a time for this newshour. thank you for being with us. i'm tony harris in new york. "america tonight" is next. [ ♪♪ ] on "america tonight"... >> i wanted to be seen, i wanted people to hear me. it wasn't an easy thing, it motivated me to feep pushing -- keep pushing. >> reporter: the philadelphia freeway and his rush to move forward. sara hoy with a voice committed to dropping the truce. also - quick draw. >> graffiti as a fast medium is meant to be fast. if you slow you'll get caught. >> a new orleans artist his

canvas and how it earned him a canvas. i seen the guys walking up i thought it wasn't good an incredible journey and the artist whose images led the way christopher putzel with art by jacob lawrence and the resonance it has for us today thanks for joining us i'm joie chen. on this holiday weekend we look at the voices and vision of america. the greatest art captures the ordinary struggles. so with the work of the late artist jacob lawrence known for his depiction of the great migration. 100 years after a staggering 6 million americans began journeys from south to north. we look at the mass movement and extraordinary images that carried meaning even today.

when i left in september. i had one suitcase. i was a country girl scared. i didn't go to sleep. i was scared hungry. >> in 1956 the then 20-year-old ida taylor boarded a train and said goodbye to the only place she called home the family tobacco phone. in search of opportunity taylor left the difficult and thankless life on the farm behind her. >> it's hard. it's work all the time. at the time there was no money. >> at this time the train ride for one way was $4 in change from north carolina to philadelphia. i worked in a navy factory. we had to do 100 a day. >> making $40 a week in a first

factory job, taylor started a new life for herself. what she didn't realise then was her journey was part of a much larger movement. one that is called the most under-reported century, known as the great migration. >> it's 6 million black americans moving from the rural south to the urban north and west from the years of world war i, up until the 1970s, when conditions improved thanks to the civil rights movement. that is a huge demographic event. one of the biggest. for something so transformed, our social geography, cities economies, it isn't recognised for having done such. >> leah is a curator at the museum of modern arts. this year an section title one way ticket marks the ten tenial. the main feature, the migration series, a series of 60 panels, with a caption by the late

painter jacob lawrence. >> this is a group of works that jacob lawrence made when he was 23. much of the work what it was concerned with is how do you make a hard decision to leave home, to leave a place that you and your family knew to go some place unknown in pursuit of safety opportunity and dignity and freedom. you have pictures that are scenes that are simply and of great tenderness and intimacy and then scenes of hard-hitting addressed to racial violence and injustice. >> reporter: lawrence's eping series is one of an attempt to tell the story of the mass movements. as millions moved, they transformed more than the demographics. they brought the music, food,

politics and speech that would change the culture of their new homes. >> it's been 75 years since acquiring the work which has special significance for the museum. >> it was the first work by an african-american to be performed. it means that jacob lawrence played the role the jackie robinson figure. >> and like so many talented people was a child of the great migration. his parents migrated to the north and his mother moved down as a young teenager to harlem. the exhibition was created in collaboration with the shoneberg center. >> this was a period in the south when segregation and racial terror here in the united states pushed a number of black people out of their communities,

displaced them, because they no longer wanted to live under the daily fear of racial violence - limpings and mob -- lynchings and mob violence. the great vibration is a story of agency people doing for themselves what immigrant groups had done for generations before which was to vote with their feet. and make a new life for themselves. jacob lawrence viewed his pieces as part of a narrative, spreading out all 60 panels at once laying in a collar all the time. dark's first, moving to lighter hues thinking about how every panel would work together. the results are a unique form of socialogical history telling aring telling the story of common people rather than the

story of one leader in a movement. >> this work is 75 years old and speaks as if it could be speaking to us. >> i'm literally looking over at the piece, and it seems it would very incredible context. >> it is. the caption written for this series is another of the social causes of the migrants leaving is that at times they did not feel safe or it was not the best thing to be found on the streets late at night. they were arrested on the slightest provocation. those issues of social justice are very much with us. and unfortunately, are as relevant to young people the 20 something, the millennials who participated in sit-ins, and die-ins, and relevant to the 20 somethings today as to jacob laurence in 1971. well the uptown streets that

jacob laurence occupied are recognisable. the last number of people that went through the migration and senior centers, like this one. oar ida, it was a proposal from her high school sweetheart that brought her here from filly: we took the train back to north carolina for him to axe my father. my father told him. only one thing i'm telling you, if you take my daughter and marry her, you take her to new york. take her back to philly. 60 years later her husband kept his promise. taylor never regretted the day she brought her one-way ticket. >> no i don't miss the arm.

i'm enjoying life now. i'm enjoying life. moving in a great direction. next up here - philadelphia's freeway dash - - a hip-hop artist turned activist and lead singer of the b-52 rocks a new tune and opens the doors to her love

shack. stefan frei

koch now a look at two american originals with unique voices.

first a man that used his city counciled move his issues forward. in north philly they know him as freeway. an artist escaping violence and drugs, and willing to bring others away. here is sara hoy. >> reporter: lesley wanted to be heard. growing up in a poor city there were times he felt invisible. >> i wanted people to see me hear me. i wanted my voice heard. it was hard. it was not an easy thing. it motivated me to keep pushing. after his parents split, he turned to selling drugs. fighting from north philly to become freeway. one of the best-known wrap

artists, a journey as rough as the streets that forged him. >> when i was coming up the corner boys were successful. the person on the corner they had a fly car, that's what i wanted to do i wanted to get money, that's why i had to look up to them. >> the 36-year-old group in the midst of the epidemic rocking the city of love to its core and corner boys. the front line lieutenants of the drug trade, like the young men depicted in the drama "the wire", were out in full force. we caught up with freeway in march. >> what was it like living and dealing here at the height of the epidemic? >> it was panda mopium. everyone trying to get money. i was - at that time i was going to high school and my mum and dad did the best they could do. people were driving to school i'm taking a train. i wanted those things.

that's what i did to get them. >> he said although there's a perception that the crack epidemic was over not much had changed. >> we heard about the crack epidemic. what is the reality. >> crack is in full effect. it's everywhere. when we first started. we were 10 blocks from the heart of south philly we don't have to go there. i am sure that we walked two blocks down that way, people outside use drugs. people are selling crack. it's everywhere. >> just up the block, his description came to life. >> i told you that we had to walk 10 blocks that way to see. you don't have to walk that far. we walked a few steps. people are sleeping on the ground. people affected by live in germ

life dealt them a bad set of cards. >> it's the same streets freeway uses to paint his limits. there are people there. it's a rocket day. without the drug stuff, there's no way. that's what i was going to at the time. >> he did gaol time for drug possession, for loved ones to gun violence experiences detailed in his lyrics he caught the attention of jay z and launched his career at the moguls rocker brothers record. he says his time behind bars and his faith turned him from the path he was on. islam has been a part of his life since he was a teen but it

wasn't until adulthood that his faith changed. >> i used to sell drugs for a living. i was hurting people it's all that i knew. god gave me a shot to do something positive it's a blessing, i want to move forward. >> today he's an independent artist with his hands in a number of projects. like the documentary pull of gravity, following three former in mates transitioning from prison to society, and last winter freeway launched an all-natural best beard agreement. ability overcome the pull of his environment he's talking about his life experiences and talking to others about doing the same thing. >> where i come from it's important to touch the people. i believe in things i see, things i know is real.

when you are out there. you don't know. you are touching the people. i'm from the hood. i made it out. if they see me touch me talk to me maybe i can inspire them to do the same thing with the uprising in baltimore, new york ferguson freeway felt compelled to get involved on the ground. >> when we look at incidents like baltimore, ferguson - what impact, what message is that sending? >> these are our people treated insufficient. it's not right. somebody has to do something. someone has to stand up. we can't be hopeless. people before us fought for it. we are fighting and i am sure after we are gone people will come after us that will fight for us. we have to keep pushing.

>> he visited with a family of freddie gray and marched through washington alongside glove glove. >> makes me sick to my stomach. you have to deal with a lot of things. you can't let your - you might wake up and have a bad day. you can't let that affect your job, you have to treat people justly. >> hip hop has down more damage to black and brown people than racism in the last 10 years. >> on the flipside. some like fox news's reporter says it is dargeing the lives of black people. >> what do you want to say to the critics that might want to look at you and say you are part of the problem, because of you, your lyrics and what it represents. what do you say? >> what are they doing. at least i'm here trying to do something, trying to do

something positive. i was out marching with the people. listening to the people. >> if there's one thing you want people to take away do you want our viewers to take away what is it? >> that i'm here you know i'm a child from the ghetto. i made a difference. and my life was stuck. i turned my life around and if i can do it anyone can do it too now another view of the possibilities down south. a little buzz and a lot of slick down volume one of the most memorable bands of the 1980 the b-52s urged us to roam and party

at the love shack. adam may brings us a candid conversation with the queen bee. [ singing ] >> reporter: kate pearson exploded tonne the music scope with the group the b-52s. >> the greatest legacy of the band i realized later is na people are allowed to have fun, let the freak flag fly. >> and different they are. >> hey, i'm kate. >> the b-52s kate fred cindy and keith have released eight albums over the last four decades. now, after 39 years, kate is going solo. with a song guitars and microphones. [ sings ] >> reporter: one song from pearson's new solo album is called mr sister.

[ singing ] >> reporter: but the video backfired among some of the transgender gianty calling it stereo typical, and degrading. were you surprised by their reaction? >> i was very surprised. i was very taken aback. i thought it was gender positive to anyone i said. that it was about anyone self-expanding and making a transition. anyone that felt betrayed. i meant is to be all inclusive. >> is there a difference for a woman in rock'n'roll versus a man as they aim. >> i'm conscious of how they look, at the end i want is to be myself, my hair and make-up.

>> reporter: "moving on", still dressing up. did kate pearson make that. >> i'm happy. that's the most important thing, i feel content where i am. and spreading her message that it's okay to be different travelling an aerial path. next year spray-paint and a concrete canvas how street artists turn an eyesore into an inspiration, and how it earned one artist an audience he never expected to find.

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street crime to the culture of community. work that is unexpected uninvited, but has found a home in an otherwise abandoned building. al jazeera's jonathan martin with the images in new orleans. >> reporter: working in a hurried, yet careful rited. >> graffiti is a fast medium. if you slow you'll get caught. >> this kind offar often goes unappreciated. >> it's on the borderline of vandalism - people have an idea of a canning associate, which is -- gang associated which is ridiculous. >> reporter: this vacant complex is where odd'em trespassed coating the walls with giant faces of civil rights icons and

heros. >> reporter: it started in this room. >> yes. >> reporter: things stopped the day the property owner showed up as he was painting. >> i seen the guys walking up. i thought this was not good. there was no confrontation, just university. the openers were impressed wanting to know about the images and the stories. >> it led to me pitching a crazy idea. >> they wanted to turnle complex into a straght art exhibit and open it to the public. owners agreed he could use the property. >> the space was transformed in 15 days. street artist made a pair of ruined buildings their canvas. overlapping ideas in what is called exhibit b. odems was adamant that it would

tell the stories of the neighbourhood. >> towards the '80s when crack hit. crime grew. this place was less and less attractive, more and more dangerous. a place where as i remember a place i was not allowed to visit. >> the first floor of this building was programmeded. >> reporter: maleek was honoured to see his face. he lived here and ran a programme. in 2006 after a change in ownership, and increasing crime problems, everywhere was evicted from the property. >> there was a community to have god-fearing people living here. just by chance and politics happened to be poor. >> there's a tribe ute to george

carter a popular teen whose murder was un-sioux. >> yes you could see that he was a model student. >> this is 15 days if that worth of work. >> what was supposed to be a one day exhibit, it was a month later. attracting many thousands. >> i felt happiness and sadness. i was happy because someone remembered the people and their lives and what they have done. >> most would consider this place an eyesore. what do you say it is. what do you call it? >> beautiful. it's like the popular corner. the art will come down and developers have fans. it's not temporary. this is for other people. i won't forget it. >> graffiti is hardly ever

permanent. brandon feels he and the other artists created something that is laughing doing something street artists rarely do usingct to a community, leaving it better than they found it an american original that will not be forgotten. that's "america tonight" tell us what you think at aljazeera.com/americatonight. talk to us an twitter and facebook. come back we'll have more of "america tonight" tomorrow.

i'm mary snow in for ali velshi. "on target", immigrants with guns and badges noncitizens protecting the public on the path to their american dream plus lost in mexico children born in the u.s.a. fight to survive miles away from their american dream