ioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, ju 26: protest pandemonium in portland and across the country as demonstrators clash with policei the americans disabilities act turns 30. ng over the cros edmund pettus bridge for representative john lewis. next on "pbs newshour weekend." >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. e anderson family fund. the cheryl and philip milstein family. searbara hope zuckerberg. charles rolum. we try to live in the moment,

to not miss what's right in front of us. at mual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow ocan helpake the most of today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no-contract wireless plans, designed t people do more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit www.consumercellular.tv. ditional support has been provided by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, private corporation funded by the american people. nand by contributo your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank y for joining us. protests in the pacific northwest are continuing this weekend over racial injusti and t presence of federal agents sent by the trump administration. in portland, thousands gathered last night near the federal courthouse, where federal agents

have engaged with protesters for more than a week. protesters threw fireworks and federal agents fired tear gas and pepper spray to disperse the crowd. the portland police declared the gathering a riot. in seattle, police also declared a protest there yesterday a riot, and used flash bangs and pepper spray to clear people away. police said 45 people were arrested, and 21 officers were injured. protesters initially gathered in otwntown seattle as a show of solidarity with ters in portla. in the denver suburb of aurora, a driver sped through a protest blocking a highway. policeat a protester fired a weapon at the car, striking at least one other protester. police are investigating, but no arrests had been made as of noon today of either the driver or the person who fired the gun. black livematter protests in colorado have focused on the death of elijah mcclain, an aunarmed black man who dier g stopped by aurora poli in august ofub019.

lice sdued him using a chokehold and after being given a sedative he went into cardiact arrest aer died. and in austin, texte, moments of rror after arotester was fatally shot during a black lives maer protest yterday. police said the victim, who may have had a r, approached a vehicle and the driver inside opened fire. e ooter was detained and is cooperating with the ongoing investigation. for more on the protests in levinson, multimedia reporter and producer for oregon public broadcasting. since your story a couple of weeks ago about federal officials taking people i unmarked vans, we've seen a huge increase in the number of protests. what's been the significant driver in the last few days? >> around july 4 we saw federal offilacers startng a much bigger role clearing protesters from, from around the courthouse and from city streets. and in the past week or so, since they have really taken this taken on this spotlight, we have seen protests go from in

the low hundreds to in, you know, in last night, the many thousands. it's been a dramatic increase of mobilization across the city, really a broad cross-section. the wall of moms has obviously gotten a lot of news. there's now a wall of vets, there isncreased presence frombl k activists in the city. it's just been a re-energized movement across the board. >> sreenivasan: and yesterday we also saw portland police, which >> ever since the focus of the. protests shifted across the street from the jultnomah county tice center to the federal courthouse, the federal law enforcement has been plintia much more role in dealing with the protests, and that just depends on the dynamic of the protests tt night, what the crowds doing, if, if the portland police end up getting involved or not. and last night was one of those nights where they did. oftentimes they end up clearing the streets right alongside federal law enforcemench , they say they aren't coordinating or operating together, but t reality on the ground is that it appears they absolutely are. >> sreenivasan: what is

galvanizing more people to show up in the streets of portland? >> i don't think the focus has ever shifted away from racial justice and black lives matter with a particulfu emphasis on ing the police, towards that end. i think in the past few days one thingch that haged and what a couple of people told me was that now there's this added fundamental right to protest is in peril and that that has, has galvanized people and brought them out in higher numbers. >> srenivasan: if i watch social media feeds and videos you can see protesters being attacked or mistreated by authorities. and then if you turn on fox news, you see something else. what have you witnessed personally? >>very night there's peop that they throw water bottles over the fence or, you know, graffiti.ndalized, i think it's debaable if vandalizing a buildinor throwing a water bottle is violence, particularly violencew thatrants the level of violence we have seen in response.us

enormo amountsf tear gas and impact munitions. and so, i think the criticism is reat this is, this is a disproportionatonse against predominantly nonviole protesters. >> sreenivasan: but what are the local and state officiao doing to tryffuse the situation, if that's possible? >> i don't know. w i don't knt they're doing. when i have spoken to them in the past the response is often we need the community to speak th and say they don't want this. this isn't what they want in their city. and the city seems to be speaking up. ey are displeased with the way law enforcement is managing these protests. >> sreenivasan: even the mayor says a lot of these people hate my guts, but we're kind of unified at this moment in feeling like this is not the response that's helpful. >> about an hour after the mayor left, after being tear gassed by fedeemral law enfot officers, the portland police threatened to use crowd control, munitions and tear gas to disperse that crowd. the tactics you're seeing from fedmeeral law enfor, the

response to the protesters, is very similar to what the eeportland police havedoing from day one. >> sreenivasan: do you see any kind of way forward? >> the protests, the protesters have been clear. from the begning there were etty clear cut demands that were pretty detailed as well. $50 million pulled he police budget and redistributed into the community. andla that haely not been addressed. >> sreenivasan: jonathan levinson, contributor to oregon public b much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: congressional repuicans are expected to unveil their latest covid-19 relief bill tomorrow, the same week that emergency federal unemployment insurae is set to expire. the program has provided an estimated 25 million workers left jobless due to the covid-19 pandemic with an extra $600 a week on top of their state's

unemployment insurance. today on "fox news sunday," treasury secretary steven mnuchin touted one g.o.p. proposal, namely that out 70% f a recipient'should pay previous salary, rather than a flat $600. >> we kewant to ure with the expiring unemployment insurance, we have the technical fix so lepeon't get paid more to and we can move very quickly with the democrats on these issues. w be've moved quickore and i see no reason why we can't move >> at a news conference today in new york, democratic senate minority leader chuck r threw cold water on that proposal, saying that the current unemployment program should be extended. cut to those who lost their jobs through no fault of their own. this-- the unemployment insurance has kept millions out of poverty, prevented the recession from becoming a depression. we need to extend it. >ni> srsan: for the fifth day in a row, more than 1,000

people in the united ates died from covid-19. confirmed cases of coronavirus now total more than 1 million nationwide and more than 146,0 deaths according to "the new york times." florida today passed new york, to become the state with the second highest total of confirmed infections. florida has averaged more than 10,000 new cases a day for nearly two weeks. hot spots where new cases are rising the fastest continue to be in states that reopened first. globally, new covid-19 cases are growg at an average te of more than 250,000 every day according to researchers at johns hopkin the united states, brazil and india continue to have the most covid-19 cases, with confirmed l fections continuing to rise in ree countries. hurricane hanna madeutandfall in rn texas and headed toward mexico today, the first hurricane of the 2020 atlantic the storm hit as a category one hurricane about 130 miles south

of corpus christi late yesterday afternoon. is was downgraded topical storm earlier th morning, but continued to batter the south texas cot with 60 mile per hour winds. and in hawaii this morning, residents were preparing for the onslaught of hurricane dougl. the storm is expected to bring from 5-15 inches of rain and is packing damaging win. shelters with social distancing requirements are open on saneral of the i and hawaiian airlines cancelled all flights between hawaii and the us mainnd as a precaution. the body of civil rights leader john lewis mada symbolic journey over the same bridge that brought national attention to the fight for civil rights 55 years ago. in a somber and moving ceremony, lewis' casket was carried from the brown chapel a.m.e church to the edmund pettus bridge-- the site of what bame known as" bloody sunday," the day lewis and others were beaten and attacked as they marched for voting rights in 1965. today, as the casket crossed the bridge, it was saluted by

alabama state troopers. it was alabama police who brutally beat lewis on march 7, 1965. wa the top of the bridge there a moment of silence. at the base of the bridge, the s rriage crossed over roses memb the lewis family placed to mark the exact spot where lewis spilled his blood. today's processi was part of a week of ceremonies honoring thes life of john l tomorrow he will lie in state in the u.s. capitol. lewis died from pancreatic t cancere age of 80 july 17. with 100 days left before the weighs in.jeff greenfield visit pbs.org slash newshour for more. >> sreenivasan: the covid-19 pandemic has upended the planned national conventions of both political parties, forcing the cancellation of the large in- person gatherings that we've become accustomed to seeing. the first of those, the democratic national convention, was to be held in wisconsin this

month. we visited there last year with the hope of returning for the convention. instead, we recently spoke with ben winkler, chairman of the mocratic party of wisconsin, to see what their plans are for rallying constituents in the lead up to the elect ben, we caught up with you about a year ago. plans were to have a big 'ol d.n.c. convention in wisconsin. get everybody excited about the convention being there and perhs help flip the state blue. now, virtual convention. good, bad, indifferent for all that enthusiasm you wanted to get going? >> you know, the number one priority for democrats when it comes to the convention is to make sure that people are safe. and, frankly, the democratic message, in this election and in general, is that we actually care about peopls and what happ them. it's why we fight so hard to make sure that people have healthcarewa that's why w to fight and organize and build to stop the corovirus pandemic, so we ca

safely send kids back to school and reopen theconomy and not watch the death toll climb day after day. so, all of that is oa piece with having a virtual convention that doesn't put people's lives at risk. >> sreivasan: so, what happens to the old fashioned door knocking? do people not do that anymore, is it all phe calls? >> we don't want to create a situation where you literally can't alert people to your presence without getting within six feet of where they'll be when they open the door. so we've switched to a totally virtual organizing style. election in wisconsin, youcourt probably saw the photos of p teople lining up ir masks. we were organizing 100% virtually with phone calls, text messages, social media, asking people to contact people that they have personal relationships with, we reached out to people miions of timesnd helped more than a million people across the state cast absentee ballots. >> sreenivasan: what happens in november?e ere going to be the same number of polling locations open? because i know in lots of states the volunteers, who are often senior citizens, have said, you

know, i don't want to take the risk right now. so, are you concerned about longer lines come the fall than whaawt we already >> this spring, in wisconsin, esge numbers of polling pl disappeared because of the lack of polling placnd, volunteers oll workers and because of that, there were long lines in several milwaukee, waukesha, green bay. as we go into this fall, cities, municipal clerks, county clerks have been working overtime ts figure out w make in-person voting safe and to encourage people to cast absentee ballots. >sa> sreeni yeah, other thing i want to ask is, the black lives matter movement: how has that impacted enthusiasm or drive inhe process? >> the mobilization in defense of black lives isconsin, as across the country, s been tremenus, has been inspiring and has been so widespread that it's blown to smithereens stereotypes about who actually cares about the fight against racism in our country.

there were black lives matter protests in at least 46 different communities in wisconsin, in large cities like milwaukee and madison, and in juall towns, sometimes wit a few thousand people. there are so many people, when talk to them right now, who say that they see their vote this november as an extension of their activism, the same activism that brought them to the streets this spring. >> sreenivasan: look, i mean, this is still a state as deep red pockets. and this is a state that verrt f infamously, had high school students throwing swastika signs. i meane are still pockets of the state that will not ck ongeal around a blves matter movematt or an altee vision. >> wisconsin is arred by some of thdeepest racial disparities inhe country. in the 2010 census, wisconsin had the highest rate of incarceration of black men of any state in thed states, and weaponizing racism has been a go-to tactic both for republicans in wisconsin and for

the tru administration. , we know that thell try to use the playbook they used in 2016. and it didn't work theit's not going to work this year either, because people in our ate across race or whatever beliefs they hold about people of other races, they are experiencing the pain caused by a presidency that doesn't care about them at all day to day in their lives. people are losing loved ones anf riends to coronavirus. they're losing their jobs. they're seeing promise after promise that this administration makes, break in the instant that they, that they make the p.romi dairy farms are going out of business at a rate of two or three a day across our state. and those farms are very hard to get back once they're gone. this is a state that's just experiencing the pain of the trump administration. >> sreenivasan: you're in a state where the republicans are, what, three or so seats away for a veto-proof majority? can they get there? >> republicans are trying everything in their power to get to super-majorities in our state legislature.

if they get the super- majorities, they'll gerrymander the state again for another ten years. andg we're doing everyth our power to stop them. i think that we're going twin at fight, but it's a fight we cannot ignore. we can't take for granted that republicans won't grab those extra seats, especially beuse so much attention nationally is focused on the presidential election. we really urge people to also look at their state legislative race which will have a huge impact on the lives of every wisconsinite going forward, and frankly, will also affe life of the nation. if republicans hadn't gerrymandered wisconsin in 2010, they wouldn't have been able to pass these harsh restrictions on voting that helped ti wisconsin for trump in 2016 and deliver the presidency to trump. >> sreenivasan: ben winkler, llanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, rappreciate it. >> sreenivasan: today marks the 30th anniversary of the americans with disabilities act,

or "a.d.a.," which was signed h.w. bush in 1990.t george the civil rights law guaranteesc equal ess to public resources and emplment for disabled people. ssspoke with dr. oluwaferanmi okanlami,tant professor at the university of michigan medical school and a disabled american, about where the law has succeeded and how much work remains to guarantee equal rights for people with disabilities. doctor, we're in this moment of reckoning where we have beenbo thinking different communities that have not had justice in the same way, that have been discriminated disproportionately, and people with disabilities are a grouply that we reon't think about in the context of these conversations. tell me how u face s discrimination, not just black man, but as a disled man when your accident happened to you. >> i've often told people that i've been a black man my entire

life, but it wasn't ueven years ago when i had my spinal cord injury d entered into this disabled community and started living life from the ther side of the stethoscope, as i call it, that i actively felt what it was like to be marginalized.gainst and now, this isn't to say that i was not discriminated against as a black man, but it's to say thatir the way that i amtly impacted by the lack of accessibility of our world is omething that is-- is a harder pill to swallow than some of the unconscious bias and some of the racism and prejudice that people can practice, but not as directly. disability is ubiquitous. it does not discriminate based on race or gender or ethnicity or socioeconomic status. but there's an entire demographic of individuals that don't have equal rights and that dohin't have som as simple as the ability to enter a building because it is structurally not accessible for me to come in. >> sreenivasan: you ran all- american track at stanford. what happened?

>> so, yeah, i was an academic all-american going to medical school at michigan. and in my third year of orthopedic surgeryesidency at yale, i had a spinal cord injury from a diving accident and that l paralyzed from my che down with very minimal use of my upper extremities. but thanks to wonderful healthcare and opportunities and access that i had, i was able to go back to residency. i got a masters degree from noe dame. i was appointed to the st. joseph county board of health, and now i'm back at michigan as an assistant profess of family meicine and physical medicine and rehab. >> sreevasan: after this accident, how did it change the way you looked at medicine, the way you looked at your patients? >> you know, i-- i will admit that i thou everyone the same. i thought that i was being e inclusd accessible in my practices. but i recognize that even as an orthopedic surgery resident wh oftook careople with spinal cord injuries, who took care of people with various disabilities, it was not until i entered that world myself that i saw how inaccessible things

were. that's something that i don't wish it upon someone else to have that rlization in the ame manner, but it's something that i hope that from my experience that i canry to disseminate that knowledge to say, it shouldn't take the lived expere ience to then be a acknowledge the access or the lack of access that other people in other communitiedon't have. >> sreenivasan: e an example of how the a.d.a. impacts your life on a-- on a day-to-day basis as you make your way through theay. >> yeah. so, as many people know, the a.d.a. is a civil rights law thatpr tries tide equal access to public services and then to private services that are offered for the public's consumption and giving equa access. so something as simple as curb cuuts, right? a ramp to go from the street to the sidewalk isomething that we likely don't think about every day until you are then in a wheelchair and yocan't get onto the block because there's yonothing there that allow to get in. so, the number of times, especially in michigan winters, that while we have curb cutouts, i have to park in one place and

then go all the way down in the middle of the street until i can get to the curb cut out to enter a building that is right next to me, that is one of the examples of how the a.d.a. sets the, sort of the minimum standard for what's necessary, but does not provide true ll access. now, this is not a slight to the a.d.a. it's actually an amazing law. but really, even in its inception, they said that this is just the begning. this is not meant to be the ceiling. it's really meant to be a floor of bac eds. >> sreenivasan: and break that down for us, the ceiling versus the floor, because a lot of lemes peust stop at, well, we're a.d.a. compliant now. we're done. we've got the ramp. >> people want to discuss how well they've done with creating accessibility, but i-- but i tell people that we don't realize the inaccessibility that still exists and people talk about-- i made a comment about how i don't like "special needs" as a phrase, and someone eted that statement say that "people with disabilities do have special needs and how dare you make it sound like our needs aren't

important." but someone b respondsaying, "housing, transportation, equal access to public facilities. those things should not be considered special." and so, the a.d.a. brings the conversation up, but it's up to each individual, ea organization to say, "i shouldn't e doing the bare minimum because there are still people that don't have accessha based ont bare minimum and we should all be actually rather than finding ways that we can just say we've done the bare minimum and that should be sufficient." >> sreenivasan: but what's your best case scenario? st optimisti outlook, if we were able to actually live out not just what the a.d.a. wanted, but progress as a society? >> the best case scenario is one in which i talk about intersectionality, because disability is just one of the demographic groups that we can talk about. conversation about me as a black man. we could have had this entire conversation aboutane as an immi we could have had this entire conversation about me as a man who was a son to my mother, who

was a blsack woman in t country, who has gone through her own experiences. so, best case scenario is one in which we don't judge or limit others based on difference, but we actually celebrate those differences and create equal access to all opportunities, regardlessof what you look like, what your name sounds like, what your food tastes like, or w lhere ye. and so, that's best case scenario that encompasses all of these marginalized and minority groups. and it's something that is far reaching beyond disability or racelone, but includes those and, sometimes, starts with some of these movements. >> sreenivasan: alright, dr. oluwaferanmi okanla, thanks so >> hari, thank you so much for inviting us. >> sreenivasan: later tonight, tune in for the debut of the new pbs newshour series: "beyond the canvas." hosted by amna nawaz, the four- part series highlights some of the best arts and culture reporting from newshour. here's a sneak peek.

>> welcome to beyond the canvas. ov next four weeks, we have some of this country's leading performers process the world through us. >> how do you movem orward. >> not a quitter. >> people feel they c buy a ticket and fly. >> it was a special time. it performed me, and i petormed it. >>as written l. people will swear that it happened. >> beyond the canvas p >> sreenivasan: "beyond the canvas" premiers tonight at0 10m. eastern time on pbs stations nationwide. that's all for this edition of" pbs newshour weekend." for the latest news updates visit pbs.org/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good nit. captioning sponsored by wnet captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> pbs newshour weekend is made possible by: sue and edgar wachenheim iii. the anderson family fund. bernard and denise schwartz. the cheryl and philip milstein family.

barbara hope zuckerberg. charles rosenblum. we t to live in the moment, to not miss what's right in front of us. at mutual of america, we believe taking care of tomorrow help you make the most o today. mutual of america financial group, retirement services and investments. additional support has been provided by: consumer cellular. and by: and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporatiofunded by the american people. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs. henry louis gates jr: john lewis

has crossed over the final bridge. the rist of the big six civilt. if courage had a name, it was his. he leaves us at a time when the stakes of all for which he struggled couldn't be higher. for john lewis, voting was sacramental. he shed his blood for us to exercise this most fundamental of rights. forevermore, generations, hestarting with thisne,s to wi honor him by casting their ballots.la a secommunion meant to strengthen our democracy. his roar as the conscience of the congress will echo down through history. few who ever lived have done more to inspire change his truth goes marching on.