#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Susan Taylor's CARES Gala, Dept. of Ed. Lawsuits, Miss. Redistricting, Rep. Al Green Censured

Episode Date: March 7, 2025

3.6.2025 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Susan Taylor's CARES Gala, Dept. of Ed. Lawsuits, Miss. Redistricting, Rep. Al Green Censured Trump seems to be backing down from his plans to dismantle the Department of Education. However, the agency still faces numerous lawsuits regarding threats to withhold funding due to DEI initiatives. The ACLU's Director of the Racial Justice Program will join us to break down the latest case. Texas Congressman Al Green has been censured for his protest during the address of the lying convict-in-chief.  And a MAGA Republican has filed a resolution against the Democrats who supported Green during his censure today. The Mississippi Legislature is required to redraw its House and Senate district maps to create more Black-majority districts. This comes after a federal court ruled in 2024 that the existing districts do not allow Black voters equal participation in the political process. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Robin "Rocky" Myers to life in prison without parole, saying there are considerable questions about his guilt. ✨Get your "Don't Blame Me ... I Voted for the Black Woman" tee and #FAFO 2025 tee TODAY #RMU Merch 👉🏾 https://rolandmartin.creator-spring.com/ #BlackStarNetwork partner: Fanbasehttps://www.startengine.com/offering/fanbase This Reg A+ offering is made available through StartEngine Primary, LLC, member FINRA/SIPC.  This investment is speculative, illiquid, and involves a high degree of risk, including the possible loss of your entire investment. You should read the Offering Circular (https://bit.ly/3VDPKjD) and Risks (https://bit.ly/3ZQzHl0) related to this offering before investing. Download the #BlackStarNetwork app on iOS, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, FireTV, SamsungTV and XBox  http://www.blackstarnetwork.com The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. 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 Glott. 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. This kind of starts that a little bit, man.

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Sometimes as dads, I think we're too hard on ourselves. We get down on ourselves on not being able to, you know, we're the providers, but we also have to learn to take care of ourselves. A wrap-away, you got to pray for yourself as well as for everybody else, but never forget yourself. Self-love made me a better dad because I realized my worth. Never stop being a dad. That's dedication.

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Folks, Black Star Network is here. Hold no punches. I'm real revolutionary right now. Black now. Support this man, Black Media. He makes sure that our stories are told. Thank you for being the voice of Black America, Rollins. Be Black! I love y'all! All momentum we have now, we have to keep this going. The video

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We're here in New York City at Susan Taylor's National Carers Gala 10th Anniversary Gala. So I'll be interviewing a variety of guests here as well, talking about what's happening here and how critically important mentoring is to the nation. Also on today's show, we'll talk about Donald Trump backing off of his tariffs against Canada and Mexico. In addition to that, he's postponing the decision to get rid of the Department of Education. We'll also talk about the Republican centering, Congressman Al Green,

and now Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona. He wants to remove all Democrats from their committees who participated in the singing of We Shall Overcome on the floor as well. We'll be joined by the ACLU's Director of Racial Justice to break down the latest case that they're involved in. Also on the show, the Mississippi legislature is required to redraw its House and Senate district maps to create more black majority districts. This comes after a federal court rule in 2024 that the existing

districts did not allow black voters equal participation. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey commuted the death sentence of Robin Rocky Myers to life in prison without parole, saying there was considerable questions about his guilt. That and more. It's time to bring the funk. I'm Roland Martin-Filchert from the Black Sun Network. Let's go. We'll be right back. Just for kicks he's rollin' Yeah, yeah It's Uncle Roro, yo Yeah, yeah It's Rollin' Martin Yeah, yeah

Rollin' with Rollin' now Yeah, yeah He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best You know he's Rollin' Martin Now You know he's rolling Martel now. Martel. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, folks. The twice-impeached criminal convicted in chief Donald Trump was supposed to sign an executive order today to start shutting down the Department of Education. But the last minute, the White House hit the brakes on that. Well, now they're calling reports about the signing fake news.

But let's be real. This idea is not off the table. At her confirmation hearing, Linda McMahon, who was confirmed as Secretary of Education, literally said she supports the effort to shut down the Department of Education. Republicans have been trying to dismantle the department, and the latest move was just part of that playbook. And the DOE exists to ensure resources are distributed fairly, that all black, brown and underserved students get a real shot. At the course, an end to the department could leave billions of dollars worth of funds, scholarships and grants hanging in the balance for millions of students.

In order to dismantle the Department of Education, which would require congressional approval, any proposed legislation would likely fail without 60 Senate votes. So, with the dismantling on hold, the DOE is facing lawsuits fighting back against the threats of federal funding cuts for education institutions that engage in diversity, education, and inclusion. Renika Moore is the director of the ACLU's Racial Justice Program. She joined us from New York. Glad to have you here.

So, Renika, walk us through the lawsuit, the basis of the lawsuit. What is your contention? Sure. So, about two or three weeks ago, the Department of Education issued a Dear Colleague letter. And in that letter, normally those letters are intended to be guidance on the state of the law. But this letter was very different. called DEI Practices, and said that it was going to start investigating institutions and schools and educators for violations of various anti-discrimination laws under the federal government, and that it would start stripping federal funding. So our lawsuit is challenging

that letter and the threats that it imposed that it would start investigating institutions. And it was really intended to create real fear and chill for schools and educational institutions to take totally legal and appropriate steps to address inequality, to address barriers that we know that students of color face. And so what our lawsuit does is say, one, it's a violation of the Constitution's Fifth Amendment due process because they use really vague terms to talk about what they classify as illegal and violations of the law and use this banner, as we've heard them use over the last several weeks, of DEI, just labeling anything that they don't like as DEI and unlawful. We also are filing claims under the First Amendment because they're reaching into what schools teach and talk what

students talk about. So that's a violation. And then additional claims that they haven't followed the proper procedures under laws like the Administrative Procedure Act, which really put guardrails around what the government can do and how they can change rules. Because part of what this does is also just a real reversal of what the Department of Education has said the law is and what the Supreme Court has said the law is. And so it includes these misstatements of law. So we brought this lawsuit on behalf of educators, the National Education Association, which represents more than three million teachers and educators. Well, let's just be real clear here. I mean, bottom line is that they want to have a complete attack on everything dealing with race, which is kind of hard when you talk about education.

And so what they want to do is, is obviously get rid of DOE, but they don't want any data being collected. And they're attacking programs that actually speak to disparities that exist in education, in funding, in quality of service. Exactly. So like they talk about that schools are not allowed to take actions to make their schools more open. So, for example, a school couldn't stop using standardized testing, which we know is not true under existing law. Schools can and should take steps to address to address inequality and barriers that are unjustified. We saw the Supreme Court decline to take a case last year involving Thomas Jefferson High School, where the school kind of looked at what it was doing to recruit and bring in students

and determined that its application fee of $100 was really a roadblock for many students. It determined that certain other steps in application processes weren't helping them find the best students students and what they were doing were keeping out potentially qualified students. And so we know that schools can take those kinds of steps and we want them to do that because we want to ensure that every student has the opportunity and the support that they need to be successful. Black student unions, not just on college campuses, but also on a high school level as well. That's right. That's right. So this letter reaches everyone from pre-K through higher ed.

And so we're talking about outside the classroom. They talk about student groups. And we know that those are permitted and that they can be open to anyone. But, you know, talking about the celebration and the teaching of things consistent with like Black History Month or Women's History Month and really celebrating the diversity of the students and the communities and the cultures, histories that make up our great nation and that make up our multicultural democracy and really trying to create the environment and misstating the law to shut down all of the different ways that we celebrate and that campuses and schools celebrate their communities and bring those stories to life and really help students to engage with the material with what they're learning. One of the teachers that we talk about in our complaint talks about using books like The Heart of Darkness, which talks about English colonialism, I'm sorry, Belgian colonialism of Africa. It talks about, you know, Beloved and other books that really bring the richness of our history and the stories and complexities of race to the fore and allows students to engage

with them. And so it puts all of that in question and really creates chill and fear that teachers and educators can't use these materials, that students can't talk about these materials in class and talk about the issues that we know historically have happened in our country in terms of slavery and the Civil War, or about how we're seeing it in the current day. And really, we know historically have happened in our country in terms of slavery and the Civil War, or about how we're seeing it in the current day. And really, we know students need to talk about these things if they're going to engage and learn from each other, learn to work together, and learn to function together in our democracy. All right. Renika Moore, we certainly appreciate it.

Thank you so very much. Thank you. Going to our panel here, Dr. Nola Haynes. She is Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. Out of D.C., Dr. Greg Carr, Department of Afro-American Studies at Ohio University. Also out of D.C., Dr. Avis Jones DeWeaver, author of How Exceptional Black Women Lead, Unlocking the Secrets to Creating Phenomenal Success in Careers and in Life. And so glad to have phenomenal success in careers and in life. And so glad to have all three of you on the show.

First off, I'll start with you, Nola. At the end of the day, this vicious attack by Republicans on the federal bureaucracy, they have said for years they wanted to get rid of the Department of Education. That's what you see going on right now. And what's stupid is that you can't get rid of the DOE with an executive order. It has to be made by Congress. And so this is more, frankly, performative of Donald Trump than anything else. Doing full will, they're going to face lawsuits.

The person you are trying to reach is currently... It's performative and effective for its purposes, right? I was thinking about this as I was getting ready for tonight that we are living through a time where there is a man sitting in an Oval Office playing dress-up. You know, like this whole performance

with signing the executive orders as if it's some, you know, papal bull from the Pope or some edict from the king, which is neither. And the fact that there is absolutely no real pushback in terms of mainstream media, legacy media, and Republicans have just decided to just die and roll over and obey their king, you know. And so what I love, the positive part here, folks, and I know there are a lot of people out there feeling incredibly distressed. There are some people who did not like how the Democrats responded or didn't respond

to their case during the State of the Union. But people on the ground, people, the lawyers, activists, the unity that I'm seeing around just everyday folks fighting against Donald Trump and all of this ridiculousness. And I can tell you in my world as an academic, this is already causing a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety. I have a lot of colleagues who are international academics or even international students. They are either staying where they are or they're not leaving. And then one other point I want to make is education. I don't think anybody on this panel would disagree that the Department of Education needs a lot of tweaking. Now, complete dismantling and destruction without doing the careful work that it takes to get that done, we do not need that. Here's the deal, though.

Here's the deal, Greg. They don't care about doing this thing right. They want the disruption. They want the stress. They want the trauma. Senator Lisa Murkowski literally said that during the confirmation hearing of Russell Vaught. They want the trauma. So everything they're seeing is they want people walking around on eggshells. This is their desire. It is. And it, as Nola just said, is already succeeding in terms of a chilling effect. I've got colleagues in the K-12 area, you know, I've written a lot of curriculum over the years,

who are nervous about what they're teaching, even though the federal government has nothing to do with that. And, of course, at the college level, I, you know, am in a department of African American studies. That's what my PhD is in. So you can imagine the shockwaves and the chilling effect that it might have, particularly at white schools. I say to them, of course, at Howard, let's dance, bring it on. But I read the complaint in the Eastern District of New Hampshire, which was strategic. You understand it was the federal judge there who was able to stop some of this Trump foolishness in the courts going on. And I think it was interesting. I've been interested to ask Sister Moore, the ACLU and the NEA, who are the lead plaintiffs in this complaint, are taking a very interesting strategy. We all remember the Chevron doctrine that was overturned last year.

They are saying that that Chevron doctrine, the Loper-Bright case that was interpreted by this fascist Supreme Court, is to say that these agencies can't exceed their authority. Ultimately, the courts have to decide. And if they exceed what the statute is saying, in other words, legislative intent, that they're out of order, the NEA and the ACLU are now using that same doctrine to say that the Department of Education is exceeding its portfolio, its administrative portfolio. I am excited about this if for no other reason than, sure, as we have talked about many times, as Bannon is saying, throw everything against the wall, throwing everything, now they're in the courts and they're losing and they are getting ready to make this federal bench,

particularly if it gets to the Supreme Court. Now, I imagine it will have to say we were wrong in deciding the case. We decided last year to kick the teeth out of administrative power because now that we are in power, we want the administrative agency, the agency to kick the teeth out of this. But we just said you can't. It's going to be a hot time in the old courtroom tonight. I can't wait to see how the court rules on this.

Indeed, indeed. And so you see how they are trying to attack every facet of the government. I'm going to grab right now Yusuf Salam, of course, who's one of the exonerated five, who's also a member of the New York City Council. You just had a hearing just yesterday where members of Congress, Republicans, were going after what they call sanctuary cities. Kelly Loeffler announced today that she is removing small business administration offices out of sanctuary cities. And so we're talking about folks trying to get SBA loans. And so that's talking about New York City, Chicago. What do you make of the attack this administration is having on Democratic-run cities,

but also on black people? You know, we got to remember, I think that we are, we've always been at war. I think there's been a long time where we felt like, you know, there's moments where we've got a little bit of head, but man, it's like a, it's like a dirty tangle, man. We going two steps forward, 20 steps back. You know, they thought that we were in a post-racial America

when President Barack Obama was elected. And then it was like, nope, it puts us all the way back again. And for us, we have to just remember that we can't lose sight of the fact that there's a whole forest before us. We're looking at the trees, and those trees are the next four years. We've got to make sure that we've got a plan that supersedes the next four years, a plan that's dealing with the next 50 to 100 years. Man, because we're inside of their plan.

But you also are facing a situation where you have an indicted mayor who some believe has cut a deal with the Trump administration. He got questioned on that. Judge Ho is deciding that. And so you have all sorts of issues being happening here because you don't have a situation

like Mayor Brandon Johnson, Chicago, pushing back. You've got a mayor who's trying to play footsie, if you will, with the same administration while also attacking the city. You know, that's the biggest challenge, because we want to make sure that all black leaders are doing all that they can to push the whole community forward, the whole nation forward, even in the small space of being a mayor. And I'm saying it like that because sometimes when we get into positions that we get into, we forget we've always been about us. We've got to lift as we climb, and we've got to remember that everything that we do matters. I'm looking at the position that I'm in, I know that I gotta make sure that as I walk around

in this city council, yes, it's eggshells, but man, I'm thankful that I can look at all of the past lived experience and utilize that to push me forward. That's really what it's about. All right, Councilman Shalom, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it, thanks a lot. Noel, I'm gonna go back to you on this point, when we talk about what we're seeing here,

again, we are seeing a petty, petulant tyrant who literally is using the federal purse strings to go after cities. You secretly told the mayor of Maine, oh, if y'all don't stop transgender athletes from playing sports, you're not going to get any federal funds. You see where the Republican attacked Washington, D.C. by saying, if you don't get rid of Black Lives Matter Plaza and rename it Liberty Plaza, we're going to withdraw your transportation money.

And so this is a moment. We keep talking about how there must be a reaction. This is a moment where regular, ordinary people need to understand they should be taken to the streets. They should be calling these folks out because they are saying, we don't give a damn about you constituents who didn't vote for us in your cities. We're going to attack you and we're going to keep the money from you. And so they want to make decisions for cities. So they don't care about local control. Folks need to understand what these people are going to do for the next four years. It's complete destruction. It's complete destruction. And also it is meant to it's meant to kind of like take the air out of our sails. It's meant to make us feel like there's nothing that can be done. Right. But where I'm seeing hope with some of the economic strikes that have happened, you know, I hope that these things can continue.

And I hope that people can will continue to understand why why it is important for us to civically engaged at this critical juncture. Because to your point, Roland, these people are going to steamroll these policies. Even if they have to ignore the legislative body, they're going to get it done. They want it to be cruel. They want it to be evil. And they want it to be painful. Again, we are facing something that we haven't seen. I mean, we've seen before where Republicans use the power of the federal purse ring to affect things.

I mean, when Reagan was president, they said, hey, if you don't change your drinking laws, then we're going to withhold transportation money. That's what led the drinking laws going from 18 to 21. This is totally different. They want to do it on anything willy-nilly. They do, Roland. And I think a key difference here is that, first of all, Donald Trump is addled mentally. We saw him today talking about sending starships up to get the astronauts and maybe hoping they'll fall in love since they've been in orbit so long. So we know he's not there mentally. We also see the resistance. And I

think this is what's critical at this point. Again, Bannon was like, throw everything against the wall. We heard Reverend Barber talk about that on Tuesday night, that thunder approach. But the reality is now beginning to hit them. Kelly Loeffler was back in Georgia, looking like a dollar store Cruella Divine, where she took that ass whipping a few years ago. And she's back on her revenge tour. And she says, I'm going to take these small business administration offices out of Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, New York City and Seattle. Well, you can open your thin lip mouth and bleed that kind of thing. But the pushback is more than you can stand. We know

that that's not going to go quietly into that good night in any of those cities, in any of those states. And we also know, finally, that Donald Trump's numbers have already begun to sink. We're looking at the Standard & Poor's index going down over the arc of the last 24 hours because of this terror, foolishness, and then immediately withdrawing and pulling back from that. We're looking at the opinion polls beginning to go south. And we know that this brain-addled man is driven by polls. But every time he reneges, what is he doing?

He's showing weakness. And that weakness then, in a kind of vicious cycle, feeds back into the numbers. So resist in every city. And that weakness then in a kind of vicious cycle feeds back into the numbers. So resisting every city. Actually, Greg, a perfect example. Here's the deal. Perfect example. We saw today where he called an emergency cabinet meeting to tell the cabinet members, hey, you have the power to fire people, not Elon.

You don't have to follow that. He's all of a sudden backing off the tariffs against Mexico and Canada. Nola, apparently that was a phone call, but there was some cussing going back and forth between him and Justin Trudeau. See, he thought these countries were just going to roll over. They said, no, bro, we're going to hit your ass back. And so and so all of a sudden he's backing off because when the tears he announced the tears, stock market dropped big time. And so and so we see what is happening repeatedly. And so this is how you fight back. Other countries are going to have to punch the bully in the mouth in order to get his attention. Absolutely. And if I were a Republican right now, I would feel ashamed of myself. Because there are other people in other countries that have stronger spines than them.

They are in a position to do something about someone who is systemically trying to literally destroy this country. We are hanging off a cliff economically as we speak, and they are not doing anything. I don't know if they're waiting for some miracle. I don't know if they're waiting for Donald Trump and Elon Musk to suddenly become, you know, really good and efficient at running companies, more Donald Trump than Elon Musk. I just feel like they're waiting for some miraculous moment to where these people aren't going to be who they are. Donald Trump cannot, he is not effective at running companies. And if you want to transfer that money, the largest and most powerful country that has

ever been erected on God's green earth, are you kidding me? So I love that these countries are clapping black. They should. Let me do this here. We are here in New York City at the National Cares 10th Anniversary Gala. And of course, again, we were here for the first gala as well. And so joining us right now is the woman who started this whole thing. She saw the need for to help our kids, and so Susan Taylor joins us right now. Just Susan stepped right there. So, wow, 10 years. How can it be? How can it be 10 years?

It's moved so quickly. It's such a critical need. We've been supported. To see this turn out and see the people come so early is really a shock to me. Not the turn out, but the earliness of it. Right. Yeah. We have work to do, Rowan, and I think the community is awakening to that. And it's our joy to be able to have an infrastructure that can support so much of what our young

people need. You know, we know the horrific statistics, but we have to understand the source of the pain. That a lot of young people living in poverty, most of them don't have the support that they need to advance their lives, and they know that. And so the community, this is a time for us to link arms and aims and step up and give our children what they need in order to thrive. That's our work. So I said, this is the big business of black America, really ensuring that our young ones have a pathway to emotional wellness, to financial mobility, and an opportunity to become entrepreneurs if that's their dream, but to always be able to take care of their families. We're seeing this in so many other areas where, with what has happened in this election, where black folks are understanding why turning inward is pretty important. We're seeing with the Target Fast, we're seeing how people are saying, hey, we have to support black-owned businesses. And we also are seeing with the attacks on DEI, where black people got to say, we got

to support our institutions to ensure they are still here. Well, I'll tell you, DEI, the rollback has really affected National CARES Mentoring Movement because so many of the people who have supported us are losing their jobs. And we can see community projects that are collapsing. It can't happen on our watch. The income that we need to really do this work around black child suicide prevention, there is a 144 percent increase around black child suicide prevention. There is a 144% increase in black child suicide prevention. I mean, black child suicide, you know, over the last two decades.

That is, it's criminal. It is heart-wrenching. And it's preventable. And that's the work. That's why we're here tonight, to really raise money so that we can get people trained in communities to understand. When children look sad, ask them what's going on. They need to be able to identify depression and know that it's probably one of the most preventable and curable illnesses that people can have. For the folks who are not here, how do they support?

National CARES Mentoring Group. Go to caresmentoring.org. Caresmentoring.org. Donate. Volunteer. Help us. Help us help ourselves. All right. We appreciate it.

Thanks a bunch. All right. Good seeing you. All right, folks. We're going to do this here. What's up, Kefra? What's going on? You all good, baby?

Good, man. Good seeing you. Y'all, this is the man right here who keeps Susan Taylor looking good. See, I always say this. Every time, you know, a brother looking good, I always get a woman credit. So when a sister looking good, I'm going to give a brother some credit. Get a brother some. Drum her some and get a brother some.

Get a brother some. Get some. Of course, you know, she's always putting you to work. But just share with folks, folks again why this organization has been so critical in mentoring so many people who desperately need the support thousands of people all the work that you don't know how much stress putting one of these things together is i know from doing the essence awards but this is the payoff in the community has shown up, you know, to support CARES. And thank you for supporting CARES all these years and for supporting us and the broader us.

I mean, that us, you know. Absolutely. Yeah. So, yeah, I'm glad everybody has shown up here. The stress is starting to dissipate with the support that we got here. We're going to get through this. All right. Sounds good.

I appreciate it, my brother. All right. Good seeing you. All right. Yes, sir. All right, folks, we're going to do this here. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to come back here to New York City for the 10th annual National Decarious

Gala. We're going to talk about Congressman Al Green being censured by Republicans. And then, of course, he said, what the heck? We're going to break out of this thing and we shall overcome. We're going to show y'all what took place today on the House floor. Folks, you're watching Rolling Mark Unfiltered right here on the Black Star Network. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform.

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through the Jobs Act. This is Essence Atkins. Mr. Love, King of R&B, Raheem Duvall. Me, Sherri Shebron, and you know what you watch. You're watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Folks, 10 Democrats broke ranks and joined House Republicans to censure Texas Congressman Al Green for his protest during the speech of the twice impeached, criminally convicted felon and liar in chief, Donald the Con Trump, lawmakers voted 224 to 198 to censure Greene, with the congressman and freshman Democratic Congressman Shamari Fekus of Alabama voting present.

Here are the 10 Democrats who sided with MAGA Republicans. Amir Bira of California in case of Hawaii, Jim Costa of California, Lauren Gillen of New York, also Jim Hines of Connecticut, Chrissy Houlihan of Pennsylvania, Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, Jared Moskowitz of Florida, Marie Glucenkamp-Perez of Washington State, and Tom Suozzi of New York. Many of these lawmakers represent competitive districts, including Kaptur, Suozzi of New York. Many of these lawmakers represent competitive districts, including Captur, Suozzi, and Glucenkamp-Perez, whose districts Trump won in November, but they also got black folks in those districts. Now, censure has been used more frequently in recent years and served as a significant rebuke of a member of Congress. However, it does not carry an

explicit penalty beyond a public admonition that is less severe than expulsion. Now, let's show the folks the video. Here's what happened. So, when the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, called them to the floor—so, the Congress was supposed to come to the floor where they read the censure. Well, Representative Greene and Democrats had another idea. Roll it. REP.

AL GREEN, By its adoption of House Resolution 189, the House has resolved that Representative Al Green be censured, that Representative Al Green forthwith present himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure, and that Representative Al Green be censured with public reading of this resolution by the speaker. The House had come to order. The House had come to order. What's that? I wanted to let him keep doing this. The House had come to order. Clear the well, please.

Clear the well. The House has to continue its business. Well, it got to the point where they had to call for a recess to clear the House, and they wouldn't leave the floor. They continued to sing, ticking Republicans off. So guess what? Tennessee Republican Congressman Andy Ogles, he's now filed a resolution to punish those Democrats who derailed the proceedings.

He wants to strip them of their committee assignments. It goes to show you the silliness how Republicans are. Now, there was one Democratic congresswoman who voted for the censure who got into an argument with Speaker Johnson. She said, well, wait a minute, you didn't censure Lorraine Boebert. You didn't censure, of course, the other crazy green, bad, butch body. And then he said to her, well, if that was the case, we would be censuring half of Congress. She says, well, the rules are the rules.

And so that's what you see going on here. Also, Axios is reporting that there was a meeting between Democratic leaders and the Democrats who protested during that particular speech where they were admonished for their actions because a letter was sent out calling for them to have proper decorum. And so some are contesting what that meeting was about. Among those folks at that meeting, Maxwell Frost, Jasmine Crockett, and others. I mean, here's the whole deal here, Greg.

If you're a House Democrat, I mean, what the hell do you have to lose? Because the reality is these Republicans are doing whatever they want to. Democrats can't control the process as one would think they would. And so at the end of the day, you use the power of protest to lodge your complaints. And this is the thing that I keep saying. Democrats always are expected to act right and do right. Republicans do what the hell they want

and get their way. Greg, I think you're muted. Greg, I think you're muted. Greg, I think you're muted. That's all right. Thanks. There we go. You got to get me. I'm sorry.

That's right. Yes, I would say that, of course, you're right. And these white nationalists know that we live in a white national society. Combine that with voter apathy. What you get is a recipe for them to act with impunity. The 10 Democrats who voted to censure today, as you said, included Chrissy Houlihan, who was out of Pennsylvania's 6th, who had voted for a Republican congressperson from 2002 until she took that seat in 2018. She calls it a purple congressional district.

And you're right, they're competitive districts. We have to take a page now from the white nationalist playbook. She should be primary. She has been on social media trying to virtue signaling, saying, yes, she put a picture up of the cocktail dress wearing congresswoman from Colorado and the congresswoman from WrestleMania, the great Ric Flair. Of course, you remember, I'm sorry, Ric Flair. No, Marjorie Taylor Greene, I'm sorry, she had that white fur on when she yelled the first time she was in Congress at the president. And instead of people saying, that's right, that's right, they drugged the living hell out of her on social media this afternoon for voting for the censure.

And then some people said, who is your opponent? I'll be donating now. That's how you get rid of these folk. I am not for the singing, we shall overcome in Congress. I think be donating now. That's how you get rid of these folk. I am not for the singing, we shall overcome in Congress. I think it shows weakness. I think it encourages them. It's like a vitamin to them. This is what I'm for. I'm for everybody getting registered to vote and overwhelming, not only the soft white nationalists in the Democratic Party, including the guy who said that Green should be ashamed and Green embarrassed

himself. That was the guy who AIPAC paid to take out Jamal Bowman in New York, although he did not vote today to censure. He still was running his mouth over the last 48 hours. And once you run them over, you don't stop there. You then put these white nationalists in the minority in Congress. It can be done. We've got to get off the bed.

Hey, Greg. Greg. Greg, hold on one second. Right now, Reverend Al Sharpton is here. Reverend Al Sharpton, what do you make of the cinch of Al Green today, but also 10 Democrats, including some in New York State, voting with the Republicans? I think it was a real stand of courage that Congressman Green did. I think every Democrat should have voted with him. And the 10 that didn't, we should never forget that when it was time to stand up, they didn't. A lot of black folks who are really upset and they're saying we want something to be done. What are you telling African-Americans they should be doing today to combat what's happening in D.C.? I think that we need to be mobilized. We need to be ready to boycott.

We're going to deal with that in our National Action Network Convention. And I think that clearly we should not let this insult go unanswered. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Go ahead and pick up on your comment. Greg, finish your comment, and then I'm going to go to Nola, and then I think we now have Avis. I'm done.

I'm done. I'm just saying that we need to get registered and get in the game. That's all. This can be very easily handled. If everybody participates, these white nationals are in the overwhelming majority in this country. No more singing. Time to start swinging. Nola?

That singing was pretty much the same action as the Daishiki moment in the middle of the rotunda when they were on their knees. It was emblematic of that. I'm a realist. And where it's going to affect people, where change is going to happen, is in the pocketbook and if you get primaried. And so for those 10 folks today that did not stand on the right side of history, I don't think all of them will lose their job. A few of them will. And that's what's necessary, because what you did, what you did was to say that, first of all, the party is not united, and secondly, that you're not willing to do what it takes. And the third thing that that said today is, for Democrats out there that are making the

mistake, as they have historically made the mistake, of thinking, well, if I do this thing that makes me seem more mainstream, that makes me seem more attractive, then perhaps I will get reelected, right, because that's the only thing that, that's what they care about. They care about being reelected. Let's show them differently. This is a different base. This is a different black base that is showing up. Go ask Target about their bottom line

when they were on the wrong side of history. We will not forget those 10 Democrats. And I'm very disappointed in Himes. But Avis, here's the deal. It's not even just even African-Americans. I mean, it's other folks. I keep hearing people want to see a fight. I mean, I was checking in my hotel and a white guy stopped me. He said, thank you. Thank you for speaking. I was stopped when I was in the airport. As soon as I landed, a sister who is Dominican, she said, thank you for speaking for those of us who don't have a voice. People want to see a fight.

And what's crazy is if you think back to when Obama was elected, that's what Republicans were saying. And that's how the Tea Party came about. And so this is a moment to see if Democrats got any cojones, if they got any will to actually battle. And so you can't play nice with these people. They're not interested in playing nice. They want power, and they will use power the way they want to use power. Real here, the problem isn't just those 10. Okay?

The problem is not just those 10 people. You know, they came into that night with a directive from leadership for everybody not to do anything. Why was that? And then I would say that the completely innocuous Democratic response, the whole strategy that it was, she could have given that response if it was a response to Bush, if it was a response to Reagan. I mean, it was a response that you would give to any Republican president. It was in no way indicative of this moment. It was in no way raising an alarm that this is not normal. It did not even get to the point of even talking about, at least alluding to, other people, you know, people until like eight minutes into a 10 minute speech. And then it was maybe 30 seconds on that. She never mentioned, for example, DEI.

She never mentioned the complete obliteration of civil rights advancements that it took hundreds of years to build up. She never mentioned the fact that we'd have over 200,000 people who've been laid off. She never mentioned any of that. It was no urgency. You know, it is, it is this continual play. It is this continual play to the mythical white moderate that they keep eluding themselves, deluding themselves into thinking that they need to get. And I have to say, my ire goes beyond those 10 people. I would have liked to have seen better leadership that would have led to a more strong strategy going in there. And when there is not leadership, what you have is a lot of people doing a lot of different things and none of it affected. Those little paddles look ridiculous. And if you're going to do it, you need to put stronger words on there than false.

I mean, what? There was no strategy going in there. So, yes, I can see how people are concerned with those 10 people. But the bottom line is, in order to move forward, we need stronger leadership that right now does not exist in the Democratic Party, period. And if those are going to be primary, my argument is it needs to be more than those 10. But reality also says to me that we need the House. So let's just be real about that, too, because this is an existential threat that we are facing in this nation, specifically as Black people, not just with regards to democracy, but specifically to all the things that are being done to tear down rights

that took us literally centuries to build. The point that you were making there, Elise Larkin gave the Democratic response on Tuesday, and she's been talking about, she keeps talking about, we need to get away from woke, things along those lines. But if you actually pull the numbers, the reality is Vice President Kamala Harris got the same percentage of the white vote that Biden did. The reality of what we saw is that we saw a dramatic drop in turnout for African-Americans, Latinos, and others. And so the Democrats need to understand that if you're not appealing to your base, Greg, that's your base turnout.

You can keep playing the games you want to. You're not going to get 40% and 45% of the white vote. It ain't happening. And so, in fact, to the folks in the control room, let me know when y'all have that video ready of Cornell Belcher. Cornell Belcher, the pollster, he broke that down. He explained the numbers in terms of how Democrats win,

how you brought the coalition. So this constant thinking you're going to appeal to white folks, that ain't going to win. You racist. That's right. Of course. And I couldn't agree more, Dr. Avis. It's not just shameful. You should be embarrassed.

Understanding that Representative Jeffries is playing a longer game. We know that the budget reconciliation process is right around the corner. And that's where people are going to have to put their names on their votes to decide they want to cut Medicaid or Social Security or Title I money and take the food out of children's mouths. So we know that that's part of his strategy. We also know that temperamentally, he's just not built like that. And he's much more comfortable doing what he has been doing, which is, you know, quote, occasional rap lyric and talk a lot with his hands. That having been said, politicians are not our friends.

Ninety million people in the last presidential election did not vote. Reverend Barber has been saying this all along, and he said it Tuesday night right there in Black Lives Matter Square in the Black Star Network studio. We can overwhelm these people if you get people into the game. Alyssa Slotkin isn't an embarrassment. She's a soft white nationalist who believes, unfortunately, like too many other people in the Democratic Party, including the just immediate past chair, Jamie Harrison, that you can somehow chase these five toothless white voters who will trust their Medicaid benefits over their whiteness.

You cannot. What you can do, however, is get out there and get the people who have not been engaged, politically engaged, and then you can leave all those hillbillies in the dust. And when the check comes in the mail for their Social Security, when they can get their medical benefits, they ain't never got to thank you. Why? Because your granny got it, too. We have to be smart now. This isn't about personalities. This isn't about making TikTok videos. And I love Representative Crockett, but dancing like Kendrick Lamar and on the way to the speech ain't it? Because what you're doing now is alienating the very people who haven't participated.

You know, my young people drug Congresswoman Crockett because she was doing the Kendrick dance and saying, this is my response? Nobody want to see that. And as Malcolm X said, if you're still walking around here singing, we shall overcome in the 20th century, the government has failed. It's time to grow up. Guys, let me know where y'all have the Cornell Belcher video, because you start looking at numbers and it's a math game, Nola. And we've been saying it. If you're a Democrat, you do not turn out your base. You are guaranteed to lose. You're guaranteed to lose.

And I keep bringing up what I brought up on Tuesday night. That black woman who talked to the New York Times, 39 years old, Milwaukee education aide who said, I didn't vote because Donald Trump was going to win. The bottom line is that is an attitude that cannot persist. And what I keep saying repeatedly is that when African-Americans, our target goal in every single city where we have significant numbers, our target goal should be 70 percent, 70 percent of black folks turning out because you cannot win if we're at 38, 42, 45. And so in this moment right now, we should be focused on that, mobilizing and organizing. We talk about in Wisconsin, April 1st is a state Supreme Court race. That's critically important. Elon Musk is trying to dump as much money as possible into Wisconsin so Democrats don't win that seat.

You've got other primaries coming up. Gubernatorial race in Michigan. Lieutenant Governor Garland Gilchrist is running for governor. You've got Mayor Ross Baraka running for governor of New Jersey. You've got gubernatorial race in Virginia. I need our folks, black folks, to understand that if we don't use our power and then if we don't maximize our power, then we're guaranteed to be on the outside looking in. 100%. It definitely is a numbers game. And, you know, we've had this conversation multiple times

on this show, looking to Louisiana as an example. You know, I grew up in a time in New Orleans where it was a lot of political activity growing up during a time where Mark Morial's father was the mayor. And I grew up in an environment where Black people were very engaged, but it's also the generation, the generations before us that were also very engaged. So to see the apathy and the lack of interest in Louisiana in terms of voting, because if just more people actually went to vote, Louisiana would look very different. And so that is absolutely where the energy and the resources should be. And I actually love to be engaged in some sort of civics project, you know, some sort of civics on wheels project where you go around the country and you teach people about why these things are important. But you teach it in a way that isn't, you know, preachy or as if I'm lecturing at Georgetown.

But you teach it to folks in a way where they get it, because this is the time. This is the moment. This is the moment where we organize. This is the moment where we stand up and show out because yes, you do need to show out, pop out and show, you know, and this is that time. Right. And so while, you know, there is all this chaos, I see opportunity. And again, I'm going to just, you know, there is all this chaos, I see opportunity. And again, I'm going to just, you know, go back to the numbers. Target is such a great example of what could be done. And we need to keep that up. So, Avis, this is how I see this is like in this moment, because, again, if we look at national, you're not going to have

a national election until 2026, the true national election, 2028. But you're not going to have all congressional seats up. And I think in a number of cities up to 2026. But now you have local races that are going on. But this is a moment where African Americans in cities across the country should be asked, Nola just said, how we must be mobilizing, organizing, how we must be using, having freedom schools, how we should be teaching people, doing these things, because that's where our power comes in. Before I go to you, I'm going to play this. This is what Cornell Belcher posted on social media. He walked through the numbers to explain what Democrats need to do to win, but also what Black folks need to do. Lots of hand-wringing and panic lately about what Democrats should do. And most of it focuses

on the idea that Democrats need to win, backswing voters. But that's not at all how Democrats have won majorities in at least three of the recent national elections. They've done that by expanding the electorate. So what I want to push back on is this idea that elections are primarily determined by large swings of voters from one candidate to another. No, elections today are primarily determined by who turns out. Right. Approximately 5% of Biden's voters broke for Trump, but approximately 4% of Trump's 2020 voters broke for Harris. So the swing is negligible. It does not at all account for her underperformance. Most of her underperformance

can be accounted for by the pullback of approximately 6 million voters of color, as this graphic shows, because in the end, she gets more white votes than Biden got. Every headline screams out about how Democrats have to do better with working class white voters, a.k.a. non-college white voters. And I agree, we should and we have to. But has it been determinative? Look, Biden on his way to winning a majority garnered 32 percent of non-college white voters. In the midterm off-year election, where Democrats did relatively well, again, Democrats garnered 32 percent of non-college white voters. Harris this time around garnered 32 percent of non-college white voters.

This number is relatively stable. This is not a swinging group at all. And it is not the reason why she lost this election. We have to get back to party building and engage our younger, more diverse voters who become disillusioned. That's how we get to the majority in the future because that's how we've got to the majority in the past. Now, Avis, that's Cornell talking about party building, but I want us talking about black community building, not focusing on what a party is doing.

That's what we should be focused on. That's what we should be talking about right now. How are we building with our communities? Yeah, I completely agree. And see, part of that is, as was just mentioned, education about, you know, civics, like how things work and history, honestly, so that there is some understanding of what we've just lost. I think one of my biggest frustrations in this moment, and, you know, just to once again go back to what I would have liked to see, because I understand the math. I understand that Democrats aren't in power. I understand that they don't have any sort of ability to change anything via votes.

But here's the challenge. They are up against an unconventional threat right now who is not playing by the rules. He is leapfrogging even his own political party and just doing what the hell he wants to do. And so sitting here and just waiting for the normal nomenclature in terms of how things works in politics does not work. If you want it to me, if you want to energize black people, if you want to really get them invested in understanding why this matters, I don't really understand why there isn't a more concerted communication efforts to specifically explain to people. No, no, no, no, but here's my whole point. But here's my whole point, though. Here's my whole point. Hold on. Hold on. Here's my whole point, though.

Right now, I'm not interested in the Democratic communications apparatus. I'm interested in the black apparatus. What I'm saying is what I'm saying is and look, we understand how African-Americans vote. organizations, black national organizations, black statewide and local organizations need to be fixated on educating, teaching, reaching black people, not through party. That's what I'm saying. And so that's why when I look at what, when I look at what happened, when I look at what happened on Tuesday night, that thing spread like wildfire. For us to have 250,000 people watching live. Tiffany Lofton, when she talked about their student conference, we put it out there. That day, they raised $95,000. And so, and we put the appeal out.

So the point that I'm making here is that for us, this should be a black thing right now. Gary Chenault talked about what happened in Louisiana. Gary Chambers is talking about doing that. We should be looking at black numbers in these cities and saying, okay, how can we get it from here to here? How do we have these discussions? We should be seeing black organizations leading town halls and having teach-ins and things along those

lines. We cannot wait for a party. Now, we know how we vote, traditionally vote, but the point that I'm making is if we as black people turn out, teach, and reach black people, we're going to see the corresponding result, and we can put pressure on them when it comes to investing and things along those lines. But right now, this truly is about us. I want to see black institutions doing this. Go ahead. I definitely agree with that. And I think that it will have to happen at a very granular grassroots level, because a lot of our traditional institutions, let's just get real, get a lot of their funding from organizations that are pulling back on funding for them right now with this specific attack against DEI. All of this stuff is interconnected. And so a lot of our

traditional nonprofits, I wonder, honestly, I wonder the degree to which they are going to be as aggressive in that space, I agree with you, as they should be. So I think what it will take is it will take new leaders rising up. It will take grassroots efforts rising up in untraditional ways, perhaps ways that will just germinate from this specific critical moment. Because I believe that a lot of our traditional organizations are under threat right now, just in terms of their survival with everything that is going on around them as it relates to the whole attacks against DEI and a lot of the organizations that they get funding from in order to be able to do their programming efforts. The last point here, Greg, when we talk about voting, look, voting is extremely local. And what I mean by that is if we sit here, first of all, you start with battleground states. OK, so if we're talking about looking at, OK, how did we vote? How do we turn out? Guess what? I'm looking at Georgia. I'm looking at the black folks, the populations, the key places in Wisconsin, in Michigan, that. If we do this, we impact local elections.

We impact school board elections, county elections, city elections, state rep, state senate, gubernatorial, and then you go House, Senate, and presidential as well. I need our folks to understand the last five to six elections, our numbers have gone down. We showed the power of the black vote when Obama was elected. This can't just be having an Obama on the ticket. Rolling your aptitude. It's a difficult thing. I think you're muted again. Oh, shoot. No, no, no, no. I'm not. I'm on. Can you hear me?

Okay. All right. Go ahead. Yeah. Thank you. I wasn't you know, laughing. I wasn't you didn't know. No, but yeah, this is this is a difficult thing for us. Obama won with that black vote, putting him over the top. And that was in large measure because of the spectacle. Unfortunately, Black people in the United States of America, people of African descent, are no more mature than anybody else in the United States of America. It's a matter of theater and spectacle. Certainly, we didn't see Hillary Clinton, we didn't see Joe Biden, and we didn't see Kamala Harris match those Obama numbers in part because we are in many ways a society of children, severely underdeveloped when it comes to being

able to really look at things politically and not have to be captured. And we understand the diminishing return, because in every subsequent election, those spectacles, no matter how much more, haven't helped. We haven't danced our way. We haven't celebrated our way. We haven't—because those things have diminishing celebrity-ed our way. Because those things have diminishing impact. Otherwise, Kamala Harris would have won in a landslide. That having been said, what you are illustrating with your description of how we go about this work is the way that we

will be able to win these elections. This is what happened in 1964, Freedom Summer. This is what happened with the Rainbow Coalition and ultimately yielding victories for Democrats in the 1980s and 90s. This is the strategy to win. It's got to be local. It's got to be a lot of contact with people, block by block, street by street, community by community. And it's got to happen between elections, either two-year or four-year election cycles. That is a guarantee for victory. People aren't stupid. We only treat them that way. And the more we treat elections like you're voting for American Idol, the more you're going to take the ass-whipping. When people are given information and when people are giving to people who might run for office the type of ammunition they need

in terms of fulfilling those needs and those desires at the local level, it is a guaranteed victory. History shows us this, but we're going to have to be a whole lot more mature than we've been in recent years. Hold tight one second. I got to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk about the Target Fast. It's coming up next. Don't forget, support the work that we do by joining our Bring the Funk fan club.

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Zelle, Roland at rolandsmartin.com, Roland at rolandmartinunfiltered.com. We'll be right back. We begin tonight with the people who are really running the country right now. Trump is often wrong and misleading about a lot of things, but especially about history. Donald Trump falling in line with President Elon Musk. In the wake of the unsettling news that MSNBC has canceled Joy Ann Reid's primetime show, The Readout, Roland Martin and the Black Star Network would like to extend an invitation to all of the fans of Joy Ann Reid's MSNBC show to join us every night to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered,

streaming on the Black Star Network for news, discussion of the issues that matter to you, and the latest updates on the twice-impeached, criminally convicted felon-in-chief Donald Trump and his unprecedented assault on democracy, as well as co-president Elon Musk's takeover of the federal government. The Black Star Network stands with Joy Ann Reid and all folks who understand the power of Black voices in media. We must come together and never forget that information is power. Be sure to watch Roland Martin Unfiltered weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at youtube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin

or download the Black Star Network app. This week on the other side of change. Environmental disasters and systemic exploitation. From the wildfires in California to the unexpected snowstorms in the South. We are in the climate collapse. These extreme weather events are becoming more disastrous and it is Black and brown communities events are becoming more disastrous and it is black and brown communities that are often hit first and worst. Watch us on the Black Star

Network. So tune in to the other side of change. On the next Get Wealthy with me, Deborah Owens, America's Wealth Coach. Have you ever had that million dollar idea and wondered how you could make it a reality? On the next Get Wealthy, you're going to meet Liska Askalise, the inventress. Someone who made her own idea a reality and now is showing others how they can do it too. Positive, focusing in on the thing that you want to do, writing it down and not speaking to naysayers or anybody about your product until you've taken some steps to at least execute. Lease gut, ask a lease. On the next Get Wealthy, right here, only on Blackstar Network.

Next on The Black Table with me, Greg Carr. Dr. Gerald Horne, a man regarded by many as the most important historian of our time. He provides us a history lesson. I'm betting you've never heard before. Texas enslavers who plan to continue the conflict even after Appomattox, even after the formal surrender of Robert E. Lee. Dr. Horne talks about his new book, The Counterrevolution of 1836, Texas, Slavery, and Jim Crow and

the Roots of U.S. Fascism. You do not want to miss this conversation. Only on The Black Table, right here on the Black Star Network. Hello, we're the Critter Fixers. I'm Dr. Bernard Hodges. And I'm Dr. Terrence Ferguson. And you're tuning in to... Roland Martin Unfiltered. All right, folks, welcome back. I'm here in New York City at the 10th Annual National Cares Movement Gala. Of course, among the honorees, Tina Knowles, also Taraji P. Henson. Tina Knowles just showed up here.

Yonla Van Zandt is here as well. So I'm going to grab Yonla in just one second to ask her a couple of questions. And so, Rachel, make sure Yonla comes over here. So I'm going to chat with her in a second. Right now, though, we're going to talk about the Target Fast. It's day two of the 40-day boycott of Target. Well, actually, Pastor Jamal Bryant is calling it a fast, not a boycott. Black leaders across the country are calling on the members of their congregation

to stop, to protest the retailers' retreat from diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. I love this here. I saw this on social media. Girl Tyler posted this video where she was going into a target reminding people they shouldn't be there When I've been here we possibly boycott oh You know we supposed to be up in here. We're supposed to be boycotting. You know we ain't supposed to be up in here. That's what I'm talking about. I'm proud of you. Give me a hug. I'm proud of you. And I came to talk to us so we can think better of

ourselves. I better wait. My daughter did say that. I'm going to wait. It's up to you, but... We're supposed to be boycott because we ain't supposed to be up in here we boycott we're boycott and we supposed to be up in here why do you know what I'm talking to my sister and you still shopping here? Why are we up in here? You know, you're a little more connected to your roots. That's a boycott. Are y'all working?

Yeah. Okay. We ain't supposed to be up in here. We have to work together. We're going to have to. We got to have some unity and some discipline, okay? I can take it. But we can't be supporting these people, all right?

We got to have unity. Absolutely. All right, I love you, sis. I love you. Thank you. All right, that's how you do it. Placer.ai, a firm that estimates in-store visits locations across the country, calculated foot traffic at Target, Walmart, Best Buy, McDonald's,

and Starbucks has declined in February compared to January. Targets are the largest drop with a 9% decrease, while McDonald's experienced an 8.7% decline. Folks who want to participate in the FAST are encouraged to go to TargetFAST.org, TargetFAST.org, to receive a digital business directory from the Black Chamber of Commerce featuring 300,000 Black-owned businesses. What's up, Taraji? Hey, Taraji. Taraji, Hanson, of course, is one of the honorees, of course, here at National Cares Gala. And so we'll grab her in a second as well. Folks, let's also talk about in Mississippi, a major development taking place there where the state's House and Senate have

approved new redistricting plans affecting 15 districts, five of the House and 10 in the Senate. This all started as the Mississippi NAACP sued, arguing the 2022 plans didn't reflect the state's growing Black population. The court's ruling will establish new black majority Senate and House districts in areas including DeSoto County, the city of Hattiesburg, Chickasaw County and Monroe County. Joining us right now is Charles Taylor, the executive director of the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP. Charles, glad to have you here. Quite a success there. These these white conservative

Republicans, that was the last thing they wanted to do. But when you have the most populous black state when it comes to black folks, hey, this is the result. Proper representation. Thank you for having me again on your show. Really appreciate the platform and excited to talk about this lawsuit. You know, but before I do that, I did want to mention that Robert Clark Jr., who was the first state representative and the first African-American state representative in the state of Mississippi since Reconstruction transitioned just a few days ago. And so he has been heavy in my heart, as well as Henry Curtsy, who also served in the legislature along with him. And so when I think about those two individuals, what they have done to fight for redistricting in the state of Mississippi,

you know, it is one thing that we can tout that Mississippi has more black elected officials than any other state in the country. And so as we look at our legislator, we need to make sure that the representation is that of the electorate. And so just as you mentioned, you know, what the lawsuit or the judgment came down to say that we needed one additional majority minority House district and two majority minority Senate districts in the aforementioned areas. But it affects a lot. And so we're still doing an analysis to say what it looks like. You know, with NAACP, we're always going to be fighting for the advancement of folks, particularly for the Mississippi State Conference, folks in the state of Mississippi. And so as we continue to look at the newly adopted maps by the House and the Senate,

you know, we're going to make sure that it does what the judgment says. And if it doesn't, we'll continue to fight. I saw one story where lawmakers were saying, oh, my God, this is really, really hard. No, they're trying to protect white Republicans in the state. This is not that hard if you draw the districts fairly. Absolutely. Republicans in the state, this is not that hard if you draw the districts fairly. Absolutely. I mean, we've created illustrious maps to demonstrate that is the case. You know,

if they are going in in earnest with fairness, this should be an easy process and it should be a process that they would enjoy because they're there to serve all Mississippians. And so the district should do the same. It should serve all Mississippians. I can tell you from a preliminary analysis, you know, we looked at the Hattiesburg district and it does seem like it will fit what the judgment stated. The other districts, we still got some questions about. And so we still want to do a deeper analysis because, you know, what the Senate and the House, particularly what the Senate has done is in creating the new districts, they have diluted black districts. And there's never been the aim of the Mississippi NAACP to dilute, to create black power by diluting black power. And they could have created several illustrious maps just as we did. They could have adopted maps that did just that, what the judgment said,

and that is to create new black districts because ultimately this is not about trading one for another or this is about making sure that we continue to advance. Oh, absolutely. Well, look, great job there. Keep putting pressure on them. And I mean, it's absolutely needed because, again, they don't want to do right. But this is where the numbers are on our side and the press has to stay on when it comes to the courts. Charles, we appreciate it. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

I'll go back to our panel. Avis, I'll start with you. This is what we talk about, the role of organizations when it comes to standing up for African-Americans. And I'm glad to see the Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP doing what is right. But we have to recognize these folks do not want to relinquish power. And they will do whatever they can to negatively impact Black voters. Absolutely. I mean, that's just the, that's just from the very beginning of this country. And this is why, you know, what's happened over the past several years is so important. I mean, one of the things that we need to remember, aside from redistricting, we know that in the past 10

years, over a 100 laws have been passed across this nation to make it more difficult for Black people to vote since the Shelby decision. Our voting rights are under attack in America, generally speaking. And so the bottom line is that Black power has always been something that this nation has only provided begrudgingly after we have fought and died for it. And it's disgusting to see how in recent years, how in modern times, instead of moving forward, we are continually going backwards. We need to understand that a good defense is a good offense.

And I think it's time that we continue to do everything that we can on voting and everything else with playing offense instead of only be focusing on defense. Absolutely. And look, we're going to look and we're going to keep seeing these attacks. No, they're going to continue. And trust me, these Republicans, they want they do not want to lose the House next year. They don't want to lose the Senate. And so we must be mindful and completely vigilant. And this is why, as I said in the previous segment, we must be maximizing our voting power. We actually make it easier for them to win when we don't show up. Right. We make it easier for them to win when we don't show up.

And we also make it easier for them when we do the performance stuff, too. Right. Because since they monopolize most, if not all of mainstream media at this point and within their manosphere, they have the ability to, you know, to edit things a certain way, to get more people to sympathize with some of the lies that they have been putting out there into the public sphere, right? So those two things are absolutely true. But I'm very happy that you just talked to the brother right now in Mississippi, because the one thing that I like that he said the most is that they're going to keep their foot on their neck if they do not comply. And that's another part of all of this, right? There are so many legal cases. I think the other day I heard something, was it Representative Yvette Clark who said something like 75 cases right now that are pending. And so I am so excited about that and where we have to make sure that those cases are happening. We also have to make sure that we remind people that they have to

also comply to the law. So we have to also be making sure it happens. Nola, hold tight one second. We're here at National Cares Menorin Gala, the 10th anniversary. Joining us right now is Ayanna Van Zandt. It's a whole, you had Ayanna fix my life. I think we need a new show, Ayanna fix my country. Oh my gosh, yes. Actually, it is being fixed. It is being fixed because we are being called to speak up.

We've been silent too long. We're being called to call a thing a thing, to speak up, and to say no to what doesn't honor us, what doesn't advance our needs and our concerns. Also, I think for the people who sat out, people who said this stuff doesn't make a difference, now they, as we always say, they have to round and find out, and now they realize what happens when you sit at home yeah yeah and and that's what we're being called out to do roland i know it looks crazy as hell but i promise you i promise you we are being called higher and particularly our men black men are being called higher because if you look around our community, we need leadership. We need support. We need unification. And I think the work that you do, Reverend Barber, so many, but we're being called out. And so I know it looks crazy,

but it's a good thing. I promise. But what do you say to the folk who, especially federal workers and their families who are being traumatized with threats of firing, and there are people who literally are going through a whole lot. You know, I did a meditation, a 10-minute meditation. Put it up on my site. I said, if you're a federal worker, if you're married to a federal worker, if you're a contractor with the federal government, go get the meditation. Why?

Because from a place of peace in your mind, you have an inner authority to know what to do. Your life is not dependent upon a job. You may have to make some adjustments right now, but keep your mind at peace. Stayed on peace. Keep your mind stayed on peace so that you can even get the insight. It's all going to level out. But one of the things that they're doing is manipulating us with fear and discord, and telling us things that absolutely aren't true, like Zelensky started the war, like fraud, waste, and abuse. We call those lies. We just use the word, don't we? That's a lie. Call a thing a thing, yes. So what I encourage us to do because so many of us work for the federal government or in contract

with the federal government. Our children get benefits that come from... Stay in peace. Stay in peace. Keep your mind clear and don't let them pull your strings and manipulate you. Alright, we appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Thanks a bunch. Greg, I want

to go to you. We were just we were talking about, again, power organizations and and and how us be reacting with Mississippi State Conference. Again, if there's any moment where institutions are desperately needed to be fighting on our behalf, it is right now. Absolutely. And again, this is another issue where Black Star Network, the conversations that you have five nights a week, and the entire program of this network, which is intergenerational and very penetrating, has to really be something that we look to, to really deepen these issues. And this is a very good example. As of the last census, which you know was controlled by the White Nationalists 2020, Mississippi, almost 3 million people, close to 56% white non-Hispanic, and just at the lip of 38% people of African descent.

Now, I would put it at over 40%, I would say. But that having been said, the Mississippi, the extremely gerrymandered, hyper-gerrymandered Mississippi legislature right now stands at 79 white Republicans, 79 Republicans, all white Republicans in the legislature, and 41 Democrats. Now, that House and Senate only flipped about 15 years ago. 2011, in fact, is when the white nationalists took over at a 64-58 clip. And in the previous cycle, 2007, it was 75 Democrats versus 47 Republicans. Now, we know that's the result of extreme gerrymandering.

Now, what does that mean in terms of this lawsuit? Well, here's the dilemma. We talk about packing and cracking when it comes to trying to disperse black electoral power by packing all the black people you can in one district. We saw what happened with the absurd Nancy Grace in South Carolina taking voters, black voters, and moving them into Jim Clyburn's district and removing the same percentage of black voters in her district, which made it easier for her to be elected. And then, of course, the Supreme Court supports that by saying, well, it's political gerrymandering, it's not racial. Fine. Same thing happened in Wisconsin. We saw that with the Whitmer

v. Gill decision. But here's the dilemma. Do you want to have more black people in more districts with a plurality, or do you want to have as many black people as you can packed into one or two districts that will yield a black representation? Right. And here's where the rubber meets the road. Right. If you get a third of the white vote in Mississippi and have 20 or 30 percent black people in a district, you can put your elected official in that seat. We've got to think about that. And I think that's why there is some Democratic pushback in the state of Mississippi around these districts. Well, in fact, that was

one of the issues. We discussed that on Washington Watch with Cornell Belcher more than 15 years ago, that very issue. Joining us right now back here in New York City at the National Cares Mentoring Gala, Tamika Mallory, co-founder of Untell Freedom. Tamika, you joined us a couple of nights ago for the State of Our Union. And the response has been just overwhelming. There was one young brother who was an activist in Atlanta who said, man, he picked up 500 new followers. People were hitting him up saying, hey, how can I help?

How can I join you? To me, that night represented, we ain't talking about him. We ain't dealing with him. We got to deal with us. That's right. And you can't forget to mention that Tiffany Lofton raised a lot of money or you raised money for Tiffany on the show. Money that she needed in order for her students to be able to make it to a conference. We have it. We have two trillion dollars that we spend with everybody else except ourselves.

But that's changing. We see a trend of that. And I think the state of our union is an opportunity that we need to keep going because it gives us a moment to meet one another, to say, oh, you have that business or you're into this activity, you have this organization. Perhaps we can undergird those things with our own resources because we don't need each other more than we ever have. I think that our struggle, it must also start with looking within and making sure that we're taking care of one another. Well, Susan Taylor said that. I mean, the impact of the attacks on DEI has greatly impacted this organization,

sponsors of this particular event. And I said this is where our folk are going to have to recognize how do we operate as a collective to be able to assure that organizations like this don't collapse due to corporate support going away. And I've always said corporate support ain't ever guaranteed. Right. And I'm glad that you are telling folks the truth, because if you listen to some of the podcast bros, they're out there saying that the rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion

aren't important, that it's not harming us. We absolutely see it. We know that corporate sponsors are not giving resources to people as they had, and not resources that folks are begging for. I'm not talking about handouts. I'm talking about consumer dollars going back into the communities to keep the community strong. And when corporations are not giving as much, regular people are not giving as much. Jobs, all of that. I mean, we're dealing with, you know, a situation here where everyone is going to be impacted by what we see. I saw someone say today, when Medicaid gets cut, you think because you have insurance that things will be good.

No, the hospitals will be gutted. There are going to be consequences that every single one of us will feel. And I think we just got to state the truth and, again, work to figure out what does it look like to be in community. We've done it before. We can do it again for sure. All right. Always good to see you.

Good to see you. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Love you, darling. Folks, again, we're here at Susan Taylor's National Cares Mentoring Gala. And just walking up. Really, you walking away? I'm here, love.

She about to get cussed out. Carmen Perez here. I'm like, girl, you about to get cut. We were just talking about how organizations like this are being impacted with corporate dollars being pulled, with folks who are in DEI positions losing their opportunities, and where folk in these companies are like, well, we don't find that to be important. This is a moment where inside of black and brown communities, where we're like, hey, you keep hearing the phrase do for self,

this is where we have to reprioritize our dollars. We have to pull our dollars together, to be honest. Look, at this moment, I know that we've been talking about boycotts and making sure that we ain't spending about boycotts and like making sure that we ain't spending our money otherwise, but we could spend it on each other. We could help fund each other's campaigns. We could fund organizations like this. And actually, you know, I was just talking to Yusuf Salam and he was like, we're the ones that protect one another. So this is a great event where we could continue to support one another. I'm super happy that I'm

here tonight. The babies are taken care of, and I get to see all my family. So, yeah, it's an opportunity for us to come together to support each other and to put our dollars back in our communities. All right, then. Carmen, always good to see you. I appreciate it. Thanks a bunch. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot. When we talk about the next step, and we talk about, again, also how they see us, let's talk about Lesotho.

It's a perfect example. During the pathetic lying speech of the twice-impeached, criminally-committed, felon in chief who's also an insurrectionist, Donald Trump stood on that platform, speaking to the nation and the world, and literally crapped on an African country, listing some of the foreign spending he had cut. Listen to this dumbass. Where's the sound? Where is it? Okay, fine.

So in his speech, he literally mispronounced the country. Then folks started to actually laugh in the room. It's called Lesotho, okay? Their foreign minister said he was shocked and insulted by the remarks from Donald Trump. He spoke to Reuters and said, I'm really shocked that my country can be referred to like that by the head of state. Lesotho is such a significant and unique country in the whole world. I would be happy to invite the president as well as the rest of the world to come to Lesotho is such a significant and unique country in the whole world. I would be happy to invite the president as well as the rest of the world to come to Lesotho.

The decision by the president to cut the aid, it is his prerogative to do that. We have to accept that, but to refer to my country like that, it is quite unfortunate. The foreign minister said some civil society organization funded by the U.S. embassy in Lesotho did work to support the LGBT community, but the United States also provided substantial funding for the country's health and agricultural sectors. Lesotho is a mountainous nation of about two million people encircled by South Africa. It has the highest base of altitude in any country with its lowest point at 4,593 feet. It's sometimes called the kingdom in the sky. The country Trump claims no one has ever

heard of is the same nation Elon Musk met with in September to do business with. You know, Greg, I'm going to start with you. It was piggish of this idiot. You know, oh, we were giving money to this country that no one ever heard of. Then folks start laughing. He previously called, you know, African nation shithole countries. This man doesn't give a damn about black people in Africa or in the United States. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. And it was quite entertaining to watch him today. Call an emergency cabinet meeting because his funky diaper is showing because lord and master, Elon Musk, is out there running roughshod over everything.

And shout-out to the folks who filed the lawsuit over the last day after that fool vomited out that Elon Musk was in fact running Doge, and they went back using the quote from Trump to go to court and say, see, we told you that that lady wasn't running it. But you're absolutely right, Roland. I'm glad you brought up what you brought up, because the prime minister of Lesotho, as you said, Sam Matakani, met with Musk recently because Starlink wants to do a 10-year contract there, partially because of that elevated status. And I mean geographically elevated. Musk wants to monitor his satellites from Lesotho. And we, of course, know that Musk is a Boer descendant from South Africa, which surrounds the SUTU.

Donald Trump did what he always does, this addled man who doesn't know much about anything. He opened his little mouth and put his little brain on display. And the laughter came from other equally little-brained white nationalists who don't know any country in Africa. And if you put a gun in their mouth and said, we're going to blow all your brains out if you can't name two African countries, there'd be a bunch of dead legislators in the United States House of Representatives and Senate. Ignorance is the coin of the realm for white nationalists. Not only don't we know, we don't want to know because you all are not human. So that was something that we criticized, but that's because we're human beings. It is in the core belief of white nationalists to show their ignorance as a virtue.

That's why you got a clown running the damn Pentagon that gets rid of a true war hero, a true military veteran and hero running the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They love the ignorance. That's the point. So let's now play the clip. Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI plus in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of. Nola, pure arrogance. Absolutely.

And that demeaning voice of his that he does on purpose for effect because he's always playing a character on television. You know, this is, so today actually, was it today or this week, it was a powering Africa summit here in D.C. I don't know who was invited. I'm definitely a part of that community from the foreign policy side.

I wasn't invited, so I don't know what was talked about. But the one thing that I do know is the previous administration was very big on the idea of partnership, right, that we're not going to be the same sort of bullish colonialists that we were before in the past. And there were very specific policies, you know, the railway. There's the PRI. I might be getting that wrong—but there were very specific policies that were meant to deepen the partnership between the U.S. and the United States. Now, the same way that we are trying to bully Ukraine into giving up their minerals, we have now gone back to the playbook

of we are just there for the minerals. Let's just be open and clear about it. There's no interest in partnership. This administration looks down their noses at Africa as the president of the United States displayed on Tuesday night. And, you know, one interesting thing that I'll say is when you do work in a foreign policy community, you know, you have to have an open mind. You have to have an open mind to different cultures, to different ways of thinking. And, you know, one of the things that I had to check myself on was that there are actually a lot of folks on the continent who actually wanted Donald Trump to win because they have been conditioned that he is a family man, that he will—you know, that he believes in Christ and God. I mean, I can't tell you how pervasive that narrative is on the continent.

So even reading between the lines of what the foreign minister was trying to say—and he was still trying to be gracious, because that's what you do as a diplomat. You know, you are gracious and you are calm and your thoughts are measured. But this kind of, I welcome folks to come here so you can see, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. And this is what I need everyone to get. They need to level set right now. Being nice and polite, I don't care who Trump sends there. It's still going to be the same outcome. You're still going to be the butt

of a joke. There is no amount of decorum or nicety that will change his deep, deep, deep racism, period. Avis? Well, that's absolutely true. I mean, as has been mentioned, this is a government that is run by a bunch of white nationalists, supposed white, quote-unquote, supremacists, who have no respect for people of African descent, definitely no respect for the continent. We remember when he called several countries on the continent as whole countries.

We remember that. I will never forget that. And exactly right. It was shocking to me to see some folks like with Trump paraphernalia during the last election on the continent as if he gives a damn about him. But that is a reflection, honestly, though, of the amazing propaganda machine that the right has. And we need to understand that this is a propaganda machine that is not limited to these shores. This is a propaganda machine that is actually looking to impact various different countries

and elections all around the world. And you're exactly right. What's happening now is just raping and the desire to just rape the continent with more acquisition of minerals, no desire to go there in any sort of way to sort of build partnerships, build relationships so that there could be mutually beneficial business development on the continent. And while we're fooling around with this idiot, okay, you have China that is all over the continent, right? That is building. They are sort of making investments. They are creating opportunities for their nation. And I would love, you know, if we had smart leadership,

we would be looking to do the same. I will say this one last thing. Obviously, what's happening in this country, I would argue this is the end of an empire. Period. This is the end of the American empire. And, you know, power does not allow vacuums to exist. When one empire falls, another one rises. And I would say that now is the time for Africa to rise. And, you know, it would behoove us as African-Americans to figure out what, especially us who are entrepreneurs, especially us who have businesses, to figure out what sort of relationships that can we develop. What sort of mutually beneficial partnerships can we develop? Not only in this country, but on the continent as well, because honestly, this economy is going to fall.

All right. We need to think globally and not just locally. And one of the best ways that we can do that is to think about how can we build international partnerships with our brothers and sisters on the continent to make sure that our people are OK, no matter where we reside. That's exactly right. Well, indeed, indeed. And so, again, this is a moment and this is a recurring theme that you've been hearing tonight, that this is a moment when we're going to have to recognize that we have immense capital,

immense power, but the question is, do we operate together? I go back to April 3rd, 1968, the last sermon Dr. King gave, when he talked about that very thing. He talked about how black people individually are poor, yet collectively are wealthy. He talked about how we must operate as a collective. So we can't be operating in silos. We can't operate as if, well, you know, we can just all just do our own thing. That's not the case. And so the question is, are people willing to work together, put egos aside and say, how do we move on? How do we move on behalf of the community with one another? That's the real question that many of us absolutely

have to answer. That's right. Got to answer, pure and simple. Listening to Avis talk about that, it is so critical. In 2023, Lesotho was the 17th largest producer of diamonds in the world. They are known for their diamonds, among other things. The idea that African people could come together, this is really the moment. I would encourage people, if you didn't see that long journey you took to Liberia, where you sat with, among others, the president of Liberia, to go back and watch that on this network

and look at really what we have to do. And like you, Nola, I mean, in conversation with a lot of continental Africans over the last, well, for a long time, for decades, but particularly since Trump has come back into office over the last month or so, I haven't been struck by the number of people who support Trump because that's pretty consistent, also with folk from the Caribbean. But what I have been struck by over the last couple of weeks is the response to the withdrawal of aid. We saw this as well in Lesotho, since he said that stupidity Tuesday night. I read a couple of reports from folk from Lesotho who have said it will be tough for us in the short run, because, you know, Lesotho has been hit hard by AIDS.

It's been hit hard by certain diseases. But they said this is an opportunity for us to be self-sufficient. Some of these kind of Africans, I was talking to some Ghanaians today and some Nigerians who made this point. Their support for Trump's policies in the short term is because they think that this will finally allow them to create some self-sufficiency. Their main concern is China and Russia trying to fill a vacuum and them then becoming oppressed by these new folks. You're absolutely right. China's all over the continent. But I'll come back again and finally to this point. The Black Star Network isn't just located in the United States. It has a global reach and it has always promoted Black

solidarity. This is an opportunity for us if we can look at it because you're right, Avis, this is the end of U.S. empire. Empires fall. Trump is accelerating that process and if we're smart about this, like Martin Luther King, who visited Ghana in 1957 for Nkrumah's inauguration and scared the shit out of Eisenhower and Richard Nixon, who was there.

We have a global solidarity of what we've never seen before and that's a global solidarity that will benefit us locally. For folks who don't understand, I chose the name Blackstar Network because if you, that was the name of the Marcus Garvey cruise

line and what he said was he wanted to unite the African diaspora. I just pulled up in our YouTube dashboard. Now, granted, 89% of the people who watch our show are in the United States. But I want everybody to listen because, listen, I mean, even when I was at CNN, I had a huge fan base in Canada.

These are the top ten countries that have watched this show. United States, South Africa. This is the last 28 days. United States has won. South Africa, Canada, United Kingdom, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Australia, the Bahamas, Germany. And so the reality is people have to understand and think that way. So we're not just talking to an American audience. We are talking to a global audience. I've got to go to a quick break. We come back a short break, right back with our Black and Missing. And then we'll talk about this case out of Alabama. I'm Roland Martin here broadcasting live at the 10th Anniversary Gala, the National

CARES Mentoring Project. We also are live streaming this event. And so that stream is happening as we speak. And so we'll be right back on Roller Mark Unfiltered on the Black Star Network. Don't forget to support our work. Join our Bring the Funk fan club. If you want to contribute via Cash App, do so using the Stripe QR code you see right here on the screen. If you're listening, go to BlackStarNetwork.com. You can see your check and money order at PO Box 57196, Washington, D.C.,

2003-7-0196. PayPal is rmartinunfiltered. Venmo is rmunfiltered. Zale, Roland at RolandSMartin.com. Roland at RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. We'll be right back. What's up, y'all? Look, Fanbase is more than a platform.

It's a movement to empower creators, offering a unique opportunity for everyday people to invest in Black-owned tech, infrastructure, and help shape the future of social media. Investing in technology is essential for creating long-term wealth and influence in the digital age. The Black community must not only consume tech, we must own it. Discover how equity crowdfunding can serve as a powerful tool for funding Black businesses, allowing entrepreneurs to raise capital directly through their community, through the jobs ad. Hello, I'm Jameah Pugh. I am from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, just an hour right outside of Philadelphia. My name is Jasmine Pugh. I I am from Coatesville, Pennsylvania, just an hour right outside of Philadelphia. My name is Jasmine Pugh. I'm also from Coatesville, Pennsylvania.

You are watching Roland Martin Unfiltered. Stay right here. Samaya Anderson has been missing from Surprise, Arizona since January 17th. The 17-year-old has black hair and brown eyes. She wears glasses and has a nose ring. Anyone with information about Samaya Anderson should call the Surprise Arizona Police Department at 623-222-4000. 623-222-4000. The Alabama Governor Kay Ives commuted the death sentence of Robin Rocky Myers to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Myers, 63 years old, was convicted of capital murder for the 1991 stabbing death of his neighbor, Ludi Mae Tucker, in Decatur, Alabama.

The state's case at trial relied on witnesses who provided false and conflicting testimony. Additionally, there's no forensic evidence linking Myers to the crime. As Governor Ivey pointed out, no murder weapon was found, no fingerprints were tied to him, and no other DNA or other physical evidence connected him to the scene. This marks the first time Governor Ivey has halted an execution since taking office in 2017 and the first time in 25 years that an Alabama governor has commuted a death sentence. And so we're going to talk about that in just a second. Let me, in a second, real quick, Charchita's rolled up here in her blue chilling, Sherri Shepard, who is, of course, emceeing, hosting the event.

Hey, Sherri. Hey. Come on. What's happening? How you doing, darling? What's going on, sir? You got your little glam look and everything. How you doing? I'm What's going on, sir? You got your glam look and everything. How you doing?

I'm good. I'm here hosting the night, so I'm very excited. I'm more excited because you're here. Now, you know how black people do. How many black people have already asked you to do a shout-out from the stage? So many have asked me to do a shout-out. You know, but we black people. That's what we're supposed to do.

I hate when they be texting you texts. I'm like, man, I am not shouting your name out. Then I make fun of them. But that's in our DNA shout outs We shout it out Back in Africa I think that's how we shout it out You want to shout out you need to pay up No roll it

This is a fundraiser Sherry Oh okay alright that's true You gotta get that money If you gonna shout out everything is pay up Cause You got to get that money. If you're going to shout out, everything is pay up because we're trying to raise money. So charge them for shout outs. Yes. So whatever you want to pay, whatever is in your heart, that's what I'm going with. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Give them a number. Don't have whatever your heart stuff. That's like somebody saying, oh, no, we'll bring you in to give a speech, give you a love offering. No, here's my number. I don't have a number, Roland. I don't ask for money. My husbands usually take it from me. Sherri, listen, Sherri, I ain't got a number, Roland. I don't ask for money. My husbands usually take it from me. Sherri, listen.

Sherri, I ain't got a problem asking for money. Let's just be real clear. You ask for it. You ask for it, and I'll back you up. You need any help up there when it comes to the money part, I'm good. I know. I saw you last year. I saw you last year.

Your homo was a little slow with the microphone. Roland took the microphone. You don't let money lead a room. We raised a lot, though. But he was a little too slow with it. I got to give a shout out to all the sororities. And the Jack and Jill, they came through. Yeah, it was amazing.

It was our challenge there. That's it. You did that, Roland. That's it. How's the show going? Show's going absolutely well. We're at number two in syndication. So it's going extremely well.

So John get to keep his job? John gets... Not only John, the girl who the show's named after, named Sherry, gets to keep her job. Well, you know, a lot of times when the show ain't going well,

the EP got to go. Well, I'm not getting... John and I are attached at the hip. Right. So, yeah, so we're together. All right, then. If I got a job, John got a job. All right, then. All right. Always good to see you, darling. It's so good to see you. I'll see you inside. I'll we're together. All right, then. If I got a job, John got a job. All right, then.

All right. Always good to see you, darling. It's so good to see you. I'll see you inside. I'll see you inside. All right, I'll let you. I want to go back to the story there

out of Alabama. Here's what I'm trying to understand. Why he's still in jail? Here's what I don't understand. Avis, if no murder weapon, no witnesses, no whatever, what the hell? I mean, they should be talking about a partner or a commutation.

That's true, but, Roland, this is still Alabama. So I am pleasantly surprised that at least they're not going to kill him, but I would definitely agree with you that if there appears to be no evidence, I would hope that he has a legal team working on his complete commutation so he can get home. I mean, you know this had to be like real bad for Alabama not to kill somebody. They don't care. I mean, they ain't never cared about evidence before. Oh my God. So many thoughts ran through my mind just now. Um, but no, you're, you're,

you know, you're absolutely right. When I was reading about this story earlier today, I read it with assumptions and I read it like, Oh, this, this brother on his way out. So, you know, when I read that and then a governor like Kay Ivey of all people, you know, who is not a friend to the Blacks, you know, like I'm very, I'm very, very shocked that this was the

outcome. And I just don't have anything more to say beyond I hope that there's some level of justice here. Like, truly, I really do. Greg? Yeah, the man is still alive. He has spent more than half his life in prison. The murder happened in 1991.

He was represented at trial by a lawyer who had ties to the damn Ku Klux Klan. When it came time for his federal appeal, his lawyer disappeared, missed a deadline that prevented him from having an appeal. The jury, even with the fact that it was 11 white people and one black person on the jury voted 11-1 for a life sentence, and one of the white women on the jury wrote to the governor and asked that the jury verdict be substituted for the death penalty. That's what allowed Meemaw to do this. No evidence.

Klan-connected lawyer couldn't do his appeal, And the damn jury in the original case voted 11 to 1, 11 white people on the jury to say, don't kill him. Give him a life sentence with no evidence. The Equal Justice Initiative, of course, has a nice write up of this. And so now the next phase comes. Get this man out of jail. Actually, actually, actually, actually, I want to read. Greg, I want to read from that. And so here's what it says.

After the attorney general's office filedial evidence against Mr. Myers. But it is riddled with conflicting evidence from seemingly everyone involved. So that means she's admitting the circumstantial evidence is jacked up. But check this out. She goes, in short, I am not convinced that Mr. Myers is innocent, but I am not so convinced of his guilt as to approve of his execution. I therefore must respect both the jury's decision to convict him and his recommendation that he be sent to life without parole. I pray that the Tucker family may in some way find closure and peace knowing this case is closed. Okay, this is my problem. The circumstantial evidence is riddled with errors.

No evidence connecting him him. No murder weapon. No DNA. Why in the hell? So he gets convicted on some BS. So I'm not praising her, Avis, for life without parole. If you do not have evidence that ties this man to it, why is this man still sitting in prison? Well, you're right. He shouldn't be there, but let's also say that's, let's once again, put into context what we're dealing with now.

Um, there is no justice department Justice Department that I believe that his, you know, that exists that, and under this administration, that his lawyers can go to now to try to get this beyond the state of Alabama. They've completely gotten rid of the Civil Rights Division, or to the degree that there is a Justice Department, you might as well call it the injustice department. They're not going to be hearing any cases like this. I mean, there are so many different things that have changed right now under this administration. And I don't think we as Black people understand

all of the various implications of this. And this is another one. I agree with you. He should not be in jail. But unfortunately, right now, the only course is going to be the state of Alabama because we can't expect any sort of justice from the federal arm of the government under this administration at all. Check this out, Nola. At his 1994 trial, the overwhelmingly white jury rejected the death penalty for Mr. Myers and voted 9-3 that he should be sentenced to life in prison under an arbitrary and disfavored practice that is now illegal.

The trial judge overrode the jury's verdict and condemned Mr. Myers to death. Okay. Now, the governor noted that her commutation reinstated the life sentence that jurors favored. God is answering prayers. This was juror Mae Puckett. She told the Associated Press, Governor Ivey put it back into the jury's hands. Ms. Puckett was a member of the Morgan County jury that convicted Mr. Myers. But check this out. She urged the governor to spare Mr. Myers' life, writing in a recent op-ed,

I believed then and I believe now that Mr. Myers is innocent. I'm about to blow you away. She wrote that she and other jurors who did not believe Mr. Myers was guilty, reached a compromise deal to convict him and return a life sentence. Quote, I left the courthouse feeling like that compromise saved Mr. Myers' life, she wrote. Adding that the judge's override of their verdict was unjust seeing the override happen in mr meyer's case was a betrayal of the care we jurors put into considering his fate he i'm sorry um may puckett yo as don't deserve any praise for y'all to say we thought the man was innocent, but we reached a compromise and agreed to convict him as long as he didn't get put to death. And instead, he got life in prison. How about your ass vote not guilty and just be a hung jury?

Go ahead, Nola. Black life is expendable, you know, and while justice in this country for black folks has always, has always been questionable, you know, Southern justice for black folks. I mean, when you're, when we're talking about this story, this really sounds like, this sounds like something from the 30s, 40s and 50s and 60s, you know what I mean? And while this happened in the 90s, we're still talking about it. And we're talking about it in terms of, well, you know, yes, there were a lot of inconsistencies and yes, there are holes in the case, but he's still going to stay in jail. Like that is a travesty to justice.

And what Avis just pointed out is what scares me the most is that there isn't a higher authority to kind of also fairly, you know, kind of offer an opinion or some advice regarding this case. And I'm really just nervous and scared for this brother because, you know, right now he's out there dangling in a situation where there are no adults. There are no adults anywhere to be found. You know, right now it's just a whole lot of racism and they're playing with this man's life. You know, I've been playing with this man's life.

And Greg, with all of this nonsense, the Alabama Supreme Court was like, yeah, y'all go ahead and kill him. Y'all go ahead and kill him. Of course. Of course. And the punk ass attorney general is mad because they're not killing Lee Marshall. But what you read is, you know, rolling again, the absurdity of being black in this funky criminal enterprise called United States of America, particularly in the South. My mom's from Alabama. I was just down there last month.

I'm going back down there to see your man's Fred Gray. The Fred Gray Institute is having a seminar on what we can do about this mess next weekend. Not this coming weekend, but the weekend after that. You know, the fact of the matter is that not only is the white population in this country shrinking generally,

it's shrinking in Alabama. Alabama's about two-thirds white, and that's not Hispanic white. The number of Hispanics is growing there, and Alabama's long been a quarter black, and it's moving again toward a third black. They have so successfully kept Lynch Law in place in Alabama that that white woman sitting in that jury thought to herself, we can't get him out, but maybe we can spare his life.

It seems absurd until you understand, like you say, we're living in that type of society. Now, all of that having been said, what can be done about it? When we look at what is going on there in Montgomery with the EJI, the Equal Justice Institute, and, of course, Bryan Stevenson, the idea of appealing to people's common humanity is a very important thing. We should never lose sight of that. But let's also never lose sight of what Fred Gray has stood for his entire life. Fred Gray is a minister and a lawyer, as you know better than

all four of us, Roland. And his stand, which he said he went to law school for, which was to destroy everything segregated in this country, is a moral stand. Meemaw, you think somehow keeping this man in jail instead of killing him is going to keep you out of hell. I assure you, ma'am, that it is not. And I also assure our people that we need to take the kind of Christianity in mind that David Walker and Nat Turner had, which is basically, you don't try to appeal to the moral center of people who have no morals.

You put them on the other side and you roll over them like the sea. Alabama is a place where we can flip it. We have to be able to do that, but we got to stop pretending like these people believe in what we believe in. Indeed, indeed. Let me thank all three of y'all

for joining us on today's show. Avis, Nola, and Greg, thank you so very much. Folks, we are here in New York City for the 10th Annual National CARES Movement Gala. This was founded, of course, by Susan Taylor, where they pair up mentors with African-American kids all across the country.

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