captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> ifill: fighting for 15. minimum wage workers across the country demand higher pay. good evening, i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. also ahead this wednesday: it's tax day. why health insurance now factors into what americans have to pay. >> ifill: plus... >> ♪ i've got your class ring >> ifill: from blues and country to gospel and jazz. rhiannon giddens shares the songs of america's musical roots with new audiences. >> my mission is to perform. you know, of course that's what i was here to do, but that extra thing is to bring attention to music that doesn't necessarily get the light of day a lot.

>> woodruff: those are some of the stories we're covering on tonight's pbs newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. at lincoln financial, we believe that you are the boss of your life. the chief life officer. in charge of providing for loved ones. growing your nest egg. and protecting what matters the most. lincoln financial is committed to helping you take charge of your future. life, income, retirement, group benefits, and advice. lincoln financial. you're in charge.

>> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: the european union charged google today with violating anti-monopoly laws. it's the latest move in a five- year legal battle and could lead to billions of dollars in fines. the e.u.'s competition

commissioner said google uses its dominance over internet searches to promote its own services. >> our investigation so far has shown that when a consumer enters a shopping-related query in google's search engine, google's comparison shopping product is systematically displayed prominent at the top of the search results. >> woodruff: the e.u. also opened a separate probe into google's android mobile system. >> ifill: the u.s. capitol had a brief security scare today when a gyro-copter landed on the west lawn. the single-seat helicopter buzzed the national mall and settled about half a city block from the capitol building. police quickly cordoned it off, and a bomb disposal unit found nothing hazardous. the website of a florida mailman, doug hughes, announced he carried out the stunt to protest political corruption. >> woodruff: and in germany, the head of the european central bank had his own scare from a

protest against austerity policies. mario draghi was holding a news conference in frankfurt, when a woman leaped onto the desk. she dumped confetti and shouted, "end the e.c.b. dictatorship," before she was dragged away. >> ifill: iran's president today dismissed u.s. congressional pressure over a potential nuclear deal. that's after president obama accepted a compromise, giving the house and senate a say. hassan rouhani told a crowd of thousands that his government deals with world leaders, not lawmakers. and, he warned again, iran could still walk away. >> ( translated ): the world must know, the negotiating nations must know, the american senate, congress, the american president and government must know that if the end of the sanctions isn't in this deal, there will be no deal. >> ifill: meanwhile, inspectors from the u.n.'s atomic energy watchdog arrived in tehran. they're on a much delayed visit to inspect activities at a military site. >> woodruff: fighters with the

islamic state group gained new ground today in western iraq. they've now overrun a series of villages outside ramadi, the capital of anbar province, forcing hundreds of people to flee. isis forces have been advancing in anbar despite suffering losses in other parts of iraq. >> ifill: back in this country, former new england patriots star aaron hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole. jurors in fall river massachusetts, found him guilty of fatally shooting a man in june, 2013. hernandez was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs. afterward, district attorney thomas quinn hailed the verdict. >> aaron hernandez may have been a well-known new england patriots football player. however, in the end, the jury found that he was just a man who committed a brutal murder. the fact that he was a professional athlete meant nothing in the end. he is a citizen who was held accountable by the jury for his depraved conduct.

>> ifill: prosecutors have suggested the victim, odin lloyd, was killed because he knew too much about the 2012 killings of two other men at a boston nightclub. hernandez still faces trial in that case. >> woodruff: a bipartisan bill reshaping how medicare pays doctors is headed to president obama's desk. last night, the senate gave final approval to the $214 billion measure. over the long term, it aims to tie doctors' reimbursements to overall care instead of individual office visits. it also prevents an immediate 21% cut in those payments. the president said he'll sign it. >> ifill: on wall street today, rising oil prices and stronger corporate earnings pushed stocks higher. the dow jones industrial average gained 76 points to close above 18,100. the nasdaq rose 33 points, and the s&p 500 added 10. >> woodruff: and 80 veterans of the world war ii "doolittle raid" were honored today with

the congressional gold medal. they carried out the daring attack in april 1942, in the first direct strike on japan after pearl harbor. it involved launching land- based, b-25 bombers from an aircraft carrier. only two of the 80 doolittle raiders are still alive today. >> woodruff: still to come on the newshour: minimum wage workers protest for better pay. why health care reform complicates some americans' tax returns. fewer college grads apply to work in the classroom with teach for america. how the civil war shapes our country, 150 years later. an iranian citizen whose voice rises above others. and, singer rhiannon giddens spotlights diverse roots in american music. >> ifill: income inequality is emerging as an enduring issue, as activists push to hike the

minimum wage and increase livable wages. the debate played out across the country today, as organizers behind the "fight for 15" as it's known, used tax day to make their case. >> living on $8.75 an hour is very hard. i have to live in a shelter because i don't make enough money to pay rent here in new york city. >> ifill: fast food workers in new york were out at sunrise shouting their message. >> whose city? our city! >> ifill: they are demanding a minimum wage of $15 an hour. what they earn now, the workers say, is not nearly enough to support their families. organizers billed this latest strike by low-wage employees as the largest yet-- planned for 230 u.s. cities and dozens more worldwide. >> i live from paycheck to paycheck. i get paid every two weeks and it's still not enough. >> say what? 15 in my hands, i want 15 in my hands! >> ifill: as the campaign continues, a number of cities have passed laws to require a higher minimum wage, if not as

high as $15 an hour. in addition, big corporations like wal-mart have also begun shifting their pay scales upward. mcdonald's increased starting pay by a dollar an hour at locations it owns, but that doesn't include franchisees, who operate 90% of its restaurants. the national labor relations board is now considering whether to force mcdonald's to accept more responsibility for those franchise-owned outlets. >> ifill: so what is at the root of all this? for that, we turn to tsedeye gebreselassie, she is senior staff attorney at the national employment law project, which is connected with the "fight for 15". and, steve caldeira is the president of the international franchise association, a trade group that represents fast food restuarants like mcdonald's both at the corporate level and for franchise-holders. tsedeye gebreselassie, i want to start by asking you how widespread these protests ended

up being today? >> they ended up being quite widespread, and not because workers protested in more than 230 cities around the world, but because for the first time we're seeing not just fast food workers strike, we're seeing retail workers, adjunct professors making poverty wages making much less than $15 an hour. we're seeing just a growing groundswell of workers, of supporters saying, you know, our minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, even the dollar increased that has been promised by some of these companies is simply not enough to make ends meet. >> ifill: steve caldeira, how possible is what they're asking to accomplish? >> first i think it's important to state i think what happened today was really less about the minimum wage and more about providing air cover for the service employees international union which has been behind all of these protests. i think there's no organic movement in our industry by food service workers. just this past week the

department of labor in forms filed by the s.c.i.u., said they spent $18.5 million last year organizing these strikes. so to me, we can have the minimum wage debate. a lot of cities and municipalities and states have passed that. but it's really more about the unions trying to organize. private sector union membership has been from 35% approximately in the mid-50s to-- to under 7% this year. >> ifill: but my question is whether what they're asking for is even possible? >> look, i think 95% of quick-service workers that start entry-level jobs within six months they're making above $9 an hour. so we have to remember these are entry-level jobs for lesser skilled workers. look, i started at a burger king in college. >> i'm sorry-- >> ifill: i'll get to you in a moment tsedeye. what i wanted to ask you today

tsedeye gebreselassie-- first i want you to respond to what he said-- but how much is this an effort to increase membership in unions at a time when unions are flagging. >> let me first address what he was saying about entry level. the fast food industry, you know is an industry where 70% are over the age of 20. many have been working in fast food jobs for years and that's because while the fast food industry may have been a stepping stone in past years toward a better paying job in a different industry, the fact of the matter is jobs in fast food retail home health care, child care, some of the workers that were out on strike today, those are the jobs that are disproportionately fueling job growth in our economy today. so we've got to figure on the a way to raise pay in those industries. 42% of workers in this country make less than $15 an hour precisely because as steve was saying unionization rates have gone down which was a key way to raise wages in our country, precisely because the minimum wage floor has so far eroded in its value. at $7.25 an hour, that hasn't gone up since 2009.

>> ifill: now it's my turn to ask you the question i posed whether this is about union organization? >> this is about union helping workers raise pay, which is traditionally something that unions and other worker organizations do. i mean, that is the job. that is the job to raise wages and working conditions for members and mawn numbers alike and that's why part of what has been said through this fast food movement over the last two years is the fact we've seen state after state and now city after city raise the minimum wage through policy. that is the direct effect of the organizing that's been happening on the ground. >> ifill: in fact, steve caldeira we have seen walmart t.j.maxxwe have seen target 43 to raise their wages. i guess the question is what is the difference with fast food-- with the fast food industry? is it the franchise problem where so few of the actual outlets are owned by the company itself? >> well mcdonald's target, walmart legally have the right to raise the wages of their employees in the corporate

environment. i think the big distinction here is that franchisees put their own skin in the game. they're independently owned. they have the right to hire, to fire, to set wages. they process their own payroll. they're given an employer identification number by the internal revenue service. these are the people that create the jobs, and all 435 congressional districts across the country-- and they've been dealing with more regulatory environment, higher taxes through the fiscal cliff deal, high commodity costs, and i think tsedeye brought up a good point. part of the reason you see folks in these jobs longer is the lack of a pro-growth agenda coming out of washington. >> no. >> it's not just the administration. it's also congress. we need to do things in this country that enable small-business job growth. two-third of all net new jobs in this country come from small business. instead of stifling small business job creation. >> when you talk to small business owners the number one reason they cite for the reason they can't grow the way they want to is lack of consumer demand.

consumers can't spend what they don't have. when you are a 50-year-old fast food worker making minimum wage for the past years, then you can't spend. and that stifles economic growth for all of us. i think what we learned in the economic recession and the resulting recovery is that if we want a recovery that is sustainable and that works for all americans american then we have to figure out a way to rebuild the middle dlas and the way to do that is to raise wages. we have rin an economy where wages are staginated or declined for the bottom 70% of the entire workforce. >> ifill: let me ask you both-- and i'm trying-- looking for middle ground here. >> sure. >> ifill: if you were to say steve caldeira, that it's $15-- especially for franchise ease whose skin is in the game, is out of line, they can't do that, what is it these countries can be doing to speak to the concerns that tsedeye was stating. >> i think the franchise ease need to have flexibility. it's all about supply and demand. if walmart, target, and mcdonald's are raising wages

at the corporate level. they're competing for workers. i think it needs to be left up to the franchisee, who by the way wants to attract develop, and retain great employees. so i think they need to be given the flexibility based on where are they situated? what is the climate and the economic environment where they do business because they want to do right by their employees. >> ifill: tsedeye gebreselassie. is there a middle ground here? >> yeah, i agree with franchisees need some flex expibility one way to give them that flexibility so they can raise wages is for corporate franchise like mcdonald's is to lessen some of the fees they're forcing the franchisees to kick back to them. mcdonald's posted $5 billion in profits last year, so the argument there is not money to trickle down and raise wages for their workers, ringing hollow. >> ifill: steve caldeira, and tsedeye gebreselassie, thank you

both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you so much. >> woodruff: the deadline for filing your taxes is just hours away, and for several million americans, this year is turning out to be even more complicated than usual. it's the first time since the health care law was enacted that individuals must pay a penalty if they don't have health insurance. the penalty is one percent of income, or $95, whichever is greater. but in some cases where people received subsidies, in the form of tax credits, the calculation is tougher. moreover, surveys showed more than half of those who could be affected didn't know much about the penalty. let's help clarify the picture with julie rovner of kaiser health news, and accountant poonam bansal, owner of the firm accounting solutions in virginia. welcome you both. so julie rovner, to you first we said millions of americans. how many people are really affected by this new health care

law in terms of their taxes? >> well we don't know how many people are going to be paying the penalty because they didn't have insurance in 2014. that's partly because we don't know precisely how many people remained uncovered, and mostly we don't know how many of those people who remained uncovered will qualify for one of the myriad exemptions from having to pay the penalty. we have a better idea of who is impacted in terms of the subsidies. there are just under 7 million people who signed up for insurance on the marketplaces. those are the people who are being theoretically affected, about 80% of people who got insurance coverage through the exchanges, got subsidies, those are the ones who are having to do a very complicated calculation about whether they have to-- some of them are getting money back, and some will owe more money. >> woodruff: and that's whether it's a state exchange or the federal exchange; is that correct? >> in both cases, yess. that money was federal tax money. >> woodruff: so poonam bansal you're the one who is dealing with these taxpayers. what are you seeing first in

terms of the penalty that people are expected to pay? how much of an issue is that turning out to be? >> there are a lot of taxpayers who filed for the exchange programs got subsidies when they filled out those forms, and let's say somebody didn't have a job. they got insurance through the miles permarketplace, got a certain premium, got a certain credit, and then they got a job. they never thought they were supposed to change anything, and now they come and do their taxes and made a lot more money and now owe the money back. those are the kinds of shocks people are getting. there are a lot of people out there who we did taxes for ended up paying back and they were shocked. >> woodruff: it sounds like there were more people affected who bought insurance in one form or another and didn't realize that this benefit they were getting was going to add to the total income. >> exactly. >> woodruff: then there are people who didn't buy health insurance at all, don't have health insurance, and are having to pay a penalty? >> yes.

there are people who don't have health insurance at all. but those are not such a very high percentage because a lot of them are really very low-income people who couldn't afford it. ands that's the reason they don't have it. and-- or they were not very smart or educated to go to the marketplace and shop around. and in those cases, we are seeing they don't really owe that much because they fall in the category where they're exempt. >> woodruff: so julie rovner, how good a job did the government do of educating people about this? because we're hearing-- now we're hearing that some people didn't really understand, and we just heard 52 nam say, they didn't understand what they were going to owe. >> there are still some people who thought the law was repealed or the supreme court ruled it unconstitutional. neither of which has happened. both of have been debated. it's not that surprising that there were some number of people who still didn't realize they were supposed to have insurance. now, one of the things that the

federal government has done they say this year only if you're doing your taxes -- remember, what's due today are your taxes for last year, 2014-- if you still don't have insurance well the sign-up period closed in february but there is a special enrollment period this year for being pooem doing their 2014 taxes, finding out they have to pay a penalty and "oh my goodness, i'll have to pay another penalty for 2015," which is by the way, larger. so those people are at least getting a chance to sign up so they won't have to pay a penalty next year for this year. >> woodruff: so they're being given a little more time to sign up. they still have to pay their taxes. >> they still owe whatever they owe for 2014. this is a chance for them to not owe for 2015, also. >> woodruff: poonam bansal, what are some examples of issues people are bringing to you? are they difficult to resolve? are they relatively easy once people recognize what the issue is? how is it working? >> well, tax time, as i always

say, involves a lot of emotions. it involves money. anybody we say has a refund are hugging us, and anybody we say you owe, we feel like the devil. and on top of it we have the affordable care act which some people owe and some people don't, and they just can't understand it. they just feel like i'm doing something wrong. it's not that hard to resolve in terms of technicalities. i think it's peopley mindset and for them to accept it. just say for example a father is claiming his daughter dependent on his return. she's earning $10,000 a year. she's still young, that income is counted towards the gross family income. >> woodruff: right. >> to get the exchange. but he didn't know that. and he didn't include that. and now he owes a penalty. so those kind of things they can't understand it. >> woodruff: so people are getting educated. julie, is the government think

ago i know you're not talking to everybody-- but is there a sense people will be better informed next year, that this is a rocky start for this whole thing? >> i think it's fair to say this th year has gone more smoothly than many expected. it was expected, particularly people watching this, thought there would be all kind of backlash from people doing their taxes and realizing they were going to have to pay and wh they thought they were getting a refund or the penalty for not shouldhaving insurance is for most people more than $95. we haven't heard a huge outcry. there are situation where people have rude surprises but there are situations where people get bigger refunds because they didn't sign up for enough of a subsidy. there is nothing to quite educate people than going and doing your taxes and seeing this. i think a lot more people are going to know about this now than knew about it three months ago. >> woodruff: as we sit here right now nowashington they have about six hours to go. they have that much time to figure that out. poonam bansal, julie rovner, we

thank you both. >> thank you, judy it's nice being here. >> ifill: next, the struggle to draw college graduates back to the classroom. teach for america has sent more than 33,000 participants into schools in low-income, high need communities since it launched in 1990. but as brandis friedman of public television station wttw chicago reports, the organization is now having a harder time recruting new candidates. >> why do i do that? because it's a negative charge. >> reporter: today's chemistry lesson is on ionic bonds. >> what does oppositely charged atoms mean? >> reporter: teacher juaquan savage feels he's charged with making a difference in his students' lives. the university of north carolina at chapel hill graduate recently finished a two-year teach for america fellowship in memphis. he's now one of 950 t.f.a. alumni working in chicago public schools.

this is savage's first year as a full-fledged teacher, at this charter school, butler college prep. for years, the program has been a top choice for top grads. >> i'm a success story, i had really strong teachers. it's thought-provoking to think had i not had those strong teachers, where my life would've ended up. i definitely want to be a catalyst for making sure all students, no matter where they're from, socioeconomic background, that they have opportunity to obtain a quality education as well. >> reporter: savage and teach for america fellows get five weeks of intensive summer training before taking over a classroom. but the once highly-competitve program is noticing a troubling trend-- not enough recruits like savage. >> we are facing greater than normal challenges on recruitment front. as of december we have 20,000

applications for incoming corps. that's behind pace from last year. if this pace continues, we'd fall 25% short of what our school partners around the country have said they need from us. >> reporter: teach for america's chicago director josh anderson says a number of factors are contributing to a tougher recruiting environment on the elite college campuses where it finds many of its applicants. among those factors: the concern that teaching is an underpaid profession. >> in this post-recession moment, we're seeing, for top talent, greater competition for folks. people have more competing offers, attractive competing offers than they were considering a couple of years ago. >> reporter: anderson says he's concerned that a smaller pool of candidates will mean a weaker pool of potential teachers. >> we substantially increase the

odds of having most effective teachers, the stronger more robust, diverse, that pool of candidates is. that's why this trend, if we're not able to reverse it, combat it effectively is concerning. it means real things downstream for student achievement in the very near future. >> reporter: teach for america argues the problem isn't just its own, but points to a national decline in graduates interested in becoming teachers. education experts say some of that is brought on by the highly politicized nature of modern-day teaching. robert lee runs the chicago teacher education pipeline for illinois state university, which produces most of illinois' teaching graduates. even he has noticed that teacher prep enrollment is down slightly. >> it used to be a very reliable profession, filled with joy teaching learning process. that's been stripped away. a lot of testing, high-stakes

standardized test, that pit teacher performance based on that one exam. i think that's dangerous. a problem trying to recruit our best and brightest people to enter the field. >> reporter: but critics of the teacher corps say the organization has brought this problem of a shortage on itself. eleni katsarou directs elementary education at the university of illinois at chicago. >> when your larger message is you only need five weeks, to become a teacher, it demeans, it reduces, oversimplifies what it is that teachers ought to be doing and what they do. so, in that way i think they've contributed to making it less than what it actually is. >> reporter: katsarou argues that sending so many untested and briefly-trained teachers into the classroom to serve mostly low-income students is more than just unethical. >> i don't think it's fair,

professional, ethical to practice on kids. it just isn't. so we have practice-based teaching in programs that are solid and profound in a way they let students understand. there's a reason we have practice-based approaches, because it takes time. >> reporter: but teach for america says their teachers are making a difference, and that they're not only prepared after initial training, but they continue to receive mentoring and coaching throughout their fellowship. >> the biggest reason people sign up has little to do with concrete things they get from organization, but most to do with the opportunity to be in front of students and families, make a big impact. i think that's number one.

>> reporter: and for teacher juaquan savage... >> go around keep bonding, keep finding different people. >> reporter: ...that impact is the bond he shares with his students. i'm brandis friedman reporting for the pbs newshour from chicago. >> woodruff: president abraham lincoln died 150 years ago today. he had been shot by actor john wilkes booth while watching a play at ford's theater in the nation's capitol. his assassination came just five days after general robert e. lee surrendered the main confederate forces in appomattox, virginia, ending four years of civil war, with over 750,000 casualties. two events with long lasting effects. jeffrey brown takes it from there. >> brown: "when lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, and the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night

i mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring." walt whitman wrote those famous lines about the death of abraham lincoln. we take our own look at that moment, and the legacy of the civil war. we're joined by martha hodes, a professor of history at new york university and the author of the recently published "mourning lincoln." james mcpherson, professor emeritus of history at princeton university, his new book is "the war that forged a nation: why the civil war still matters." and isabel wilkerson, pultizer- prize winning journalist and author of "the warmth of other suns: the epic story of america's great migration." martha hode, i want to start with you. is it possible to speak of one reaction to lincoln's assassination in what happened in the days that followed? >> well, it isn't possible to speak of one reaction. african americans, both north and south and white northerners felt that there was one reaction. they felt the whole country was in shock and in grief but in

fact they knew that there were other people who were not responding as they were responding-- confederates lincoln's northern enemies the copperheadses. even some members of his own party were releefd he was assassinated because they thought he would be too lenient. james mcpherson, who did you come to see him at, at his death? >> well lincoln was a mastete politician. politics was in his blood. it had been from the time he was a young man and as president of the united states and commander in chief of the army he wielded this political experience in the way that could unite the country on behalf of the war to save the union and eventually to abolish slavery. i think that all stems from his shrewdness and his skill as a politician. >> brown: and isabel wilkerson, you would write about the armath of all of this for so

many african americans. what about in that first period in those first days? >> well, in those first days, there was a tremendous amount of uncertainty and yet hopefulness that somehow after so many generations of having been enslaved, that this would finally be the moment after the war that there would be this opportunity truly to be free and to partake of the country they had helped to build. it's important to recognize that the at this particular moment african americans had been enslaved for 246 years, 12 generations. so that was a long buildup of hopefulness and uncertainty about what the future would hold. >> brown: so now let's try to build out from some of these things. martha hode, with you, first. when you think about the legacy all that came afterwards from the war, you were looking at personal stories, right, in your work? did you see things already that kind of stayed as themes through time even up to our own time? >> yes.

what i found was at the moment lincoln's assassination, those hours, days and weeks right afterwards, which is a time people haven't explored deeply and that's the reading i did in all these personal source, those responses fortold clashing visions of the nation's future, and we see the legacies of that today. >> brown: it was there already. >> it was there already right from the start. >> brown: what kind of clashes were most obvious from the start? >> well, the question of black freedom was very very important. so african americans and their white allies wanted more than freedom. they wanted equality. they wanted suffrage. they wanted land and education, and they wanted that with federal enforcement. the former confederates wanted their own political rights back. white southerners wanted to be back the political process again and wanted no federal interference and that's a legacy we see to this day. >> brown: james mcpherson, you wrote in your recent book about one of the things lincoln did was take this plural idea--

"the united states are--" and turn it into a singular "the united states is," one nation. pick it up and explain that. was that there from the beginning? was it an easy path? >> well, the united states on the eve of the civil war was a federation of independent and quasi-independent sovereignties, which we know as states. the federal government was superior in some ways, but it did not touch the lives of many people, except with the post office. and at the beginning of the war, the idea in the north was to preserve the union this union of states, and in fact, lincoln's language in his early war-time papers and addresses reflected that. he talked about restoring the union, but as time went on, the idea was that this was a nation, not merely a union of states but a nation.

that's what the war accomplished, a transz transformation of the united states from a union and from a plural noun-- "the united states are a republic--" to a singular noun-- "the united states is a powerful nation." that was lincoln's major contribution. that was lincoln's major legacy. and the strength of the that nation was then invoked to free the slaves and in the 14th and 15th amendments after the civil war, to grant them civil and political equality. >> brown: isabel wilkerson a nation, a sense of-- a moment of possibility that you were speak of a little earlier, right after the war and yet, so many pain still to come for so many people as you document later. >> well absolutely. there were-- there was that 12-year period of time that we call reconstruction that brief window of opportunity in which--

we often think of civil rights legislation applying to the 20th century but the civil rights legislation as the professor mentioned of the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendment which were to have secured the rights the new right for the newly freed people ended up only being recognized for an all-too-brief period of time and then set in motion after the doors had been opened they were exik quickly slammed shut with the introduction of what would be called the jim crowe caste system in which there were rules and laws and customs that repressed the efforts of these newly freed people just as they were beginning to hope for something better. and this set in motion essentially 90 years of repressive laws, of what we think of as the water fountains and the restrooms would have been just the beginning of it. but every aspect of life for people was restricted and could be punished with severity,

meaning the lynchings that would occur at one point every four days in the american south. >> brown: i just want to go around to all three of you briefly, if i could, because there's so much fascination-- i'll start with you, isabel wilkerson. we'll go in reverse order here. there was-- there is so much fascination with this period. and i wonder why for you personally you're so interested in looking at the civil war and its legacy? >> well, i think it's the fulcrum of the identity of our country. it's-- and it was the moment in which people very passionate about how they felt about our country were making choices about-- and arguing and willing to fight and die for what the country was supposed to be, what we are as a country who could be a citizen of our country, what did the country stand for, and what was it going to be going forward? and i think because we are still dealing with the long shadow of that war and of the consequences of that war and the unresolveed

questions of that war it still haunts us to this day. >> brown: james mcpherson i was interested in reading your recent book where you look back at your younger self when you first got interested in this. >> well, i was a graduate student in baltimore in the late 1950s and early 1960s at johns hob kins university. those were the years of the mont gom gree bus boycotts, the sit-in, the freedom riders extended into the early 1960s, martin luther king's speech at the lincoln memorial in washington, is "i have a dream" speech in 1963. i was struck by the parallels between the time in which i was living and the events of exactly 100 years earlier, a confrontation between north and south between the national government and southern political leaders vowing national resistance to national law. federal troops being sent into the south to enforce national law.

there was a kind of deja vu about what was going on in my own time, and i decided that i needed to learn. the historical roots of my own world, my own time and place. and those historical roots were in the civil war era. >> brown: and martha hode a final brief last word. >> absolutely. the resonances of the civil war are so deeply with us today. when i teach the civil war my students are so amazed at those resonances are available all around them in the present day. >> brown: right there in the headlines. >> absolutely, right there in the headlines. >> brown: martha hode isabel wilkerson, james mcpherson thank you very much. >> ifill: next, as the international debate continues about reducing iran's nuclear capacity and lifting punishing international sanctions, there is still considerable anger on the streets of tehran-- and it's directed at the west. those messages have often

emanated from mosques across the country during friday prayers. "new york times" tehran bureau chief thomas erdbrink meets one of the true believers in this latest installment of his video diary. it's produced by dutch public broadcaster vpro. we call it "dispatch: iran." ♪ ♪ ♪ >> reporter: every fridays morning hamid steps on his motorcycle in a town close to tehran and drives to a weekly fridays prayer session, just as he has been doing so for years. the weekly fridays prayers have long dominated the image of iran, and despite the recent attempts to mend ties with the west, it is still business as usual here.

>> 30 years ago imam khomeini told us we shouldn't have any contact with the u.s. the reason was that america is the big satan. if you chant "death to america," they'll be lonely and sick. >> reporter: it is a powerful propaganda machine that simultaneously in 700 locations across the country disseminates the state's most important decisions and policies. >> ( translated ): as long as america continues with their devilish actions, we'll keep chanting "death to america." >> reporter: there are some guys here who are, like warming up the crowd. let's have a look at them.

one man who has become famous in iran symbolize the declining but determined power base of the hard liners who control the fridays prayer sessions. he is always in front of the cameras, and his nickname is mr. big mouth. >> ( translated ): hello, welcome. you are famous. please come in. i am at your service. so you are every week at the fridays prayers and always in front. and when you are there, you shout more slogans than all the others. like, what kind of slogans? we shout "death to america," but first we say a la is great. we say that three times. and then we shout "death to israel. death to england death to all of them," we say, and always the saditionists. we shout so much so our screams are heard in the entire world. these are our laws and regulations. "death to america death to

israel, and death to england," all divisions are because of england. >> ( translated ): when i see you, i think to myself, this man really hates something. dohate america? >> ( translated ): yes. >> ( translated ): do you hate israel? >> ( translated ): yes. >> ( translated ): do you hate england. >> ( translated ): exactly. >> ( translated ): do you wake up in the morning and think i hate all of them. >> ( translated ): even in our sleep we shout that. >> ( translated ): doesn't that give you negative energy? >> ( translated ): no, no, it actually gives me more energy. we do this to get more energy. >> ( translated ): how does that give you more energy? >> when you shout allaah is great, it gives you more blood. >> he even refused to meet his own nephew who decided to leave iran and start a new life in the

west. >> ( translated ): you know why? because i know that when he returns, his wife will come with him. his wife say foreigner. when she comes,un, with their democracy, freedom, without a head scarf, she will wear a tank top perhaps. we do not agree with such things. >> ( translated ): will it confuse you? >> ( translated ): yes, of course. we have problems with that. that is why we will never accept it. >> reporter: america needs to be destroyed. america is our enemy. as long as the world exists, america will be our enemy. imam cohainy has said america is the great satan. death to america. >> reporter: while mr. big mouth might seem to be a caricature, she does rezem the affection that reality holds almost all power in iran. these hard liners are no interested in real change. actually, for them, any change

from their rigid interpretation of their ideology poses great dangers. mr. big mouth is one of their loyal foot soldiers. >> ( translated ): when i talk to you, i get the impression are you afraid of change. >> ( translated ): i am very afraid of change. >> ( translated ): why? >> ( translated ): because i don't like change. >> ( translated ): the change you fear has already taken place. tranthe country has changed. >> ( translated ): it became prosperous. >> ( translated ): no, it changed. >> ( translated ): yes i accept it exchanged. >> ( translated ): do you think that time will ever return. >> ( translated ): no, that time will never return, it will never return. >> ( translated ): so you are engage tbhailgtd you will never win. >> ( translated ): my intent is to show that everything has its own place. at times, you must be tough. at other times, you must be gentle. be calm with the people. >> reporter: those who are against it. >> ( translated ): what do you mean by "against?"

>> ( translated ): against your ideology. what should they do? >> ( translated ): they have three options. shut up. or get the hell out of the country. or go to prison. we give them these three options. that is how we deal with people who oppose. >> woodruff: finally tonight, a singer who celebrates american roots. last night, singer rhiannon giddens performed at the white house, in a concert honoring the history of gospel music. and that's just one american tradition giddens is helping to repopularize, as she tours the country on her first solo album. jeffrey brown has our profile. ♪ ♪ ♪

>> brown: it's a powerful song-- "waterboy", first made famous by the folksinger, odetta. ♪ ♪ ♪ now becoming a signature for a powerful new voice of today-- belonging to rhiannon giddens. at 38, giddens has just released her first solo album, "tomorrow is my turn." and though now stepping out into the spotlight, here recently at the big ears music festival in knoxville, tennessee, she told me she hasn't lost sight of what's important to her. >> i'm just so passionate about the history, i'm always reading books about history, and you know, i feel like my mission is to perform. you know, of course that's what i was here to do, but that extra thing is to bring attention to music that doesn't necessarily get the light of day a lot.

>> brown: the album, "tomorrow is my turn" is named for a song made famous by nina simone, and like simone, giddens grew up in north carolina and trained as a classical musician. ♪ it's all become so complicated ♪ her debut celebrates women who influence her: some famous like dolly parton and patsy cline, others, like sister rosetta tharpe and libby cotton, much less so. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ everything that was in my name everything i got is done... ♪ >> i've been really thinking about the woman in americana music, and the woman in american history, and just kind of

thinking about all these really strong women, who kind of burst through, you know, broke down doors, and had to kind of overcome lots of hardship to even have a music career, and just how much i benefit from that. >> brown: the album also showcases giddens' range through gospel, blues, country and jazz. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ they asked of me what could i say >> to me all of those songs, blues, jazz, country, all of them actually do belong side by side, because they're all coming out of this common well of sort of the proto-american music, like this roots stuff, you know, so it was just kind of irresistible to be able to do them all together. >> brown: giddens studied opera at the oberlin conservatory in ohio. it was there she came back to earlier loves-- folk music first through contra dance-- similar to line dancing-- and then string band music from appalachia. ♪ ♪ ♪

that led to an exploration of the often-overlooked role of african-americans in the genre. her group, the "carolina chocolate drops," won a 2010 grammy for best new folk album, ♪ i am a country girl ♪ >> string band music is a cross cultural thing, it's not a white thing, it's not a black thing either. i'm a mixed race person, you know, and i was raised with both culturally, and i was raised sort of with the southern sort of the meélange of cultures, and so to me getting that information out there is way, way important, because it's like, look guys, this is why american music is so strong. ♪ if you don't come right here if you don't come right here >> brown: then: one of those moments that can change a career-- a concert in new york in 2013, put together by legendary music producer t. bone burnett to celebrate "inside llewyn davis," the film about

the early folk music scene. many stars performed: joan baez, jack white, patti smith, and elvis costello among them. ♪ ♪ ♪ but by all accounts, giddens stole the show. ♪ ♪ ♪ including with a rousing song in gaelic. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i was just like don't screw it up, don't screw it up, don't screw it up. and then, you know, the rest of it just kind of came as a total surprise. >> brown: soon after, burnett offered to produce her first solo album. >> i'd be a fool to not use all the tools at my disposal, you know, because really the important thing to me is music and the mission. so if me being a soloist is going to be the best way to get

it out to more people, i'll do it. if me like putting on makeup and a nice gown is going to help the mission, and to get the whole project taken forward, i'll do it. >> brown: but you're being, but in a sense for the larger public, discovered at 38. >> yeah, and i'm so grateful for that, i was an idiot at 28, you know what i mean, i don't have to say, you know, i'm a half idiot now, so you know, you just learn so much as you get older, i've got kids, i just know what's important in this life. it's a good spot to be in at the moment. >> brown: at the moment, and into tomorrow. ♪ ♪ ♪ in knoxville, tennessee for the pbs newshour, i'm jeffrey brown. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> woodruff: there's more from rhiannon giddens online: where you can see her play the banjo and sing a new song. it's called "julie" and was inspired by a conversation between a mistress and her slave during the civil war.

>> ifill: again, the major developments of the day: the european union charged google with violating anti- monopoly laws. it could lead to billions of dollars in fines. fast food and other workers turned out in a number of cities in their latest strike demanding a $15 minimum wage. and, the u.s. capitol had a brief security scare when a florida man landed a mini- helicopter on the west lawn. he said he was protesting political corruption. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now, some people's d.n.a. may be wired to benefit from the placebo effect. a new report suggests there are genetic traits that make certain people more prone to feel better after getting sugar pills or fake surgery. you can read about it on our science page. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. >> ifill: tune in later this evening, on charlie rose: what does china want? former treasury secretary henry paulson on the rise of the new economic superpower. and that's the newshour for

tonight. on thursday, passing the puck... how n.h.l. players are helping teach inner city youth to break hockey's color lines. i'm gwen ifill. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> lincoln financial-- committed to helping you take charge of your life and become you're own chief life officer. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

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