captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening. i'm judy woodruff. on the newshour tonight: peace and justice. protests increase in size across the country, with violence declining, as new charges are leveled against minneapolis police officers in the killing of george floyd. then, policing in america. we examine law enforcement practices that disproportionately target people of color, and ways to reform the justice system. plus, "race matters." as covid-19 exposes deep racial fissures, a sociologist examines the often-unintentional racial attitudes of americans. >> perhaps people will see the

that these numbers and just the tremendous trauma that the black community in particular is facing in this moment. and perhaps that will make them take racial health disparities more seriously. >> 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.

>> fidelity investments. >> consumer cellular. >> financial services firm raymond james. >> johnson & johnson. >> supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the world's most pressing problems-- skollfoundation.org. >> the lemelson foundation. committed to improving lives through invention, in the u.s. and developing countries. on the web at lemelson.org. >> 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:

>> 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: there are new criminal charges tonight in the killing of george floyd. the death of the minneapolis man at the hands of police has roiled the nation, and large- scale protests are continuing. lisa desjardins begins our coverage. >> desjardins: in minnesota, the family of george floyd, gathered on the eve of his memorial service, again faced learned news in his case. today, the charge against derek chauvin, the officer who pressed his knee on floyd's neck, was raised to second- degree murder. the three other officers who watched and stood near as floyd died have been charged with aiding and abetting murder. floyd family attorney benjamin crump.

>> the family has always wanted first-degree murder. to the full extent of the law. whatever george floyd would have been charged with, if the roles were reversed, that's what the families have asked for. >> desjardins: crump says there is still the possibility of increased charges. attorney general keith ellison announced the decision today. it came after a night of some of the largest, and largely peaceful, nationwide protests yet. ( chanting "i can't breathe!" ) >> desjardins: in new york, protesters defied a new, earlier curfew, with thousands flooding the streets well into the night, with only scattered looting. >> i don't preach violence, i preach equality. i want all of us to be equal, and that's why i stand. >> desjardins: ultimately, police officers began pushing people off the streets... >> keep going! keep going! >> desjardins: ...igniting a few clashes. >> they grabbed innocent people for no reason, and just stted, like, cuffing them, pushing them

into the ground. this dude was a journalist in the press, he has a press pass, and they pushed him to the ground. >> desjardins: in washington, d.c., the scene outside the white house was also starkly different from one night earlier. a new, tall fence rred protesters from lafayette park next to the white house. the crowd remained large and broke curfew to gather, but police did not use force to remove them, and things remained peaceful. protesters pointedly worked to block anyone attempting violence. >> there hasn't been any violence, aside from a street sign that was torn down, and the crowd booed him because that's not what we're here for. >> desjardins: white house press secretary kayleigh mcenany today raised concern about police officers who have been injured, including david dorn, a retired officer, who was killed while trying to protect a friend's store in st. louis. president trump had demanded that governors and mayors get tougher and use the national guard. today, in a fox news radio interview, he claimed credit for things appearing to get calmer. >> if you look at what happened in minnesota, they were getting decimated. and after three days of watching

it, i demanded that the national guard be utilized, and in one day, it was over. >> desjardins: the president also talked this week of invoking the "insurrection act"" to use the active-duty military in a bid to restore order. but today, secretary of defense mark esper told congress he opposes taking that step now. >> the option to use active-duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the st urgent and dire of situations. we are not in one of those situations now. i do not support invoking the insurrection act. >> desjardins: secretary esper also defended his monday night walk with trump to a nearby church for a presidential photo-op, after police forcibly cleared away peaceful protesters. >> what i was not aware of was exactly where we were going when we arrived at the chch, and what the plans were when we got there. it was also my aim, and general milley's, to meet and thank members of the national guard who were on duty that evening in the park. >> desjardins: but senate minority leader chuck schumer

again criticized what happened outside the white house that night. >> this administration ordered federal officers to gas peaceful protesters and charge on horseback and defend our monuments like battlefield positions. what is president trump doing to this grand democracy? >> desjardins: the white house and pentagon today denied that tear gas was used on the protesters monday night. the white house today said that attorney general barr gave the order to push back the crowds, and it was part of a previously- made decision. meantime, the world is watching the unrest across the united states. in iran, supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei said the u.s. is hypocritical. >> ( translated ): they kill people, committing crimes openly, and they don't apologize. but they shamelessly keep talking about human rights. apparently, the african american man who was killed there was not a human being. >> desjardins: in china, the

communist party newspaper "global times" said the u.s. show of force proved beijing was right to crack down on pro- democracy crowds in tiananmen square, 31 years ago tomorrow. the tragedy of george floyd's death has sparked global protests in solidarity against racism from london, to paris, to cape town, south africa. back in thu.s., new protests flared up across cities this evening, for a ninth straight night of unrest. for the pbs newshour, i'm lisa desjardins. >> woodruff: this evening, former president jimmy carter released a statement, calling for justice and acknowledging the pain of racism. he wrote, "we all must shine a spotlight on the immorality of racial discrimination. but violence, whether spontaneous or consciously incited, is not a solution." i spoke a short time ago with the mayor of one city that has seen protests and curfews in the past few days. stephen benjamin is columbia, south carolina's first african american mayor, and has held the position since 2010.

mayor benjamin, thank you very much for talking with us. as a black man who's been in public life going back to the 1990s, what has this past week been like for you? >> i'm used to activism, that's why i got -- where i got my start. but this year and, honestly, the last several years have been unlike anything i've seen before. obviously, the global pandemic, unlike anything we've seen in the last 100 years, trying to deal with is intersectionality of so many issues that led to despairty impact on communities of colors and affect on those and with so many other major issues going on, people forget we're still very much in the pandemic. the collective pain that america has felt over the last week over the floyd case and as a culmination of the pain regarding systemic racism,

violence, police violence and all these other issues, it has been overwhelming, and it requires, you know, real leadership willing to step up and address these issues. but it's going to take a lot of work, a lot of work. >> reporter: you had, of course, protests on several nights, protests over the weekend that turned violent. what would you sa say is the ste of unrest right now in columbia? >> just as you see across the country, indeed across the globe, there are several of our citizens and people who live here who may not be citizens who want to have their voices heard, who have felt for quite some time that they have been unheard. so we aggressively encourage people to participate in the right to petition your government for redress of grievous. south carolina case, u.s. supreme court case, it started in columbia back in the early '60s, still case law taught in law schools, does secure people's right to petition, to

assembly and free speech and it's something that we feel is at the center of who we are as a city and state. the challenge, of course, on saturday is what happens when those nonviolent protests become violent, and i fear that the great discussion that was emerging -- we started hearing voices last week that never talked about social justice, equity, systemic issues in policing last week actually start talking about them and speaking in words that flect love, grace and mercy, and i believe that the events over the weekend, in several cities, including ours, kind of took us off track. and my goal has been to pull us back on track tmake sure we continue having those important discussions. >> reporter: i read that you met with the protestors on a couple of occasions. they are talking to you about wanting more transparency in the work that police do in your

community. the kinds of things they're asking for are not on the books right now, so they're asking you to change laws, change regulations? >> yeah, it's actually a mixed bag. so the list of concerns and demands, it's actually a mixed bag of things that require local action, some require state action, some federal and some address cultural issues that have been part of our dna since before the founding of the republic, go back to 1619, but still require leaders today to address them. our conversations have lent themselves to looking at these demands. literaliterally we spent two hos yesterday going through all of them, and me sharing. it starts with dialogue. the challenge we have right now, judy, as you know, is a lot of well-meaning people are yelling at each other or silent, and

there's not much dialogue, so i promised to them we will work through this, have real dialogue. the things we agree on, we'll move on, the things we disagree on, we'll share reasons why, and if we have a fundamental agreement with some of the is shiewsh down the road, we'll let democracy do its work. >> woodruff: quickly, i want to bring this back to what you mentioned at the outseand that is the pandemic and covid 19. south carolina, i autosaw over the weekend, hat its highest daily new count of covid cases. how concerned are you, mayor benjamin, that these protests could lead to another outbreak of the virus of covid i? >> incredibly concerned, especially after what we saw on some of our beaches on memorial day weekend. most of the protesters are socially conscious enough to be wearing p.p.e., to be wearing masks.

however, we do know that the greatest way to slow or stop the spread of the virus is to do physical distancing, and that's not happening. we have been talking with organizes about offering covid 19 testing at some of the next rallies and do some of the things to try and curb the spread of the virus because it is showing no sign of abating or decelerating. it gives me grave concerns. >> reporter: mayor stephen benjamin of columbia, south carolina, thanks so much for talking with us. >> it's an honor, judy. thank you. >> woodruff: the u.s. topped 1.8 million cases of the coronavirus and passed 107,000 deaths. the state of florida reported 1,300 new infections, one of its largest one-day surges. but, governor ron desantis said

it is because testing capacity is improving. >> now, the virus isn't gone. i think that we're testing a lot identifying cases, particularly in prisons, amongst agriculture workers, areas where you have a lot of congregation, close quarters for a long period of time, and so we're going to continue to keep an eye on that. >> woodruff: overseas, the british government said that it will mandate a two-week self- quarantine on anyone arriving from abroad. in the u.s. presidential campaign, former vice president joe biden is now within a few dozen delegates of clinching the democratic presidential nomination. he swept tuesday's primaries in seven states and the district of columbia. we will look at that, and the other headlines from the primaries, later in the program. republican party leaders made it official today-- parts of the g.o.p. convention will take place this august in charlotte, north carolina as planned.

but, in an unusual move, president trump will give his acceptance speech in a city yet to be determined. north carolina's democratic governor roy cooper has said that pandemic concerns make a full-scale convention very unlikely. former deputy attorney general rod rosenstein conceded today that there were mistakes in the probe of the 2016 trump campaign and its alleged ties to russia. he said he would not have approved surveillance of campaign aide carter page if he had known of problems with the warrant. but at a.s. senate hearing, rosenstein defended tapping robert mueller to lead the investigation, and insisted the probe was not corrupt. >> i was concerned that the public would not have confidence in the investigation. i decided that appointing the special counsel was the best way to complete the investigation appropriately and promote public confidence in its conclusions.

>> woodruff: the mueller probe found the russians did try to interfere with the 2016 election. it did not allege a criminal conspiracy with the trump campaign. president trump's doctor reports that he remains healthy, based on his latest physical exams. today's statement also says the president had no ill effects from taking hydroxychloroquine for two weeks to help ward off covid-19. however, a major new study today in the "new england journal of medicine" said the drug has no effect on the coronavirus. the trump administration will ban four chinese airlines from flying to the u.s. that announcement comes after beijing refused to let united and delta air lines resume flights to china, as the pandemic has subsided there. before the pandemic, there were about 325 flights a week between the two nations. and on wall street, stocks pushed higher again, on growing optimism that the economy can

recover quickly. the dow jones industrial average gained 527 points to close near 26,270. the nasdaq rose 74 points, and the s&p 500 added 42. it is now near its all-time high, set earlier this year. still to come on the newshour: we examine police practices that often target people of color, and possible reforms. a sociological perspective on the deep racial fissures of the united states. plus, the critical takeaways from another primary election day in america. >> woodruff: the protests have become about more than just policing.

but, the big disparities in how law enforcement treat african americans and other people of color-- and how that has led to too many deaths-- is at the heart of how this all began. we are going to spend some time examining that again tonight with amna nawaz, and a range of voices. >> nawaz: judy, as we've seen, there's been quite a difference in how police officers have responded to some of these demonstrations and unrest, especially when they have become more chaotic or violent. houston's police chief, art acevedo, has become known for condemning floyd's death and walking with protesters early on. he also was critical of the president, arguing he should "keep your mouth shut" if he had nothing constructive to say. but in the past day,ome protesters have also demanded the release of body camera footage tied to a half dozen houston police shootings this spring. art acevedo joins me now.

chief art acevedo, thank you for being with us and welcome to the "newshour". i want to ask you about the response that's gotten so much rt of your response to get out and walk with the protestors. why did you do that >> first of all, i'm an immigrant, english is my second language and, quite frankly, i live and work and serve a city that is the most diverse in the country, and i wanted to feel the pain, especially with my african-american community, and for those who don't think this community's pain is real, i would ask you to march with them and look in their eyes and look at the teaf being shed and hear the stories and you will be empathetic. if you're not empathetic seeing what the world has seen in terms of how george floyd died, then i think you're probably part of the problem in this country as it relates to police relations and basically racism in our country. >> reporter: you've talked about changing that police culture and the language, you've also talked about the need for more deescalation training, and i want to ask you in response to what we've seen across the country from some police

departments to set aside the pockets of looting and violence, the vast majority of the demonstrations have been lrgelyi peaceful, even as they've grown, and yet we've seen again and again in image after image that peaceful demonstrators with signs and bull horns are met with a police force infull riot gear that looks ready for battle. how does that contribute to deescalation? >> well, here's the problem -- during the day, in most cities, protestors come out, people that want to focus on the death of george floyd and on police misconduct and making change in this country come out. but as the day grows late into the afteoon and early evening into the night, then what happens is too many people come out who are more involved in anarchy, who want to not protest, but they want to hijack, they want to hijack a legitimate movement, which is counterproductive, and, sadly,

for police officers, people aren't throwing bottles and rocks and molotov cocktails until they're actually throwing them. on friday when things start flying, we had about nine officers hurt. so i understand the perception. it's a fine balance, but, at the end of the day, we have to keep our officers safe and their number one priority should be to keep the community safe >> reporter: i want to get back to the videos we referenced in our introduction because as we've seen videos of you marching with the protestors and in the last day we've seen videos of protestors an which with you, calling you a lawyer and making reference to you to release police body camera videos. on the same day george floyd was killed it was the sixth fatal police shooting in as many weeks. even the editorial board at the houston chronicle says it's time to release the videos.

so why haven't you? >> first of all, i think it's important for the community to know that the one thing that's missing from that narrative is almost every single one of those officer-involved shootings involved armed suspects that were confronting our officers. one happened right after an 80-year-old woman was stabbed to death in a walgreen's park lot who proceeded to attack her officer with a knife, and i could go down the line. there are almost always consequences to our actions. this is the most diverse city in the country and in the event one of the officer-involved shootings leads to indictment, if we release everything, and there's so much pre-trial publicity, we run the risk of moving the trial to another county that is not as diverse or progressive, that is not as reflective of our jury pool, and the worst thing that could happen is we have a case moved to east texas, west texas, a

place that isn't reflective of this community that's the most diverse in the country and we have an acquittal. that in itself is a problem. the other piece is that we've had two families now that one family had demanded release of the video and, as soon as they saw it, we spent three hours with them, showed them all the videos, they don't want the videos released >> reporter: after that process is completed, you will release those videos? >> absolutely, with the exception that i want to make the argument that, for the families where there's no criminal charges that don't want them released, i think that has to be part of the conversation. , after all >> reporter: before i let you go, chief, very briefly, we mentioned you have been critical of president tru's calling for ramped up use of force to dominate the streets. you've seen the protests grow bigger in the days since. i wonder what your concern is the effect will be if the president continues with that kind of rhetoric >> well, first, i urged the immediate -- i urge the media to

quote me properly and have the proper context. i actually said please, which no one seems to be putting into the conversation. i think i was pretty direct when i said shut up and i really wanted to say be quiet. but i know for a fac that men and women's lives are on the line. this is a time for leadership and reconciliation and this is a time for a call for peace and, most importantly, it's a time to use words that deescalate the situation and moves the conversation forward, and no one's better positioned to either do it the right way or the wrong way and to have the most impact on the president of the united states and we're calling on him to be an agent of positive change in community relations >> reporter: chief thank you so much >> thank you. >> nawaz: let's focus in further these questions. a few numbers that underscore the disparities here: more than half of all people

killed by police are black, according to recent numbers. and one of every ten black men in his 30s is in a jail or prison in the u.s. on a given day, according to the sentencing project. now, two of our guests are engaged in this closely. tracey meares is the founding director of the justice collaboratory at yale law school. she was a member of president obama's task force on policing. and, samuel sinyangwe is an activist and a policy analyst who studies this. he's also a co-founder of the group campaign zero. welcome to you both and thank you for being here. sam, we hear those numbers, we report them again and again. you study te data, so help us put them into context. had they been getting better or worse over time? >> so, we built police violence which is a most comprehensive data base built in 2015. we have been tracking every incident in the country. we found the number of police killed by police each year has not gone down since the protest began in 2016.

about 11 is hundred people are killed by police each year, constant going back before the protests from 2013 and going up to 2019. however some changes are notable. police killings in large cities have declined about 30% since 2013. meanwhile, police killings have increased in suburban and rural areas >> reporter: police officer let's talk about the policy reforms because a lot of people have been hearing about them after videos documenting the devastating numbers we talked about. when you look at the policy reforms, everything from body cameras to banning choke holds and strangle holds, there are some places they don't work in new york, even in new york, where those kinds of choke holds were banned and they stillo on and in some cases with impunity. talk about the policy reform on this. what is still needed to be done? >> i think what's needed to be done is to have a national baseline standard around use of

force. i think sam's observation that big cities whiff a lot more resources to engage in policy change and to actually train officers on strategies like deescalation, banning choke holds, teaching and training officers on how to better engage with citizens to deal with the least -- least forceful response, using citations rather than arrests, or just talking to people rather than citations, those are the kinds of strategies that big cities are engaged in. smaller cities don't always necessarily have those resources or access to the technical assistance to do that work, and, in the last four years, the current administration has not devoted resources to doing that work in the way that the cops' office and the oba administration did. finally, i think, with what you're seeing in some of the major cities, is a change in orientation of how to do policing as general matter. that is, instead of focusing on

ferreting out wrong doers and focusing on deterrence-based strategies of getting people to obey the through through fear, instead people are focusing on strategies that promote trust and legitimacy. a real change in the job of the police officer, as we know it, but more needs to be done >> reporter: sam, the big question here is accountable as well, right, that wen bad actors, as they at a, act badly, something happens, it sends a message. when you look at the the accountable factor, what stands in the way of that accountability and how can that part of this be fixed? >> so nationwide, only 7% of all reported excessive force results in an officer being held accountable according to the bureau of justice statistics. which means in 93% of the cases where citizens report misconduct involving force officers aren't disciplined. to understand why that is

occurring, we need to talk about the systems and structures of accountability and the way in which police unions in particular play an outsized role in informing what those structures looked like. weooked at 100 largest cities in the country and examined the police union contracts, the contracts between the police union and the city which are usually in effect every four years and get renegotiated. we found in contracts like in cities like chicago, police misconduct records are destroyed every five years, and between every one and two years. those places with contracts are less likely to hold officers accountable, more likely to have misconduct and more likely to shoot people. we need to talk about shaping the way in which communities can possibly hold police accountable, even if you have the best police chief and mayor, in many cases they are limited in what they can do because the accountability system has already been negotiated away and

the unions have veto power over changes to the strucre >> reporter: i apologize for a g question with a few seconds left, but you talked about the need not only for palsy change but culture change, where does that begin? >> that begins with making an effort to achieve some of the things that we just talked about today. it requires the fac that we nee to have a serious deliberative democratic conversation about the shape of policing and the context of the state whose job it is to support its citizens and -- in ensuring the vitality of their communities, and that the not just a conversation about what police do, it's a conversation about the shape of public education, healthcare, housing, all of these things are related. so when people are focusing on policing right now, they need towns that is the tip of the iceberg in terms to have way -- in terms of the way in which people react with the state >> reporter: professor tracey meares of yale law schools and

samuel sinyangwe of campaign zero. thanks for being with us >> thank you. >> woodruff: while the covid-19 pandemic continues to occupy center stage, what some are calling a different virus-- structural racism-- is now front and center. we turn to special correspondent charlayne hunter-gault for the latest in our "race matters" series, looking at solutions to racism. >> reporter: more than 100,000 americans have died from the covid-19 pandemic, the vast majority of them african americans. but, studies also show that this group-- especially black men and boys-- face the highest risk of being killed by police, three times higher than whites. as cities nationwide boil over in protest at these twin epidemics, one expert says

solutions lie not only with systemic reform, but with individual families. she is margaret hagerman, an assistant professor of sociology at mississippi state university, and the author of "white kids: growing up with privilege in a racially divided america." she spent two years embedded with white families in a midwestern town, looking into the relationship between white privilege and racism, even in families that view themselves as progressive. maggie hagerman, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. >> reporter: it was after grad school that you embedded yourself in an all-white community somewhere in the midwest-- that remains anonymous, understandably. how did you esent yourself? i mean, did you say, "i'm here to study why you're a racist?" >> no. i d not approach participants

like that. and so, i went where i thought i would find them. and when i would approach families, i would present this project as one that is exploring how parents prepare their children to participate in a diverse democracy. that was the language that i used. it was interesting because many of the white families that i invited to participate would often refer me to their friends of color. so, like, their black friend, their black neighbor, you know, their latino coworker. and i thought that was interesting, that they believed, even before i started collecting data, thatheir children would not have anything to say about race, but that the black and brown children in their community would. >> reporter: what was some of the most surprising things that, maybe some of the most important things that you learned during those... three years, right? >> reporter: so one of the great things about embedding myself in this community is i was able to really document all of the different ways that children in my research learned portant is what their parentse did. so the choices that their

parents madebout where to live or what school to send their children to or which extracurricular activities to enroll their kids in, where to travel, what kinds of, you know, media they consumed, all of these choices had really all of these choices have really significant impacts on how children were interpreting their social environment. and so, certainly for the kids that were living in that suburban community, they, i mean, they never came into contact with a person of color, ever. even their knowledge about racial difference or about race in america came from things like tv shows and movies, which was interesting. and so i absolutely think that parents are shaping this process. >> reporter: now, you spoke about some of the more integrated communities, but in those predominantly white communities, in the schools, were they teaching african american history? >> they were not receiving as critical of an education on the history of racism in america, or african american history,

certainly. and this was apparent based on the things that they said. one of the quotes in the very beginning of the book is from a child who tells me that, "since martin luther king and eleanor roosevelt, and how she went on the bus and she was african american and sat on the white part, after the 1920s and all that, things changed." and so i thought that was a really compelling quote, because it demonstrates, you know, just her lack of knowledge. and then her mother was sitting there when she said it and she was like, "yes, tell it, tell her, you know, tell her what you know." >> reporter: you know, this covid-19andemic has unleashed a lot of information that pele may not have been aware of, and that is that, at the moment, the majority of people who are getting infected by the virus and who are dying are people of color, primarily black people. do you think that the attention that's been paid to that is going to makpeople look at

african americans and people of color differently? >> you know, on the one hand, perhaps people will see that these-- these numbers, and just the tremendous trauma that the black community in particular is facing in this moment, and perhaps that will make them take, take racial health disparities more seriously. on the other hand, you know, i think that there's evidence that, you know, people have known about racial and racial health disparities for a very long time. linda villarosa had an article in the "new york times magazine," and in that, she reminds us that w.e.b. du bois talked about, you know, the social conditions that lead to racial health inequality, in 1899. and so this isn'something new. >> reporter: so, based on your research, though, and your interaction with people who obviously became very comfortable with you, in your presence-- do you have any solutions that you can offer for

people to deal with racism in a more positive way? >> well, i think that one of the patterns that i see, is that a lot of white parents believe that simply talking to their kids about racism will somehow ensure that their child will not reproduce racial inequality in their own life. and, i always see these articles that come out. i've seen a lot recently that have come out in light of the police shooting of george floyd, for example, where, you know, parents are being called to talk to their kids. and what my research shows is that talk is only part of the... part of the answer. and, in fact, i think that parents, especially those like the ones in my study, who are white and affluent and have a number of different kinds of privileges, when those parents use those privileges to give their own child advantages, that ultimately reproduces forms of inequality that are, you know, part of the problem, too.

>> reporter: but how do you change that? because you can't tell people, "stop making money or stop being, you know, well-off." so how do you do that? >> every parent that i've spoken to has told me that they want their kid to be happy. and i think that trying to get your child an upper hand and an advantage at every turn and using the symbolic capital of whiteness as well as your economic privilege to do that, is ultimately not going to lead to the kind of future that is good for all children or all people that live in this society. and i think that the most important thing that white parents can do is embrace the idea that all children are worthy of their consideration and that we should care about our community. we should think about the collective good. we should focus on how we can help everyone, rather than just focusing on our own child. >> reporter: finally, how important is it for people who are in leadership positions to say the right things about race? and does that really matter? >> yes, i absolutely think it...

think that it matters. it's important that people who are in leadership positions and in positions of authority take the realities of racism, the legacy of racism, the-- the data and the facts that we have about racism, seriously, and include those in not only what they say, but also what they do, in terms of their policies and how they move forward as-- as a leader. >> reporter: well, maggie hagerman, thank you so much for joining us. i know that this is going to be very instructive to a lot of people. >> thank you so much for having me. >> woodruff: and please join us friday night for "race matters: america in crisis," a pbs newshour prime time special. at the end of this difficult week, we explore this critical moment and how we move ahead. >> woodruff: it was a remarkable

contrast yesterday, in the middle of an ongoing pandemic. even as protesters took to the streets in dozens of cities, voters in several states were making their voices heard at the polls,oth in-person and by mail. in ferguson, missouri, where protests first erupted in 2014 after the shooting death of michael brown by a white police officer, the city elected its first african american and first woman mayor. ella jones reflected on her historic win last night. >> so being the first african american woman, what does that mean? that means i've got work to do. because when you're an african american woman, they require more of you than they require of my counterpart. and i know that the people in ferguson are ready to stabilize their community, and we're going to work together to get it done. >> woodruff: to look at some of yesterday's election results and

what it means ahead of november, i'm joined now by someone familiar to newshour viewers-- it's amy walter of the cook political report, and host of public radio's "politics with amy walter." let's start with those results in ferguson. it's almost like book ends. you had the big protests of six years ago with the death of michael brown at the hands of a police officer. six years later, protests in ferguson missouri over what happened in minneapolis. it's a city still struggling like the restf the country with this issue. how is it thought that the election of this woman, ella jones, could change things? >> yeah, judy, it is quite remarkable, again, to have a first african-american elected in this week in a city like ferguson that has so much symbolism. but what's also remarkable, judy, is how much the amecan public has moved on this issue, this issue of excessive force

used by police, especially against black folks, and what we saw in 2014 was only a third of americans thought that the police used executive force with african-americans versus whites. in 2016, it was still about a third. today a new poll came out, monmouth university poll shows that almost 60% of americans now believe that excessive force is being used against african-americans more so than it's being used against whites. and i think that's an incredible movement in such a short amount of time. i think a lot of that is driven, of course, by the horrific video that most americans, if they haven't seen it themselves, have hed about. and i also thinkit's reflective of the fact that a lot has happened since 2014, even in ferguson. in ferguson, even before this election of the mayor, a number of african-americans were elected to the city council, so

it went from almost all white to being majority african-american over the course of these last few years. >> woodruff: so, amy, so much to talk about there, but i also want to ask you about iowa. very interesting result there. republican conservative congressman steve king known for making controversial statements over the years, especially with regard to white supremacy. so last night he goes down to defeat in that primary in iowa. what does this say about what could happen in november? >> judy, seems like almost too much of a hollywood script, right to have the first african-american elected in ferguson and then to have somebody associated with anti-immigrant and racist statements lose in a primary in iowa. it's not as simple as that, of course. nothing ever is in life or in politics. the challenge that steve king had also came within his own

party, and he was defeated in a republican primary, in large part because the republican leadership abandoned him after he made some of these comments in 2019, but they were also abandoning him because of how weak a showing he had in 2018. he almost lost in his very conservative, very republican district. they got behind a state senator who's also very conservative, who's also very closely tied to donald trump. he tied himself very closely to the president in his own ads. the campaign that the republican opponent to steve king ran wasn't taking on steve king's past anti-immigrant or racist statements. he didn't mention that reallyt at all. it was focused on the fact that steve king had lost his prestigious committee assignment that republicans had stripped him of that. so that was a bigger factor in this race than the statements that he had made previously.

>> woodruff: and now that seat is going to be one tougher for the democrats to pick up. >> that's right. >> woodruff: quickly, amy, just a few seconds. this dispute over the republican convention in the state of north carolina, where is that headed? >> it looks likit's headed to a differt state. the president wants -- the president wants a big convention, d he wants a crowd, and north carolina's not going to give it to him, so he's going to figure it out, and he wants to show america that he's getting things back on track and the convention is his way to do that. >> woodruff: amy walter, so much to talk about. thank you very much. great to see you on this wednesday. we'll see you next week. and we will be back shortly with former president obama's response to the current crisis, and a news update. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. it's a chance to offer your support, which helps keep programs like ours on the air.

before we go. former u.s. secretary of defense

james mattis is condemning the president, who named him to that position, for dividing the country. writing in "the atlantic," mattis said that president trump's response to these protests has been "an abuse of executive authority" and that mr. trump is a threat to the constitution. former president barack obama also spoke out about the death of george floyd. mr. obama's remarks came during a virtual town hall, during which he spoke directly to young people of color affected by racial injustice and violence. you can watch the full video on our website, pbs.org/newshour. but first, here is an excerpt. >> i want you to know that you matter. i want you to know that your lives matter, that your dreams matter. matter and, when i go home and i look at the faces of my daughters, sasha and malia, and i look at my nephews and nieces, i see limitless potential that deserves to flourish and thrive, and you s you should be able to learn and

make mistakes and live a life of joy without having to worry about what's going to happen when you walk to the store, or go for a jog, or driving down the street, or looking at some birds in a park. >> woodruff: that's president obama, former president obama speaking today. and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm judy woodruff. 'll see you soon. stay safe and >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been providedy: >> consumer cellular offers no-contract wireless plans that are designed to help you dmore of the things you enjoy. whether you're a talker, texter, browser, photographer, or a bit of everything, our u.s.-based customer service team is here to find a plan that fits you. to learn more, go to consumercellular.tv >> life isn't a straight line, and sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected, with financial planning and advice for today, and tomorrow.

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zachary quinto: nearest to the young sunun, four worlds form, each endowed with ingredients for life. suzanne smrekar: there are a lot of places in the solar system where environmen could be habitable. quinto: four stories... with surprising beginnings. (craft thuds, thunder rumbles) ♪ larry nittler: this was quite a surprise and immediately told us that some of the older ideas of how mercury formed could not be correct. (thunder claps) lynnae quick: venus may have once had global oceans, but as the sun bame warmer and warmer, the surface temperatures on venus heated up. (thunder rumbling) anjali tripathi: the orbits of the planets d their current locations have changed over the history of the solar system.