pro-life, but they don't want to take care of all these babies once they're born.

They don't have any policies or platforms that are attractive to people who are living day-to-day lives. It's all culture war. It's all misdirection. It's all divisiveness and getting folks to fight each other. It's all based on racism. If you want to fix the immigration problem, the Republicans have been in office,

Democrats in office. They can get together with the Democrats and figure that part out. They don't want to because it's a political divisive issue. They can only win if they divide. And the problem now is that black and brown people

aren't going to the Republican Party. They're staying with the Democratic Party or Independent. And now you're left with these young white folks. White people aren't having as many kids. And so they're losing. It's all really connected. And so I'm not surprised that the GOP is targeting young people, but they don't have a message or a platform that's going to sell because of the Republican policies or whatever you would call them, the Republican points.

Final point here. This is why, and I will say, Rebecca, I'll let you have the last word on this one. This is why I say this over and over and over again. Young voters, you must vote your numbers. I'm tired of, I don't want to hear a millennial or a Gen Z talk about, oh, these baby boomers and these Gen X. If you vote your numbers, you run the table. Yep, absolutely. Rebecca?

That's absolutely right. When we think about millennials, millennials now are in their early 40s. When we think about Gen Zers, they're about 24, 24 and younger. And if those two blocks of voters show up, there is so much change that will happen in this country. And you're right. It's not just about abortion. It's not just about voting rights. It's about climate. It's about climate. It's about the environment. It's about safe drinking water. It's about being able to live your life and not be burdened down with hundreds of thousand dollars of debt. It's about actually being able to afford to have a mortgage. It's about actually having a car, a basic car that doesn't cost $50,000. And so those are the things that young people,

those are the things that those who are under 42, 41 care about. But we do need them to show up. If you show up, like just being mad about TikTok, be mad about TikTok that there are states and Congress is thinking about banning TikTok, but hold on to that anger more than just two minutes. Actually hold on to it, actually show up and vote. If young people vote, we wouldn't have politicians like Donald Trump if young people voted in the numbers that they could command. All right, folks, hold tight one second. When we come back, we'll hear from Attorney Ben Crump, who will also show you how Bowie State is honoring the legend, Deion Warren.

You're watching Roller Martin Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Support us in what we do. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. Your dollars make it possible for us to do what we do. Check and money orders. Go to PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C., 20037-0196. Cash out.

Dollar sign RM Unfiltered. PayPal RM Martin Unfiltered. Venmo is RM Unfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. A lot of these corporations or people that are running stuff push black people if they're doing a certain thing.

What that does is it creates a butterfly effect of any young kid who, you know, wants to leave any situation they're in. And the only people they see are people that are doing this. So I gotta be a gangster, I gotta shoot, I gotta sell, I gotta do this in order to do it. And it just becomes a cycle. But when someone comes around and is making other, oh, we don't, you know, they don't wanna push it

or put money into it. So that's definitely something I'm trying to fix too, is just show there's other avenues. You don't gotta be a rapper, you don't gotta be a ballplayer. You can be a country singer, you can be an opera singer, you can be a damn whatever, you know? Showing the different avenues, and that is possible, and it's hard for people to realize it's possible until someone does it.

Pull up a chair, take your seat. The Black Tape with me, Dr. Greg Carr, here on the Black Star Network. Every week, we'll take a deeper dive into the world we're living in. Join the conversation only on the Black Star Network. On the next A Balanced Life with me, Dr. Jackie, re-entry anxiety. A lot of us are having trouble transitioning in this post-pandemic society and don't even realize it. We are literally stuck between two worlds in purgatory. How to get out of purgatory and regain your footing and balance.

What emotions they're feeling and being able to label them because as soon as you label an emotion it's easier to self-regulate it's easier to manage that emotion the next a balanced life on black star network hey i'm antonique smith hello everyone it's kiera Kiara Sheard. Hey, I'm Taj. I'm Coco. And I'm Lele. And we're SWB. What's up, y'all? It's Ryan Destiny.

And you're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Virginia Medical Examiner says a black man who died at a mental hospital was murdered. That's right. The administrative, first of all, according to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the autopsy of this black man, folks, shows he was asphyxiated. That's right. Basically, based upon them kneeling on him. Positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints. We've seen the video.

We had his family on the show as well. Joining us right now is the family's attorney, Ben Crump. Ben, look, these officers have been charged. Guess what? Let's see them now try to explain this away, this report from the autopsy. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season One, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. I'm Clayton English. I'm Greg Glod. And this is season two of the War on Drugs podcast.

We are back. In a big way. In a very big way. Real people, real perspectives. This is kind of star-studded a little bit, man. We got Ricky Williams, NFL player, Heisman Trophy winner. It's just a compassionate choice to allow players all reasonable means to care for themselves. Music stars Marcus King, John Osborne from Brothers Osborne.

We have this misunderstanding of what this quote-unquote drug thing is. Benny the Butcher. Brent Smith from Shinedown. We got B-Real from Cypress Hill. NHL enforcer Riley Cote. Marine Corvette. MMA fighter Liz Karamush. What we're doing now isn't working and we need to change things. Stories

matter and it brings a face to them. It makes it real. It really does. It makes it real. Listen to new episodes of the War on Drugs podcast season two on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And to hear episodes one week early and ad-free with exclusive content, subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. into a meltdown and never fill your feed with kid photos. You say you'd never put a pacifier in your mouth to clean it and never let them run wild through the grocery store.

So when you say you'd never let them get into a car without you there, no, it can happen. One in four hot car deaths happen when a kid gets into an unlocked car and can't get out. Never happens before you leave the car. Always stop. Look.

Lock. Brought to you by NHTSA and the Ad Council. It was an important announcement, Roland Martin. The fact that it was ruled a homicide, that he didn't die of natural causes. They didn't find any, you know, illegal substances in his system. So what killed him was what we saw in that video, Roland Martin, an overdose of excessive force, where they literally smothered Ivo Otenio to death. This brother from Kenya who was having a mental health crisis hadn't committed any crime. And so, again, we saw, again, eight, ten people on top of him and just, I mean, utterly nonsensical,

if you will, their actions. And it's just, again, it's just a shame that we literally are sitting here having this conversation. You know, what they did to him was still shocking and stunning. And then this report says this was murder. This was homicide. Yeah. And you know, Roland, two things. Number one, the brother, as Scott Bolden would know so well, was in restraint on his handcuffs, and he had leg eyes on, and he was face down. So why 10 people needed to pile on top of him at times putting that knee in his back and on his neck three years after George Floyd makes no sense whatsoever. But what we would imagine, all of them are going to start pointing fingers at each other. It wasn't me, it was them. And that's why this announcement by the medical examiner was so very important, because she

said that the man in cause of death was homicided by positional and mechanical asphyxia, which meant that he died from suffocation. And now all we have to do is make sure that the prosecutor is zealous in her prosecution of these law enforcement officers, because oftentimes they go easy when it's police killing unarmed black people like we have with Ivo. So we have to keep covering this matter. And thank you. With all the coverage going to the former president, you, Roland Martin, keep covering issues that are important to our communities.

Well, I'm not spending a lot of time talking about that because, again, we do have a lot of issues that come up that don't get the coverage that it definitely needs. Let's go to my panel for questions. I'll start with you, Scott. Scott, your questions for Ben Crump. Hey, Ben, good hearing from you again under very bad circumstances. The one thing that struck me about the video is these are small guys. These are big, beefy cops and hospital staff who are on top of this guy. And it begs the question, notwithstanding the restraints, you know, the victim, how big was the victim? Because pictures of him that you can see seem to see that he's about 5, 10, 6 foot, but a thin build.

Can you confirm that? Yeah, he weighed around 200 pounds or so. And the question that I know good lawyers like you, Scott Bolden and Monique Presley, what we're going to ask to all of them, he's face down, handcuffed, and shackled. Why do you have to put pressure on him? Like, if he's having a mental health crisis, you would expect people who are suffering mental health crisis to have episodes. Why couldn't you just leave him alone? He wasn't any harm to himself or to you since he was handcuffed and he's shackled. So it is inexplicable why they had to do this much restraint.

And remember, Scott Bolden, y'all, this was 12 minutes that they stayed on top of him. 12 minutes a person in a prone position restrained and if he's moving under them, it's because he's trying to breathe.

Because it's a natural reaction if you're on your stomach on a hard surface, you cannot breathe even then. It's uncomfortable. So you automatically are lifting your head. You automatically are trying to get air in your system because your lungs are right near your chest cavity. And when you're on the ground, gravity is pulling you to the ground. It's just natural physics.

And the police departments just don't seem to figure that part out yet. They just smothered him to death, man. It's as sad as the George Floyd case. They just smothered him. He is asphyxiated. He just asphyxiated. Unbelievable. Good luck with the case.

Hey, thank you. Thank you. Robert? On this case, we of course understand sovereign immunity and qualified immunity. Is there any way to go after these people who have been fired in their individual capacity, not just the people who are holding them down, but the folks who are just standing around looking at them? You know, we talked about the Tyree Nichols duty to intervene bill that's being added

to the Georgia Justice and Policing Act. But what can be done to help people understand that if you see someone being murdered directly in front of you, jump in and do something, save this person's life. And is there any way to hold these individuals liable? You know, beyond criminal robbery, I don't think there's anything civilly that could be done because of what's going on in the United States Congress, where they won't pass this George Floyd Justice and Policing Act that might attach some personal liability to officers in a civil manner. So right now, the taxpayers have to bear the brunt of this outrageous conduct by these officers yet again. But, you know, Scott, until we can come up with a better solution,

we just got to keep trying to bankrupt them, making it financially unsustainable for them to keep treating our people like this. Because, Roland Martin, we don't see videos of them killing white people like this. Yep, that's the case. Rebecca. Attorney Crump, you take on a lot of cases like this, and oftentimes you're standing in the gap to make sure that these families, these black families, are receiving justice.

So my question for you is, as a black community, how can we support you as you can continue doing this fight? Because I know it's tough, it's hard, it has to be mentally draining and taxing. How can we support you in the work that you're doing? Thank you, Queen, so much for that. Some of the basic things we got to do more,

we got to show up for jury duty. I mean, that makes all the difference in the world if we have people who understand the life experiences and the communities where people like Ivo, Tyree Nichols, George Floyd, Trayvon, Breonna, where we come from, where we don't have to spend, I don't know, Scott Bowden, the first two days in court trying to convince them that Trayvon was just walking home, that George Floyd was not trying to hurt the police, you know, simple things like that. That's number one.

And then I've invited Roland Martin down, Rebecca, and hopefully Scott Bolden will come down to Miami, that we have the Ben Crump College of Law. And what we're trying to do is prepare the next generation of social justice engineers and civil rights attorneys. So hopefully, come down next year, donate to scholarship funds to get black and brown people who have done everything right. Robert, they've got good grades. They've kept their nose clean. They did good on the LSAT. And the only thing stopping them from going through law school and becoming lawyers is financial support. So

those are the ways that we can help because as Thurgood Marshall said, it's going to take an army of us civil rights lawyers to fight against racism and discrimination in America. Indeed. Ben Crump, we appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. I love you, Roland. Thanks, Scott. Thanks a lot. Folks, going to a break. We come back. Bowie State honors the legend Dionne Warwick. We'll tell you exactly how.

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Coming up on the next Black Table, a conversation with Professor Howard W. French on his new book, Born in Black Table, a conversation with Professor Howard W. French on his new book, Born in Blackness, covering 600 years of global African history and helping us understand how the world we know today is a gift from Black people. There could have been no West without Africa and Africa. That's on the next Black Table with me, Greg Carr, only on the Black Star Network. Hey, I'm Cupid, the maker of the Cupid Shuffle and the Wham Dance. What's going on?

This is Tobias Trevelyan. And if you ready, you are listening to and you are watching Roland Martin, unfiltered. So on three, I'm going to ask that we pull the ropes in upstairs as well. Everybody got your cameras ready? Yes! Alright, let's act like New Year's Eve.

We're going to count down on three, 2, 1. Everybody help me out. 3, 2, 1! On Saturday at Bowie State University, they unveil the naming of their theater, the Dionne Warwick Theater. They're a fine and performing arts center. You see Dionne Warwick there, one with his pumping his fist. That is Bebe Winans, a very dear friend of hers. That's President Breaux, Bowie State President, right next to her. It was a great event on Saturday. I was there, and they actually held their first performance in the presence of the legend Dionne Warwick.

And so here is some of what took place at Bowie State on Saturday. I want to introduce our amazing leadership and President Aminta H. Rowe. Thank you once again. And thank you, Dr. Knight, for hearing that request that stands. You cannot retire. You need to keep coming back here because we need you. Thank you, Dr. Knight, for all that you have contributed to the university, and you continue to do so. I appreciate everyone being here today. I'm going to be brief. My time on the stage today is to read the proclamation that will go into the archives

of the university. And I'd like to once again acknowledge everyone who's come out to support this historic event. I think there was one group that was not mentioned, and that was the Divine Nine in here, because I see some folks in here, you need to give it up for the Divine Nine, because I saw a bunch of them out here. I knew I was going to give it up for the Divine Nine, because I saw a bunch of them out here. I knew I was going to start it. That's why I didn't say anything earlier. Okay, time is short. So moving on.

And then finally, before I read the proclamation, I also want to acknowledge the efforts of the First Baptist Church of Glen Arden, who are in the audience today. Thank you to you and to Pastor Jenkins for your support of Bowie State University. The resolution for Ms. Dionne Warwick reads, whereas Ms. Dionne Warwick began singing in church during her childhood years in East Orange, New Jersey, and began singing professionally in 1961 after being discovered by Burt Bacharach and Hal David. And whereas Ms. Warwick's 1963 performance in Paris, France, skyrocketed her to international stardom, and she has earned 75 charted hit songs

and sold over 100 million records. And whereas Ms. Warwick is a six-time Grammy award-winning music legend and cornerstone of American pop music and culture, and has been inducted into the Grammy Museum, R&B Music Hall of Fame, Hollywood Walk of Fame, and the Apollo Theater Walk of Fame. And whereas Ms. Warwick became the first African-American solo female artist of her generation to win the prestigious award for Best Contemporary Female Vocalist Performance,

and whereas Ms. Warwick has distinguished herself over the span of a 60-year career as an international music icon and concert act. And whereas Ms. Warwick has supported and campaigned for many causes, charities close to her heart, including AIDS, the Starlight Foundation, children's hospitals, world hunger, Relief, and Music Education. And whereas Ms. Warwick's pride and joy are her two sons, singer, recording artist David Elliott, and Oscar-nominated producer Damon Elliott, and her family. And whereas Ms. Warwick bridged the gap to transcend racial, cultural, and musical boundaries and created a legacy that will forever remain

a part of international allure. And whereas Ms. Warwick has recently inspired a new generation of listeners and followers through her presence on social media as the queen of Twitter. Now, therefore, be it resolved on April 1, 2023, that the administration, faculty, staff, students, and alumni of Bowie State University celebrate the achievements of Ms. Dionne Warwick. Please give her a round of applause. Ms. Warwick, may I?

I've been an administrator for years before I came to Bowie. I had to figure out the whole dynamic of what was supposed to happen to build a building in the state of Maryland because I'd never done it. So I got on my little tricycle and went around and found out the name of the people I should be talking to. And, of course, that's the beginning of the story. The end of the story is here. We did it. So I'm extremely proud of that. And now back to the real moment. I am mostly proud of the fact that Ms. Warwick is putting her name on something that I helped build.

I mean, just... I'm just so excited. Normally, when I stand in front of a group like this, I start crying. But today, I'm not going to cry. I'm just going to smile and say welcome. And of all the things in the world, Ms. Warwick, I just love you. I appreciate you so much. And thank you for allowing us to use your name to make this a more of a dynamic place

for all these young people that we're trying to support. Thank you very much. Thank you. You can talk to family like that. You can talk to family. I love Joe Madison, but I love Dionne Warwick more, way more than Joe Madison. And I'm just here to love on her and I'm going to introduce some other people who sent a video to love on her. But since I am in her theater, I might as well take advantage of it and simply say,

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost But now I'm found Was blind But now In Dionne Warwick's theater I see That's all I wanted to say. applause

piano plays um do I'm glad I got the chance to say that I do believe I love you. And if I should ever go away, well then close your eyes and try to feel the way we do today and then if you can remember i prayed i wondered of a moment where the heart of the artist could just feel safe enough to wave to you and say hey auntie because love is paying our respect to that six-year-old child that daydreaming you the one who still wonders the one who's done itream in you, the one who still wonders, the one who's done it and still doing it, the one who thought that this ground of a stage is safe enough for artists to find shelter.

I want to. Because love is paying our respect to that six-year-old child saying thank you for your service now i also want you to know this theater bearing my name i cannot lend my name to everything this is something i am so very very not only happy but proud to be able to say yes there's only one other edifice that has my name attached to it i went there as a grammar student born and raised in east arnhem new jersey my grammar school now bears the dionne foley institute name Institute. I want you to know I feel exceptional privilege to have my name on those doors out there. And I also understand that too much is given, much is expected.

I certainly do hope, as I said last night, and will continue to say, that I will be able to live up to the expectation that you all have from me. I'm living in y'all's faces. Trust me, you will be seeing me. You will never know when I'm gonna show up. I'm like a bad penny. Thank you so very, very much for making this all possible.

Thank you. Thank you. You're a dream. Thank you. And everybody else that has been involved, I just want to say thank you, all of you. Yes, and I'll wait for those people. Well, when it was over, first of all,

I was actually sitting behind him doing the entire program, and of course, right before she left, she was being presented with some gifts by, she's an honorary member of Zeta Phi Beta, and they presented her the gifts, and we caught up with her, and got a chance to ask her a few questions. Your music.

I'm doing it. That's what I'm saying. You know, you're making all this good stuff. Good stuff to work with. That's right. Now, that saxophone solo was pretty cool. Not bad at all. He can go out of house and out of the home. He did a wonderful job.

What's next for you? I'm on my way to L.A. I'm going to work for Patrick. And then back home to Jersey. And then back home to New York. Oh, you saw Roz are coming right. They're standing right behind you. I think they got something for you.

Your sisters are here. Wow. We need to get some work. Just want to make sure we have the state of Maryland. You're back. My wheel's hot. That's all right. I'm going to stay right here.

That was that presentation. We're going to close the show. So you heard me reference that saxophone solo. And so that was a graduate of Bowie State who actually serenaded the audience. And Dionne Warwick with her hit, A House Is Not a Home, of course, also made famous by the great Luther Vandross. And that's how we're going to close out today's edition of Roland Martin Unfiltered. Don't forget, download our app.

Be sure to contribute to our show. This is, of course, how you can download the app. And, of course, contribute to our Breeda Funk fan club as well. This is how you do so as well. Check in money orders also, Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, how you can download the app. And, of course, contribute to our Breeda Funk fan club as well. This is how you do so as well. Checking money orders also, Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle. Folks, we're going to take us out. Again, this is from Bowie State on Saturday. A house is not a home.

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