05/01/18 05/01/18 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica, this is democracy now! >> the enemy posing as a cameraman detonated his explosives among a group of journalists in the area. as a result, a number of our journalists and other people who are passerby's and nearby residents were gathered at the scene, were martyred and wounded. amy: in the deadliest day for afghan journalist since the fall of the taliban, nine journalists are killed in a suicide bombing in kabul. a tent the shot dead in the eastern city of khost. we will speak with a reporter as well as the head of the press in paris. killeds photographer was

in the blast. a new monument to victims of white supremacy, slavery, and lynching opens in alabama. >> we want to build this from enslavement to mass cart solution. we want them have people understand there is this line from slavery to racial bias today. we want people to come through our museum and walk out with an opportunity to do something. say never again to racial and buys in our country. amy: we will speak to bryan stevenson. all of that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in afghanistan, the funerals

have begun for the 10 journalists killed on monday -- the deadliest day for journalists since the afghan war began in 2001. nine journalists died in a double suicide bombing attack in kabul, including agence france-presse's celebrated photographer shah marai. survivors of the bombing said the suicide bomber was posing as a cameraman. isis has claimed responsibility for that attack. a 10th journalist was shot dead monday in the eastern city of khost. we'll go to kabul after headlines for more on the attacks. that is after headlines. north and south korea are continuing to take historic steps toward peace. on monday, the south korean military began to dismantle loudspeakers that have been blaring propaganda into the north since 2016. north korea has announced it will shift its clocks forward 30 minutes to align with south korea's time zone.

south korean leader moon jae-in has also convinced north korea's kim jong-un to hold an upcoming summit with president trump at the demilitarized zone, known as the dmz. the diplomatic breakthroughs come after friday's landmark summit between kim and moon in which the two countries pledged to denuclearize the peninsula and work to formally end the korean war. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has accused iran of lying about its efforts to build a nuclear weapon, only days before president trump is slated to decide whether to pull the u.s. out of the landmark iran nuclear deal. on monday, netanyahu unveiled what he claimed was a trove of stolen iranian nuclear plans that he says prove iran has violated the 2015 nuclear deal. multiple experts and analysts immediately disputed netanyahu's claims, saying he provided no evidence that iran has violated the nuclear agreement. the international atomic energy agency published a statement this morning saying it has found

no credible indications of nuclear development in iran after 2009. a spokesperson for iran's foreign minister called netanyahu an infamous liar and said his claims were ridiculous propaganda. on monday night, secretary of state mike pompeo refused to answer whether the trump administration considered the documents evidence iran has violated the nuclear deal. in california, eight migrants who traveled to the u.s. border as part of a transnational caravan that has been repeatedly attacked by president trump have been allowed to enter the united states to seek political asylum. the women and children walked through the san ysidro port of entry only hours after vice president mike pence arrived at the u.s. border and promised the migrants would be processed in line with u.s. immigration law, over 100 more migrants from the caravan are still camped out on the mexico side of the border. this is kenia elizabeth, a mother of three children.

join the caravan because i did not have another option. the people who are chasing after me found me. staying a mexico is not an option. i need to be helped, for donald trump to listen to me. i cannot return to honduras because i will be killed together with my children. amy: immigration authorities also claimed monday that they arrested 11 members of the caravan for illegally entering the united states, although lawyers and organizers say the authorities have provided no evidence that those arrested were part of the caravan. meanwhile, president trump again railed against immigrants on monday. pres. trump: we need a wall, number one. you see where they are, even though it is not a particularly good wall and even though a small percentage can climb to the top, they have to be an extremely good shape. if they touch our country, essentially, you catch them and release them into our country. that is not acceptable to anybody. so we need a change in the law.

amy: reuters has reported that the environmental protection agency has granted a financial hardship waiver to an oklahoma oil refinery owned by billionaire former trump adviser carl icahn. the waiver enables icahn's refinery, cvr energy inc., to save tens of millions of dollars by exempting it from the requirement of mixing biofuels into the gasoline. the regulation was enacted to cut air pollution and reduce petroleum imports. icahn served as a special regulatory adviser to president trump, during which time he personally vetted epa administrator scott pruitt for his job. icahn resigned last august, just before "the new yorker" published an investigation detailing icahn's potential conflicts of interest, including his heavy lobbying for a rule change about blending ethanol biofuels into gasoline -- which is the exemption he has now received from the epa for his refinery. "the new york times goes good

has obtained a list of 49 question special counsel robert mueller is seeking to ask president trump as part of his investigation into possible collusion between the trump campaign and russia during the 2016 election. the questions include whether trump tried to protect former national security adviser michael flynn from prosecution and why trump fired former fbi director james comey. other questions intel trump's discussions with his longtime personal lawyer michael coyne. trump's business dealings and what trump knew about a 2017 meeting in the seychelles involving a russian investor close to clinton and blackwater founder erik prince who also serves as an informal adviser to trump during the transition. nbc is reporting white house chief of staff john kelly has called president trump an idiot multiple times since trump took office, including when saying he doesn't even understand what daca is. he is an idiot." delhi has claimed the embassy report is "total bs."

adult film star stephanie clifford, also known as stormy daniels, has filed a defamation lawsuit against president trump after he attacked her on twitter, insinuating that she lied about the man who threatened her in 2011, telling her to leave trump alone. last month, after a sketch of the man was released, trump tweeted -- "a sketch years later about a nonexistent man. a total con job, playing the fake news media for fools!" clifford says she had an affair with trump in 2006 and has also sued trump to get out of a $130,000 non-disclosure agreement, paid by trump's personal lawyer michael cohen only days before the 2016 election. former alabama republican senate candidate roy moore's lawyers have filed defamation lawsuits against four of the women who re of sexuallyoo harassing or assaulting them when they were teenagers or young women. among the women moore has sued is leigh corfman, who says moore forced himself on her when she was 14 years old and he was 32. another woman he sued, tina

johnson, had her home burned to the ground earlier this year, only months after she came forward to publicly accuse moore of groping her without her consent back in 1991. moore lost last december's highly controversial special senate election after at least nine women, including corfman and johnson, came forward to accuse him of sexual harassment or assault. a growing number of women of color within the time's up movement are demanding the music and entertainment industries cut all ties with r. kelly after a number of women of color accused r. kelly of rape and sexual assault in cases that stretch back decades. among those demanding rca records, spotify, apple music, and other companies cut ties with r. kelly are television producer and writer shonda rhimes and award-winning director ava duvernay. and actress ashley judd has sued harvey weinstein, the hollywood mogul who is now facing multiple criminal investigations after more than 100 women accused him of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment. judd says weinstein tried to

sabotage her career after she rejected his sexual advances. in arizona, a sea of 50,000 striking teachers dressed in red t-shirts rallied at the state capitol on monday to demand better funding for education. and the teachers now say the strike will continue today, on may day, or international workers day. major mobilizations marking the workers holiday have already begun across the world, with thousands of workers rallying across asia, including in indonesia, hong kong, taiwan, and south korea. more marches and actions are planned to take place across europe, africa, and the americas throughout the day. and in new york city cone antiwar activist, author, professor joel kovel has died at the age of 81. in the 1960's and 1970's, dr. kovel was a well known .sychiatrist he became a prolific writer and

scholar. he was also active in the movement against the vietnam war and nuclear proliferation. he was the author of more than 10 books about systemic racism can ecology, global warming. he went on to run for the u.s. senate in new york with the green party in 1998 and also ran for u.s. president against ralph nader in the green party primary in 2000. this is professor kovel speaking on democracy now! in 2007 after "overcoming zionism," was temporarily dropped after it caused controversy. >> i feel that the notion of the zionism, there is this destiny of the jewish people to have their own date, is just a wrong idea. it is an idea that requires signing on to imperialism, ,igning on to ethnic cleansing despite everything that has been

set about it, it means, basically, becoming a racist situation where you are oppressing indigenous population and depriving them of their right to exist in and thinking somehow you can go ahead and have a decent life on that basis. you can't, in my view. those peoples with who feel that the time has come to basically think of israel the same category as southo!4zner a, as a state that has just gone wrong and needs replacement. " that is author, scholar, activist dr. joel kovel speaking on democracy now! he died monday in new york city at the age of 81. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. 10 journalists died in afghanistan on monday in the deadliest day for journalists since the afghan war began in 2001. nine journalists died in a double suicide bombing in kabul. a 10th journalist was shot dead in the eastern city of khost.

the journalists in kabul were directly targeted. they died while covering another bomb blast in the central district of the capital, which is home to nato headquarters and a number of embassies. after journalists rushed to the scene of the first bomb blast, a suicide bomber dressed as a photographer blew himself up. the suicide bomber reportedly .osing as a cameraman i was about 10 meters away from the side of the first explosion, trying to enter the site when the second blast happened. it was very powerful. when all was finally at the site, i found many of my fellow reporters lying on the ground. some of them dead already. amy: isis claimed responsibility for the attack. the committee to protect journalists condemned the attack. cpj's steven butler said -- "this latest attack on journalists in afghanistan is a reminder of the extreme dangers to media workers in that country and of the extremely brutalheref

the free press." among the victims was agence france-presse's celebrated photographer shah marai. he has been working with afp in afghanistan for two decades, beginning as a driver for the agency under taliban rule and working his way up to become afp's chief photographer in kabul. he was the father of six children, including a newborn daughter. the afp global news director called marai's death "a devastating blow for the brave staff of our close-knit kabul bureau and the entire agency." we are joined now by two guests. ali latifi is an afghan-born journalist based in kabul. he covered monday's bombing for thinkprogress. and in paris, france, we're joined by phil chetwynd, global editor-in-chief for agence france press. we welcome you both to democracy now! ali latifi, and you talk about

what happened on monday morning, yesterday morning? >> sure. >> basically what happened was the first attack allegedly tried the intelligence agency, also in the neighborhood where the attack took place. what makes it big it was targeted against journalists is within 20 minutes after the initial attack, second bomber came claiming to have a camera with him, claiming to be a journalist, and he entered the site where the journalists were gathered and detonated the second bomb. amy: talk about what happened next. happened next was basically what happens all of the time. peoplerush to the scene, trying to get people taking care of. there would be ambulances and taxes try to take the dead and injured. as the hours went on, there was just shocked. no one expected journalists to be outright targeted in this

sort of way. there have it attacks on television stations in the past, both by the television and groups claiming to be the so-called islamic state, but there's never been something like this where they go to the exact site and deliver early target journalists posing as a journalist. there are brief bios of each of the 10 journalists killed on monday. yar mohammad tokhi, cameraman at tolonews where he had worked for 12 years. he was due to be married within the month. shah marai, afp's chief photographer in their kabul bureau. he leaves behind six children, including a newborn daughter. ghazi rasooli, 1tv journalist and a journalism student at kabul university. 21 years old, scheduled to get married next month. nowroz ali rajabi, a cameraman with 1tv. he was the father of a three-month-old baby. farishta mahram durani, a journalist for azadi radio.

she was a producer of the "woman" program on the station. sabawoon kakar, a journalist for azadi radio. ebadullah hananzai, also with azadi radio. selim talash got engaged last month. aleemi joined mashal to be just a week ago. and then ahmad shah, bbc journalist shot dead in khost. 10 journalists in one day. phil chetwynd editor-in-chief at , agence france-presse. you have lost your star photographer in kabul. can you talk about -- talk about

him, talk about shah marai and what this means to you and who he was. well, thank you for having me, amy. shah marai was an extraordinary man and that really he started working for us as a driver when it was extremely dangerous to do any journalistic work at all. he sort of cut his teeth really with a hidden camera in his hand, trying to smuggle out little bits and pieces of life under the taliban. hardly any other journalists at all in kabul. we had to pull everybody out at one point and marai was building one who held the fort for us until 9/11 happened and we were able to reestablish our bureau properly with everybody in it. he was very, very much the heart bureau. of our kabul he was a huge character. always smiling. always a very engaging

character. someone who would come in and lighten the stress and bring a lighter moment to the bureau when you could see perhaps younger may be more -- less experienced colleagues struggling a little bit in the current environment. he really -- we really lost a pillar of our bureau. any times to google that he is someone you would always just remember as being absolutely the heart and soul of our team. amy: last year shah marai wrote life in about his kabul. it was headlined "when hope is gone. in it he wrote -- ali latifi, if you could talk

more about him. also, your friend, shah marai, and that feeling as you worked kabul as well. earlier, his is a common story. this is what is happening. we have people who have started as drivers and translators and fixers and stringers who have worked her way up to the tops of their bureaus. they are extremely dedicated, determined to get the shot. he won thing i always remove or about the video and photo journalistss at anything like this, you see them hiding behind , protecting themselves behind a wall with their cameras up in the air, desperate to get the shot because that is their job. that is their duty and they're very determined to get that. that is the one thing i will remember about all of these wernalists and the one thing

should remember about all of them. in terms of what he said about life in kabul, he is 100% correct. i own family, my own cousin does not like to take his children out on the street. my aunt, her husband passed away recently. she said, how can i go out on the street? she said the people are not the same. the security is not the same. i have no faith in what is going to go on. to be quite honest in 2016 until now, it has not got much better. in fact, it has probably gotten wars. amy: what does it mean to you? we're talking about the worst attack on journalists in one day beginning, since the since when the u.s. invaded afghanistan. mean, it means there are no more bars anymore. there are no more sort of barriers. if you can target journalists, you can target any one. this is the thing i found really

surprising about the reaction to this is people i have known for years, people born and raised her, people living here for years, the thing that shocked them more about this attack than anything was the fact it was journalists. i could not believe people had that much of a connection to us as a group of people and as a profession. i was asking people, why do you think that would target journalists? they said basically, says there is nothing left. no one is safe anymore. i think that is really the scary part. amy: phil chetwynd, in addition to the nine journalists who were lost, including shah marai, your chief photographer in kabul, you have another reporter who was just killed in khost who worked for bbc. you're the editor in chief at agence france press. your organization assigns people these very difficult situations. can you talk about the situation

in afghanistan? the situation in afghanistan has been something that is been troubling us for a very long time. , as the last 10 years situation is become worse and worse and the taliban attacks have become wider and now a cop edition between the taliban and islamic state almost the islamic rtate group almost to out-horro each other. the way we work and how to try to work safely is something that has been weighing on its extremely heavily. we have moved our bureau several times, changed our procedures. put index or guidelines. we're constantly looking and trying to look at how on earth weekend do our jobs in this kind of environment. it really changes the game. situation where

-- to be lured into a situation, nine or 10, is really shocking. i think it poses lots of questions about how we can try to report at all or safely in the future. amy: in 2014, your news agency agence france press lost journalist ahmad who shot and of hisalong with two three children in a taliban attack on afghan hotel. that was just three years ago. now?will you do what will afp do now without shah marai? firstlynk we have to really understand the circumstances behind what happened. when you get an attack like to whatrst feelings as happened, the first report but there is a need to get to the bottom of exactly what happened

before we can take any sort of radical decisions. our jobame time, it is to report around the world. we report on extremely dangerous things all around the world. we find a way to do it. syria for thet in last five-year's, which has been an extremely dangerous place to work. in the end, we ended up creating a little network of our own local journalist sources and so syria, on the ground, because after about 2013, it just became too dangerous for us to put our own people in after various kidnappings and murders and so on. the syrian situation is perhaps an example where when we were blocked one way from doing things, we are there to report this jury, we are there -- it is vital the story of afghanistan continues to be told as well as the story of syria continues to be told. therefore, we have to find an asymmetrical, different what to tell the story if that is what

is necessary. amy: ali latifi, your freelance journalist in kabul. you face extreme dangerous all of the time as other civilians do. your reported a lot on the thousands of afghan refugees being deported from turkey and the european union because afghanistan is "safe now." can you talk about what is happening? >> basically tom this is exactly the problem. i was on a flight back from dubai a couple of weeks ago. when we were leaving the airplane powered the stewardess a, the deportees on the flight. i thought that was interesting because it is deported from dubai. the truth is this is the problem. i have been to turkey and greece. i've been covering the situation since 2013. what we see is the european union government, the turkish government in accordance with other governments are saying, oh, there are safe areas. the most common safe area they

claim is coupled. within one week, there have been really,ide -- or three, targeting whether it is journalists or civilians in women or children and men from the area. that nois a major issue one is addressing. the fact that there are hundreds and hundreds of -- a lot of young men being deported back from the european union from turkey who basically are coming back to an area where at any 's journal shah marai said and others have been saying, you really don't know when you step out of the house if you go one direction, there can be a bomb. if you go in another direction, there could be a bombing. the area were the bombing took place on monday, i go there to the film directorate. had i gone one day later, i could have been there. amy: phil chetwynd, as you report from paris, based in

paris, editor and chief of afp, can you talk about the effect of president trump's comments about the press, calling it the enemy of the people? well, i think the interesting thing is it is not just president trump. you are having a weight of this kind of language coming from any countries around the world. slovenia.s, hungary, there is a sort of wave of attempts to do credible eyes the work of working journalists around the world. concerning.emely when you have an event such as we just witnessed in afghanistan, it should be an international scandal we cannot allow for impunity against journalists and for such a grievous attack against people doing their job, people were ultimately one of the pillars of a free society.

so there is a general discourse around the world coming from certain countries and leaders, which is certainly eroding confidence and also trust in the work of very brave people on the front lines. this latest incident in kabul is just an example of the kind of risks people are taking all around the world. journalists working for many, many, many organizations to tell real stories, not to be involved in fake news or a game of misinformation and so one. people risking their lives every day to tell the stories that need to be told. this attack really brings it home that it is beyond rhetoric. the reality is what we saw in cobol. i think this whole thing that we are seen around the world in terms of use of language, very negative language for journalists is an extremely

negative thing and having a very poor impact on our business. let me put that question to you on the ground in cobol. you both live in afghanistan, born a, have also lived in the u.s. what it means to you that president trump has called you, journalists -- not you specifically, but journalists -- the enemy of the people? >> i think it is dangerous. i was law -- i also lived in turkey. it creates this image of -- i think that might be why was so surprised how people reacted to the deaths of journalistsgac hee because i've become so used to people saying, oh, fake news, or whatever. you see it really has a value. when you live in an informed population, news has a re value. one thing i wd to addss wapuni. we'kiutity for the taliban the so-called daeshisrces,

it is hard to hold him accountable. the other issue in terms of unity is for the case in khost and in kandahar were journalists are being killed by armed men. no one is finding out who killed them. there is no real justice for that. we also have issues in terms of how the press is treated. we also have a lot of issues with the police and the military and mps and warlords and militias that have -- and with the intelligence agency that have taken journalists. but bags on her head, put them in the back of a car, thrown them in a basement and asked them what they were doing. government, let's be realistic, they cannot hold these daesh forces accountable, but they can hold andown leaders accountable

learning violence and intimidation, it is not going to work and it is not going to help and we are not there to take anyone down or to destroy anyone . of course this recent attack creates a problem for us because , again, when people see a camera -- in a way, rightfully, they will be suspicious what is in the camera. a print journalist. the first thing they say to me is, where is your camera? that gives you credibility. that is an instant marker that makes you recognized as a journalist. and not even that could be taken away from us. i think is important the issue of impunity is addressed all around. , i: finally, phil chetwynd want to switch gears for a moment because in the next days, president trump be deciding about whether to pull out of the iran nuclear deal. the president of france, where you are, president emmanuel

macron, just made a state visit to the u.s. to convince trump not to pull out. when he left, he said it looks .ike trump will be pulling out netanyahu, the israeli prime minister just gave a major address with echoes of what general powell did a secretary of state in 2003 at the u.n. saying the evidence is in, there are weapons of mass destruction -- a speech that how would call a blot on his career later. that is exactly what netanyahu in this speech said he gave, in english, to the world with big signs that said things like "he lied" saying there is evidence in that karen has lied. your thoughts on what this means for president trump is in fact what macron says is true? i think it has been something that has been signaled for a while from the white house that there could be this change of thinking on the iran nuclear deal. the president has made it very clear from the beginning he was

no fan and assumed to be a general belief there will be several key advisors around, notably mcmaster, holding the deal in check. i think we very much have been through unchartered territory we pull out of this because it is clear the europeans are still very much behind it, as was president macron's visit to the united states showed. this is something that we have been expecting. i think what president macron said as he left probably indicated the fact this is not going to be a surprise. amy: and a thank you both for being with us, phil chetwynd editor-in-chief at agence , france-presse. ali latifi, freelance journalist based in kabul. stay safe. this is democracy now! when we come back, we will speak the foundervenson, of the equal justice initiative,

the grip on the national memorial for peace and justice in new monument to victims of white supremacy, slavery, and lynching has just opened in montgomery, alabama. ♪ [music eak]

amy: "gar konad saheb-e-man" by the afghan singer mahwash. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. on thursday, the national memorial for peace and justice

opened in montgomery, alabama -- a monument to victims of white supremacy in the united states. the memorial's centerpiece is a walkway with 800 weathered steel pillars overhead, each of them naming a u.s. county and the people who were lynched there by white mobs. this a clip, played during one of the opening events for the museum, featuring the family members of lynching victims. was great-grandfather lynched. this man was taken and strangled to death. they also shot bullets in him. him, beat him, tied into the back of the buggy and drove it around town. >> his lynching was in the mississippi news.

parts of his body as souvenirs. >> are we going to hang him? they put a noose around my neck. i remember. >> there was no accountability. families torn apart. communities torn apart. loss of businesses. >> as a black person, you don't expect justice. amy: in addition to the memorial dedicated to the victims of lynching, its partner site, the legacy museum: from enslavement to mass incarceration also opened thursday. the museum is located on the site of a former warehouse where enslaved black people were imprisoned. it is midway between an historic slave market and the dock and train station where tens of thousands of enslaved people were trafficked during the height of the domestic slave trade. the museum and national memorial for peace and justice are the culmination of years of exhaustive research and

interviews with local historians and descendants of lynching victims conducted by the equal justice initiative, led by director bryan stevenson. in 2017, the equal justice initiative issued the 3rd edition of its "lynching in america" report, which found that white southerners lynched nearly 4400 black men, women and children between 1877 and 1950. nearly 800 of those lynchings were previously unaccounted for. the report details a 1916 attack in which a mob lynched jeff brown for accidentally bumping into a white girl as he ran to catch a train. in crowd lynched jesse thornton 1940, a for not addressing a white police officer as "mister." in many cases, the lynchings were attended by the entire white community in an area. for more, we go to alabama, where are joined by bryan stevenson. he is an attorney who has worked on death penalty cases in the deep south since 1985, and the founder and executive director of the equal justice initiative. welcome back to democracy now!

congratulations on this epic achievement, the museum and the monument. talk about the years that have gone into developing this and why you pushed so hard for this in montgomery, alabama. >> thank you, amy. it is great to be with you. i'm a product of brown versus board of education. i grew up in the community were black children could not go to the public schools. there were no high schools for black kids when my dad was a teenager. when lawyers came into our community and made them open up the public schools, and planted a seed in my mind that the law can be a powerful tool for protecting this favored people, marginalized communities. i have kind of lived by that. i've been practicing law for over 30 years. i am still persuaded that the rule of law is critical to our capacity to create justice for those who are disempowered. i have come to understand recently that even the law will

be sufficient if we don't change the narrative, if we don't create a deeper commitment to equality. i think even our courts have been compromised by this narrative of racial difference that we have in america, this history of racial inequality that is made is tolerant of bigotry and discrimination. about 10 years ago we began working on a project to change the narrative. we started doing research on slavery, on lynching, on segregation. we put out these reports. we started putting up public markers. this region is one where the landscape is littered with the iconography of the confederacy. people often say, why do you want to dig up the past? we are preoccupied with the past. monday, confederate memorial day. we have a state holiday of jefferson davis's birthday. we don't have martin luther king day in alabama.

mid 19thccupation with century history as one of the characteristics that are presses and burdens people's color. we talk about the mid-19th century, but not about slavery. for me, talking about slavery and talking about lynching and segregation, talking about our history of racial inequality is critical to creating a consciousness that will allow us to move forward toward a just -- justice and equality. i don't think we've done a very good job of that in our country. amy: i want to go to a clip at the equal justice produced last year highlighting the story of one family whose ancestor was lynched. >> my great-great-grandfather anthony crawford had an altercation at a store with a white storekeeper about the price of his cotton seed. grandfather refused to do business with them and was arrested. spectacle,nched in a ritualistic killing at the town

square in south carolina 100 years ago. a lot of people don't talk about the lynchings and their family, and some of his due. for those who do, we represent a whole slew of people's low traumatized they can't speak with other relatives did not pass on his history to them. the crawfords have always felt, i think, an obligation to speak up for grandpa crawford. we were all socialized that way. , bryan stevenson, the documentary about this project that memorializes the victims of white supremacy, of slavery, of lynching. you have said that slavery did not really end in 1865.

you talked about it just evolving from slavery to lynching to mass incarceration. can you lay out that trajectory? >> sure. i do think that the great evil of american slavery was this narrative of racial difference. we have to understand our nation has a very unhealthy narrative of racial difference that began at the very first moment when europeans came to this continent. there were millions of native people here. we are a post-genocide society. what i think we did to native people was genocide. we kill them by the millions. we slaughtered them through famine, war, disease. we did not own up to that because we set the native people are different racially. that narrative is part of the reason why slavery flourished for so long. i really do believe the great evil of american slavery was this ideology of white supremacy, this myth we made up

that black people are not the same, not as evolved, not fully human. and that consciousness, that bigotry, that ideology for me was the true evil of american slavery. in 1865 when the civil war was over only pass the 13th amendment, we committed to ending involuntary servitude and forced labor, but we did not say anything about this narrative of racial differences. ideology of white supremacy. because of that, i don't think slavery ended in 1865. i think it just evolved. it turned into day gates of terrorism. and what happened to african americans between reconstruction, was racial terror. black people were being pulled out of their homes, drowned, beaten, hanged. they were brutalized. sometimes on the courthouse lawn in front of thousands of white people who cheered and celebrated this ritualistic violence. it had a powerful impact on communities of color.

sometimes older people of color come up and say, mr. stevenson, i get angry when i hear some jan tv talking about how we are dealing with domestic terrorism for the first time in our nation's history after 9/11. they say, we grew up with terror every day of our lives. 6 million people, black people fled the american south during the 20th century. the black people in cleveland and chicago and detroit and los angeles and oakland did not go to those communities as immigrants, they went there as refugees and exiles from terror. we have not talked about this history, this legacy. in our memorial in montgomery that opened last week, when you walk into the space, the first sculpture is a slavery sculpture. it is people in chains. it was made by west african "resistance"lls it but it is important for people

to understand that without slavery, without the legacy of slavery, without this ideology of white supremacy, black women and men would not have been lynched for bumping into a white person, for walking behind a white woman to move for knocking on the front door, for all of these social transgressions. it would not have happened. i also think this era is important understanding how we got to where we are now. you come out of our area, there is another sculpture called "guided by justice." three women walking to the montgomery bus like i've. one point where trying to make is we have not fully appreciated the courage of people like claudette, maryland was smith, rosa parks, in resisting. they could have lost their lives in the courage has to be understood. the fourth is by hank williams thomas, collection of men with arms raised up that speaks to

the present moment where this ideology of white supremacy, this narrative of racial justice process. today we still live in it country were black and brown people are frugally presumed dangers and guilty just because of their color. and whether they're sitting in a starbucks or in a room or confronting a police officer, that verdant still exist. -- that burden still exists. we will lift that and would motivate people much more directly. amy: bryan stevenson, we're going to have our second brick be common, the rap he did friday night at the concert equal justice institute, the initiatives -- initiative process concert. >♪ [music break]

amy: "letter to the free" by

common, performed friday night at the equal justice institute's concert for peace and justice in montgomery, alabama. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. with common who performed that night. between songs he addressed the audience. >> like a lot of people from chicago, my family migrated from the deep southtions ago. yes, they were seeking jobs and education, but they also were fleeing racial terror. they were fleeing terrorists in the south. racial terrorists. some of my ancestors migrated and some stayed. we've all learned that these decades later, there's no really running from our collective history. this history is our american history. it is time for us to acknowledge it, no matter what color you are -- black, white, latino, asian, native american. it is time to acknowledge it.

and we like to live in a reality where our country is growing, where freedom and dignity are in fact inalienable rights. and this can't happen without a real reckoning of our history. it is time for the government, it is time for everybody working as politicians to acknowledge this history. there are some pain and healing that needs to happen. we have to know there is history and we talk about the history, we will heal. amy: that is common speaking on friday night at the opening of the monument and the museum, to the victims of slavery, white supremacy, lynching. i want to turn to fill maker ava duvernay who was also there at the opening of the legacy museum. >> three dedicated artists reveal a single early important is nothat racism was and only a public market ignorance,

it was and is a monumental fraud. .acism was never the issue profit and money always was. always jobs,s land, or money. when you really want to take a way to oppress, to prevent, you have to have a reason for despising your victim. racism was always a con game that sucked all of the strength from the victim. it is the red flag that has danced before the head of a bowl. its purpose is only to distract. to keep the bowls mine away from his power and his energy, to keep it focused on anything but its own business. its hope for consequences to define black people as a reaction to white presence as opposed to being in harmony with

it. amy: that is ava duvernay speaking at the opening of the legacy museum last weekend. bryan stevenson coming of done something quite remarkable. you have done something quite remarkable. the taking down to monuments racism, confederate generals and others. you have directed new monuments here. new monuments.d talk about that. >> we have not done a very good job of creating a consciousness about this history. when i go to south africa, when i go to the apartheid museum, a c a place that is a very powerful institution designed to make sure no one ever forgets the hardship of apartheid, the suffering of black africans by that white minority documented and detailed. they make it impossible for people to forget or to distort that history.

in rwanda, the genocide museum is a powerful cultural institution. they have human skulls in that space. that is how desperately the survivors and victims of that horror wanted to express their grief. when i go to berlin, germany, i see markers and stones every 100 meters outside the homes of jewish families, roma families that were a ducted during the -- abducted during the holocaust was the germans what you to go to the holocaust memorial and they want to change the narrative. they don't to be thought of as for the restcistss of their lives, but in this country we don't talk about slavery. we don't look lynching, we don't talk about that hordes of this history of racial inequality. many people last weeks of, i just realized i've never seen a sculpture about slavery before in my life. they've never really been in a place where the were confronted with t legacy of lynching in a way that was tangible and visible. i think that implicates our ability not to move for, to

create real equality. yes, it is important we create a erect monuments and markers that push our nation and a different direction rather than protecting these false narrative that i think we have built to reinforce the same ideology of white supremacy. i think our artists, our sculptors, our writers, our musicians have a critical role to play. what i see is essentially a narrative work. i don't think we've ever felt the kind of shame we should feel about what we did to native americans, about what we did during slavery, that what we did during lynching, what we did during segregation. i don't think of shame as a bad thing for us to experience. when you do something shameful, there has to be some moment of regret and were contents and truth telling. that is what leads to redemption andrecovery and repair

restoration. i represent people who do bad things. none of them expects to be paroled if they're not willing to admit the wrongfulness of their crime. a lot of times when you go here me talking about this, i think they get a little edgy because we have become such a punitive society, amy. we have highest rate of incarceration in the world. we're so punitive in america that we are unwilling sometimes to admit our mistakes, to acknowledge our wrongdoings because we fear punishment. for me, what is been important about this project is to make people understand i don't want to punish america, i think talking about our history is the way we liberate america, we moved to different place, we get to some place where we acknowledge the pain of the past so we can recover. i do believe our country needs truth and reconciliation am a but i believe those things are sequential. you cannot get the reconciliation and to you first tell the truth. amy: i want to ask about what happened at the montgomery advertiser, as your monument and

museum was going up. last week the editorial board of the montgomery advertiser published a public apology for its previous coverage of lynching, on the same day the national memorial for peace and justice opened. in the editorial, the board wrote -- "we take responsibility for our proliferation of a false narrative regarding the treatment of african-americans in those disgraceful days. we propagated a world view rooted in racism and the sickening myth of racial superiority. we must never be as wrong as this again." the montgomery advertiser was among many white-owned newspapers across the united states that failed investigate -- and at times even celebrated -- the white mob violence that killed thousands of african americans throughout u.s. history. instead, it was black journalists, mostly notably ida b. wells, who exposed the horrors of lynching to the world. and paid a heavy price for that. as we wrap up in this last 30 seconds, bryan stevenson, can you talk about the significance of your paper doing this? >> i am daring courage to buy

that. that is precisely the kind of reaction i hope we see across this country. white media, white newspapers were complicit. they were eight or zen abettors and much of this violence. they sometimes advertise where the lynchings would take place. so too it knowledge that, to repent for that, to commit to not do that again is the very heart what i think our nation needs to do in response to this. i am encouraged by this and help other newspapers across the region to the same thing. amy: we will do part two and post it as a web exclusive at democracynow.org. our guest bryan stevenson, founder and executive director of the equal justice initiative. the country's first-ever memorial to the victims of lynching in the united states. he is the author of "just mercy: a story of justice and redemption." democracy now! is accepting applications for our paid year-long social media and video production fellowships as well

as a variety of paid internships. democracynow.org. for the holiday season.

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