captioning sponsored by wnet >> sreenivasan: on this edition for sunday, february 28: the latest vaccine against covid-19 wins f.d.a approval. >> fight, fight, fight! housing is a right! >> sreenivasan: a look at the history of evictions in richmond, virginia. >> when i walked into marcus books, as an african-american man, i had a sense that i belonged somewhere. >> sreenivasan: and the oldest independent black-owned bookstore in the country experiences a resurgence. next on “pbs newshour weekend.” >> 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. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. we try 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 can help you make 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 to help 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. additional support has been provided by: and byhe corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. and by contributions to your

pbs station from viewers like you. thank yo >> sreenivasan: good evening and thank you for joining us. the first single dose covid-19 vaccine is now f.d.a. approved and about to roll out to locations nationwide. the food and drug administration gave johnson & johnson's vaccine formal emergency authorization late yesterday. in a statement, the f.d.a. said it is “adding another vaccine in our medical toolbox to fht this virus,” and approved it for use in people 18 and older. today, the centers for disease control and prevention issued its approval of the shot. this morning, dr. anthony fauci urged americans to take whichever vaccine is available when they become eligible. >> all three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that is most available to them. if you go to a place and they have j&j and that's the one that's available now i would take it. i personally would do the same thing. >> sreenivasan: johnson & johnson-- which is a funder of newshour-- said it expects to begin shipping the first doses as soon as tomorrow.

a second former aide is accusing new york governor andrew cuomo of sexual harassment. in a report published yesterday by "the new york times," charlotte bennett, a 25-year-old former health policy adviser told the paper about several occasions last spring. bennett told the "times" that during one of the incidents the 63-year-old cuomo asked, "whether she thought age made a difference in romantic relationships," and said that he "was open to relationships with women in their 20s.” the governor did not deny the allegations, but in a statement to the "times," cuomo said he never made sexual advances towards bennett and did not intend to be inappropriate. today, the governor said he would ask new york's attorney general and the state court of appeals' chief judgeo choose someone to lead an investigation of the charges, the claim comes days after another former aide, lindsay boylan, made detailed sexual harassment accusations against cuomo, including a charge that he gave her an unsolicited kiss on her lips in 2018. the governor denied boylan's charges.

the conservative political action conference-known as c-pac-- wrapped up its annual meeting today with an address from former president donald trump. it was the first major address by the former president since he left office after losing the election. >> we began the journey 4 years ago, and the journey is far from >> sreenivasan: president joe biden is spending two nights at his home in wilmington, delaware this weekend. he had no public events today, but did go to church this morning. for the latest national and international news, visit pbs.org/newshour. >> sreenivasan: as investigations into the january 6 insurrection at the capitol continue, we're learning more about how misinformation, lies and conspiracyheories online helped to incite the violence. an investigation by the associated press delved into the public and private social media accounts of nearly 1,000 elected and appointed republican officials at the state and local level nationwide.

many had voiced support for the insurrection, demanding that the 2020 presidential election be overturned. i recently spoke with garance burke, global investigative journalist for the associated press, out their investigation. >> and so, what we did is, we reviewed the archive of the right wing aligned social media network parler, and got a sense of exactly the kinds of lies and misinformation and conspiracy theories that are still making their way around quite prevalently in these circles. >> sreenivasan: how do these different state parties function? why are they important? why is it important if someone in their leadership is sharing this kind of information? >> so, exactly, these are people who the community has elected to represent themr who've been appointed to state, local county boards, commisons, by members of the party. as an elected official, you really do have more influence

online. and so, for that reason, we felt it was important to look at their conversations and the messaging that they're putting out to understand how misinformation and lies are traveling. >> sreenivasan: was there a prevalent theme? >> well, what we found is that elected and appointed officials in these lower level branches of the republican party are very bitter about what they perceive, despite no evidence, as the election having been stolen. there's a lot of really angry posting out there about the need to continue the fight, with some officials actually saying that all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 45 are part of a militia and should take up arms. >> sreenivasan: and is this registering with national law enforcement agencies or even state and local ones?

>> well, we don't know exactly what's to come, right, but we do know that f.b.i. and the department of homeland security have warned ry recently that there's the potential for more violent extremism and domestic terrorism. we did speak with one republican official in michigan who had recently been visited by f.b.i. she says she was glad to tell them she did nothing wrong when she went to the capitol insurrection and simply was there taking a photo, but i think that this is going to be something that our nation's law enforcement agencies are going to be taking a close look at, absolutely. >> sreenivasan: what were e reactions from the individuals when you and other reporters showed them why you're calling, what you're calling about, whether they stood by these statements? >> well, the republican officials who we spoke with, hari, feel like their speech is being censored on some of the mainstream social media platforms. they're particularly gravitating

towards other platforms where they fl thathey can speak freely. so, i think that for these lower level g.o.p. officials, there's a real, kind of, concern here when does fact checking veer into the suppression of free speech? that's a lot of what we ard. on the other hand, some of the officials when we contacted them and showed them some of the screenshots of the archived posts they had put out there on parler, at first denied that they were, in fact, their words and then later acquiesced that indeed they had said these things and stood by them. >> sreenivasan: as you did all this reporting, what stood out to you? >> one of the things that really stood out to me is just that there are, in fact, ties between lower level republican officials and militia groups who have taken up arms to protest what they see as very unfair policies, be that, you know, mandates to wear masks in public or now issues tied to the 2020

election. and so, i think that what is really interesting to observe is just the kinds of messaging that these groups are trading among themselves surrounding the right to bear arms. and that's, of course, something that i think that f.b.i. will be looking at more deeply as the weeks go forward, these ties to militia groups. >> sreenivasan: garance burke of the associated press, thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> sreenivasan: president joe biden's latest relief plan includes billions of dolrs to help renters who have fallen behind opayments because of pandemic-related job losses. he's also extended the federal ban on evictions through march, which the centers for disee control and prevention enacted as a public health measure. but the federal pause on evictions is not an automatic ban.

since last spring, in the 27 cities tracked by princeton university's eviction lab, nearly 250,000 tenants have been evicted. "retro report," a non-profit organization, wanted to know how that's happening, and to whom. they went to richmond, virginia, a city with one of the nation's highest eviction rates, to look for answers. brian palmer reports. >> reporter: in his first days as president, joe biden issued a flurry of orders and announcements on a range of issues-- immigration, pandemic relief, education. less noticed were his administration's moves to deal with another national problem, that of evictions. >> this cannot be who we are as a country. we cannot let people be evicted because of nothing they did themselves. >> reporter: announcing that the c.d.c.'s eviction moratorium would be extended by at least two months. that moratorium, which is not a blanket ban, has slowed eviction filings in cities like richmond-- but it hasn't stopped

them. >> i had been diagnosed with coronavirus. so, i stayed quarantined in the house. when i first got the eviction notice i was in the bed. >> reporter: ezekiel hicks pays $1,000 a month for an apartment in the south side section of a city where, even before the pandemic, roughly one in nine renters faced eviction-- meaning a landlord won a court case against a tenant or actually kicked them out. >> i get up and i look at the door i see a yellow piece of paper on my door. and i read it and it was like, you know, "you have 30 days to be-- we want you out of here at a certain date, at a certain time." >> mr. hicks is like so many virginians, richmonders, americans right now. he was current on his rent right up until the time that he lost work. but because of covid-19, literally in mr. hicks's case, because of covid-19, he was unable to work and as a consequence, now he's unable to pay his rent.

>> reporter: without income, hicks missed some rent payments starting in may. over the next several months, as his landlord tried to evict him, the amount he owed balloon to $6,000-- including not just back rent, but late charges, plus his landlord's legal fees. hicks's situation isn't unique, according to professor benjamin teresa, who sts housing and urban development. >> people who were already predominantly renters, in terms of working in the hospitality sector and hotels and services that are hard hit by both the pandemic and recession, that they've lost hours or lost their job completely. and so, they're even more vulnerable to losing their homes to eviction. >> fight, fight, fight! housing is a right! fight, fight, fight! housing is a right! >> reporter: the moratorium gives tenants temporary relief; but when it ends, back rent comes due in full. that puts the burd right back where it was before the pandemic: onhe segment of the

population that has long been marginalized and disadvantaged. about 25% of people here live below by the poverty line. researchers at virginia commonwealth university found that the decisive factor in evictions in richmond isn't lack of money. even after controlling for income and property value, they found chmond's most decisive factor in evictions is race. >> the most influential factor at the neighborhood level on eviction rates in a neighborhood is the racial composition of the neighborhood. so, as the neighborhood has a higher share of black and african-american residents, it also has a higher eviction rate, and then, conversely, if the neighborhood is whiter, it has a lower iction rate. >> reporter: while there's no perfect comparison, two examples of virginia show a stark contrast. nearly 50% of richmond's population is black, and the pre-pandemic eviction rate was just over 11%. buchanan and dickenson counties have nearly the same poverty rate as the city of richmond,

yet their eviction rates have been below 1%. both counties' populations are also more than 95% white. why does the burden of evictions weigh heaviest on richmond's black and brown citizens? one explanation may lie in the past, when a racial caste system ruled the south, says housing advocate tracey hardney scott. >> this is still the home of the confederacy, so racism runs rampant in here. and the best way to control negros, is to keep them in a place. and so, the best place to keep them is totally in low income, lack of, lack of, lack of, lack of resources, lack of education. >> reporter: until the mid-20th century, blacks were largely excluded from political decision making, confined to certain neighborhoods, redlined into zones where banks wouldn't offer mortgages, and generally made second-class citizens by american law and custom. >> if you want to know what's going on in african american communities in the 21st century, you've got to walk through the fire of jim crow segregation.

there are residual effects from the public policies of the mid- 20th century that continue to still resonate profoundly in the 21st century. >> reporter: the century that gave us the novel coronavirus, which has hit black, brown, and indigenous people-- all historically marginalized-- with particular ferocity. >> this is precisely what ppens when people who have been compressed in the neighborhoods, who live in multi-generational households, who work on e front lines of particular jobs, underpaying jobs, that carry a high amount of the viral load. diseases may not care about race or socio-economic status, but socio-economic status and race have a profound influence on the nature in which diseases affect certain people and not others. >> reporter: hicks eventually recovered from the virus. despite being legally covered by the moratorium, it took the help of a legal aid attorney to pay back rent with funds from a city rent relief program and to get his eviction case dismissed. >> right now, my rent is paid up

through a program that he introduced me to. and my rent is paid up and i'm trying to get this other job because the job that i had, i can't do that no more, so. >> reporter: hicks says he has saved some money to pay rent, but he's been hunting for steady work for months. he'll make ends meet any way he can. >> plasma center, different jobs, odds and ends jobs. i can't go through this no more. you know, i'm a grown, independent man. if i got to, i will go pick cans up and cut grass, rake leaves, whatever to pay my rent. >> sreenivasan: black-owned independent bookstores have been experiencing a surge in sales after the black lives matter movement ignited interest in black history, white supremacy, and how to end racism.

marcus books, the oldest black- owned bookstore in the country, has been there for itsommunity through decades of similar challenges. now in its 60th year, it stands as a testament to an extraordinary couple's love of books and the black community. this small black-owned bookstore in oakland, california, is hallowed ground for some. >> when i walked into marcus books, as an african-american man, i had a sense that i belonged somewhere. >> sreenivasan: clarence block, jr. grew up in san francisco and has been coming here for almost 50 years. >> seeing books that were written about me and my ancestors filled a void. >> sreenivasan: marcus books was founded in 1960 by two visionaries, julian and raye richardson. they believed that access to black literature was paramount to the black community. their daughter, bnche richardson, runs the bookstore today. >> part of the basis of their relationship was their love of

literature when they were teenagers-- and it stayed like that. they always read together, they read to each other, they just had a love of books. >> sreenivasan: the couple met in the late 1930s, at a unique school in alabama, dedicated to black self-reliance. >> you have to put marcus books and julian and raye richardson really in a historical context. they both were at tuskegee university, led by booker t. washington, who espoused a philosophy of do for self. julian studied lithography, he met his wife there. >> sreenivas: jasmine johnson is a granddaughter of the richardsons and a professor of africana studies at the university of nnsylvania. >> at an incredibly young age she started college, not only meeting my grandfather, but becoming a woman of the mind. >> sreenivasan: the intellectual and artistic impact of the harlem renaissance was building momentum. >> they would really scour the country, looking for books about black people. at that time very few black people were being published.

my parents saw the need for black people to have a source of information about themselves. >> sreenivasan: after a few years in harlem, the couple headed west and settled in san francisco. it was 1946, and julian started success printing. >> they were publishing all kinds of things, you know, posters, artwork, but they were also republishing black books that had gone out of print. success printing, that en turned into richardson printing, that then turned into marcus books. >> sreenivasan: in 1960, the richardsons opened the bookstore, later renaming it marcus books after marcus garvey, founder of the black nationalist movement. both their fathers had been garveyites. a critical cultural and intellectual space was born, fostering a natural gathering place for black people. >> it was a meeting place for many organizations, but also a place that appreciated you, welcomed you, did not follow you around the store with mirrors on

the walls, you know. >> when i came in, julian richardson, extremely humble, he would be walking out to check on me." well, walter what are you thinking, what are you reading?" >> sreenivasan: meanwhile, the neighborhood-- known as the fillmore district-- was becoming a thriving center of black life. >> on fillmore street and the side streets it was like a harlem of the west coast, because not only were there jazz clubs and blues clubs, but as you get to the later part of the 1960s the office of the black panther party was on that particular street. it really represented the black community. >> sreenivasan: the fillmore street location would be home to generations of the richardson family >> i grew up in one big purple victorian on filmore street. there was marcus books on the bottom at the storefront, my grandmother and at some point cousins on the second floor, you know, everybody was responsible each other and to this broader commitment to blk literacy. >> sreenivasan: but that

commitment would be sidelid as the city's efforts to redevelop meant the destruction of the neighborhood, forcing the store-- and the family-- to move multiple times. in 1976, the richardsons opened a second store, in oakland. it was the height of the black power movement, when the f.b.i.'s co-intelpro program was surveilling black businesses. >> we were targeted for a lot of reasons, just like a lot of other black organizations were. so, we had challenges in terms of the greater society being threatened by us. later, it was really just economics. >> sreenivasan in 2014, the san francisco store shuttered after predatory loans forced the family to sell their building. when the community raised $1.64 million to buy back e store, the developers refused to sell. >> there's something about the liberalism that's really thick in san francisco that can sometimes mask the operations of its anti-blackness. the "save marcus books" campaign was really one about saving

black san francisco. >> sreenivasan: but in oakland, the gatherings continued. maya angelou, muhammad ali, terry mcmillan, nikki giovanni, oprah winfrey and many others all held reading at marcus books. >> i've never stopped coming. i brought my granddaughters down here, and they get to see how great their people were and are. >> sreenivasan: that's all for this edition of "pbs newshour weekend." for the latest news updates visit pbs.g/newshour. i'm hari sreenivasan. thanks for watching. stay healthy and have a good night. 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. the leonard and norma klorfine foundation. the peter g. peterson and joan ganz cooney fund. we try 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 can help you make the most of 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 corporation funded by the american people.

and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. you're watching pbs.

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