captioning sponsored by newshour productions, ll >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour to aght: americiety over a looming trade war with china.es i talk with ent trump's lead advisor on the new tariffs. then, we are on the ground in onchina, to track their re to the rising tensions between the wod's largest economies. >> this idea that you can pressure china into different positions, that's proven to not be true. and china isn't afraid to do things that markets struggle to metabolize. >> woodruff: plus, the lacy of martin luther king, jr. 50 years later, we remember th civil rights leader, and take a look at wherthe movement stands in america today. >> it can be summed up with two sentences: we've come a long, long way, and

we still have a long, long way to go. >> woodruff: all that and more, 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. >> babbel.

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>> and with the ongoing support of these institutions: >> this program was made g.ssible by the corporation for public broadcast and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. t woodruff: it is the lat round in an escalating trade fight between the world's two largest economies. china counter-punched today, with new tariffs against u.s. products. it fueled fears of disrupting trade that totals 50 billion a year. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> reporter: in beijing, china's vice commerce minister declared his country is reluctant to do battle-- but ready. >> ( translated ): china does not want a trade war, because there will be no winner in a trade war. if someone insists on starting a trade war, china will fight till the end.

>> reporter: with that, the chinese announced plans for 25% tariffs on a list of american goods, includg soybeans, cars and chemicals, totaling $50 billion. it mirrored trump administratioe action houlier-- 25% tariffs on chinese products worth $5ll0 n-- largely on high-tech goods like robotics, machinery and medical devices. both lists are just threats at the moment-- not yet implemend, but a kind of economic stare-down. in washington, president trump'v new economic aor, larry kudlow, sought to soothe fears of an all-out trade wand even suggested the tariffs may never take effect. it's part of the process. i mean, i would take president seriously on this tariff issue. you know, there are carrots and sticks in life, but he is,ulmat. >> reporter: separate tariffs on chinese steel and aluminum imports did take effect last

month. china hit back, with duties 128 u.s. food imports. meanwhile, on twitter, the president kept up his tough talk today, writing, "the trade war was lost many years ago by the foolish or incompetent people who represented the u.s." he said the result was a $500 billion trade deficit with china. at the white house, spokeswoman sarah sanders had this to say. >> we finally ha a president who's willing to stand up and say, "enough is enough." we're going to stop the unfair trade practices, and we're going to work through the process over the next couple months. >> reporter: beijing insists the trump approach on trade is a mistake. >> ( translated s kind of capricious and impetuous action will not solve the problem. the premise of notiation is mutual understanding and mutual compromise, rather than demanding sky-high prices. >> reporter: china's strategy seems to hit president trumphi wherbase can feel it-- in the farm belt. china has targeted some lesser-

known grain crops for weeks, but now is raising the stakes, threatening the u.s. soybean farmers, who sell a third of their crop to china. thpresident of the america soybean associatn said today that hundreds of thousands of farmers st d to lose. republican senator chuck grassley of iowa sounded his own warning. he said in a statement that "farmers and ranchers n't be expected to bear the brunt of retaliation for the entire country." grassley promised the senate finance and judiciary committees will take a close look at the president's plan during a 60-day comment period. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: the chinese announcement whipsawed wall street. stocks dove at the opening bell, and then rallied back. the dow jones industrial average had initially dropped 500 points, but ended up gaining 230 points to close at 24,264. the nasdaq rose 100 points, and the s&p 500 added 30. we will get the white house

perspective on all of this, in detail, after the news summary. in the day's other news, president trump moved to have governors deploy the national guard along the u.s.- mexicobo er. it came a day after he talked of using the regular army for the job.hi at a house briefing, the secretary of homeland security, kirstjen nielsen, said national guard units could deploy as. early as tonig >> the urgency cannot, however, be underscored. we will be doing this today under the presidents direction. iowill continue my convers with all four border governors, and we hope to have the path forward ry much specified in the near future. >> woodruf ilast 12 years, previous presidents twice sent national guard units ton b southeder to stop illegal immigration and drug smuggling.o the white also underscored today the president's message that the u.s. military mission in syria is coming to a apid end." but, officials stopped short ofy

givingimetable for a troop withdrawal. about 2,000 american troops are in syria, in the campaign to defeat the islamic state group. the leaders of iran, turkey and russia held a second summit today to discuss syria's future, and their roles in it. turkey's recep erdogan, iran's hassan rouhani and russia's vladimir putin met in ankara. they called for morel internatiod to stabilize syria. the u.s. was not representedt there is worat president trump is not currently a criminal target insepecial corobert mueller's russia investigation. the "washington post" reports that mueller has informed the president's attorneys, but also told them that mr. trump remains ider investigation. mueller is lookio russian meddling in the 2016 election, and whether the trump campaign

colluded with the russians, and other related questions. investigators in san, california worked today to piece together what sparked the shooting ayoutube's headquarters. nasim aghdam wounded three people tuesday before taking her own life. today, police chief ed bberini said they think they have figured out why she opened fire with a handgun, in a courtyard. currently, there is no evidence linking aghdam to any of the individuals at the scene, at the time of this incident. at this point in the investigation, it is believed that the suspect was upset with policies and practices of youtube. this appears to be the motive for this incident. >> woodruff: aghdam's father says that he warned police in gharby mountain view on monday that his dr might be going to youtube's offices. officers say that the family never mentioned that she might be violent. the military is investigating why a u.s. marine helicopter went down tuesday in southern california. officials say all four crew members died, in what they ed a routine training mission.

the "super stallion" helicopter cras u.s.-mexico border.cee ok now says that a british firm accessed personalfrom up to 87 million customers, and used it to aid the trump campthgn and others. is far more than the initial figure of 50 million. facebook gave out the new numbeu today, as it aed new safeguards to protect its users. this was day three of a teacher walkout in oklahoma, with no end in sight. educators again rallied at the state capitol, and vowed to keep protesti for better pay and more money forublic schools. they were joined today by a large crowd of student supporters. and, large british companies have turned in salary data, under a government mandate, and it highlights the pay gap between thsexes. companies with more than 250 employees had to report the figures by today. they showed that, on average, men make 18% more than women.

still to come on the newshour: a view from china, where busisses are bracing for a trade war with the u.s. the legacy of martin luther king jr., 50 years after his assassination. could solar energy bring puerto rico out of the dark? and much more. >> woodruff: we return to our lead story, the risinsions with china over trade. in the wake of comments by top trump administration official today that the tariffs announced are subject to negotiations underway. spoke a short tie ago with party peter, a senior advisor to esident trump and director to the white house national trade council. >> let's start with the bi cture here. the big picture here is that china has been stealing our intellectual property for years, when an american company goes to

china, they force that american company to surrender its technology to a ceese competitor. that cheese competitor winds beating the american company not just in the chinese market but around the world, and that's an unsustainable situation that president trump has decided to crack down on. have a program todo that. it's not just that chisna che and steals our intellectual property, they're also coming here with large bags full of money to basically buy up the crown jules of american technology. the biggest picture here is china has this thing called china 2025, it's a policy manifesto which says they want to take over all of the emerging ure --ries of the fut artificial intelligence, robotics, quantum computing, these things -- and if we allow china doing this parcularly using unfair trade practices, we won't have a future, and that's what president trump is very concerned about. he ordered the tariffs to push

forth. we're in a 60-day process to review them and get public comment per a solid procedure, and the expectation is at theof en60 days there will be tariffs imposed based on that public comment. >> woodruff: but in the process of in effect punishing china for what you say they've done you end up with tit for tat tariffs people say look like a trade war. >> let's be clear. wee not trying to punish china. china is a superpower, a sovereign nation. we're simply saying china is engaged in these praerctices and a as a sovereign nation has a right to defend the people of this country in the interest of both economic security so that we have jobs in the future and also national security, becaee a lot of these emrging industries of the future have military implications. so allnge're doisum posing tariffs not to punish china t to recover -- let me be clear

about this -- but to recerhe $50 billion a year in damages they inflict upon this country by engaging in these practices. >> woodruff: but how do you know that china doesn't see it as a punishment becau, yes, that's how the trump administration is viewing this, but what china is saying in return is, well, if you're going to do this, then we're going to me back and impose something that's very difficult on your o producer your agriculture sector, your industrial sector. >> sure, that's a reasonable thing to bring up as a point, but let's be clear about sevel things. i mean, first of all, china denies it's engaging in these , actices which everybody knows they do o that's basically a lie to the american people and the world. but the hish china about these practicess go back to 2003 and the bush administration. we had endless dialogues every year through the bush and obama

administrations. when president trump came into office, he invited the chinese delegation to mar-a-lago in april, we had another trip in november in 2017, and china simply has not responded to our wll to basically trade fairly. >> woodruff: sat is the administration's message to, for example, the farmer, e soybean farmer or the hog farmer in the state of iowa who, i'm reading the stories today are loo -ki there's one quote of a man representing the iowa soybean association, said allhis poses an immediate and grave threat to our industry and to all i ofowa agriculture. so sonny purdue, great man, secretary of agriculture has spoken out in o strong suppo the president's programs, and we are trying to put in place measures which will have the backs of our farmers and our ranchers and everybody else in

this country -- let's keep in mind the bigger picture here, is china trying to pit portions of america against other portions of america with its strategicav ues on these tariffs? is that the case? again, i get back to this issue. china is engaged in these 'rssive practices that harm this country, and all wasking them to do is stop doing it. and what are they doing? well, so far they're not stopping. >> woodruff: and we have to assume that the larger goal here is to make the u.. economy even stronger. the question, though, is, in the process of doing that, the u.s. still has an enormoubudget deficit that is connected to the trade deficit, at the same time thu.s. has this in effect symbiotic relationship with china, they buy our debt, we sell them a lot of goods. are you trying to change the symbiotic relationship between these two great countries? >> so let's go backo the four points of the growth compass of

president trump. every day he gets up, thinks about how to grow the economy, tax cutats, deregn, unleashing the energy sencht in the trade space, when we run $370 billion trade deficit in goods with china and another $150 billion in trade deficit in goods with europe, what that e does is ports about 3 million jobs offshore from this country, it harms our tax base, it keeps ourges down, and this is the kind of thing -- ultimately, what the president wants is to move from a world of mass you've structural trade imbalances driven by unftrair e practices to a world where we have pro growth iven free trade that is fair and reciprocf: -- >> woodrut in the process, if i could interrupt quickly, in the process there are going tode u.s. inustries, will it's agriculture or oth that are going to be hurt by this, not to mention thre tionship the u.s. has with allies who we count on for other reasons, for security reasons.

>> the president has the back of every american in this country, and the team here is united across the cabinet agencies and within the perimeter of the white huse that, on tis issue, on china, with respect to cheating and theftf our intellectual property, if we don't do what we're doing now, then we are going to lose our future economically and we're going to face national secyur risks. i mean, remember, when china joined the world trade organition in 2001, t promised to play by the rules. they didn't. they grew from $1 litr g.d.p. to 12 trillion and, in the meantime, we lost 60,000 factories, over 5 million manufacturing jobs, wages stagnated and our growth rate was cut almost in half. o that china. president donald trump is very different about that. he sees this ess board and knows what to do for the feature of america, and thas e bigger framing issue here. we're working very hard on behalf of the american people to get this right. >> woodruff: peter navarro, senior advisor to

president trump. thank you very much. >> pleasure to be on. next time in studio, promise. >> woodruff: and now, how this showdown is seen from inside china. the escalating punches, and counter-punches,re stoking anger, and fears there of a trade war that could hit both countries. from beijing, special correspondent katrina yu reports. >> reporter: on the outskirts on beij dinner is served for some of farmer yang fuli's 800 pigs. china's growing middle class has meant a bigger appetite for meat. but his pigs wouldn't grow or survive without soybean meal, much of which is iorted from the u.s. >> ( translated ): soybean meal is a feed which provides nutritional balance and protein. >> reporter: and now, farmer yang could be paying a lot more to feed them, after china announced it would be slapping.s imports of u. soybeans with a 25% tariff. the levy will also be added to more than 100 other american goods, including planes and

cars.te >> rep china is firing back in response to st of items released by the trump administration yesterday. president trump save it's about ng the playing field. >> china is going to end up treating us fairly. for many years, theyree rein. they don't have free rein anymore. >> reporter: the political pressure will be high p, president trnd his base of support in many soybean-growing states. and farmers will be hit hard, says paul burke, the north asia regional director for the u.s. soybean export council. >> it will have a negative impact on the prices that u.s. soybean farmers will receive, and soybean farmers are already just barely getting by on the margins of what they're

receiving. >> reporter: putting levies on u.s. soybeans, which are also c used to making oil, is a high-stakes move for china, as it risks food inflation mestically. many had believed that it would be too sensitive for beijing to uch. but they were wrong, says economist jeremy stevens. >> this idea that you can pressure china into differentsi ons, that's proven to not be true.in and isn't afraid to do things that markets struggle to metabolize. >> reporter: but china is quick to remind the u.s. that it threw the first punches. nstarting with 30% duties rylar panels and washing machines in febrthen the 25% tariffs on imported steel, and 10% on aluminum just wks ago. the move forced huayang steel mill in china's northern hebei province to shift its strategy of focusing on the american market this year.

>> ( translated ): the part of our industryhich exports to america is facing a big loss. orders have decreased by at least ha. >> reporter: the measures were washington's first strike in a battle to address a global trade imbalance. but while exemptions have since been given to u.s. allies, including canada, australia and the european union, the white house is making sure china continues to feel the pinch. america's' trade deficit with china, comprised mostly of computers and other electronics, soared to $375 billion last year according to u.s. figures, up 8% from 2016. but chinese analysts like bian yongzu of renmin university say this i't what these tariffs are really about. >> ( translated ): where there's a political dispute resulting in higher tariffs, the purpose isn't to solve a trade imbalance hior trade dispute between and the u.s. it's more a release of anger. >> reporter: justifier, according to some. the u.s. has long-accused

beijing of unfair trade stactices, including relying on state subsidies anling intellectual property. american companies ope in china say they're forced to spill tech secrets in order to t up shop. >> this is the most important economic relationship in the world. it's important for both countries. and yet, it's lop-sided. and we need to do something to get a level playing field, and talking for 20 years has not done it, so i guess the administration is saying "let's try something else." >> reporter: that "something else" has sparked panic fr businesses on both sides of the pacific. a group of retailers, including walmart and macy's, sent a letter to the trump administration late last month, urging a rethink on extra levies on household items such as bedding, clothing and electronics routinely imported from china. while the new tariffs avoid these goods for now, costs will

increase for americanma facturers who depend on chinese machinery and imported parts. washington's plan targets robotics, new energy vehicles and telecommunications. it's a tense time for tech companies in beijing. this is zhongguancun in beijing, an area known as china's silicon valley. many companies based here are worried their exports to theff u.s. will beted by the newly announced tariffs. pbs newshour approached dozens s. these firms for intervi all declined, afraid to speak out, due to the sensitivity of the climate. frances bea helps chinese tech start-ups crack the u.s. market, and says american consumers will pay the price for chinese goods being ut out. >> it just means less options at a cost-effective price. y, the end of the day, rea it's going to be the consumers who lose out, because ey might not be able to get the latest and best technology.

>> reporter: beijing already slapped $3 billion worth of tariffs on more than 100 american products this week, including fruit and wine. it's bad news for beijing-based wine importer claudia masuger, who's waiting on an order for 14,000 bottles of californian red, and will soon find out whether she'll have to foot higher taxes for them. >> the next container of american wine will arrive on the 6th of april, and we will discover it. of course we're not happy to pay more tax-- who would be? and at the end of the day, it's also not good for the consumers, who then have to pay even more. >> reporter: it's not just consumers paying the price for is brewing trade war. as farmers and industry groups w deh the fallout from today's announcement, others are bracing themselves fo possible tit-for-tat measures. but from china, analysts say the message is clear >> the united states is trying to play bad cop to a societyes

which t want to be policed in that way by the united states.ep >>ter: and so far, the escalation is showing no sign of letting up.ho for the pbs ne, i'm katrina yu in beijing. >> woodruff: on april 4, 1968, the reverend martin luther king, jr. was shot to death on a hotel balcony in memphis, tennessee. his death literally changed the world. we begin our coverage with a look back at dr. king's legacy and why, 50 years later, it is still a work in progress. three generations retraced the steps of dr. martin luther king jr. thiseek on u.s. highway 61. it was here that the civil

rights leader delivered his 1968 "mountaintop" speech. >> i've seen the promised land. i may not get there you, but i want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. >> woodruff: he arrived in memphis in early april that year to support the striking tonitation workers, amidst planning what wae a massive "presence" in the nation's capitol-- thelled "poor people's came ign." but, hs assassinated by mes earl ray on april 4. what followed stead was a reckoning: the riots after the king assassination-- also known as the holy week uprisg-- represented the greatest wave of social unrest the united states had experienced since the cil war. in the years preceding his death, the baptist minister usel his wel-known tactics of nonviolence and civil

disobedience. king led the 1955 montgomery bus boycott and, in 1962, as the first president of the southern christian leadership conference, launched an unsuccessful campaign against segregation in albany, georg. he helped organize the nonviolent 1963 protests in birmingham, alabama. then came the 1963 march on washington, where he deliveredfa hius "i have a dream" speech.av >> ia dream that one day... el>> woodruff: in 1965, hed to organize the selma-to-

montgomery marches, and took the movement to chicago to work on segregated housing. in his final years, expanded his focus to include opposition to poverty and the vietn war. as this happened, king's tepularity began to wane, he received the nobel peace prize in 1964. he began to lose momentum as he moved attention from c rights in the south, to tackling segregation and poverty in t north. a 1966 gallup poll found nearly seven in ten americans viewed king unfavorably. today, people honored king's sacrifice at the memorialto dedicateim in washington, hoping to connect his message to today's struggles. around the country, there are all sorts of reminders of his s rk, and hundreds of stre the u.s. have been renamed in his honor.

and children everywhere read and reenact king's "i have a dream" speech every m.l.k. day-- ali federal y by a vote of congress, and signed into law br president ronagan in 1983. but, it's the deeds-- the actual "living out" of his legacy-- that nine-year-o yolanda king addressed at the recent "march for our lives" gun control rally in washington. the granddaughter of martin luther king and coretta scott king had a call to action of her own: >> my grandfather had a dream that his four little children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. i have a dream that enough is enough!

and that thishould be a gun- free world. period. >> woodruff: yet, king's dreams are still largely unfulfilled. according to a new associated just over half of all americans-- including 79% of blacks and 44% of whites-- said african americans continue to face disadvantages to getting ahead.th week's events were intendedo to tryear witness" to the words of martin luther king, and maybe help fulfill more of his t sion. king himself laid a 1968 sermon, which came to be known as "the drum major instinct," how he would like to be remembered. he spoke then at the ebenezer baptist church in atlanta: >> yes, if you want to sayhat i was a drum major, say that i was a drum major for justice. say that ias a drum major for peace. i was a drum major for

ghteousness. and all of the other shallow things will not matter i won't have any money to leave behind. i won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. but i just want to leave a committed life behind. >> woodruff: for a closer look at dr. king's work and impact, i fosat down yesterday with ur people who have lived it, written about it, and been inspired by it. i'm joined by vernon jordan, a lawyer and civil rights activist who s worked with the naacp and national urban league. he was its president and served as an advisor topresident bill clinton. connie schultz is a pulitzer pre winning columnist an journalism professor at kenatt university. her essay, coming to terms with my father's racism was pu tblisd he atlantic magazine. brittany packnett is an activist and educator. she's the co-founder of campaign

zero, a police reform initiive associated with "black lives matter." she also served as a member of president obama's task force on 21st century policing.rk and vann newis a writer at "the atlantic," covering politics and policy. nn played a leang role in the creation of "the atlantic"'s special commemorative issue "king." issue features a collection of stories about the nuances of dr. king and the civil rightswe movement, anthank all of you for being with us. vernon jordan, i'm going to start with you. let's start with the assassination itself. my calculation, you were 32 years old at the timof his death, and you were heavily involved in the civil rights movement working with the voter education projects. you were not in memphis when he died, but how did the news of his death affect you and the people around you? >> i was on my way that evening

to speak at the naacp memrship campaign. i was a keynote speaker. when was tying my tie to get ready to go, the news came on m thrtin had been shot in ofmphis. insteaoing directly to the ywca, i went to my office and got a poem by clae mckay of baltimore which said if we must die, let it not be like hogs. i put it in my pocket and went to the dinner and, at te dinner, it was announced that martin was dad. i read that poem, and we all went hom>>e. oodruff: it's just an impossible thing for all of us to remember. i was incollege at the time, a senior in college, and i remember it was as if time had stopped. connie schultz, you were a young girl. >> i was.

>> woodruff: lving in oho. mm-hmm. >> woodruff: how did his death, hoer did itm coe to -- how did it come to your family, to you, and how do you think it affected the people around you after that? >> well, as you mentioned, i wrote about myather's racism and did that in part because -- i come from theo whiteking class, i was the first in my family to go college, and i u lt so strongly racism is not hereditary, that yke decisions as an adult. do i remember my father's rage often about african-americans, but the problem with my frathe is half my class was growing up in ohio, so i knew a differe realit >> woodruff: fascinating. vann newkirk, you've looked at martin luther king as a jonalist, at what he nt at the time he was alive and what he h's meant since then and how he's seen through the lens of time whado you think you've learned from that? >> i think the biggest thing i've learned is lkioo back

since the 50 years of his assassination, i see how youthful his memory has been forgetting. how youthful ople have picked apart and taken pieces of kings legacy that don't challenge them, that may not push people toward king's actual policy positions but makthem feel good about themselves. he makes people think we did overcome, a certain vision has be created of him, and i think it's actually one thing i like to say now, aftr aving studied it is, on april 4, king the n was assassinated. on april 4, king the mth was gone. >> woodruff: picking up on that brittany packnett and gettig back to what connie d about organizing, you have been very involved in organizing the civil rights movemenf today with "black lives matter," with the organization called "campaign zero" around police-black relations. how does the legacy, theeaning

of dr. king inform what you're doing?ma >> there are sny ways, especially as we look at the greater trexh we have been sed to about dr. king through writings like yours and others, but i think there are three essential things i think about in termsf dr. king's legacy. one is to remember that freedom work will always be more important than popular. dr. king was terribly unpopular when he was actually performing hs work, despite conversation that we have about him now. so dedicating ourselves to something that is bigger than ourselves is something that is rooted in a tradition that is far older than us and dr. king helped show us that. the second is what it means to create a crisis. i go often back to tter from a birmingham jail when people are saying slow down, wait for the time to goarkts and he's reminding folks of the cloth just like him that, actually, if we wait,it usually means never and that we actually have to create a crisis to force you to negotiate with us. so that's what our protest does,

that'shat our wrings do, what our conversations do. it forces america to reckon wih itself and say you actually can't continue business as usual if we're being treed this way. lastly, i just thinkbout a the ways in which we have to commit to longevity, that this was about d. king and ousands of other people who were willing to blaze trails other people were not. so when he talked about the vietnam war, when he forged the poor people's campaign, when he stood asi sanitation workers in memphis, these are conversations people were erwilling to have. >> woodruff:n jordan, you have been listening carefully to what brittany has been saying. how much harder did it become to get ahead with this movement after he was gne? >> well, let me just remind your audience of a name that nobody remembers, and that's the name of e.d. nion. when rosa parks was arrested, she didn't call martin, who was the new pastor at dexter church.

she called e.d. nixthone president of the local naacp in ntgomery and a philip randolph labor man, and it s e.d. nixon who called dr. king and said, . king, this bus thing is more than i can handle, i'm notat ed enough, i'm not smart enough. we need youo come be our leader. and marredde martin said him, , e.d. nixon, i will think abou it. and nixon said, well, reverend, you best have thought about it by 7:00 because the meeting is in your church. (laughter) and, so, the meeting took place, and it was there, thanks to e.do that king accepted the

challenge of being the lader. so we do have to remember martin, and we do, w bute ought not to forget e.d. nixon. >> woodrf: the others who are around who played an portant role. >> absolutely. >> woodruff: as well. connie schultz,ip not asking you to speak for all white people -- >> i assure you i don't. >> woo- druff:t do you think most of us get what the civil rights movement is? >> i'm sad to say no, and i'll tell you what makes me think more about that in recent years is the shooting death of tamir rice. when i went to the funeral, we kept talking about how this was a horrible thing that happened to this boy in our community but i could count on one hand in that crowded church the white people there were there. when we talk abrout ou community as white people, too often we call it about black community

and r community, we need to callit our community. it is a head game. i'm tempted to asks what is the civil rights movement today? it belongs to all of us, doesn't it? >> connie hit the nail on the head talking about the black and white communities. i think there's a difference in the ability ofll one's self off. , ere are folks who can have a white communiey can go to work, never interact with black people, they can go home and never see black people. black people don't have thatn luxury wey go to work, they go to work mostly to work for white folks, they have to figure out how to exist in integrated space. while segregation is still heavy in housing and school, there is still a difference in that ability, and i think that filters our underanding of the civil rights movement. if you asked, i imagine, a sample of ten white americans and ten black manners who the civil rights movement was for, you get differing answers on

whether it was america or black people. it was for america and it was always framed by the leaders to have the sight movement as being for america, for black folks, for laborers, for workers, forw people in the er class. king spoke about a lot more tha just the black people. >> woodruff: brittany packnett, how do you see your mission you role today? i mean, certainly there is the legacy of dr. king, au spoke about that a moment ago, but how is what you do toddiay erent from what he was doing? >> often folks look at people like me and other activists in our communities and say that when we are challenthe status quo that we're actually not espousing the kind of love dr. king talked about. quite thosoppe is true. we love ourselves and community enough to be committed to this work and we're trying to beget o thved community he talks about and leverage the power we have to shake the tab and challenge the status quo so everyone can actually experience a full life and live tht life well.

>> woodruff: vernon jordan, what about what brittany is saying and is what's going on today a continuation of what dr. king was workinr something altogether different? >> i think there's a misunderstanding of t the 1960s as opposed to the 70was about. the '60s was about defining and conferring rights and bringing down the walls of segregation. but when we brought the walls down, thanks largely to martin, that created debris, and t debris was more difficult to deal wih. we assured the right to chebuck inthe next stage was the wherewithal to check out, and white america never bought into the wherewithal, and that's part of the problem. >> woodruff: what do you mean? that, before you can check out, you have to have a good job

so you can pay the bills. to get a good job, you have to have a goodducation. white america just thought, if we drop the walls, they could go on and do what they were doing before. >> i listen to vernon and it's very hard for me tosagree with any of that. i remain optimistic. i'll tell you what reached people about tamir rice, when i interviewed his mother a year later, she told me there is the video of tamirice being killed. she said i watch that video all the time. i looked at her mother to mther and i said why would you do that? she said, i keep looking f some sign that he knew what was coming because she said he was so friendly with everyone and i just want to say to him, tamir, did you know what was about to happen? did you know you were about to die? that was a breakthrough moment for an awful lot of white leaders >> woodruff:ere finally a message for the whole country,

that what the rest of us need to know aut where you and others, young african-americans who want to see some of the main goals that martin luther king had but want to see them realized in your vision, in the way you see what he waso talking ut? >> well, i think if you take stock of where the country is now, if you look at all the economicndicators, progress of the fact that schools are still segregated in most places, the fact that homeownership and total wealth between blacks and whites are actually more disparate in some places than ey were in 1968, i think we're now at a place where we've learned quite a bit from 196it a bit from the civil rights movement, quite a bit from activists who are on the ground, and it's time, now, for people s to say, okay, we've doe that, we can pt into it

practice. we know how to talk to white folks now. we know how to tell them that, okay, this opioid epidemic gripping our country is actually a relic policy built against black aericans. so we can bring people together on the axis of conferring rigeqs anl access and that's where i think the conversation can turn todray. >> wof: how do you both celebrate the good that's come from all the work that's been done but inspire people to keep going? >> i think we inspire people through our action. like dr. king, i'm a person of faith and i believe in praying with my feet, as we ofen say. the more we see young people like the parkland teens and chicago activists and baltimore activist working on issues of gun violence to young people watrying to get livinges in their community, the more we pay attention to what's happening in our communities every day that gives us hope, we can understand being pro me doe't mean being

anti-you, pro black is not anti-white, and we don't have to operate in a scarcity model thau because i have enough to lead a good life means i'll take with you. we can oerate that way whn we pray with our feet and get to work. >> i think it can be summed up with two sentences: we've come a long, long way, and we ll have a long, long way to go. >> woodruff: vernon jordan, connie schultz, brittany packnett, vann newkirk, thank you all very much. >> thank you, judy. .oo >>uff: and, our series, "50 years later," continues over the next two days, with reflections from people who worked closely with dr. king.

>> woodruff: finally tonight, it has been just over six months since hurricane maria slammed into puerto rico, and roughly 150,000 people still do not have power. some are advocating that now is the time for the island to invest in solar energy. science producer nsikan akpan explains what they will need to see the light, in this week's "leang edge" story, which ai every wednesday. >> reporter: when hurricane maria hit, puerto rico's electric power authority had been relyi on imported fossil fuels for 98% of its energy. its major plants beam power from the south to the heavilyan populated nortwest. the storm flooded these power stations, ripped out 65% of above-ground cables, and crippled the power supply. many areow wondering if puerto rico would be better off with solar energyot but solar isn easy fix. here are four things that puerto rico wouldeed to make solar work.

solar panels can withstand hurricanes. even maria's 155 mph winds failed to knock out solar power at the veterans medical center in san juan. but, cloudy weather and the darkness of night keep solar panels from constantly generating power. the energy collected during ear days must be stored. so, batteries have made an enormous leap foard in recent ars, with the addition of lithium ion batteries. adam gentner works foronnen, a world leader in solar battery storage. coafter maria, the german mpany provided free solar batteries and panels at 15 key sites in puerto rico. this includes schools, food shelters and this public laundromat in old san juan. they picked this site because after maria, wastewater wasn't being tread, and washing clothes became lethal. >> we use lithium iron phosphate, which is, as you can see, it's not a small system for a home, but it's much more resilient to environmenctl s. it can discharge and charge up to 10,000 times.

>> reporter: by packing less energy per square inch, lithium iron phosphate bteries last longer, and are less likely to overheat in puerto rico's hot, humid climate. gentner expects this $40,000, six-kilowatt-hour battery system stat this laundromat to la 26 years. but, puerto rico's solal rev will need more than just batteries. ingredient number two: micro- grids. maria crushed 911 emergencyns communicatn the island, so the las vegas fire department partnered with the nonprofit sempowered by light and tar energy company sunrun to turn fire stations into solar stations. there is 6,600 watts on this roof. they suprt an 800-amp-hour, 25-kilowatt-hour battery system. so it's enough for them to power the radios, the critical parts of this station 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. this firehouse in naguabo is now a micro-grid, a self-contained island of power production. with this micro-grid, the city's 30,000 residents can access

emergency services even during blackout. but a micro-grid can do more than support a phone line, according to sunrun's andy newbtid. >> a lot os, you're not using all that energy at night, so the excess energy can then feed back into the grid. ne>> reporter: this excessy ern be siphoned into a "virtual power plant"-- a plant organized in the digital cloud. s we're working on aggregating all these systemgether, so it's hundreds of homes with solar and batteries. and that way, when prepa or any utility across the country needs it, they can call on us.n >> reporter: wouped together, these micro-grids can power a whole mmunity or whole ties. in germany, one community of 10,000 ridential micro-grids produces as much energy as all the coal plants in texas and west virginia. but building this pe of virtual community requires complex software.

ingredient number three: a digital oasis. >> oasis is a project that we're running from the university, with the goal of designing a new type of smart grid that is decentralized. >> reporter: a smart grid is a self-thinking network of micro-grid it can autonomously communicate where energy is being produced, and where to send it. manuel rodriguez martinez and a team of computer scientists, electrical engineers and social scientists have spent three years designing a smargrid just for puerto rico. >> rather than just building something and then hoping that people will buy it, the project is trying to understand from the designoint of view what people want, and how can i incorporate that feedback into the system. >> reporter: they engineeredle machine-ning algorithms that monitor weather reports to predict how solar panels will perform, and ones that identify power surges before they happen. next, they designed a smart card that connects to home power meters, so microrids can chat with each other. all this tech then combines with a marketplace app.

something like ebay, where you abn see all the offers ava for energy and the time when it is available, and then you can decide from whnoto buy it. bu of this will work without ingredient number four: government buy-in. puerto rico's governor announced he wants to privatize and break up the energy utility, with a goal of more than 30% renewable energy generation. but because of the 30-year-old stafford act, a law that doles out federal assistance for natural disasters, puerto rico's energy grid must be rebuilt exactly how it was-- same poles, fossil fu generators and wiring as before. so it's unclear, at the moment, how solar will integrate into the grid. n >> lot build poles and wires just to have them knocked down again in the next hurricane. let's think about smart and resilient energy going forward. we can't keep doing things the same way.

>> reporter: i'm nsikan akpan and this is sciencescope with the pbs newshour. >> woodruff: on the newshour online right now-- an oklahoma teacher writes about her decision to join the multi-dayt walk protest of ousufficient education funding. that and more is owebsite, www.pbs.org/newshour. and, tune in tomorrow. i travel to californ to sit down with sheryl sandberg, chief operating officer of fk, about the growing storm of questions over the social media giant's handling of userata and its role in the 2016 election. and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again right here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you, and we'll see you soon. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> my dad once said to me, tragedy has a way of defining people. >> what the hell happened, teddy?

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