01/09/24 01/09/24 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> bree newsome bass's suppliers --boeing's suppliers that made the door that blew out, workers at that subcontractor have been warning management about defects and safety concerns according to court documents. the workers alleged they were

retaliated against for making those warnings. amy: boeing supplier ignored ones up excessive amount of defects, former employees allege. we will speak with david sirota of the liver which is just published the exposé. protesters call for cease-fire in gaza as president by delivers a campaign speech at the historic mother ame emanuel church in charleston, south carolina, where eight african-american parishioners and their pastor were shot dead by white supremacist in 2015. pres. biden: the truth is under assault. as a consequence, so is our freedom, our democracy, our very country because without the truth, there is no light. without light, there is no path from the starkness. >> [indiscernible]

>> cease-fire now! amy: we will speak with the antiracist activist bree newsome bass, who is also called for cease-fire in gaza. she is known for scaling the 30 foot flagpole at the south carolina state capital and removing the confederate flag after the 2015 massacre. she said as she climbed and held the flag, this flag comes down today. we will look at growing support for reparations for african-american descendants of people who were enslaved. a new documentary is primary on pbs this week, "the cost of inheritance." >> bringing strangers together. >> every time i say and the fifth generation of enslaved

man, part of me dies. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. secretary of state tony blinken is in israel today meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and other top officials as israel's bombardment of gaza continues for a 95th day. blinken is on a multi-nation trip across the police. on monday come he met with mohammed bin salman on. health officials in gaza say it has been another devastating 24 hour period. the bodies of 57 palestinians killed in israeli strikes have been taken to al-aqsa hospital, the only remaining hospital in central gaza. the hospital also took in 65 injured palestinians as the hospital's few remaining doctors struggled to treat the wounded. over the weekend, doctors without borders and other ngo's

pulled staff from the hospital due to concern for their safety amid heavy israeli attacks. meanwhile, the israeli human rights group b'tselem has accused israel of purposely starving the people of gaza. in a new report, the group said starvation is "not a byproduct of war but a direct result of israel's declared policy." in rafah, displaced palestinians denounced blinken and the united states for supporting israel's assault. >> we hold america and blinken accountable as they help israel till children and provided weapons. so whether blinken comes or not, it will not change anything. we will remain steadfast and victory will be for us. amy: israel has also carried out a number of military raids in the occupied west bank. on monday, israeli forces shot dead three palestinian men in the city of tulkarm. video has emerged showing an

israeli military vehicle running over one of the men who had been shot. more than 340 palestinians have been killed by israeli forces and settlers in the west bank since hamas attacked israel on october 7. the israeli newspaper haaretz is reporting 70 lawmakers in the israeli knesset have signed a motion to expel ofer cassif from the legislative body after he signed a petition supporting south africa's genocide case against israel at the international court of justice. cassif, who is jewish, denounced the move to expel him as a member of the knesset, pointing out that no action has been taken against lawmakers who have called for the complete destruction of gaza or backed the removal of all palestinians from gaza. earlier today, israeli president isaac herzog met with tony blinken and criticized south africa's genocide case. >> on thursday, a proceeding was started in the international court of justice in the hague

whereby south africa has sued israel for supposedly genocide. there is nothing more atrocious and preposterous. we are doing our utmost under extremely complicated circumstances on the ground to make sure there will be no unintended consequences and loss of civilian casualties. amy: on monday, jeremy corbyn called on britain to back south africa's case at the international court of justice. >> 22,000 people have already been killed. 1.9 million displaced. thousands die in the rubble. thousands of children dying because of lack of medical care and food. people dying of starvation and thirst and hunger in the gaza strip at the present time. can't government understand the anger around the world when they watch this in real time happening?

and why so many people are very pleased the government of south africa has taken an initiative in going to the international court in order to hold israel to account for the deaths of so many innocent people in gaza? can't the government understand that and at least support the south african process? amy: so far just a handful of countries have supported south africa's genocide case against israel -- bolivia, turkey, malaysia, and jordan. israel has reportedly carried out another targeted strike inside southern lebanon, killing three members of hezbollah earlier today. this comes one day after an israel drone strike assassinated wissam al-tawil, who was the most senior hezbollah figure killed by israel in recent months. "the washington post" is reporting u.s. officials are concerned that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu sees expanding the war to lebanon as "key to his political survival." president biden denounced the poison of white supremacy on monday during a speech at the mother emanuel ame church in

charleston, south carolina, where the white supremacist dylann roof shot dead nine black parishioners in 2015. many analysts say the speech was part of an effort by biden to shore up support from black voters. biden's speech was disrupted when a group of activists started chanting "ceasefire now." pres. biden: without like, there's no path from the starkness. >> if you really care about lives -- >> cease-fire now! amy: as the protesters calling for a ceasefire were removed, supporters of biden started chanting "four more years." biden then addressed the protesters. pres. biden: i understand the passion. i have been quietly working with

the israeli government to get them to reduce significantly get out from gaza. amy: here in new york, at least 325 protesters were arrested monday morning when they blocked the entrances to three major bridges and a tunnel in manhattan. demonstrators were calling for a ceasefire in gaza. >> and part of a group of people shutting down downtown manhattan. we are taking brooklyn bridge, williamsburg bridge, and the tunnel. we are in solidarity with palestine and against the war. we're hoping with this action, we can keep escalating and disrupting. we have shown we will not stop until there is a permanent cease-fire. amy: organizers of the protest included jewish voice for peace, palestinian youth movement, and democratic socialists of america.

boeing 737 max 9 jets remain grounded after a refrigerator-sized fuselage door plug blew off on friday on an alaska airlines plane near portland, oregon. officials with alaska airlines and united airlines say they have found loose bolts and other problems on some of the grounded jets. meanwhile, the online news outlet the lever is reporting employees at a boeing subcontractor were told to falsify records after inspection teams found "excessive amount of defects" in parts being made for boeing. spirit aerosystems reportedly manufactured the door that blew out on the alaska airlines flight. the lever reports a group of spirit shareholders filed a federal complaint last year saying spirit executives had "prioritized production numbers and short-term financial outcomes over product quality." spirit was established nearly two decades ago as a spinoff of boeing.

we will have more on this expoée after headlines. donald trump is expected to be inside a federal courthouse in washington, d.c., today as his lawyers argue the former president has absolute immunity from prosecution from charges that he tried to overthrow the 2020 election. trump is claiming his actions were part of his official duties as president. but in a legal brief, special counsel jack smith has warned that granting trump immunity from criminal prosecution would be "particularly dangerous" due to his efforts to try to remain in office beyond his term. on monday, trump's legal team also filed a request to dismiss state charges in georgia over election interference citing presidential immunity. trump's court appearance in washington comes less than a week before the january 15 caucus in iowa. in brazil, rallies in defense of democracy were held monday marking one year since thousands of supporters of former far right president jair bolsonaro stormed several government buildings in an attempt to topple newly elected president luiz inácio lula da silva's

lula spoke monday hailing the victory of democracy over authoritarianism after the january 8 insurrection. >> if the could to been successful, much more than glass, furniture, works of art, and historical objects would have been stolen and destroyed. the sovereign will of the brazilian people that was expressed at the ballot box would have been stolen and democracy would have been destroyed. amy: scientist with the european union have confirmed 2023 was the hottest year on record and likely the warmest in the last 100,000 years. monthly heat records were broken every month from june to december. the head of the europeans copernicus climate change service that "this has been a very exceptional year climate wise, in a league of its own, even when compared to other very warm years." in bangladesh, more than 7000 rohingya refugees have been left

homeless after a fire destroyed about 800 shelters in the cox's bazar refugee camp where nearly a million rohingya refugees live after fleeing burma. and into,, washington, dozens of asylum-seekers from india gerald have been -- jailed have been on hunger strike manning to release an affair due process. strikers have been denouncing their indefinite detention another dangerous conditions at the detention center. many of the seat -- asylum-seekers said immigration and customs enforcement officials have threatened them with forced feeding unless they ended the peaceful action. north west is run by geo group and has seen a wave of recent hunger strikes, most recently one that lasted over 50 days. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now!'s juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. happy new year.

juan: happy new year. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: we begin today's show with a breaking story, an update on the boeing 737 max nine jets that remain grounded after a refrigerator-sized fuselage or plug blew off on friday on an alaska airlines plane in the air near portland, oregon. officials with alaska airlines and united airlines say they found loose bolts and other problems on some of the jets that have since been grounded. meanwhile, the online news outlet the lever is reporting workers at a boeing subcontractor were told to falsify records after inspection teams found "expensive -- excessive amounts of defects" and parts for boeing. spirit aerosystems reportedly manufactured the door that blew out on the alaska airlines flight, 16 thousand feet in the

air. the lever reports a group of spirit shareholders filed a complaint saying executives prioritized production numbers and short-term financial outcomes over product quality. spirit was established nearly two decades ago as a spinoff of boeing. we're joined now by david sirota. the investigation is headlined "boeing supplier ignored warnings of 'excessive amount of defects,' former employees allege." david is also editor at large for jacobin. welcome back to democracy now! thank you for joining us from denver. lay out what you just exposed. >> a few days -- a few weeks before the debacle over portland, oregon, court documents were filed by those shareholders that included allegations from safety officials, employees at the

subcontractor, that basically allege a culture of defective products, a lack of quality control, and i retaliation -- culture of retaliation against workers who were trying to sound the alarm. these workers say they had found, as you said, excessive defects in the construction and production of these fuselages, that they tried to sound the alarm with corporate officials and managers, including that and ceo of the company. they were retaliated against raising those alarms. some of the specifics of the allegations that relate to what we are now learning, loose bolts situation as an example, one of the workers alleges that the tools that titan those bolts, they had found problems in the calibration of those tools and they had gone to management and said we have a systemic problem here.

again, those warnings were ignored. in some cases, workers were retaliated against for trying to raise the alarms. at one point, one point, one of the workers in an email in an ethics complaint at the company says effectively, are asking us to report inaccurate information about the safety of the products that we are putting out. the products being the components of the fuselage. juan: david, could you talk about the relationship between spirit and boeing? given the fact this is such a key component of a plane come the fuselage, that it would be contracted out -- what did boeing spinoff spirit to begin with? >> great question. i can say this, the company at issue says it's most important

piece of business is building these fuselages. when we call this company a subcontractor, it is smaller than boeing but we are talking about a publicly traded company. a big company whose primary business, whose main business is producing this for boeing. doing the fuselage, which is an essential part of the plane. , this is not some small subcontractor that kind of boeing ignored and did not know much about. this is a major company, headed now, by the way, a former boeing official, former boeing official who has served in the trump administration as a pentagon official and boeing and the pentagon have a huge relationship in terms of military production. this is a big company. it does raise questions about not only the faa's oversight of

the safety situation in building planes, but also in boeing's own oversight of its own subcontractors and partners. to be clear, the faa in the past couple of years has twice named spirit aerosystems in its allegations against boeing related to the 737 and safety issues. juan: what did you find in terms of the faa's ability to conduct the necessary oversight over not only spirit and boning --boeing, but other aircraft manufacturers? >> experts told as part of the problem here is there are now so many subcontractors and the faa has not had the funding necessary to do what these experts say is the necessary kind of inspections and oversight over these

contractors. now it is not just one central company, it is a company like boeing but with all sorts of subcontractors that federal officials don't necessarily have and haven't necessarily been supervising as tightly as they could, don't have the necessary funding to -- spirit aerosystems received $75 million very recently as a federal subsidy during the pandemic. so this company has also gotten government money while at the same time these workers in this federal complaint are alleging, essentially, a culture of defects, fraud, retaliation -- certainly they are alleging a culture that has not rewarded them for sounding the alarm about safety. amy: what was spirit ties to president trump? >> the current ceo, the new ceo

of spirit aerosystems was a boeing official before that and in the interim was an official in the deputy secretary of defense under donald trump. amy: one of the ways you find out -- when this is all being investigated, you go to the cockpit voice recorder. amazingly, it has been overwritten. alaska air, boeing set it happens very quickly. so they can't even go to the voice recorder? >> apparently. i think there's going to be a very detailed investigation into this because now you have planes grounded, i mean, these planes are central part of the american civil aeronautics infrastructure in this country. and you had a door blow out. i think there's going to be a serious investigation to

understand whether or not these problems are in fact systemic. i go back to what the workers say in this federal complaint. they are alleging this kind of thing is not an anomaly, it is a systemic culture of defects. in reading the complaint, one of the most disturbing parts is the allegation -- this is a direct quote "we are being asked to purposefully record inaccurate information." in a situation where the faa does not necessarily have the resources or the wherewithal to oversee such subcontractors, it hasn't been stringently overseeing them, in a sense, the public is relying on these companies to provide accurate information and to have in this federal complaint and workers saying we are being asked to purposefully record inaccurate information about safety. amy: put this into the context

of what happened in 2019. we have been focusing on this last few days, spoke to ralph nader whose grandniece -- we spoke to her mother -- died in the ethiopian airlines flight that boeing max 8, also indonesia's flight. we are talking about over 300 people. other people on board and both planes -- all the people on board in both planes die. i want to go to the ntsb senate could not tell whether the cabin panel that blew off the max 9 plane last week have been properly attached. the ntsb chair said the ntsb focus is on the accident play but would also make broader safety recommendations of needed as the investigation progresses. >> the cockpit door, we found today the cockpit door is designed to open during rapid decompression.

it is designed to open during rapid decompression. however, no one among the flight crew knew that. they were not informed. so boeing is going to make some changes to the manual and and hopefully will translate into procedures and information for the flight attendants and the crew. amy: it is astounding that in this almost full flight, those seats next to the opening, the refrigerator-sized opening that opened, there was no one sitting in those seats -- which may account for the fact no one died. it is astounding. david sirota, as we wrap up, the progression from the two max flights that went down, those max planes, max 8 were grounded for almost two years but now they're back in service as max 9

with some little change. and now these are being grounded or canceled, whether it is united or alaska airlines. where is this headed? >> the question has to be, how did this progression happen? what was fueling it? it is important to contextualize this with the fact the company, boeing and its subcontractors, have been under pressure to try to ramp up production as other major manufacturers have gained market share. companies like airbus, for instance. you have a situation where the workers in this complaint are saying, we are under pressure to ramp up production without regard necessarily for quality. the point being when you read this federal complaint, when you read these documents, the context of this is ultimately financial in these allegations. but the company so focused on

trying to produce more and more, these workers are alleging that quality control has fallen by the wayside. so i think the question is, is the progression you have laid out, is it part of an inevitable pattern? is it the logical result of the horrifying result, but the logical result of a culture of production over the most basic quality control that is supposed to be protecting the public? i wanted to ask you, i was struck a particular in your article by the mention of court documents by a joshua dean who is a former quality auditor for spirit who raised issues of major, major defects as far back as october 2022 -- long before boeing publicly admitted any kinds of defects -- yet he not only was consistently overlooked

, his complaints, but he was eventually fired? >> that's right. the complaints this person was fired -- that is correct -- in raising the alarm about what were called misplaced holes that were drilled in the bulkhead in the fuselage. what is interesting, this all comes out of a shareholder lawsuit. shareholders are effectively alleging the executives were making positive statements about the company publicly, were being worn by employees internally that the state as they were making about safety were inaccurate. so the shareholders are saying they as shareholders were effectively defrauded. that they have a right to honest, accurate formation from executives at the companies they own. that is the other question here, how much did management at

either boeing or spirit aerosystems know about this? in this complaint, one of the most important parts is you have an email from one of these employees raising the alarm, and email sent directly to the then ceo of the company saying the person, the person writing the email, this is "my last resort. effectively can't get any answers." amy: david sirota, thank you for being with us award-winning , investigative journalist and founder of the news website the lever, which has just published a major new investigation headlined "boeing supplier ignored warnings of 'excessive amount of defects,' former employees allege." i encourage people to go to our past segments, the latest on the next jet. next up, protesters calling for a cease-fire in gaza enter a president biden's campaign speech yesterday at the historic mother ame emanuel church in

charleston, south carolina. a lot of people credit the presidential candidate nikki haley, the former south carolina governor, with ultimately taking down the confederate flag on the capitol grounds. we will go to the woman who actually did take down that flag after the massacre and was arrested by the nikki haley administration doing so. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: bree newsome bass, "stay strong: a love song to freedom fighters." she is next guest. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. we turn now to south carolina, where president biden delivered his second campaign speech of the year at the historic mother emanuel ame church in charleston, south carolina, where in 2015 eight black parishioners and their pastor were shot dead by white supremacist. pres. biden: 2015, invited a stranger into this church to pray with them. the word of god was pierced by bullets of hate and rage. hailed by not just gun power, but poison. poison for too long has hunted

this nation. what is that poison? white supremacy. it is a poison. throughout our history, it has ripped this nation apart. it has no place in america. not today, tomorrow, or ever. >> [indiscernible] amy: as he spoke, biden was disrupted by activists demanding a gaza cease-fire. pres. biden: without light, there is no path from this darkness. >> [indiscernible] >> cease-fire now! amy: as the protesters were removed from the church, supporters of president biden began chanting "four more years." pres. biden: i understand their passion. i've quietly -- -- i have been

quietly working with the israeli government to get them to reduce insignificantly get out of gaza using all i can to do it. amy: without naming donald trump, biden blasted the former president and leading 2024 republican candidate as a loser who tried to overthrow the 2020 election results by calling on thousands of his supporters to storm the u.s. capitol on january 6, 2021. a number carried confederate flags and war -- wore white supremacist and far right symbols. following the massacre at the emanuel ame church in charleston in 2015, following the mass enroll at the university of charleston arena that thousands came out for, our next guest, bree newsome bass, scaled the 30-foot flagpole at the south carolina state capitol and removed the confederate flag.

as police officers shouted at her to come down, she shimmied to the top of the flagpole, took the flag in her hand, and said, "you come against me with hatred. i come against you in the name of god. this flag comes down today." >> >> you come against me with hatred and violence. i come against you in the name of god. this flag comes down today. amy: while bree newsome was arrested along with an ally, it was only after this action that the confederate flag was formally removed from the south carolina statehouse grounds. republican presidential candidate nikki haley was governor of south carolina at the time. she has faced fresh backlash after she did not mention slavery as the cause of the u.s. civil war at a recent town hall in new hampshire. for more, we're now joined in raleigh, north carolina, by bree newsome bass, artist and

anti-racist activist. welcome back to democracy now! certainly does take us back. as people debate whether it was nikki haley who ultimately forced the flag to come down, we are going to the woman who actually took it down and risked your freedom to do it. talk about why you did that then come ultimately the legislature would vote to take it down, and how you feel about what is happening today. >> thank you again so much for having me on. i want to make it clear, yes, i did scaled the pole and take the confederate flag down stop this was an issue people have been protesting for years and years. that is part of what made it so egregious in 2015 when we have to massacre at mother ame emanuel and south carolina refused to lower the flight because part of the reason why they refused is they had passed a law in 2000 saying you cannot

be lowered for any reason after they moved from the capitol dome. this had been going on for years. nikki haley actually opposed taking a flag down right up until the massacres occurred in the mounting political protest and the pressure made it where she basically had to at that point support flag coming down. ideologically, she is never really had the stance of being opposed to other the confederacy or symbols of the confederacy or certainly not opposed to racist policies. she went from the governorship to serving in the trump administration. she has had a number of incidents over the years where the things she says or the things she does directly contradict with her claim of having led the way on taking the confederate flag down. at one of her recent rallies,

she played the song "find out in a small town." it alludes to the racial violence like people have experienced her for decades and decades. this is not new for nikki haley. it just shows she does not really represent antiracism in any real way. juan: i would like to ask you in response to president biden's speech, posted on social media "the black church is used as a prop for what all logicians actually proves the point racism is alive and well and strong." could you expand on that? >> absolutely. i think the whole way the incidents and 2015, both the massacre at mother ame emanuel, the refocus on the confederate flag in south carolina, the

formal ceremony around taking the flag down, and the way in american politics returns to those moments again and again and again speaks to how relevant it still is the fact that black churches are frequently used as political campaign stops for politicians. in this case with joe biden, he is clearly trying to make an appeal not just to black voters, but to fend off criticism that he is racist, that he is sponsoring a genocide. that criticism is well-founded because he is sponsoring a genocide and genocide is the most extreme form of racial violence that there is. so to use the pool -- to make ame a prop for joe biden's reelection bid, to me is the greatest assault on truth.

i know joe biden said there is an assault on truth that is happening right now. joe biden is in many ways leading that assault. i know he is running against donald trump, who we know is also a serial liar, but donald trump is not the one who is currently in office right now. it is joe biden. this effort to use the church, not just the black church, but the site of racial violence of a mass murder to deflect from the fact joe biden himself is bombing churches, bombing mosques, bombing places of worship and murdering many civilians, people who sought shelter in those places, it exposes the complete hypocrisy of this entire situation in the vacuum a more leadership at the top. i think that is why many people who watch it took offense to it. i'm glad the young people stood up and protested because even

though there were few in that audience come they represented the majority of people worldwide. amy: it is interesting, the polls that have come out today indicate he haley is surging -- nikki haley is surging in the polls and new hampshire. you referenced where she stood on the confederate flag. i want to go back to 2014 when then south carolina republican governor nikki haley suggested south carolina had resolved its image problem and that having the confederate flag at the state house was fine because not a single ceo had complained. she was speaking at a gubernatorial debate. >> the confederate flag is a sensitive issue. what i can tell you is over the last three point five years, i have spent a lot of my days on the phones with ceos and recruiting jobs to this state. i can say i've not had one conversation with a single ceo about the confederate flag. what is important as we look at,

yes, perception of south carolina matters. that is why we are being named the friendliest state, the most patriotic state. we fixed on that when you elected the first african-american u.s. senator. amy: that was nikki haley back in 2014. bree newsome bass, your final comment? >> i think that says it all. first of all, she is saying is ok -- the objects are ok. we're not talking about substance or the experience or whether people are actually experiencing equal treatment under the law, just the objects. so the objects are fine. because it is not disrupting business. the other thing she offers is evidence that everything is ok is the fact she is nonwhite, she is an indian american woman and she points to the people in the administration who are nonwhite.

that is the entire problem right there. the idea that so long as we can keep business going as usual, it does not matter there is violence come doesn't matter there is racism, all that matters is the optics. that is what nikki haley's campaign represents at her falsely claimed she led the way on taking the confederate flag down. that is what joe biden's campaign represents in terms of thinking all that matters is giving a speech at a church and ignoring all of the churches being blown up and all of the palestinians being killed, ignore the fact young people are demanding a future and we have people who are older who don't seem to care at all that this assault in palestine is disproportionately affecting children, are killing children. and in the case of nikki haley, again, she does not truly represent any of the things she is claiming when it comes to

being antiracist. you can say whatever words you want to say, put together whatever kind of events you want to put together, but the fact is the truth is going to be the truth. i support all of the disruptions because the last thing we need is to carry on business as usual when our democracy is absolutely under attack. democracy is under attack worldwide. genocide is the most extreme form of racial violence that there is. there is no way we are fighting white supremacy simply by taking out a flag or having an event at emanuel ame in the midst of genocide, in the midst of doing away with affirmative action, voting rights, the attack on abortion rights. this is where we are at. it is very dangerous place. i hope people look beyond the optics and support the people

who are disrupting. the last thing we need to do is carry on business as usual. amy: bree newsome bass is an artist and anti-racist activist. in 2015, following the massacre of eight african-american parishioners and their pastor by a white supremacist at the emanuel ame church in charleston, bree scaled the 30-foot flagpole at the south carolina state capitol and removed the confederate flag. next up, we go to the growing support for reparations in america. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "today is the day" by the palestinian lo-fi duo hazy noir. this is democracy now! i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. we look now at the growing movement in support of reparations in the united states for black descendants of people who were enslaved. the state new york joined california to establish a commission to study reparations and racial justice. more work is being done on a much more local and personal level. this is the focus on a new documentary premiering this week on pbs "the cost of , inheritance: an american reframed special." this is the trailer. >> cornelius, age eight. >> seeing those names.

>> every time i say i am the fifth generation of an enslaved man, part of me dies. >> journey across the years. >> article number -- the enslaved got nothing. >> congress passed bills. >> we come to washington, we're coming to get our check. >> connected by common cause. >> to the work. look at your own history. what was your family's role? amy: for more, we are joined by some of the people featured in "the cost of inheritance." randy quarterman is a fifth-generation descendant of zeike quarterman, who was enslaved by george adam keller.

randy co-founded the reparation project alongside sarah eisner, a fifth generation of george adam keller descendant. lotte lieb dula is a descendant of william hayes paxton, who was an enslaver in the mississippi delta. she is with reparations for slavery. and in new york, we are by yoruba richen, the award-winning director of this new documentary. before we play some clips, let's start with you, talk about this movement for reparations that is hitting the corporate media -- hardly hitting the corporate media radar but happening all over the country, though that state level, city level, and personally like once you document in the film. >> absolutely. thank you for having us. it is pretty incredible the pace in which we see reparations moving everything from studying

state commissions like the one new york test passed -- actually we are the third state. illinois has one as well. the cities all across the country who are looking at how to move forward on reparations for descendants of enslaved folks. and these personal stories. as we were making this film over the past three years, we could hardly keep up with all of the different things we were hearing about. and even since the film has been completed. it is a far cry from where we have come. i remember growing up in the 1980's, you talk about reparations, were considered a french, a crazy person -- fringe , a crazy person. the end of slavery, black people have been fighting for reparations and it continues to

be a long struggle but what we show in "the cost of inheritance," there is -- it is actually happening and it is happening on a personal level and on these local levels, which will hopefully give rise to an more momentum for it to happen on a federal level. juan: randy quarterman, your family is linked to sarah eisner 's family through slavery. you are a fifth generation of someone who was enslaved by george adam keller. after she contacted you, you founded the reparations pr oject. can you talk about the relationship you formed with sarah? >> good morning. the relationship i formed with

sarah, i was born in japan, raised in japan so i was there teen -- was 13 and did not know anything about my black history come to learn about our heirs property and an acre been taken by eminent domain and also learning about 90% of the land -- black land loss that happened in the south itself. sarah open that door for me to really engage in helped understand the history of my african-american people, and also understanding the dynamics of my own family. amy: i want to go to a clip from "the cost of inheritance" that features you, randy, as well as the woman who contacted you sarah eisner. >> in 2019, i was speaking with my cousin bill who lives in the

savannah area. bill said the quarterman family still owns this plot of 10 acres of land that george adam keller gave z quarterman in the 1800s. >> when we found out the land was given to zeek, it came alive again to us. >> august 2019, i had and i know from sarah acknowledging who her family was and if i was a descendant from zeike quarterman , enslaved by george adam keller. >> i was taken off track a little bit. >> i was nervous and scared. >> my question was, what are they doing here? >> i remember thinking, what have i done? what if they yell at me?

if they do, they do. they have every right to be angry. >> i consulted with someone who is doing this type of work and understanding it. >> you were standing in a sacred ground. >> she said, hey, your ancestors is on your back. it is a special moment for you and you need to engage. 1, 2, 3, 4 -- staggered into a corner where a house would be right here. for me and my family, we know this is heirs property, land passed after family generations that has no will to say this person owns the land. >> it should have been zeike's

house. this is part of the structure they lived at. >> but the land is not in our possession. a court-appointed lawyer became the executive of our property. and then sarah was like, hey, i really want to get you some help to try to clear this title. >> i thought, this is so obviously a case of reparations because of america's first attempt at reparations right in that area. amy: i want to go to another clip that features our other guest, lotte lieb dula. >> i have looked at my own family history and have documented three different governors that were likely involved in creating the laws of slavery. when i found out breanna had studied political science of the area, that matches the harm i need to unwind. for white people, one of the

important things to know is this is not a gift. i am repaying a debt. >> started working with lotte lieb dula and have learned a lot about my great-grandparents down to the personality traits and even some of the ways i stand when i take pictures is very creepy to see someone born in the 1870's have the same pose when she took pictures. >> we teach a class and reparative genealogy. we cater to why people have a background of family enslavement. what steps you can take to begin to do repair work. one of the first steps, understand the genesis of the racial wealth gap. >> you have black people today in america own about 2% of u.s. wealth. after all of this time, about 2%. how did we get here? >> the history of my family

really shows exactly how it works mechanically. it started with my third great grandfather elisha paxton. he had a plantation beginning around 1815. with the proceeds likely from the plantation operations, many son were sent to law schools. yet the benefit of education right there. the early 1830's, several of his sons moved to the mississippi delta where they set up a law practice and later multiple cotton plantations. >> cotton became king. it drove the creation of the wall street banks and made the economy of the united states -- >> 1860, about 4 million black people held in bondage. 22 trillion.

in today's value. in terms of the value of those folks to the country. enormous impact. the first is, what was extracted from those people during that period of time? the second is what was extracted from those people following that time during the jim crow era. may god that is a clip of "the cost of inheritance" premiering on pbs this week. lotte lieb dula is with us, with reparations for slavery, a portal for white families walking the path of direct repair. if you can talk about your relationship with the woman we see in this film, a young black when she talks about reparations for her, it is repaying student debt. how did you hook up? >> thank you, amy. it is a real honor to be with you today. in early 2018, as you will see

in the documentary, i found some boxes and within those boxes i found records of my family's record of enslavement on a plantation in mississippi. within about 24 hours, i had decided i was going to have to go on a journey of repair. one of the first things i did, where do i go? i've got to talk to someone about this history and decide what to do. i discovered a group called "coming to the table" was having a national gathering that summer. at that gathering, they were going to be discussing reparations. so i attended. i noticed immediately, i think the youngest person at this gathering was breanna. we both ended up attending the reparations session. i made a bunch of pretty arrogant statements saying i wanted to essentially change the world and build a portal and i

wanted to know who would partner with me. there were crickets. i sort of wandered off ejected lee and bree rolled up on me and said, you have some pretty mighty ideas but you haven't thought about people like me. you are setting up scholarships, recommending this and that i'm what about me? i have a six-figure college debt. i am working three jobs. i am barely making it. what do you have for me? in that moment, i realized not only was this the perfect partner for the portal, but a path is opening up in front of my eyes to the beginning steps i could take indirect repair. that is how we met. as you'll see in our phone, our relationship unfolds. juan: we only have about a minute, but your response has

gotten a lot of attention. nikki haley's response to the causes of the civil war. >> well, i am disgusted by that comment. we know the cause of the civil war is slavery. i have in my ancestor's memoir, there's a direct quote and he says "i don't know what anyone else is calling this war, but i call it the war for the slaves." it shows we are so far apart in how we are looking get our history. we really need to come together. that is what we recommend and how our portal works. we take a very fine look at history. we ring black and what people together and looking at our hatchery together -- history together. amy: lotte lieb dula, thank you

for being with us, with reparations for slavery, a nd randy quarterman, fifth generation of zeike quarterman who was enslaved by george adam keller. randy co-founded the reparation project alongside sarah eisner, and we want to thank yoruba richen, the director of "the cost of inheritance: an