#RolandMartinUnfiltered - Whistleblower complaint released; C'Ville white supremacist indicted; National Expungement Week

Episode Date: September 27, 2019

9.26.19 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Declassified Whistleblower complaint released; C'Ville white supremacist indicted for trying to intimidate a Black community activist; National Expungement Week: we'll tell you what you can get removed from your criminal record and how to go about it; Disturbing cases of bullying by young children in Virginia and New York; Still Seeking Freedom: A look at the Maroons. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: Life Luxe Jazz Life Luxe Jazz is the experience of a lifetime, delivering top-notch music in an upscale destination. The weekend-long event is held at the Omnia Dayclub Los Cabos, which is nestled on the Sea of Cortez in the celebrity playground of Los Cabos, Mexico. For more information visit the website at lifeluxejazz.com. - #RolandMartinUnfiltered partner: 420 Real Estate, LLC To invest in 420 Real Estate’s legal Hemp-CBD Crowdfunding Campaign go to http://marijuanastock.org Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Thank you. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Martin! Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă.

Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Să facem o pătrunjelă. E aí Să facem o pătrunjelă. Thank you. Să facem o pătrunjelă. E aí Thank you. I'm Martin. Martin! Thank you. Să facem o pătrunjelă. Thank you. Folks, today is Thursday, September 26, 2019. Roland Martin broadcasting live from Lima, Ohio. Coming up on today's show, Donald Trump lashes out at the whistleblower who could very well put his presidency in danger.

Looks like somebody is losing it. We'll break it down with our panel. Also on today's show, we continue our discussion about still seeking freedom, 1619 to 2019. Also, bullying is a major issue. Wait until we show you some of those stories there as well. And we talk about the whole issue of black economics. Well, that's why I'm here in Lima, Ohio. And so looking forward to having the conversation here. Folks, we've got a jam packed show. Also update on the NAACP story out of North Carolina. They have suspended the pastor

who has been accused of sexual harassment. I will read the letter that was sent to him by NAACP president and CEO Derek Johnson. Folks, it is time to bring the funk on Roland Martin Unfiltered from Ohio. Let's rolling. Best believe he's knowing. Putting it down from sports to news to politics. With entertainment just for kicks. He's rolling. It's Uncle Roro, y'all.

It's Rolling Martin. Rolling with rolling now. He's funky, he's fresh, yeah, yeah. Rolling with rolling now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's funky, he's fresh, he's real the best. You know he's rolling, Martel. Now. Martel. If the late football announcer Keith Jackson was alive, he would be saying, whoa, Nelly.

That's exactly how folks are reacting in the nation's capital with this whistleblower complainer, CIA officer, who alleges that the Trump administration, they have been hiding phone calls that he makes to world leaders and also that he tried to get a foreign government to essentially investigate his Democratic rival, Joe Biden. Now, Donald Trump and Republicans continue to assert the lie that Joe Biden and his son are corrupt. The fact of the matter is there was no corruption there whatsoever. That is an absolute lie.

Today, the head director of national intelligence appeared before the House Intelligence Committee, did not want to talk about some of the conversations that he has had with the president of the United States. Republicans tried their best to derail it, including Devin Nunes, who said some of the most ridiculous, insane, nonsensical things

in the world. It was Adam Schiff, the chair of that committee, who laid bare exactly what the fundamental issue is and why Democrats are pursuing the truth in an impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump. The first place you went was to the White House. Am I to understand that from your opening statement? It wasn't to the Department of Justice. The first place you went for a second opinion was to the White House? I did not go for a second opinion. The question was, is the information contained here subject to executive privilege, not whether or not it met urgent concern.

And so the first place you went for advice as to whether you should provide the complaint as the statute requires to Congress was the White House. I am not authorized as the director of national intelligence to provide executive privileged information. I think it is prudent as a member of the executive branch to check to ensure that, in fact, it does not. I'm just asking about the sequencing here. Did you first go to the White House to determine whether you should provide a complaint to Congress? No, sir. That was not the question.

The question was whether or not it has executive privilege, not whether or not I should send it on to Congress. Okay. Is the first party you went to outside of your office to seek advice, counsel, direction, the White House? I have consulted with the White House Counsel and eventually we also consulted with the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel. And my question is did you go to the White House first? I went to the Office of Legal Counsel for advice. Yes, sir. Well, I'm asking what you went to first. Did you go to the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel first or did you go to the White House first?

I went to the office. Excuse me. My team, my office went to the Office of Legal Counsel first to receive whether or not the matter in the letter and in the complaint might meet the executive privilege. They viewed it and said we've determined that it appears to be executive privilege and until executive privilege is determined and cleared I did not have the authority to be able to send that forward to the committee. I worked with the Office of Legal Counsel for the past several weeks to get resolution on this. It's a very deliberate process.

Well, Director, I'm just, I'm still trying to understand the chronology. So you first went to the Office of Legal Counsel and then you went to White House Counsel? We went, excuse me, and then to the, repeat that please, sir. I'm just trying to understand the chronology. You first went to the Office of Legal Counsel and then you went to the White House Counsel? No, no, no please sir. I'm just trying to understand the chronology you first went to the office of legal counsel and then you went to the White House counsel No, no, no, sir. No, sir. No, we went to the we went to the White House First to determine to ask okay. That's all I was chronology. You went to the White House first, so

You went to the subject of the complaint for advice first about whether you should provide the complaint to Congress. There were issues within this, a couple of things. One, it did appear that it has executive privilege. If it does have executive privilege, it is the White House that determines that. I cannot determine that as the Director of National Intelligence. But in this case, the White House, the President is the subject of the complaint. He's the subject of the wrongdoing. Were you aware when you went to the White House for advice about whether evidence of wrongdoing by the White House should be provided to the Congress,

were you aware that the White House counsel has taken the unprecedented position that the privilege applies to communications involving the president, when he was president, involving the president when he wasn't president, involving people who never served in the administration, involving people who never served in the administration even when they're not even talking to the president. Were you aware that that is the unprecedented position of the White House, the White House you went to for advice about whether you should turn over a complaint involving the White House, the White House you went to for advice about whether you should turn over a complaint involving the White House? Mr. Chairman, as I said in my opening statement, I believe that everything here in this matter is totally unprecedented. And that is why

my former directors of national intelligence forwarded them to you whether or not it met urgent concern or whether it was serious. This was different. And to me, it just seemed prudent to be able to check and ensure as a member of the executive branch before I sent it forward. All right, folks, let's talk about this with our panel. Joining us right now is Dr. Greg Carr, chair, Department of Afro-American Studies, Howard University. Joseph Williams, he's a editor, u.s news and world report eric erica savage wilson host of her own podcast uh joseph i want to start with you um here's one of the things i think democrats uh are making a mistake and there

was a lot of people discussing this on social media A lot of them got so wrapped up in process. As opposed to what actually happened. But I think they're missing the point. You have to hammer home what they did. This whole deal of, well, that you go to the White House first. That you go here. That you go over here. Focus on the whistleblower.

Well, I think that's important. And I think they finally got around to that. Early on, it seemed like the strategy was to try to unfold the process. And certainly in that exchange that you played with the director was to try to establish that this guy underneath it all is a presidential appointee and is a Republican. And so, of course, when he goes to the White House, that's like the chicken going to the fox lair. And to try to figure this out, of course,

he's going to tell them not to release any of these things. So I think that's probably what they were trying to get to. As far as the process stuff goes, it was a waste of time, but I think a lot of it was to try to get the public educated on what exactly should have happened instead of what exactly did happen Erica the thing here is this here Donald Trump. We're seeing it is unhinged The reality is he knows that he's being targeted. He knows he is screwed up today He could have a fundra. He called reporters scum, lashed out at the whistleblower. The New York Times is reporting that he has ordered folks in

the White House to track down this whistleblower. And what the hell is wrong with Dean Beckett and the New York Times reporting that first of all, the whistleblower is a man, is a CIA officer, is an expert on Ukraine. Well, damn, that's not going to be hard to figure out who the whistleblower is. Right, the slow unmasking. And I tend to agree with Joseph in what he said. I think that it was important that Chairman Schiff, in his introductory, also in that line of questioning, it was right out of the gate at 9 o'clock this morning,

that he actually got him to acting director McGuire to, in fact, admit that he did go to the Office of Legal Counsel in the White House first. That's important to establish and to continue to repeat over and over again so the American public will have an understanding whether or not people understand federal agencies and the Office of the Inspector General and how things are to be reported in times and things of that nature, understanding that this person who has charge and command over an intelligence agency in his own due diligence with his his own due diligence, took this matter where the complainant in this particular document what is in fact the President of the United States to the White House and included the Department of Justice so I do feel like that's important because that's something that

will continue to have to reference back to over and over again as we hopefully head to articles of impeachment being filed. Greg, Republicans keep saying that Joe Biden and his son are corrupt. A former Ukraine prosecutor said that Hunter Biden didn't violate anything. The reality is all of the reporting, all of these things show that that is an absolute lie. The Republicans and Trump want to keep saying corrupt, corrupt, corrupt. It's based on a lie. What you also have here, this whole issue with Ukraine,

now you've gotald trump calling the whistleblower a spy yeah the whistleblower is a spy a united states spy and that person is charged with reporting uh conduct as unbecoming and that's what he did here and so now you have donald trump who has trashed the fbi now he's trashing this whistleblower, and it's showing, again, that this guy does not care about anybody or anyone. He will throw anyone under the bus. He will railroad them. And I guarantee you, don't be surprised, because of what the New York Times did, we're probably going to have this person's name in 24 hours. Absolutely.

Not tonight. Absolutely. You know, it's clear, as you said, Donald Trump is even more unhinged than he's ever been. Today and yesterday, if he had any family members who cared about him, they would get him off of television at this point. Intervention. He's becoming must-see TV again as he dissembles in front of us.

But listening to Devin Nunes today, listening to Kevin McCarthy, they too have become unhinged. And it's clear what the strategy is. Donald Trump is not very bright. He's not a, he's a failed businessman, all these other things, but one thing that he does seem to have, either incidentally or maybe it's in his DNA,

he has a sense of the spectacle, and it seems to me that, you know, and I'm not alone, a lot of people are saying this, that he's trying to pick his opponent. If he can prop Joe Biden up, he thinks he can beat Joe Biden because he knows he's talking to a base that will believe anything. But here's the problem. Biden is already imploding.

And here's the problem that Nancy Pelosi faces. She didn't want to go for impeachment, but here's where I think Adam Schiff was going finally with this. An agreement, everything that we've already heard from Eric and we heard from Joseph. Schiff is a prosecutor. The thin veneer that stands between this country's complete collapse in terms of respect for the rule of law and the

Democrats is to keep reinforcing that we have rules here. So he's trying to pair, today McGuire, best he could do is try to put himself in the same category as Robert Mueller. In other words, I'm just following the rules. I'm just following the rules. But by continuing to harp on the rules, what the Democratic Party can do if they can play this out, because he's going to be impeached in the House of Representatives, and the Senate is going to reject it.

Perhaps if they party this right, they can break the back of the party formerly known as the GOP for a long time. If they can say, we are the party of the rules, and you have become completely unhinged, I think that's part of the strategy. I've gotta ask y'all this year you talked about how the uh the um the campaign uh is changing here and that is i want to go to politico where a new national poll says elizabeth warren uh sitting on top of the polls she has been steadily rising i kept telling people see if all y'all national media people

will learn to watch this show y'all might be three to six months ahead of the game versus what's going down but here's what's real interesting here uh on this uh cnbc has a story that says that wall street democratic donors warn the party will sit out or back Trump if you nominate Elizabeth Warren. Well, hell, Erica, they can go to hell. Because the reality is, trust me, Elizabeth Warren would love nothing better than to say, hey, America, Wall Street Democrats don't want to see me in because they're scared of accountability. That's a manna from heaven for Warren. Oh, yeah, and it will probably happen.

And so it is kind of like cash does everything around us, right? Wu told us that a long time ago. Wu told us that a long time ago. And so I believe with what we're seeing, especially with the fallization of cannabis, we have all these different conversations that are going around, that we're continuing to participate in here around poverty, around people that are participating

in the gig economy having to come out. So people are looking for answers and they want more money in their pockets. So for sure, when I saw that today, that tweet earlier today, that article tweeted out earlier today, I think that definitely Elizabeth Warren is somebody that people just need to continue to watch out for because her growth is steady. Joseph, who gives a damn about Wall Street Democratic donors? The bottom line is we're

in this trouble because of Wall Street having to constantly bail them out. And I'm telling you right now, Elizabeth Warren or any Democrat with a brain would love to run against Wall Street. Well, that's exactly right. I mean, in that ad, it was like a campaign ad that Wall Street cut for Elizabeth Warren, right? I mean, you couldn't get anything better or more organic. And to have your enemy or some, an entity that, I mean, you take a poll, I would venture to say that one out of every five people would say that Wall Street is the cause of a lot of the problems that we're having right now. The gig economy, the collapse of housing, the college tuition problems. You can all trace a line from those issues back to Wall Street and back to the moneymakers and the people who finance them, the shadowy people behind the scenes who are behind a lot of this economic problems.

So I think if you have somebody who is declaring her enemy number one, that is street cred that you cannot buy. I mean, that is like the best kind of political street cred you can have unless you're a corporate Democrat or unless you're a Republican. I mean, and keep in mind that if that is the problem, that she is public enemy number one for Wall Street, that means they're going to shove all their chips over to the right. And that could potentially be an issue. But if you've got the kind of populist street cred that Elizabeth Warren has, we were talking about in the green room earlier, you know, she comes from Oklahoma, you know, teen mom, you know, she's got a lot of hardship that people can relate to. And the fact that Wall Street is pointing to her as the person that needs to be defeated,

that's as good as you can get in the political season. Greg, if you have a Democratic donor on Wall Street saying they will either sit this out or back Trump, guess what? You ain't no damn Democrat. You are the party of money. And that's all you care about. And it's selfishness. That's what it is.

Wall Street people refuse to accept the reality that they played a role in this, and they are the problem. They don't want to accept any responsibility. She created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, fought by Wall Street, got back $12 billion for consumers. How much was the bailout of Wall Street? $12 billion. The reality is Wall Street wants to screw Americans. They want to play financial games. They want to be too big to fail. And what they don't want is somebody who knows the system, who can articulate it, and who ain't scared of them. And the reality is Obama played it safe. He didn't put Volcker in charge of the Department of Treasury. If you read the book that was done, and I'll have a title in a second, who said that Obama, Confidence Men.

No, no, no, Conf oh yeah ron suskin's book where he said obama where he says obama really chose his b economic team versus a economic team during the campaign that was the moment during the financial crisis that was the one moment where wall street could have been brought to their knees and suskin writes in his book that obama had a meeting. They said, hey, you guys got a PR problem. They looked around each other and said, a PR problem. And they said, oh, we're good.

We're good. But they don't want Warren pushing through policies that, guess what, Tea Party people will support, rural voters will support, black folks will support. I don't know who the hell would say no, leave Wall Street alone. We're good other than Wall Street. Well, Wall Street and that element of the corporate Democrats that have always backed them.

Barack Obama, of course, we can kind of dismiss him now. I'm sure he's kind of quivering from wherever he is, maybe in his heart of hearts, which he never showed the rest of us. He's hoping for some type of thing that he could have done because he had the power. But, you know, let's think about this. I agree. We were talking in the green room before this, you know, and, you know, Elizabeth Warren is their biggest nightmare. She has the populist rhetoric of a Teddy Roosevelt

when he started the Bull Moose Party. In some ways, she's a class traitor along the lines of Franklin Roosevelt during the New Deal, with the exception of the fact that like a Will Rogers figure of sorts, she's coming out of the dust bowl, as you just heard Joe say, teen mother. You know, she is the equivalent of the poor white people who Donald Trump lied to to get their votes before. And here's the challenge. Unlike Stacey Abrams in Georgia talking to rural voters,

unlike Andrew Gillum in Florida talking to rural voters, Elizabeth Warren is white. That Pocahontas stuff ain't gonna stick to her. And if Donald Trump is looking across at her in the aisle and she's picked the right vice president candidate, a booker or someone like that who will also energize the non-white groups and the young people, who knows,

or Julian Castro or somebody like that, you're looking at someone who came out of poor whiteness, who can get the women's vote, who came out of Harvard, who knows the banking system better than the bankers, and they have, in the words of the old Motown song, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. So it ain't just the bankers, brother. It's the corporate Democrats as well, because they realize if she gets in there, now everybody's going to have to make an account. Let's be real clear. We're not be sharing the Cory Booker because he gets significant amounts of money from Wall Street. That's just the reality.

So that's not going to happen. Let's just say this, though. Look, you still got... But up until this campaign, it was very important to understand, she's going small donor for sure, trying to model some of Bernie Sanders' stuff, who no one will ever replicate in terms of his donor base.

But up until this presidential campaign, and this is probably what's scaring them as well, she was also getting money from Wall Street. So Elizabeth Warren can put this face on, and I believe what she says, but let's be clear, one of the reasons they're terrified of her is because she's been in those same boardrooms and not always on the wrong or against them.

This is a complicated issue for them. Well, I think that makes perfect sense. I mean, you have somebody who knows the internal structure, and let's remember she created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which the Republicans are now trying to dismantle. If you separate even that part of it,

you understand who her biggest foes are and who is really concerned about whether or not she's going to be the nominee for the Democratic Party. Well, it's going to be quite interesting. I keep telling people this is now when this whole thing heats up, what takes place over the next three months. And so we'll certainly see what happens. All right, folks, let's talk about the Botham Jean case where the prosecution they have rested one of the things they did today

Erica is they talked about why amber Geiger's why her uniform was so spotless So when the first responders were there trying to say the life of botham Jean she was over in the corner texting They really went after her on that the defense of course said well, she letting EMTs do their job Well, that's not the really case there the The prosecution, again, the trial started on Monday. Today is Thursday. They're arresting their case. We'll now see what the defense looks like. The bottom line here is that they've had some emotional testimony. The prosecution has portrayed Amber Geiger as somebody who was indifferent, who should have understood she was in the wrong apartment and they have been poking holes into the defense's whole case and somehow jean was so close to her she had no uh no reason to shoot him that had no other reason to shoot him in fact of the defense he keeps even saying where both of jean's

shoes were lying when the emt came in prosecution said uh that means nothing because they moved his shoes aside trying to save his life. It's been really interesting watching how the prosecution has been dismantling their case. Right. And day four has definitely been a productive day. It was really good to see that the crime scene analysts also testified under oath that the shell casings where they were found, that does not necessarily mean that that's where the gun was shot. So I'm hoping that with the level of testimony that's being given at this trial, from you've got your crime scene analysts, you have investigators,

that particularly because the family is not going away, like they're continuing to put on pressure, that there would definitely be positive outcomes, at least for this police shooting. One of the things that we have seen in this trial here, Joseph, is again how this, how first and foremost, how the judge has been really, really tough. This sister has not been playing around as well. And what we now know is that based upon the testimony, chemical testing showed there was no blood on Amber Geiger's uniform. And also latex gloves, according to the Dallas Morning News, latex gloves in her pocket also showed no signs of blood and appeared to be unused. And so they are really laying out that she made no effort at all to try to save the life of both of them, John, until first responders there arrived. And so

we'll see in terms of how this lays out. But the bottom line here is that the defense keeps saying it was a tragic mistake. Yeah, but somebody's dead. Well, it's a tragic mistake that she really didn't do a whole lot to correct, you know, given those facts. I mean, the glove stayed in her pocket. She wasn't in there trying to save his life. And I think that one of the things that this kind of underscores is the fact that it's so easy for cops to make that first option for pulling the revolver and opening fire. I mean, to me, that was most striking. I mean, if you think that was most striking. I mean, if you think that there's an intruder in your house, yeah, I guess that's the first option. But there are also other options, i.e. calling for backup, calling for help. And even after she

discharged her service weapon into Botham John's chest and made no effort to save him, her first text was, besides calling 911, her first text was to her partner telling him that she had fucked up. I mean, it's staggering to think about the sequence of events here and that there really was no effort on her to save the life of somebody who she just blew away. I mean, to me, I think that speaks more than anything else, but we're still in Dallas, we're still having a white police officer on trial for killing a black man. It could go any way. I mean, even though the judge has kind of kept it a tight leash, we really don't know how the jury is going to react until they react.

Greg, what we have here, prosecutors also were very clear. One of the things that they laid out is that they're blasting police saying uh that uh that amber geiger received uh special treatment from cops on that night it's interesting to have prosecutors do that uh but they but they make it perfectly clear as a part of their story that she got the benefit of the doubt because she was a cop they did not approach this as it would any other case no i mean and you make this point um consistently roland this is the power and the importance of electoral politics. You have a prosecutor's office that is going after her, as well they should. We have a judge that is sitting there that's going to, as we just heard Joseph say,

keep as tight a rein as possible on this. And we know that you have to have that to even have a shot. Because, again, you know, the reporting is that she's going to take the stand. And we all know what that's going to be. There are going to be tears. There are going to be, I didn't, that's why, as you know, the reporting is that she's going to take the stand. And we all know what that's going to be. There are going to be tears. There are going to be, I didn't, that's why, as you said, everything from the texting in the corner when the cops show up to the text messages are going to be important because you can't get in somebody's mind, mens rea, you can't understand what they were thinking.

But once she gets on the stand, she's going to try to push back the tide and lean very heavily on this blue shield and on this image of, I was a cop, I was reacting as a cop, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. But I'm saying all that to say that that is why it is always important who the prosecutor is, who the judge is. So people who sit on the sidelines and say, don't participate in the political process,

please watch this trial, because they even have a shot at convicting her, yet they have people in the room who would be willing to look beyond all that, because that's her only defense at this point, is to play on that psychology, and that might not be enough in this instance. But I also wonder, I mean, it's kind of a general question, I also kind of wonder if we are getting a serious prosecutor and a serious judge because of the Black Lives Matter

movement. I mean, has that brought this to the fore, where you do have a police officer being prosecuted for murder, for shooting an innocent black man? I mean, I can remember not too long ago, or it's not that difficult for me to imagine, that nothing would have been done, you know, maybe 10, 15 years ago. So I just kind of wonder if that's part of what the evolution of the Black Lives Matter, and if there's some, if this is some actual fruit to bear that they can point to about the whole movement to protect black men

and black lives in the street. All right, folks, hold tight one second. I've got to go to a break. We come back. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. to bear that they can point to about the whole movement to protect black men and black lives in the street. All right, folks, hold tight one second. I've got to go to a break. We come back. We'll talk about the maroons.

Y'all might say, what's that? No, not a band, not a color. We'll talk about, again, this historical footnote that deals with, of course, our segment, our 1619 to 2019 segment, Still Seeking Freedom. And so we'll unpack that for you when we come back right here on Roland Martin Unfiltered, broadcasting live from Lima, Ohio. Back in a moment. You want to check out Roland Martin Unfiltered? YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And subscribe to our YouTube channel.

There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. It's Roland Martin Unfiltered. See that name right there? Roland Martin Unfiltered. Like, share, subscribe to our YouTube channel. That's YouTube.com forward slash Roland S. Martin. And don't forget to turn on your notifications

so when we go live, you'll know it. All right, folks, you've heard me talk a lot about MarijuanaStock.org because I want to keep you informed of investment opportunities that make sense. And we've all watched the growth of the cannabis industry. A recent report by New Frontier Data estimates the global cannabis

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To invest, go to marijuana stock.org. That's marijuana stock.org. Get in the game and get in the game now. All right, folks, did you know that there were some escapes escape slaves who were able to get away and flee to Jamaica? Hmm. History you never learned about. slaves who were able to get away and flee to Jamaica. History you never learned about. Joining us right now from Atlanta is Dr. Samuel Livingston, Director of African American Studies at Morehouse College. Dr. Livingston, how you doing? I'm doing well. Brother Roland, how you doing?

Doing great. So tell us about the Maroons. Well, the first thing I'd like to tell you is that they didn't all escape to Jamaica. Some of them stayed right here, and they are a part of our African ancestors right here in the United States. In fact, you know, I was so pleased to read the 1619 Project, spearheaded by Sister Hannah Jones Jones and just an array of great black minds. But 1619 is not the beginning of our history. The year 1526 is the beginning of our history. And it began actually with a group of Africans, 100 Africans who were brought to the United States of America late in the summer of 1526

by a Spaniard named Lucas Vazquez de Ayon. And they essentially destroyed the settlement called the San Miguel de Guadalpe settlement, and they established the first permanent presence of Africans in the United States of what would become the United States of America. So we have the argument that, well, Virginia was the beginning of the United States of America, but you can't really argue that and say that South Carolina or Georgia, where the San Miguel settlement took place, wasn't actually a part of the U.S. also. So those technically would have become maroons,

Africans who killed their enslavers and set up their own community, probably with Native Americans who had gone to live in South Carolina and Georgia in that region. So not all of them went to Jamaica. And so as you're unpacking this, I mean, obviously it's providing a different level of understanding and context in terms of this history. But I think it also what people need to understand is that you didn't have people of African descent who were just so feeble. I mean, look, from the moment people of African descent hit this country, they were trying to seek freedom,

which is why we call this segment Still Seeking Freedom. Freedom was, I mean, that was the piece. These folks were never, ever just fine, were resigned to what's happening. It was a constant effort to be free. Exactly. No, I can't agree with you more than on that. You know, one of the things about the 1619 Project

that I thought could have been brought out a little bit more, it's actually the Africans in Virginia who actually escaped and tried to set up their own societies. But there were scores their own societies. But there were scores of those societies. It could have been as many as between 50 to 100 of those different type of Maroon communities from Virginia all the way down into Louisiana, and definitely into Florida and other areas as well. But no, you're absolutely right. Africans have never settled for enslavement or, you know, with the institution of slavery itself being, you know, that definitely was not something that our ancestors were happy with or satisfied with. reason again the reason why we're doing this segment is because again what i did not want to happen i did not want for us to sit here and just commemorate this moment uh have this event

or a few events in virginia uh or have a publication or whatever is that is to say no use the next year or even beyond to really tell this narrative, to unpack this story, to show just these different elements of who we are and where we came from and how we arrived at this point. Absolutely. You know, and Roland, as you said, when you envision this and as you're unfolding it week after week, as the viewership continues to expand

and folks tune in, not only are you showing the dimensions of African life in the modern world, not only are you showing the dimensions of African life in the modern world, including resistance, you're also linking it to our practice to this day, an independent, black-owned and controlled black news media outlet, which is now highlighting and showing the scholarship and the daily teaching practice of some of our finest scholars at black institutions.

I mean, I know Sam Livingston, my big brother. We've known each other for decades. And this is a brother who not only is a deep scholar in maroonage and many other areas, he's teaching young people at the Atlanta University Center every day. So it's great to have the 1619 Project. Great for the New York Times to spend money

and Robert Smith to pay and John Legend and others and send us all the magazines. But there are a lot of places where those magazines arrived at HBCU campuses where they were received by faculty who do this work every day. And so in doing this every week, what you're showing is our best minds are not only writing, not only researching, they are teaching.

And our young people now are exposed. And add Sam Livingston to the list of people. Everybody should look up now and look at what this brother is doing you know Sam I got a I want to say I want to go to you on this because when we talk about again I keep saying history in his story and that's what this really speaks to me the difference here I think we have to understand that, that we have to go beyond his story and utilize our platforms to tell our story. Greg often talks about it. That's what Ebony did. That's what Jet did. When you read the writings of Lerone Bennett and others and the issue that I have right now with so-called black media,

that we are in essence rewriting stories by white folks and then slapping a black byline on it and i'm like nah that ain't it no i man i agree with you um and uh shout out to big big up my brother greg right there um you know i i owe a lot of what I'm doing to his influence, as well as to Valetia Watkins, Mario Beatty, just a number of really good young scholars who are still doing this work. And thank you, Brother Roland, for providing this platform. One thing I want to say on that is that, you know, we have too many heroes and heroines, heroes and sheroes whose stories we haven't been telling. And there are so many other aspects of those stories that we need to tell.

So for every Frederick Douglass that you have, we need to also know the story of somebody like a Moses Dixon, who was a contemporary of Douglass, but a man who started a slave rebellion movement that probably never took place, but we know that he actually had a big impact on history. The only reason why we don't know this man is because essentially, you could say the scholarly powers that be or whatever don't necessarily really want the story out there. But there's so many other stories that we really need to tell. And that's just here in America, not to mention on the continent of Africa and in other parts of the diaspora. Questions from Erica and Joseph before we end the segment. I do have a question. So thank you, Dr. Livingston. I wanted to find out from you as you

are providing this information to those young folks out, my son is a man of more house. So as you are providing that information to these young minds, what is their response to the information, which is essentially new information that they're receiving? What are their feet? What's the feedback that you're getting? Oh, it's it's over. I would say overwhelmingly positive. And students are really inquisitive. What I see and I'm so pleased to find this out and I know Dr. Carr probably does this a lot better than I do, but actually getting students into the research process, if you put out just a little feeler, you know, okay, I'm working on

this project and we need somebody with Spanish skills. I literally said this in class today and I was kicking myself because I didn't say it earlier, but the brothers just literally jumped to the opportunity. They were just very enthusiastic. And you see that type of thing every single day in terms of the black scholars at HBCUs, other locations, too. But I got to shout out my folks at our HBCUs who are doing phenomenal work all across this country. So, no, I agree. There's a response. Every now and then you will get a little bit of hesitance. You know, students will ask the question which they should ask. Well, where's the evidence for this? You say that there's a slave rebellion movement that was planned from 1846 until 1856, and

that you had tens of thousands of brothers poised to set it off in the city of Atlanta under this Knights of Liberty movement, well, where's the evidence for it? So we do the research and we show students exactly where the argument is and where the evidence is. And then we let them take it from there and form their own positions and opinions. But it's up to us to put those stories out there and to tell those stories in the best way that we can and to recruit our students and get them to become those storytellers, too. Well, one quick question. Joseph.

One quick question I had is the story of the Maroons kind of reminds me of the paradox, right? I mean, here in D.C., we have the African-American Museum of History and Culture, right? One of the most popular Smithsonian museums ever created. I mean, they're waiting lists, they have time tickets. People can't get enough of that. And a lot of people who come visit are white people. And yet we still have so much of this history that's unknown, right? So much of the history when it comes to the surface, we're like, wow, we didn't know that. And that to me speaks to the fact that there really isn't a lot of teaching of this sort of thing in the general public. And by that, I mean in school, in public schools. I mean, students are coming to college, you're completely ignorant of this sort of history. What I'd like to know is, is there a movement,

or is there a way to filter down this teaching to grade schools and to high schools so that you don't have kids showing up at Morehouse or Howard or Bethune-Cookman who are completely ignorant of this sort of thing, and you do have a wider movement to understand the contributions and the history, the fuller history of African Americans in this hemisphere. Definitely. I'm going to defer to my brother Greg on that, Dr. Carr, because he's done a phenomenal job of actually writing curriculum

in ways that are transforming, that have transformed tens of thousands of students. So, brother Greg. Oh, no, brother. Listen, I'm glad to hear this conversation, because in part, you know, when you mentioned in reference to Erica, who's, I guess,

now help me, when you say man of Morehouse, that means that he's there now. Right. That's exactly right. So Sam, you gotta make sure you gotta let... Okay, okay. Definitely, you gotta reach out to him and make sure that he gets on one of these projects. No question. I mean, the work, certainly the K-12 work that we've

done, you know, in Philadelphia, many other places, building on the work, as you say, Roland, of generations. I mean, Ebony Jr., people might forget that Johnson Publishing had a whole series of magazines and it went to the schools. But by the time they get to us, and I'm thinking about it, Sam, because of course we spent two weeks

in the Nile Valley together, you know, David Walrides and others, we were there. One of the things you were talking to us about was getting these young people involved in research and the team, in fact, you were recruiting in egypt that is work that we've seen also done in elementary school in middle school and in high school uh people like kim worthy who teaches men talk many years and teaches in this city was dc teacher of the year at the howard university middle school of uh science and mathematics had her students doing genealogy research so even asking a seven-year-old go interview everybody in

your family and come back and give us a family history report. And then we're gonna teach you how to look up the records. By the time she gets to college, she will already have a family history and already be ready to go back past the boat to Africa and tie it all together. So we do have to do that.

Get our young people involved very young and it begins with the family. Doc, final comment. I'm sorry, brother. Final comment from you. Oh, oh, oh, man. Just the last thing I would say is the Maroons, a really important but overlooked part of our history.

If you look at one of the most important set of laws that were passed in our history, 1705 omnibus slave statute, there's a whole section in there that really just deals with the maroons. And if you look at what's being done to the African population in the 18th century of Virginia, you see the argument laid out very well in the 1619 Project, that it touches every single other area of black lives um today so the final word for me would be um know the maroons know yourselves and uh claim and support black maroon spaces today uh black educational spaces black media spaces um shout out to you brother roland really appreciate appreciate it. And also all of my folks at HBCUs. Support HBCUs. Make a donation. Support HBCUs as soon as you can. All right. Dr. Samuel Livingston, of course, with Director of African American Studies at Morehouse College.

We appreciate it, man. Thank you so very much. Thank you, brother. Appreciate you. All right. Thank you, folks. This is Expungement Week, and we, of course, are talking about this very issue. Joining us right now is Rafi Crockett, principal consultant. Actually, I'm sorry, D.C. organizer for National Expungement Week. And so, Rafi, let's talk about this here because a lot of people are eligible to have records expunged that they don't even know where to go, how to even happen. There are people who don't even realize certain states they even live in, they can now vote. Exactly. Thank you so much for having us on to talk about National Expungement

Week. You're talking about Maroons. We're talking about getting free. So let's get the 77 million people who have criminal records in this country. Let's get them free. And when I say criminal records, I'm not talking about convictions. I'm talking about mere arrests. I'm talking about people who were charged and the charges might have been dismissed or they were charged and they were found not guilty. Nonetheless, those records still exist and they are detrimental to people being able to gain access to housing, to education, to jobs, to voting rights. And I'm thankful that I live in Washington, D.C., where a conviction does not delete your voting rights.

You are automatically given your voting rights back as soon as you are released from prison here in Washington, D.C. But in too many states, that is not the case. Information matters. And so I've got somebody on YouTube right now who says, if you have more than one felony, they can never be expunged. True or false? It depends on the state. Unfortunately, every state is different.

And it makes it extremely difficult for people to know their rights, to know what is available to them. So in some states, only misdemeanors. In certain states, there's automatic expungement. California and Illinois right now are pushing for automatic expungement for cannabis-related convictions. We've got Pennsylvania, which is now pushing for automated expungement of additional criminal criminal charges here in Washington DC my councilman just introduced a bill that would have automated expungement for eligible misdemeanors eligible felonies anything that was a non-conviction, and things that have been decriminalized

subsequently. So it's really determined by what state you live in, unfortunately. And one of the things that we also need to understand when we talk about expungement is, yeah, people, political people who are trying to help folks as well. For somebody out there who is watching, who's listening, where do they go? So is there a particular website where they can try to get some information? It might be a family member who can help one of their loved ones. And again, for us, it's about where can they get information? So this week is National Expungement Week. It began on September 21st. It runs through September 28th. We have 40 events occurring in 30 cities from D.C. to L.A., from Boston to Honolulu.

If you go to offtherecord.us, that's offtherecord.us, you can identify the events that are happening in cities near you. All right, then. Well, Rafi Crockett, we certainly appreciate it. Thank you very much for your work and what you're doing. And it is critically important. Thanks a lot. Thank you. All right, I'm going to go to a quick break, folks. When we come back, I'm going to give you an update on the story at North Carolina where a sister is alleging sexual harassment by a pastor there

who is running for state president of North Carolina NAACP branch. National office is taking action. I'll tell you exactly what they did when we come right back. You want to support Roland Martin Unfiltered? Be sure to join our Bring the Funk fan club. Every dollar that you give to us supports our daily digital show. There's only one daily digital show out here that keeps it black and keep it real. As Roland Martin Unfiltered, support the Roland Martin Unfiltered daily digital show

by going to RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. Our goal is to get 20,000 of our fans contributing 50 bucks each for the whole year. You can make this possible. RolandMartinUnfiltered.com. All right, folks, that's my homeboy there, Gerald Albright, one of the folks performing at the Life Luxe Jazz Experience in Cabo, November 7th through 11th.

I'm going to be there as well. Weekend-long event held at the Omnia Day Club in Los Cabos nestled on the Sea of Cortez in Los Cabos, Mexico. Folks, it's going to be an amazing time over those four days. We're going to have lots of great food and drink and golf and spa, health

and wellness, you name it. The second annual Life, Love, Jazz Experience. Of course, some great people, entertainers are going to be there. Comedian Mark Curry, Gerald Albright, Alex Bunyan, Raul Madon, Incognito,

Pieces of a Dream, Kirk Whalum, Average White Band, Donnie McClurkin, Shalaya, Roy Ayers, Tom Brown, Ronnie Laws,

and Ernest Quarles will be broadcasting Rolling Martin Unfiltered for that Thursday and Friday there as well. And so we want you to be in the house. It's going to be a great time. Go to lifeluxjazz.com,

L-I-F-E-L-U-X-Z-J-A-Z-Z.com for more information. Packages are going fast. You also want to book it soon so your airline tickets are not crazy high. So go to lifeluxjazz.com. All right, folks, yesterday we told you about Jasmine Childs, a black woman in North Carolina

who alleges that a Reverend Curtis Gatewood, he sexually harassed her in North Carolina. She was an employee with the North Carolina NAACP. He, of course, also was the one working there. They, of course, had an investigation which deemed that her accusations were credible. He, though, is running for president of the NAACP state conference. This took place two years ago. A group of women got together at a news conference yesterday saying that they have not, they want to see action from the NAACP national office. They've been trying to get this action for the last couple of years,

but now they did so. Today, a statement was released from the NAACP on September 26th. NAACP President and CEO Derek Johnson issued a letter to Reverend Curtis Gatewood, member of the NAACP Alamance County, North Carolina branch, notifying Reverend Gatewood that his membership in the NAACP is immediately suspended pending a hearing into allegations that he sexually harassed a former NAACP North Carolina chapter employee. And they say in this statement that NAACP takes all allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct seriously. Reverend Gatewood was directed to immediately cease holding himself out as a member of the association because candidates for state conference office must be members in good standing with the organization.

He's also ineligible to run for office unless his membership is restored. Given that this matter concerns an internal disciplinary proceeding, the NAACP will have no further comment. They also posted on their website the actual letter that was sent to Reverend Gatewood. And so he, of course, has an opportunity to respond to it uh but they but but based upon their articles he has to is to according to this letter sent to him you are directed to cease and desist immediately from holding yourself out as a member of the NAACP uh and again it was signed by Derek Johnson cc to Leon Russell chair of the board directors uh of course chair the committee of membership and units as well as the regional director and the general counsel the NAACP and so this is the action that Reverend Dr. William

Barbara wanted to see done as well he stood with those women at yesterday's news conference and that is actually the case there all right folks I want to certainly thank Greg Joseph as well as Erica for being our panel today I've got to. They're waiting for me right now here in Lima, Ohio, to speak to this community group and business organization. Folks, do me a favor. Go to my Facebook page, my Twitter account, or Instagram and read my post I made today when I talked about the cost of our freedom fighters.

One of the reasons why we do this show is because, look, we are not trying to ask somebody else to tell our story because they're not going to do it. But here's what we have to understand that we don't fund this ourselves. It ain't going to happen. And so the bottom line is it's real simple to say, sure, let's go work for another network, another media outlet. But we have to be willing to fund our own, which means that we must use our collective

dollars to do so. I told the story on that post of you look at Bernie Sanders running for office, more than a million donors. When he ran in 2016, the average donation was $28. I said that if 500,000 donors to a political campaign gave 28 bucks, that candidate would raise $14 million. The bottom line is simple. If we want to tell our own story, we want our own media doing so, guess what? We got to fund it. So which means that we need you to join our Bring the Funk fan club. What are we asking for? 50 bucks. We're asking you to give 50 bucks to cover the whole year. And that is,

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