♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, gospel of health. overcoming the skepticism of the covid-19 vaccine in some communities of color. >> so that we can try to get you the vaccine -- >> the spiritual messengers putting into practice what they preach. >> you're a priest, your job is not to get people vaccinated, so what are you doing? >> determined to overcome history's long reach of inequality and how making the shots easily accessible could dispel doubts. >> those who desire to take the vaccine, they will not have to walk far. plus -- ♪ simply the best ♪ >> inside the new documentary. how tina turner survived decades of trauma and made a name for herself. >> i had an abusive life.

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even with more than 15% of the american population fully vaccinated now, some communities, especially communities of color, remain skeptical about getting the shot. tonight, the spiritual leaders working to change that. >> all right, guys. we'll get started in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. i know lord, god -- >> reporter: a prayer for guidance. >> to our community and bless our departure in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit and amen. >> reporter: as today this group goes door to door, preaching the gospel of health. >> i want to know if you're interested in getting the vaccine? >> so that we can try to get you the vaccine -- >> reporter: father paul abernathy, his team at the neighborhood of resilience project trying to convince residents in this predominantly black and underserved community in pittsburgh to get vaccinated. you're a priest. your job is not to get people

vaccinated. >> if we are going to preach the gospel, it isn't with words by which we will preach it most loudly, but it is with action. >> reporter: covid-19 is the latest trauma to rip through father paul's neighborhood. one that has long been plagued by poverty and gun violence. it's perhaps these old wounds which in part help explain why father paul says he's met with a great deal of resistance as he tries to sign people up for a covid-19 shot. >> are you interested in getting the vaccine? >> uh-uh. >> no? >> uh-uh. >> reporter: mistrust of the vaccine in this neighborhood is common. >> i know there's lots of concerns, right? >> yeah. >> i know. >> it's like it's the antichrist or some [ bleep ]. >> i'm wearing a collar and i'm concerned about those things too. what i would say is, what is very important is that god is a god of life. >> yeah. >> this is very important. and sometimes when we pray, there's -- he gives us blessing

by way of medicine. by way of vaccines. >> hypothetically speaking, i go over, i try -- >> what we can also do is take your name and phone number, if you like, to put you on a waiting list. >> reporter: as the vaccine rollout continues to expand, the cdc reports that communities of color, including black americans, are getting vaccinated at disproportionately lower rates than white americans. father paul says he believes that's due to these communities having less access to the vaccine, and for some, a hesitancy to trust the institutions that have created and encouraged it. >> there's a history of government systems in our community that have failed, or sometimes been overtly oppressive. the second would be a history of clinical abuse. that people have in not only their family history, but also in their lived experiences. >> reporter: therefore, he

believes that trusted faith leaders should step in and step up to help boost vaccine confidence. >> hi, how are you doing? >> i'm not too sure about it. how it's going to affect my body, my system. i'm not, no. >> i understand. you care what happens to you, i understand. we want to validate those concerns that are absolutely legitimate. >> i don't want nothing happening to my body. >> yeah, we respect that. we respect that. we want -- that's what we really want, we want what's best for you. >> we also want to say, at the same time, although there have been historical challenges, historical injustices, this has to be a time where really we try to forge a new way forward. >> this work moves you? >> yes, this work moves me. and more importantly, it is all of the brokenhearted prayers that are uttered day and night in our community that moves me. >> you can understand how our folk have suffered a long time

with abuse from the medical field. >> reporter: dunn served as tuskeg tuskegee, alabama's, first female mayor. it was here the infamous syphilis study took place. where the u.s. government recruited hundreds of black men to participat in the study of the effects of untreated syphilis, while simultaneously withholding the cure and the true nature of the study. mayor dunn says beyond that period in history are centuries of institutional inequality, and it's one of the reasons why she herself is hesitant to get vaccinated. >> it's not that i'm not ever going to take the vaccine. i just believe that we haven't had enough time to successfully develop the vaccine that's going to cure and/or prevent the coronavirus. >> reporter: although the vaccines were developed and authorized within a year, the testing process for safety did not skip any steps. the technology used to make them had been in development for

years. explain to me how you thread that needle. a highly educated, successful woman, but yet you're hesitant about the vaccination. does that send a mixed message to the folk you serve? >> no. because i'm quite frank about it. what i am not saying to people is that, you got to follow me along that pathway. but i want to say this, too. racism is not dead. i mean, that's a legitimate concern in our community. and it has nothing to do with the syphilis study. because a lot of people want to put all of this off, the reason black people are feeling this way is because of the syphilis study. no, it's not. it's about a whole lot of different things that's been passed down from great great grandmothers all the way down to me. >> reporter: but mistrust of the health care system is only part of the story. a recent npr analysis found that vaccine science, particularly across the south, were largely

missing from predominantly black and brown communities. this point to a lack of access, one of the reasons why black churches across the country paired up with clinics to not just bridge the mistrust gap, but to expand vaccine accessibility. >> those who desire to take the vaccine, they will not have to walk far. hi, i'm the pastor of the church, how are you feeling? >> reporter: bishop john borders is pastor of morning star baptist church, located in a predominantly black neighborhood on the south side of boston. he has turned his house of worship into a house of healing, both spiritual and physical. >> how do you feel, do you feel all right? >> yes, thank you so much. >> reporter: his church has partnered with boston medical center to offer covid vaccinations to community members. >> when you ask them to come out to gillette stadium or something like that, to take a vaccine, you're not going to receive much of a response. but when they know they can go to their house of worship and

find trained, skilled people working in collaboration with their spiritual and religious leaders, there's a level of trust that they develop, and people are lining up to take the vaccine. >> reporter: borders has been a pastor at this church for almost 40 years. i first met him in the early '90s when he had another crisis on his hands. >> in 1992, we were right in the midst of gang violence in boston. violence among gangs went down to zero for five to ten years as a result of the work that we did here with local clergy. >> reporter: now he and his colleagues are coming together to face the latest crisis, covid. >> my heart breaks when i hear that members have passed away. without a funeral. that's heartbreaking. so i'm looking for a time when

we can have funerals again. and we can have weddings again. and that will not happen unless everyone takes the vaccine. >> reporter: the program which launched in mid-february has so far administered 5,300 doses. >> i didn't shed a tear. >> i'm glad things are busy and robust today. >> reporter: he credits the program's success to its partnership with boston medical center and its doctors. like thea james. >> at my hospital, the majority of our patients reside in communities that have been historically disinvested. they're using their resources to maintain some sort of stable housing, to buy food for their families, to pay for utilities. and so there's nothing really left over to use for prioritizing health. >> reporter: for dr. james, bishop border, mayor dunn, and father abernathy, this moment in our nation's history is about so much more than getting shots in arms. it's about injecting newfound

trust, dignity, and resources into a community's bloodstream, long anemic by inequality generations old. >> takes a lot to undo that narrative. for "othering" people. and so it's not extremely complex and complicated. but it requires intentionality to be able to address it and to disrupt it. because until that happens, we can't expect that the data will ever change. >> one message at a time. coming up, the highs and lows of tina turner and what's love got to do with it? ♪ oh what's love got to do got to do with it ♪ ♪ what's love but a secondhand emotion ♪ something great from mr. clean. stop struggling to clean tough messes with sprays. try clean freak! it has three times the cleaning power of the leading spray

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story. >> reporter: in the new documentary "tina," the "simply best" icon owning her power and her story after decades in the spotlight. ♪ better than all the rest ♪ >> reporter: ike turner, her husband and costar on hits like "proud mary." ♪ proud mary keep on burning rolling rolling ♪ >> reporter: he brutalized her for decades. by sharing her truth, tina became a beacon of hope for many. >> i cannot overstate how much permission she gave women, black women definitely, but women, period. >> my life was ike, it's one that maybe a lot of people are familiar with. a husband that practiced brutality. >> why did you stay so long? >> i felt responsible. i felt that i couldn't leave because too many things would be destroyed. >> reporter: the new doc by filmmakers t.j. martin and daniel lindsay emphasizing how deeply painful it was for her to talk about that trauma again and again. >> over the course of time, tina

became like the symbol of resilience and strength. and i think over time, we lost track that the person at the center of it is still a survivor. >> reporter: the brave woman who became an international superstar and symbol of female empowerment had one of the unlikeliest journeys to the top. born anime bullock in nutbush, tennessee, she was the daughter of sharecroppers, abandoned by her parents as a teenager. >> i'm a girl from a cotton field that pulls myself above what was not taught to me. >> reporter: at the age of 17, anna saw ike's band play in st. louis. she asked him if she could sing a song at intermission. she was a hit. and from there the duo ike and tina turner was born. >> i was young, naive. just a country girl. and everything just opened up to me. >> it was ike's band. ♪ but tina was the shining star.

♪ >> when i was a teenager back in the '60s, i knew of their record that they had out. but i had never seen them. and then they came on tv. and i saw her dancing. and that's all i could look at. >> reporter: at the center of her life, for so many years, was her controlling husband. ike. but behind that shiny facade, there was ike's temper and horrific pattern of abuse. >> ike could be having a good time and everybody was having a good time, and it could just flip in a second. >> he sent her to the emergency room multiple times for black eyes, for bloody noses. >> he had to know where she was at all the time. she was on allowance, she didn't have her own money. >> reporter: she finally left ike, depicted here in the film "what's love got to do with it" starring angela bassett. >> the fact that she left with literally 36 cents in her

pocket, and as she says, a gas charge card. >> but if you will give me a room, i swear i will pay you back. >> reporter: in 1978, the divorce left her with only one asset. >> i got nothing. ♪ working for the man every night and day ♪ >> no money, no house. so i said, i'll just take my name. >> reporter: with a stalled career and now middle-aged, tina struggled to reinvent herself as a black female rock star. superstardom was far from certain. >> a record label executive referred to her with a racial slur. >> racism in the music industry is just as reflective of the racism in american society. her philosophy on life was just to move forward. ♪ what's love got to do got to do with it ♪ >> reporter: her smash 1984 hit "what's love got to do with it" established her as a bona fide solo artist. ♪ big wheel keep on turning ♪

>> reporter: the girl who dreamed of filling stadiums eventually did. >> she sold 200 million albums over her career. she has eight grammys. she is a monumental artist in terms of r&b and rock 'n' roll. >> she was inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. there aren't that many women in the rock and roll hall of fame, let alone black women. >> reporter: even worldwide fame and adlation couldn't fill the void created by her mother. the documentary focusing on that forever strained relationship. >> i did all kinds of things for her. she was my mother. you know? i was trying to make her comfortable because she didn't have a husband, she was alone. but she still didn't like me. >> reporter: it wasn't just a mother's love she'd been yearning for. she desperately wanted a healthy romantic relationship. >> look what i have done in this lifetime. with this body. i want a man without shame.

to say, i will not disappoint you, i am here for you. ♪ you're telling me that you love me ♪ >> she's this woman that can command 180,000 people, and yet it's this kind of constant struggle, the desire to feel loved and to be wanted. >> reporter: tina finally found that love when she met her husband, german record executive ervin bach, now a couple for 35 years. >> it's really sweet to watch the way thatt erwin and her interact with each other, tease each other. >> reporter: at 81, tina is finally living the life she always wanted. a quiet life, aside from an appearance in 2019 at the debut of a self-titled broadway show. >> this musical is my life, but it's like poison that turned to medicine. >> reporter: tina turner is finally enjoying the peace she's worked a lifetime to achieve.

>> our thanks to juju. the documentary "tina" is available in hbo and hbo max. up next, dancing with joy after a double shot of hope. pro plan liveclear, o) a breakthrough 10 years in the making that reduces allergens in cat hair and dander. outstanding nutrition with the power to change lives. this is purina pro plan liveclear. want to brain better? unlike ordinary memory supplements— neuriva has clinically proven ingredients that fuel 5 indicators of brain performance. memory, focus, accuracy, learning, and concentration. try our new gummies for 30 days and see the difference. ♪ ♪ i'll be right back. with moderate to severe crohn's disease, i was there, just not always where i needed to be. is she alright? i hope so. so i talked to my doctor about humira. i learned humira is for people who still have symptoms of crohn's disease

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♪ finally tonight, read the body language. ♪ dr. tarira and her husband shaking their tail feathers to the song "hosannah." the couple from lancaster, virginia, can't contain their joy after getting their final covid-19 vaccine, fully inoculated like 53 million other americans. good for them. dancing their worries away. that's "nightline" for this evening. you can watch our full episodes on hulu. see you right back here, sam