passengers, the counter process is not working. ideas can be submitted online, 200 have come in so far. i'm richelle carey, i'll be back. thomas drayton will be back with a newshour at 8:00 pm eastern. keep it here on al jazeera america. >> on "america tonight": the weekend edition, the nation's largest care taker of the mentally ill with a tab picked up by the taxpayer. >> if you keep somebody with severe mental illness for a year, that's g going to cost about $65,000. the most intensive community treatment is going to cost between 20 to 25,000. >> correspondent michael okwu, los angeles county jail, where even the prosecutor who put them

there, say, they don't belong. and he's no longer boss, but on d.c. streets, he's still known as mayor for life. washington'washington'swashingt. >> i have a philosophy. a setup is for a come back. and good evening, thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen, welcome to "america tonight," the weekend edition. it is a shocking statistic. one study finds u.s. prisons are home to ten times as many mentally ill people as state psychiatric hospitals. as aasigh legals were shut down and budgets made community support scarce, prisons have

become the repositories for the mentally ill in america. "americ"america tonight's" michu finds a surprising campaigner for change. >> it's shocking enough to witness firsthand. a collection of men confined to the prison of their own minds. broken, vulnerable and in unrelenting pain. more shocking perhaps to know that the nation's largest caretaker of the mentally ill is right here. the twin towers correctional facility, los angeles county's jail. l.a. different jacki jackie lacy heads the office that helped put these men behind bars. she is working to stop thing system's revolving door for the

mentally ill. compared to 60% who are not mentally ill. >> in the criminal justice system it can seem like groundhog day. you can see the people in for the same low level offenses, same nonserious nonviolent ordinances, clearly due to them being mentally ill and in crisis on the streets and they're arrested and brought in here because there is no other place to take them. >> you're aa prosecutor. have you had a change of heart? >> i don't think it's a change of heart. i became a prosecutor 30 years ago. because i wanted to do justice. and it seemed to me it is the prosecutor who naturally must take the lead when we see an injustice. >> reporter: l.a. county has the largest jail system in the country with 19,000 inmates. more than 20% of them are mentally ill and more than a thousand are behind bars for nonviolent offenses such as

drugs, petty theft, indecent exposure. from her very first day on the job last year assistant sheriff terry mcdonald felt there was something wrong with the process. >> i got here and began to tour the mental health units within the jail and felt this was not the right place or the right structural environment for the acute of some of these mentally ill. >> what was the most jarring for you? >> the fact that we have some in cells without treatment space for them to safely get treatment from clinical personnel. >> a scathing report cited a dramatic increase in suicides. the treatment of mentally ill inmates unconstitutional, saying conditions are noisy unsanitary and crowded. the feds are seeking court ordered reorganization of the jail system. >> any jail is a terrible place

to be. >> peter is with the aclu of southern california. he's been a voal criticallic of how -- vocal critic of how mentally ill are treated without the state. >> the stress from being in overcrowded punitive type situations where there is very poor mental health care. they have a hard time fitting in, figuring out how to play by the rules, you have a combination of physical and sexual abuse, overcrowding all of these things are devastating for people with mental illness and frankly many, many of them come out of jail far worse than how they went in. >> there are serious issues here they have identified and we need to work on, right? i don't necessarily agree with everything that they said but globally, i'm not in disagreement we need to improve mental health treatment in the jails. >> reporter: sheriff mcdonald approached da lacey about how to

improve the mentally ill treatment in the jail. to divert those who have committed minor crimes away from jail in the first place. >> if you are so mentally ill that you are out murdering people, committing atrocious crimes, then that's different. we have got to treat you in a locked facility such as a jail. but what i'm saying is we're overusing that option. for those who are lower level offenders. >> it all starts here at the inmate reception center. or irc. they are booked and evaluated for their mental health. inmates are being detained in specialty housing here. it is a number that changes every day but what remains consistent: the number continues to rise. the department of mental health even projects up to 50% increase over the next five years.

da lacey along with members of the l.a. sheriffs department took us on an exclusive tour of the jail psychiatric ward where inmates often arrive angry or confused. they are evaluated in shackles here in pod 172 before being assigned to permanent housing. >> originally, i found out maybe these are the place they eat, and then i found out this is where they had their therapy sessions. i thought this was incomplete and inhumane. >> we find out how real the problem is. >> i'm on mental health for ten years and they put me right here. these officers don't know how they are doing, they don't know how to operate with mental health. i'm on 800 grams of seraquel. schizophrenia, they don't know how to deal with mental health.

>> this man is talking about things they don't know how to deal with. >> he is telling the truth in the sense that he is mentally ill. he's in for a petty theft. that's a perfect example. if he is not mentally ill he would have been in court and gone about his business. when you have someone who is mentally ill in our county the only person you can call right now is the fire department, or the police department. and they send someone out. and if they in fact have committed a crime or broke a penal code violation, no matter how sick they are. this is the only option. >> there is some treatment here. these men are in group therapy for substance abuse. but with so many inmates we find guards are de facto caseworkers. here in the wards, tight quarters create a desperate

situation. >> they are packed in here. >> they are packed in here. can you imagine trying to get well and rest in this environment? you know these bunk beds being brought in. the gentleman at the table, he's receiving therapy through his therapist, and you know, there's no privacy, right? >> it's cruel and unusual. >> yes. we can definitely do better. >> reporter: with the help of an outside task force, successful programs in miami-dade and shelby county tennessee, where the recidivism rate has been cut in half, probation, and the possibility of dismissing all charges once mental health is completed. it involves greater community outreach to the mentally ill to prevent arrests. >> what our task force will do will be to link services in the community so there will be a plan so they can continue to get mental health counseling and

never get to the point where they have to be arrested again. >> reporter: to relieve crowding, l.a. county recently approved plans for a new $2 billion central jail, but lacey is seeking ways to prevent opening new jails, to mental health beds. more incompetitively than in jail -- more inexpensively than in jail. >> we could absolutely reduce recidivism by 20%. >> this month the aclu being published a study with the same conclusion. >> if you keep a person in jail that's going to cost $65,000. the most intensive treatment, community housing with services right on site that's going to cost somewhere between 20 and $25,000 a year.

>> lacey says she's hearing urgency from various mental health and law enforcement agencies. >> we started with six people, three of them were from the sheriffs department and three were from the da's office. in a matter of months, we grew to partners, where hundreds of people say i want to be a part of this discussion. we really need help. >> reporter: and it is not just law enforcement that has recognized the need for change. the l.a. county board of supervisors recently allowed families and police to commit a mentally ill person to voluntary treatment keeping them out of jail. the board also voted to expand outpatient treatment. >> there is a huge commitment to do something different. which excites me. i don't want to warehouse mentally ementally ill people. people matter. >> i think there's an awakening if you will of those of us in law enforcement and in prosecutors' offices where we are taking a serious look a much

more intelligent look at the underlying causes of what leads people to be incarcerated. sure we contributed to it in some sense but we are determined, i'm determined that we are going olead this cause. my dream is that we'll be able to close down some wings of the jail. >> reporter: a dream to free people who don't belong behind bars. even if she helped put them there. michael okwu, al jazeera, los angeles. >> we return to the program: another shocking scene as a prisoner faces his death. >> to watch a man lay there for an hour and 40 minutes gulping air, i can liken it to if you catch a fir, and throw it on the shore, the way the fish opens and closes its mouth. >> raising questions about lethal injection and whether there is a humane way to put a prisoner to death.

>> on al jazeera america presents >> we always have strikes... people should never be allowed... >> what started as a peaceful protest >> police seem to stick to the self-defense story >> became a horrific moment in south african history >> i don't think any organization in this country would ever anticipate this type of violence >> what really happened that tragic day? >> it is the time to point finger at those whose fingers pulled the trigger >> al jazeera america presents miners shot down only on al jazeera america >> israel's invasion of gaza continues tonight. >> we have been hearing a lot of tank shelling coming from where we are, here. >> every single one of these buildings shook violently. >> for continuing coverage of the israeli / palestinian conflict, stay with al jazeera america, your global news leader.

>> he brutally murdered his ex girlfriend and her father and convicted murderer joseph rudolph wood expected to be put to death in arizona's death chamber. what happened next was a complete surprise. an execution which instead of taking minutes, lasted for nearly two hours. raising again the question of lethal injection. why this botched execution raises the stakes on the debate. it's "america tonight's" chris bury. >> the execution of joseph wood in arizona's death chamber took so long nearly two hours that

his lawyers filed an emergency appeal in vain to the u.s. supreme court. wood would appear to gasp for breath. >> it looked like that in the beginning for the first seven minutes he closed his eyes and went to sleep and he started gasping, he did, gasp for more than an hour and a half. and whether the doctor came in to check his consciousness you could hear a deep snoring, sucking sound. >> it was difficult to watch. joe wood is dead but it took him two hours to die. to watch a man lying there for two hours, gulping for air, it's like throwing a fish ton shore. >> wood was convicted of murdering his girlfriend and her

father. >> what's excruciating is seeing your dad lying there in a pool of blood. seeing your sister in a pool of blood. that is excruciating. this man deserved it. >> unusually drawn out executions, because global pharmaceutical companies have refused to ship lethal drugs. the same two drugs arizona used on wood, medazelam and hydromorpone, dennis mcguire took nearly 30 minutes to die, witnesses watched him struggle while strapped into a gurney. witnessed 18 preeives executions. >> this one was different because after three to four minutes dennis mcguire began

gasping for breath, his stomach and chest were compressing deeply. he was making a snorting sound. almost a choking sound at times. and i didn't notice it at first, but his left hand which had been waving at his kids had clenched into a fist. >> mcguire was sentenced to die for rape and murder of a are pregnant newlywed. >> he then made a noise that sounded like he was fighting for air and grunting at the same time. it was extremely loud. >> reporter: now mcguire's family has filed a lawsuit to stop ohio from using the drug combination that killed him arguing that it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. >> when you strap somebody to a board, deprive them of oxygen for 25 minutes as they slowly die in front of their family, it would take a good imagination to

come up with a more brutal form of execution than that. >> reporter: two months later, in oklahoma, convicted killer clayton lockett died of an apparent heart attack 40 minutes after a new lethal drug combination failed to kill him. that helped convince previous advocates of capital punishment to call for a national more tomorrow. >> some people called it a botched execution. that was not a botched execution. that was cruel and inhumane treatment. the spca does a better job than we're doing in oklahoma and other states. >> in putting animals to death? >> that's right. >> now a formal review of last night's execution but opponents of capitol punishmen punishmenty are having such trouble getting lethal drugs for executions.

chris bury. al jazeera. >> whether we return, a look back at migrant children on the run. >> when they gave us the go-ahead to get on the plane it was pretty rushed. i glanced back to my mother and she was waving good-bye. >> a nearly forgotten look at u.s. immigration children, what operation pedro pan might tell us about the crisis on our borders. >> al jazeera america presents >>my parents relationship has helped me overcome any negative thoughts. 15 stories, 1 incredible journey >> edge of eighteen coming september only on al jazeera america >> al jazeera america >> this is the very tail section

it was burning when we got here >> unbiased reporting... >> the violence has continued >> the violence has continued just a couple of miles from here >> in depth coverage... >> we've got a military escort allowing us to feel a further than everyone else... >> real global perspective >> this was clearly an attack against them... >> from around the world, to the issues right here at home >> ...shouldn't been brought here in the first place... >> we're not here to take over >> real stories... real people... real understanding... >> where you scared when you hear the bombs? >> al jazeera america real... news...

>> as u.s. immigration officials struggle with a continuing border crisis, tens of thousands of children flooding into the united states, another crisis decades ago gives us a very different picture of a time when the united states welcomed, even helped children, enter this country alone. 14,000 minors from cuba entered the country from cuba. what we might learn from that ex discuss from "america tonight's" lori jane gliha. >> i remember waking up, saying this is my last day here, i may never see my parents again. >> reporter: carlos was alone on a flight to the united states. the height of the revolution. >> i thought it was great, i get to leave, i was scared about leaving my parents but i thought life was so horrible, that

seemed better for me. >> reporter: he packed a few articles of clothing and boarded a flight to the united states never realizing it would be the last time he would ever see his father. >> i thought yes, i will, i will get to see him. but then he died. >> reporter: thousands of cuban children were sent to the u.s. alone, by parents who feared the cuban government run by fidel castro would take them away and brain wash them. ultimately 14,000 cuban children would flee the country on u.s. commercial flights to florida part of a program in 1960 called operation pedro pan. >> i kept looking back to see my mother. when they finally rushed us into the plane it was pretty rushed. i looked back at my mother and she was waving good-bye. >> luis remembered spending a lot of time with his father before that event. >> what i remembered that summer was a lot of fishing trips.

>> what do you think your father was doing spending so much time with you? >> i knew he was sick, he wasn't going to be leaving cuba. so i thought all this time was sort of his way of while it could happen, of being with me. >> do you remember what the last thing you said to him was? >> no, i just remember hugging him. hugging him really hard. but i don't remember, i don't remember the words. >> he says he was nervous when he boarded the plane to the united states. nervous about leefg o leaving hy and his country. but armored vehicles in the streets. >> i think everyone knew castro was there to stay, but the rumors were that we would be sent to russia to be educated. there was nervousness. >> my parents were very

concerned. they started indoctrinating children in schools. a lot of the children turned against parents, it became a tragedy. >> lucette was a teenage are. >> i started posting things, like down with fidel and things like that. kids have no knowledge of the danger. >> as the daughter of two famous cuban performers, alvarez thought her trip out of the country would be brief. >> they kind of told us very near to our leaving and they said it is like going oa summer camp. i traveled with my five-year-old sister. i was nervous. i said to my mother, why do i have to leave? how can you explain to a five-year-old child that she had to leave her mother and father, you know? >> reporter: though she didn't know him then, alvarez's future

husband was also boarding a plane as part of operation pedro pan. >> did you feel lonely then? >> no, did i not. i mean my experience was not as lisette's was. most of the kids that caim camey pedro pan was being lonely. i was surrounded by 86 kids just like me. >> reporter: this documentary, the lost apple was funded and produced by the united states information agency. it provides a glimpse into the children from operation pedro pan could expect. >> when you get to the country, everything will be strange.

>> until their parents could arrive. >> they went on another plane to du buque, iowa. i don't know why they integrated my sister and i. she was the only thing i had, and i was her only family, her only person that she knew. >> alvarez, who had been performing since she was a child, began using music as an outlet. >> i remember the first song i wrote it was for cuba. >> can you sing it? >> it said ♪ ♪ [♪ singing ] that's the chorus, oh my home town, nobody is doing anything for you. it's like a question, like a cry. >> reporter: for welli, music was a way to make friends. >> we went to this party and there was a little band playing.

i talked to the drummer and i asked him to let you sit in. and they said yes! and i go, oh my god, never in my life sat in front of a drum set, never, ever. so i got just -- you want to play wipe out, wipe out was da da da da da, dum dum, so i started to play. and for some reason i did it good enough for them to believe that i was a drummer. >> reporter: the adjustment was harder for those without an outlet. reverend leon was in an orphanage. >> i remember when someone who would say to me, my response was, i'm not an orphan. it's hard to make way with kids who are orfanls, when your only identity is the fact that you are in an orphanage, survival

mode. how do i 75 through all of this? >> alvarez and her sister were separated from their parents for three years. >> what was it like to have your family together again? >> it was heaven. and then we were put in a boarding school again because they had to go to puerto rico and get a home and settle down in puerto rico. so they were like reunions and separations and reunions and separations. >> reporter: finally after a year of separation willie cherino reuniunitied with his family. >> we called, we embraced. >> but for luis leon, just 15 years old, there was no reunion with his father. >> there was a telegram. my sister got a telegram, i got a telegram. they said my father had died.

i remember crying, crying, crying, the day i got the telegram. probably a release of a lot of pent-up stuff. >> it would be four years before reverend leonwould see his mother again. >> there was a processing of aclimbation. >> the next time she sees me i was 15 years old, you've been on your own for four years. >> what do you think this all did to your family? >> well, it's knot the same family unit pnd the hardest part of it all i think was for my mother. she went through this huge herculean effort to get to the united states and when she gets here she findings w.h.o. two children that are very different from the two she had sent.

>> reverend leonis now the rector at st. john's church in washington, d.c. carlos ayer is now a professor of religious studies at yale. and the two who never knew each other came together by music. inspired by her childhood experience, alvarez now helps those who are vulnerable. >> we took a lot of foster kids to disney and stay here for christmas and now i have an animal rescue. i know it's because of those things i went there you the as a child. >> how much do you think your musical experience is influenced by operation pedro pan? >> i would say a lot. i believe -- i know, as a matter of fact, that being an artist, you touch people's emotions. including your own. >> which of your songs makes you

the most emotional and touched? >> well, of course it's a song that it is a song that i wrote, it's called nuestro, the day will be arriving. and for some reason, that song touched the deepest fiber of emotion in the heart of every cuban inside the island, and around the world. >> achieving the american dream. >> when i started out, they are all so cute and cuddly. you want each and every one of them to kind of own the world. and -- but you know sadly that that's not good going to happen. >> next on "america tonight," why turning the dream into a reality may never happen for some americans.

>> consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the growing controversy. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> why did so many of these people choose to risk their lives? >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> people are dying because of this policy... >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but what is the administration doing behind the scenes? >> real perspective, consider this on al jazeera america >> now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. a global perspective wherever you are. the major headlines in context. mashable says... you'll never miss the latest news >> they will continue looking for survivors... >> the potential for energy production is huge... >> no noise, no clutter, just real reporting. the new al jazeera america mobile app, available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now

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>> is the american dream dead? a new groundbreaking study shows that it is, at least for huge segments of the population. researchers at johns hopkins university found, if you are born poor in this country, escaping poverty is nearly impossible and escaping is difficult. "america tonight"'s adam may reports. >> quan finch is talking about his neighborhood. >> the corner was my neighborhood. >> the corner was the center of an hbo mini series, baltimore

neighborhood, violence and drug dealing. >> i hate to say it, i wouldn't bring up a dog in that neighborhood. >> pig town, had the highest crime and poverty rates in the city. >> my mother was a single mother. my mother never worked a day in her life. the only job she ever had was selling dope. that was it. the things that my mother let me do, i would -- >> reporter: like what? >> sell dope at the age of eight. >> eight years old? >> eight years old. we sold it right out of my house and that's pretty much how we made our living. >> as an adult and you look back at being raised in that kind of environment how do you think that impacted you as a kid? >> made me a little strong headed not to want to be a complete product of my environment. to always want better for my children. i would never look down on my upbringing because it taught me a lot, showed me a lot.

it made me more determined in life. it showed me that life is short. there's no guarantees there's no promises. >> both quan and ed were part of a landmark study that started back in 1982 when they were in the first grade. now, three decades later, the long shadow has just been published. a dismal view of the chances of escaping urban poverty. >> when i started out they were all so cute and cuddly, you know? you'd want each and every one of them to kind of own the world. but you know sadly that that's not going to lap. >> professor karl alexander and a team from johns hopkins university tracked almost 800 baltimore children surveying them through their school years and following them into adulthood, until age 28. emotional half were considered urban disadvantaged, living at or near the poverty line. >> caught up to you year after

year. >> i thought it was pretty cool, i never had anybody send me letters in the mail, they would call me and send me cards at my bird birth -- birthday. i thought it was pretty cool. >> concerned about what i wanted to do in life. my goal was my aspirations. so -- >> what would you say your goals and aspirations were when you were a kid? >> law enforcement. i was real strong headed on law enforcement. >> reporter: despite the goals expressed 50 children the research concluded that only 4% of urban disadvantaged students went to college and completed a four year degree. the vast majority of students returned to their poverty-strin neighborhoods after school. -- stricken neighborhoods after school. >> on average had lower levels of completed schooling. lower status jobs and lower earnings as young adults. >> reporter: another stunning

discovery: there is a big difference between races. >> something what you're describing is white privilege. >> we call it white privilege, good for you. it is descriptive, not an evaluative description, what we see. >> 48% of whites found plumbing or are construction jobs compared to 15% of blacks. and the white males made twice as much money. >> this is most lucrative sector of blue collar work, high skill high wage construction crafts. there aring favoring of white men that goes back generations we're convinced. >> quan finch who coaches little league football never finished college and never got that police officer job. even though he has a clean record. you might say he ended up in jail. >> i do corrections now. i've been running state correction is for 15 years.

>> how do you like it? >> i like it. i still like it. >> how is the pay? >> it could be better. it could be better. but it's good. >> how y'all doing? >> reporter: finch's salary is well below the average. he and his wife live in a baltimore row house, that faces a boarded up home. in an impoverished neighborhood. >> you grew up in an impoverished area. you are still living in an area that has a long way to go. your kids, where do you want them to end up? >> where they want. >> where they want? >> where they want. my sons always talk big. they have out of this world aspirations. my sons tell me they want mansions with ten rooms and seven bathrooms and stuff like that. >> they want the extreme american dream. >> exactly. >> do you feet you're living

the -- feel you're living the american dream right now? >> that's what it is. it's the american dream. you got to be able to take that dream and make it a reality. >> ed kline ended up on a completely different path in life. he and his wife are raising four children in the suburbs. they have four-wheelers, an rv and season tickets to the new york jets. >> we've already got it baby. >> ed says he made it big even though he never went to college and he served time in prison for drug dealing. >> and how did you replace your income that you used to make selling drugs? >> i've always had an interest in computers so i started teaching myself how to build computers, fix computers. and i just knew that that was something that i wanted to do. because i could take and spend an hour on a computer, make $200. you know. that's the closest thing to selling dope. i mean it's sad to say, but it

is. >> reporter: the klines run a computer repair shop in baltimore's trendy canton neighborhood. no question, they have worked hard for their success but even ed is surprised how well he is doing. >> you look back from when you were eight yeerls old, do you believe you are in a house with your family? >> i shouldn't be here, i've been in so many situations growing up, i've been standing on the corner and people have walked up and blown the guy next to me's brain out so every day is lucky for me. i never forget where i come from. i just know where i'm going. that's the difference between me and them. they don't know where they're going. i know where i'm going. every day i'm trying to better myself. >> in the research group ed kline is a rare exception. only one in ten children raised in poverty see this kind of financial success. we've been told in this

country that if you work hard and go to school that you could achieve the american dream. is that really possible? >> well, it is frustrating. it is boot straps logic. you can pull yourself up by your boot straps and the world is available for you. you know anything is possible. and then in some abstract sense anything is possible. but on the ground in terms of the here and now it doesn't work that way. the prospects for moving up in the united states, in relationship to where you started in life, in terms of your family circumstances is much more limited here in the united states than in most of the other industrialized countries throughout the world. >> alexander says his research finds children who achieve early childhood education have much better odds but some forces beyond government control. >> family is a very powerful and potent force in peoples people's

lives. it doesn't go away. we can't mess with families except in very round about ways. we can try to fix schools but it is asking for a lot to expect schools to fix something that go beyond schools. there are things that can't be achieved quickly or easily. >> the finches haven't achieved the american dream but their children are making the honor roll. quan's wife has taken two jobs, as a hairstylist and a home nurse. they hope some day they can move into a safer neighborhood. >> to me my kids are everything. you know, it makes me a little -- whatever i do, i do for them. >> when we return: targeted in a drug sting. years of trouble with the law and the tax man.

and yet, here in the nation's capitol disseminate he's the man they still call, "mayor for life." >> i have a philosophy. a tet back is a setup for a come back. >> correspondent sheila macvicar with the former mayor of the washington, d.c. mayor marion barry says there's more to his story than you think. >> al jazeera america starts off at 8 with primetime news. our fearless journalists bring you ground breaking reports from around the world, and here at home. >> this has been one of the hottest of the hotspots... >> then at 9, it's al jazeera america presents... award winning documentaries that will open your hearts and minds. >> i don't know if iv'e ever seen anything like this... >> and at 10, don't miss the best the best of america tonight, in depth reports, with unique perspectives. >> people are coming from hours away, to try to help. only on al jazeera america

the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. political city, he is at least in some neighborhoods clearly the most popular politician on the streets. which is no mean feat, considering that marion barry

a big drug bust. >> if there's one thing everyone knows about marion barry, it's this. in the mid 1970s amid the turmoil of the crack epidemic he is the mayor that got busted. >> hours before the dc mayor was brought up buying and using crack cocaine. >> marion barry was arrested convicted and spent six months in a federal prison. now as his long career winds

down, barry wants you to know there is so much more to his story than "the bitch set me up." so he wrote a book. >> after all these years people still call you mayor. >> well, i have earned it. i was born 78 years ago in a small town in mississippi in a segregated society, i live in a house in america, think about this in mississippi, no running water, no electricity. >> and you worked in the fields. >> picked cotton, ten hours a day, $3 a day, can you imagine that, 30 cent and hour, in america, no. >> you figured out how to make money, even when you were living that hard life. >> well, got blessed me because

i didn't have any role models to stand up to say, here is how you do it. inside of me. i felt that, one, can you do things if you put your mind onto it. you can do incredible things if you put your mind on it. and secondly, that i didn't want to live this way. i didn't want to live in poverty, had to bag groceries and sell rags, do every little thing i could. i felt if i recovered i would have a job program. >> barry's early life is full of surprises, as a teenager living in the segregated tennessee of the 1950s and early '60s he was an eagle scout a budding chemist. his sight set on a career in science. >> what left you in the

direction of being science? >> in memphis there were things you could do, a teacher, a preacher, a dentist, a doctor, a social worker. i wasn't thinking of being a doctor or dentist, i was dirt poor. or an undertaker. i didn't want to be any of those. so i said i'm going to go into scienlsz. science. i went into chemistry, perfected it, did very well in my studies. and that was that. i think chemistry teaches you logic. it teaches you a lot of things that other sciences don't teach you. >> reporter: there's something about science, about chemical c, that it doesn't matter who is conducting the experiment, as long as they know what they're doing. >> two part of hydrogen one part of oxygen is water, all over the world. whoever you are, whether you speak latin or spanish or french

or english or some other kind of language, chinese, japanese. it's the same. it's a level playing field. >> reporter: barry was the first in his family to go to college. he earned a master's and started on a ph.d. before the tumultuous '60s and the civil rights movement drew him away. we met barry at the civil rights exhibit at the museum. it was the first time he had seen the exhibit and that photo on the wall. chairman of the student nonviolence coordinating committee he organized martin luther king's march on washington. a year later, he was back, as a community activist through the race riots of 1968, the board of education, the dc council, and in 1978 he was elected mayor. including his come back victory in 1994, barry served a record four terms. when you look back on your time as mayor here, what are the

things that you are most proud of? >> oh, so much of it. washington was a sleepy southern town when i came in, in '65. i found people satisfied with the status quo. and so i was from outside. i didn't feel that way. i knew things weren't right. i knew that the developed downtown, i knew the developed our neighborhood. we knew we had to do summer jobs, everybody, people were working. that's not happening now. we are falling up on hard times here. >> reporter: times are still hard in the district where barry lives now represents on city council. the eighth ward, anacostia, unemployment rates in ward 8 are among the highest in the nation. the poverty rate is stuck at around 35%. there are some signs of revival in a local restaurant barry

favors and new development along the water but there's much work to be done. what keeps you going in politics now? >> my desire to help somebody along the way. i like what i do. god's given me a gift of liking what i do. i mean, i have setbacks, but i have a philosophy. a setback is a setup for a come back. you got to keep that positive thinking here, you got to pray hard, pray pray pray. you have other people that you see have achieved, every day, somebody comes up to me and said i got my first summer job from you. that makes you feel good. makes you feel good. >> reporter: when you look back at everything you have do done, not just when you were mayor, when you were in the civil rights movement, is there a moment that stands out to you that you think to yourself that is the most important things?

>> one of the moments that stand out to me, i didn't understand at the time, my mother told me that she went to interview, she was a domestic, interview for a job in the south, the domestic help went to the back of the house. and they were called by their first names. my mother said, no. i'm good enough to take care of your snotty nosed kid and taking care of cooking for you and cleaning for you and et cetera, i'm good enough to go through the front door. and i didn't understand at the time she told me about that, and i didn't understand that later, that took a lot of courage. she lost a lot of jobs doing that. not only doing that, she also had told them my name is not mattie, my name is ms. commons. she lost some more jobs. so i think that gave me, it sort of happened to me when i got that sense of courage. >> reporter: and respect, the need to demand respect.

>> you got to do that. but in order to get respect, you got to give respect, too, that works two ways. i've done so many things, god has blessed me. >> reporter: barry has represented ward 8 now for over a decade. in that time he's had brushes with the law and the irs. gone through alcohol and drug counseling and was even stripped of his committee assignments by the city council. through all that, he has maintained his popularity, and in the parts of the city where the times are hardest, he still is mayor for life. sheila macvicar, al jazeera. >> and that's it for us on "america tonight." monday on the program: >> this is a great example of a big company thinking they're above the law. they can do whatever they want to do and take your health care. they came in and ripped the heart out of our community and it is so bad that i've got my fat self up and i'm going to

walk to washington, d.c. about it. >> got that? he's set up and fired up. over the closing of the town's only hospital. let his feet do the talking all the way to washington, d.c. a mayor is on the mission to shame the company that closed the local hospital. if you want to comment on any of the stories you've seen on the program tonight, log on to aljazeera.com/americatonight. good night. we'll have more of "america tonight," tomorrow.

this is al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton in new york. let's get you caught up with the top stories at this hour. as fighting continues in gaza president obama talks to israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu by phone and urges an immediate ceasefire. the us state department says these satellite images are proof that russia is firing rockets into eastern ukraine. two americans helping to battle the worse ebola outbreak