ands up... >> don't shoot. >> what do we want? >> justice. >> when do we want it? >> now. >> explosions going on... we're not quite sure - >> is that an i.e.d.? >> "faultlines". al jazeera america's award-winning investigative series. monday, 10:00 eastern. on al jazeera america. pass on "america tonight"... >> i wanted to be seen and have people hear me, it was not easy, it motivated me to push the philadelphia freeway and his rush to move forward. sara hoy with a voice committed to dropping the truth. also - quick draw. >> it's a fast meeting. if you slow it, it will be caught. a new orleans's artist, and how it earnt him an audience he never expected. >> seeing the guys walking up. this didn't look good.

>> and an incredible journey, and an artist whose images led the way. christopher putzel, with a drawing captured by lawrence, and the resonance it has for us today thanks for joining us, hill joie chen. on this -- i'm joie chen. tonight we look at the voices and vision of america. the greatest art often captures the most ordinary struggles. so was the work of the late artist jacob lawrence, known for his depicts of "the great migration." 100 years after 6 million black americans began their journeys from south to north. christopher putzel takes a look at the mass movement and the extraordinary images from history that carried meaning 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. carolina. 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. there was white jackets. you 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 story of the 20th 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, and economies, it isn't recognised for having done such. >> leah is a curator at the museum of modern arts. this year, an exhibition titled 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 epic series is one of an attempt to tell the story of the mass movements. as million moved to chicago, pittsburgh and new york, 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

mama acquiring the work, which has special significance for the museum. >> it was the first work by an african-american artist to be purchased for this museum's collection. 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 here to the north and his mother moved down as a young teenager to harlem. the exhibition was created in collaboration with the shoneberg center for research in black culture. >> 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 - lynchings and mob violence.

to be specific. 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 sociological history telling the story of common people, rather than the story of one extraordinary leader in a movement. >> this work is 75 years old and speaks as if it could be

speaking to us today. >> i'm literally looking over at the piece here, 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 labour access, 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 the black lives matter movement, as 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 are over the north, like this one. oar ida, it was a proposal from her high school sweetheart that brought her here from filly, all the years ago. we took the train back to north carolina for him to axe my -- ask 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 don't leave her there if you can't take care of her 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. oum happy i'm old. i'm enjoying life now. i'm enjoying life.

moving in a great direction. next up here - philadelphia's freeway - a hip-hop artist turned activist "america tonight"s sara hoy on his truth bombs. also ahead from bee hive new buzz and lead singer of the b-52 rocks a new tune and opens the doors to her love shack. >> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the sound bites. we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". only on al jazeera america.

pass now a look at two american originals with unique voices. first a man that used his sound to 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 one of the nation's 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. to help make events meet fighting from north philly to

become freeway. . it. 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 crack 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 pandemonium. 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.

it wasn't much. i wanted more. 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. it was in the late '80s, early "90, people think it's eradicated, it's not a problem. 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. we are in center city

philadelphia. people are sleeping on the ground. people affected by life in general, life dealt them a bad set of cards. >> it's the same streets freeway uses to paint his limits. lyrics. . >> there are a cold winter, people better bundle up. i better yab on onion to rocket down, listen up, don't you know the cop's sole purpose is to locus down, throw away the key. without the drug stuff, there's that's what i was going to at the time. >> he did gaol time for drug possession, lost loved ones to gun violence, experiences detailed in his lyrics, he caught the attention of jay z and launched his career at the moguls rockerfeller 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. who he was as app artist. >> 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 cream. able to 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. people see me x 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 injust. it's not right. somebody has to do something. someone has to stand up. [ chants ] 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 danny glover. >> makes me sick to my stomach. you have to deal with a lot of things. a police officer has to special person. 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 hip hop music - it is damaging 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. trying to give the people suzing, what are they doing. >> freeway's life now is in perpetual motion. >> 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 sound sound that s 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. "america tonight"s adam may brings us a candid conversation with the queen bee. [ singing ] >> reporter: kate pearson exploded on to the music scope with the group the b-52s. >> the greatest legacy of the band, i realized later is that 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.

>> unpredictable... uncontrollable... and under eighteen >> you have kids here who've killed someone. >> award winning journalist soledad o'brien takes us inside the violent world of kids behind bars...

will a new experimental program be their last chance? >> i have to do my 100% best so i don't end up in a place like this again.. >> al jazeera america presents... kids behind bars: a soledad o'brien special report only on al jazeera america

it's an image of texas from 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. 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 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 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 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, using paint to connect 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. >> wildfires lit by arsonists. >> this sounds like it happened in a flash.

>> millions in damages. and the tragic human cost. >> he's not here anymore. >> find out how experts are fighting back. inside these walls teenage thieves and arsonists, gang-bangers, drug abusers even kids who kill. >> my anger was pretty bad. >> but, this once notorious juvenile lock-up is trying something new. >> what does playing the piano do for you? >> it's therapy, a hobby an interest. >> education, counseling offering a second chance. >> put gas on his car... >> lit it on fire. >> ...set it on fire. >> and it blew up. >> ya [laughs]. >> he used to be an incredibly aggressive young man.