anchor: good evening. tonight, the ongoing crisis. calls for a cease-fire are ignored and destruction spreads as palestinian rocket fire and israeli artillery attacks continue. combating ha crimes. a new law heads to the president's desk to stop a spike in attacks against asian americans and others. us, race and medicine. the american medical association issues a call to fight systemic racism in health care and begins to reckon with its own troubling past. >> we are not valuing all lives the same way. everybody doesn't have the opportunity. everybody doesn't have the power or resources or conditions in order to achieve optimal health. anchor: all that and more on

tonight's pbs newshour. ♪ >> major funding f the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> cfo caregiver, a clips chaser , raymond chains financial advisor to help you live your life. life well planned. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans to help people do more of what they like. the customer service team can help find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit our website. ♪ >> johnson & johnson. the msf railway -- bnsf railway. ♪

>> james all night foundation, fostering informed and eaged communities. ♪ >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ anchor: day nine of the battle between israel and militants in gaza has come and gone with still no sign of a cease-fire. another barrage of rockets was fired from gaza into israel.

overall, the sides report more than 200 palestinians and a dozen israelis killed today. one person died today in the west bank. john yang has our report. reporter: in israel on the west bank, streets normally bustling with activity were empty today as palestinians went on a general strike. unusual joint action to show solidarity with gaza and to protest their own treatment by israel. >> [speaking non-english language] >> as youth, taking part in the strike to stop working for at least a day, to create change in jerusalem and the country. reporter: hundreds of thousands gathered in central squares, waving palestinian flags. >> this is reflecting the common struggle of palestinians not only against apartheid buzz all -- but also a voice in solidarity with our people that are being bombarded in gaza. reporter: israeli soldiers moved to disperse crowds.

on the west bank, they fired tear gas canisters at protesters who had been burning tires. in east jerusalem, police fired stun grenades and deployed a water cannon. this as the israeli military operations against hamas militants in gaza maintain their steady pace. this morning, desks, chairs, and books from a gaza city university building lay scattered over a pile of rubble. next door, a family cleaned up the damage to their home. israeli forces had given them five minutes notice of the attack, just enough time to escape. >> what's this at 5:30 in the morning ? people were still sleeping. the plane struck our street. we had no idea where we wanted to go or where to run. reporter: to the south, residents said an israeli tank shell started a massive fire at a paint factory. 2 million palestinians in gaza

have been caught in a crossfire that broke out last week when hamas, which controls the territory, began firing rockets into israel. israelofficials say they are acting to prect israelis. >> that's the focus. to degrade the cap abilities of islamic jihad so that in the future, they will pose less of a threat against israeli civilians. there was a lot of work to do in terms of their underground infrastructure and the capacity to fire rockets. at this stage, still unfortunately, if hamas decides to fire rockets at tel aviv, they still have the capacity to do so. reporter: explosions at gaza city went through the night. flashes from hamas rockets fired toward israel illuminated the sky. israel said they tallied up to 90 rockets fired. 20 of them fell short into gaza and many more were intercepted by israel's anti-defense missile system.

rockets that did get through this afternoon struck a farm in southern israel. police say two workers were killed. a building in the coastal city also suffered a hit. more violence as international efforts to broker peace stalled again. while traveling inenmark, the u.s. secretary of state said diplomatic efforts behind the scenes are ongoing. >> our goal remains to bring the current cycle violence to an end as quickly as possible. and then bring the parties back to the work building -- of building lastingtability. reporter: a goal that doesn't appear to be in sight israeli military officials say they expect operations in gaza to continue for days to come. i'm john yang. ♪ anchor: we return to the rest of

the program after these headlines. updating our top story. with criticism of the biden administration's quiet dipmacy mounting, france is preparing a united nations resolution calling for a cease-fire. so far, the united states has blocked any statement coming from the u.n., calling for an end to the israeli-palestinian violence. u.s. public health officials stepped up appeals for younger americans to g vaccinated. more than 4 million eligible adolescents aged 12-17 have been given shots so far. the head of the cdc said getting young people immunized could accelerate downward trends. >> we should all have cautious optimism. cases have continued to decrease and have not beethis low since spring of last year. hospital admissions are down. deaths are down. we are vaccinating between 1.5 million and 2 million people r day. anchor: western india's death

from a tropical cyclone has risen to 29. the storm weakened after making landfall in -- last night with winds up to 130 miles per hour. first responders rescued about 180 people froan oil barge that sank off of mumbai and the indian navy searched for 81 others. southern louisiana braced today for more downpours and more flooding. at least a foot of rain fell monday in lake charles with drivers struggling and flooded streets. officials saying hundreds of homes have been damaged. >> parts of the city received upwards of 15 inches of rain over a six hour time. this absolutely needs -- meets the threshold of a 100 year ra event. the event of yesrday was more impactful as far as flooding than even the hurricanes of 2020. anchor: the storm dumped heavy rain on baton rouge and parts of texas and kansas

a north carolina prosecutor now says he will not charge three sheriff's deputies who shot and killed andrew own, jr. last month in elizabeth city. the district attorney showed body camera footage today that he said shows brown using his car as a deadly weapon. forcing the officers to shoot. >> my review indicates there's no evidence that the deputies who fired the fatal shots acted in any manner that is inconsistent with the threat they perceived and certainly no evidence tt the deputies acted in any way contrary to or in violation of north carolina law. anchor: lawyers for the family have said the footage actually shows he was trying to drive away from the deputies. the f you bought -- fbi is conducting a separate investigation of the killing. the local sheriff says the deputies will be disciplined and retrained but will keep their jobs. a sheriff in south carolina has fired two deputies over the death of jamaal sutherland, a black inmate at a charleston county jail. body camera footage from january

released last week showed the deputies using stun guns and pepper spray and kneeling on him. he refused to leave his cell for a bail hearing. sutherland had previsly been in a mental health facility. a bipartisan deal to investigate the attack on the u.s. capitol by a pro-trump mob lost key republican support today. house minority leader kevin mccarthy came out against establishing an outside commission unless it also investigates other violence including drink black lives matter protest. top democrats and republicans had sharply different reactions. >> it's my hope that mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy will do the right thing and, has been the case with other traumatic attacks on the united states, we will have a bipartisan commission. >> i'm not saying that we have decided this should not go forward. if it's going to go forward, it needs to be clearly balanced and

not tilted one way or the other. so that we have an objective evaluation. anchor: mcconnell set for now, he's pushing the pause button, leaving the bill uncertain. nancy pelosi accused mccarthy of cowardice. she has the votes to pass the commission bill tomorrow even with no gop support. spain has deployed troops to its border with morocco after a spanish enclave in north africa. they arrived in the coastal city of -- from morocco over the last two days. people began swimming in or climbing fences to reach spanish territory amid a diplomatic dispute. spain sent back at least 4000 people. the u.s. state department revised policy on citizenship in a victory for same-sex couples. under the trump administration, some children of same-sex marriages born abroad were denied american citizenship at birth.

with the new guidance, children conceived through ivs, surrogacy, and other reproductive technology to american same-sex couples will be granted u.s. citizenship. comedic actor charles grogan died today at his home in connecticut from bone marrow cancer. he rose to stardom in the 1970's with films including the heartbreak kid, midnight run, and beethoven. he penned plays and tv scripts become a radio and tv commentator. he was 86 years old. still to come on the newshour, republican opposition grows to the baseless gop election review in arizona. trinidad reaches a tipping point in an epidemic of violence against women. the americanedical association begins to reckon with a history of racism. much more. ♪\ ♪ >> this is thebs newshour from w eta studios in wasngton and

in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ anchor: earlier today, congress passed and sent to president biden's desk a bill to combat the recent rise in hate crimes including against asian americans and people of pacific -- pacific islander dissent. it's a rare moment of bipartisanship. how did we get here and what does it mean? i'm joined by lisa desjardins. let's talk about this bill. it's now with president biden. what exactly does it do? >> this bill is only 24 pages long. it does change a lot, especially about what we will know on hate crimes. let's take a look at key factors in this. the bill would create a new position at the department of justice that would expedite the processing of, reporting of, the handling of cases involving hate crimes.

also, it will hand out grants to police and sheriffs to police and sheriffs the province across country to help train them and help them report hate crimes data. in a more able way than they are right now. finally, in terms of grants, it will offer grants to states and others across the country to put up new hate cre help -- help lines to help people report. a lot of what it's trying to do is understd the problem itself. for years, there's a sense by many in the community, including academics, that hate crimes are underreported in this country. people don't talk about them. also, please may not recognize or report them. this bill does a lot of that. i have to say, this is also a bill that is not just about asian american hate crimes. it is wider. it's about all hate crimes. it does have specific language in it recognizing that asian americans have been targeted, especially during the covid pandemic. of course, it's bipartisan. critics on both sides.

critics say it doesn't go enough. data is not enough. they want more on underlying causes. anchor: as you mention, it is bipartisan. that's a word we don't hear very often anymore on capitol hill. we use it over and over again. what was it about this particular bill that got it where it is? >> this is such an important facet of this bill. what happened in the senate, negotiations and that 50-50 body, between two senators. they ended up coming up with an agreement or democrats drop some covid specific language. the bill was broadened to include all hate crimes. it was able to pass through the senate and house. all of that said, there are other reasons this is significant. one of them is that there has been very few notablhate crimes bills in recent times. this is the first one in a decade to make it through congress.

also, very few bills at all are making it through congress. just about 10 this entire year have passed both chambers. these are bills that have legislation recognizing a holiy or something like that. it is significant that this has passed with bipartisan means. it's very significant for the asian american community in this country following the shadow of the mder of six women in atlanta and continued reports of asian americans being assaulted and harassed. here's a representative who co-offered the original bill. >> for too long, asian americans have been seen as invisible and silent. we are often viewed as foreigners and outsiders. day, we are at a galvanizing moment where we say loud and clear that we are as american as anyone else in this country. we will be seen as invisible no more. >> again, this was bipartisan.

a majority of republicans, not just a few, in the senate and the house voted for this bill. that said, there are still very deep issues on this topic particularly on the idea of wh is a hate crime. the bill does not address that definition. republicans have concerns about the definition of hate crimes. stepping into free-speech territory. some democrats say that police are not paying enough attention to hate crimes as it is anchor: when we look at what the bill does do, it's more about tracking and reporting, the data gathering to get that surprises a lot of people that we don't have conference of data around that. the is some data. walk us through what we know about hate crimes right now. >> that's rit. we don't think these numbers are comprehensive. let's take a look at what we know about where we are right now. if you look at numbers from a project called stop a api hate, they say that they have gotten over 6600 report of asian

american hate incidents between march of last year and march of this year. in that one pandemic here. all of those are asian american hate crimes. compare that with 2019. with all t hate crimes that the fbi was able to gather data on, 7100. what you see is just asian american hate crimes reported to this one outside group were almost the same as all the hate crimes that the fbi was tracking your previous. what we don't know is the degree to which reporting has increased versus the actual prevalence of hate crimes. that's y the authors say it's critical that we get our hands on the data. a couple other notes that we think are agreed-upon. it does seem that women are more targeted. during the pandemic, there was more targeting of asian americans in public spaces versus businesses. anchor: we know the lawmakers

behind the bill see this as a start. they see it as a first step. what else do they want to do? what comes next? >> that's always the important question for congress. grace meng says there's two things that are important for the asian american community everyone looking at hate crimes. one, mental health. she pointed out recent data from the city of new york showing that half of the asian american hate crimes in the city had to do with suspects who have a history of mental health problems. she wants to address that as a root cause. the other issue is education. that's very hot debate in state legislatures across the country. she says she wants to do more on curriculum that could help talk aboutiversity, talk about these issues in american life. anchor: it's a first step. a rare moment of bipartisanship. thanks so much. always good to see you. >> yeah. ♪

anchor: it's been six months since jill biden defeated donald trump in the state of arizona. officials in one county are still defending the integrity of the vote against an audit ordered by the republican-controlled state senate. stephanie sy has the story. reporter: nearly two thirds of arizona's voters live in maricopa county. for the first time in more than 50 years, a democrat won the presidential race here. for the last month, a private company hired by the state senate has been counting and examining millions of those ballots. now, even republican election officials are saying enough is enough. in a 13 page letter, several members of the county board of supervisors argue that the process has turned the state into a laughingstock and they say it's time to accept the results and move on. bill gates is the vice chair of

the maricopa county board of supervisors and is one of the signers of that letter. mr. gates, thank you for joining us on the newshour. it's a scathing letter addressed to the senate president, a fellow republican. you accuse her in this letter of renting out the good name of the arizona senate to grifters and con artists. is that who has millions of arizonans ballots and hands right now? con artists? do you believe this is an all an attempt to symbol voters and change the results of the 2020 election? >> thanks for having me. look, the way that this worked out was that the senate went to court to get the authority to get these ballots in machines from maricopa county, we were holding them after the votes were all counted. they indicated that they want to review all of these materials to come up with potentially new election laws. instead of doing that, what they've done is turned over all

of these ballots. they turned over these election machines to companies that don't have expertise in dealing with elections audits. companies peddling conspiracy theories. unfortunately, there's the ones that have their hands on the ballots of maricopa county's voters. anchor: senator fan said this afternoon that this process has never been about overturning or de-certifying the elecon. she said that your board of supeisors has done nothing but throw up roadblocks to their request. what is your rponse to that? >> yeah. i don't think that's a fair statement at all. we went to court to determine whether these ballots should be turned -- over when the court said that we needed too it. we did that. we never agreed to be a part of this so-called audit. maricopa county did to audits

earlier this year where we brought in companies that were voting system laboratories to examine things like, where the machines connected to the internet? was there any mware connected to the machines? we had these professionals come in and they determined that there were no issues. what we are getting to now is essentially a recount that they are doing at the veterans memorial coliseum. under arizona law, recounts are only allowed in certain instces where the votes are very close. we are not obstructing this. we have watched them go through this so-called audit. last week, they sent a letter to the board of supervisors alleging our good elections professionals of numerous improprieties including some that could be criminal violations. we said, enough is enough. we responded in thatetter to each one of these allegations.

there is simply no basis to this. instead asking us these questions, they put these loaded questions out, these accusations out both in their letter and on a twitter account called the arizona audit ttter. by the way, the senate claims they have no control over that. anchor: i want to talk about that tweet. you do take specific issue with it in the letter that i have here. it came from the organizers of the audit, claiming that maricopa county election officials deleted voter databases. president trump issued a statement supporting that theory. bill gates, why did they believe databases had been deleted? is there any truth to that? >> i think the reason they believe that was because, frankly, they did not know what they were doing. yesterday, we made it clear that those dabases are still there.

guess what? today, in a so-called hearing that president phan had with their auditors, they admitted that now they can find them. they are saying that they recovered them. the reality is, they were never gone. they now have found them. interestingly, there was no apology issued by those contractors or by the arizona nate for baseless allegations of fraud by the employees of maricopa countelections department. anchor: they have also not deleted -- now deleted that tweet. i st checked. in this letter, you have demonstrable facts that prove there was no deleted database. why do facts not seem to be enough these days for so many trump supporters? >> it's a great question. i don't understand. as a republican, as long as i've been a republican, i've known us

as the party of the rule of law. the party of facts and evidence. not the party of emotion. unfortunately, somewhere along the way, some members of our party have gotten away from those facts. now they are simply peddling these conspiracy theories. i don't blame any of our citizens out there who are buying into these conspiracy theories because they are hearing it from o leaders. that's why my colleagues and i and other elected officials at maricopa county are standing up now, saying enough is enough and that we have to talk aut facts and evidence. most importantly, we need to move on from the big lie as republicans, if we will be successful in the 2022 elections , we need to end this and then we need to make the strong case for why we should be governing and not the democrats. anchor: other republicans, as you know, including

congresswoman liz cheney condemned mr. trump. and his perpetuation of the election fraud lie. they have suffered politically. what process did you have to go through to get to this point where you were willing to take such a strong stance on this? >> again, in my position as a member of the board of supervisors, we had to stand up several times since november of 2020. first of all, whad to vote as a board to unanimously certify the election results in maricopa county. we took a lot of heat from that. then we were demanded these ballots and election machines in december. we stood up again and said, you need to go to court. we were concerned thathat would be a violation of arizona law. in february, the arizona senate, despite the fact that our lawsuit was pending in court at that time, the arizona senate was only one vote away from holding us in contempt and

throwing us in jail because of our failure to turn over these ballots. finally, we are getting accused again of criminal acts. our employees are being accused of criminal acts. quite frankly, it has been six months of us standinup for the rule of law, standing up for facts and evidence. i have no problem doing it. if you didn't run for office to do what was right, to stand up for democracy, why did you run for office in the first place? anchor: vice chair of the maricopa county board of supervisors, thanks for joining the newshour. >> thank you. ♪ >> a new movement has sprung up on the island nati of trinidad.

demanding an end to what is being called a plague of violence against women. the government of that when island state just off the coast of venezuela has been accused of ignoring a major studies recommendation aimed at reducing the rate of murder and domestic abuse. trinidad supporters are currently closed because of the pandemic. special correspondent malcolm robin reported from britain. dylan quest no films in trinidad. a warning, accounts in the story may upset some viewers. >> we demand to be seen! we demand to be seen! our streets! reporter: women are marching to reclaim trinidad's streets from sexual predators, kidnappers, murderers. >> [inaudible] reporter: after this demonstration, i got a message about another them aside. the seven-year-old boy cry for help as his mother wasttacked by his machete wielding father. they found the 36-year-old

hacked to death. her husband hank himself. this picture on facebook, a month before her murder. melissa runs a group called, i won't be silenced. >> being a woman in trinidad is terrifying. it is beyond scary. we are afraid to walk our streets. we are afraid to go down the street to get a newspaper. we are afraid to walk to the gas station or the nearest shop. ♪ reporter: recent funerals have galvanized women to demand an end to a culture of violence on the streets and in the home. this 22-year-old disappeared after taking a taxi in late january. herody was discovered six days later. her murder followed the kidnapping of an 18-year-old. she was also last seen getting into a taxi. she was found in a stream five

days later, raped, stabbed, and beaten. while politicians sit on their hands, church leaders are speaking out. >> she's our mother. she's our daughter. she's our aunt. she's our niece. she's our cousin. she's our sister. she's not our enemy. women's lives matter. reporter: this is ashanti riley's grave. the mother is waiting for the earth to settle before erecting a tombstone. >> time will heal. to me, time will never heal. reporter: is there anything you would like to say to the rest of the world about what is happening in trinidad? >> what is happening is a very sad thing. our country has come to this. women are living in fear of men. if it's not gun violence, it's domestic violence. it hurts me to know i'm living

in a country where these things are happening. reporter: in defiance of lockdown rules, candlelight protests have begun, a regular fixture. on the day of this demonstration, news broke of a 53-year-old woman beaten to death by relate. a 76er old woman robbed and raped in her own home. >> [inaudible] [applause] reporter: 2020 was a brutal year in this nation of 1.4 million. 47 women and girls were murdered. >> new tonight, the search is on to find the killer of a 25-year-old woman. reporter: 49 women were murdered in philadelphia last year. philadelphia has a similar population and had 500 murders, its worst record for 60 years. trinidad has 100 fewer homicides

but the percentage of women killed inrinidad was slightly higher. the real death toll may be even worse. more than 400 women were reported missing. some were found but it's feared that others were trafficked or killed. one common complaint is that politicians only talk tough at election time. a successive government would come in and try to outdo each other in terms of fines and prison sentences. now, they should've figured out that isn't going to work. reporter: hheads the criminology program at th university of the west indies. he's critical of the government for ignoring a study by the inter-american development bank. among its recommendations, greater help for women needing to escape from violent situations. mar improvements in police procedures including more sensitivity and swifter action. better public information campaigns and education about violence against women.

>> you see more of the progression types of initiatives in the coming of justice system and society at large. certainly from the side of the public, there appears to be a lot of willingness. the politicians don't seem to want to engage with some of the more advanced types of thinking and approaches to dealing with the program. >> we want justice! we want justice! reporter: requests to discuss with the prime minister went unanswered. and what so see as an abrogation of responsibility, the islands police chief has urged women to do more to save themselves. >> there's nothing agast a woman having a firearm. a firrm is something that can be an asset to you. reporter: experts warn that women using guns could find themselves in trouble because the right to self protection has not been properly enshrined in law. they are proof -- they approve of pepper sprays which are currently illegal. >> this could be readily did

item. -- a regulated item. reporter: another area crying out for reforms is the registration and identification of taxi drivers so that they can be tracked andraced. activists want the police to become more interventionist and domestic violence by overcoming a cultural acceptance that what takes place in a person's home stays within the family. another key change proposed by the study, ignored by the government, was about educating young people to become intolerant of violence against women. >> parents need to train their boys, especially, to respect young girls. to respect women as a whole. at the end of the day, you come from a woman. you have sisters. you have on's. you have cousins. you wouldn't want someone to do your mother, your sister these things. reporter: they have joined forces to implement some of the changes recommended in the

inter-americ study. the recent murders have resurrected dreadful memories for this woman who was gang rape 30 years ago. back then, she kept quiet about her ordeal. now she's gone public in an attempt to sensitize men and to encourage other women to speak out. >> they are deaf to your please and your cries. i did not want this to be done to me. they overpowered me. they took turns. they raped me. when i look back at that night, i tell myself, i could have been done. they did not know what to do with me. [inaudible] reporter: this short film about an aggressive husband is an effort to encourage men to take

a stand against abuse. >> for those potential abusers, what we want to do wi the campaign is to identify it and prevenit from happening. even if you are perpetrator and you see yourself, we are trying to find avenues that me can come forward and say, i ne help. ♪ reporter: trinidad, famous for its carnival, is currently sealed off from the rest of the world. the urist industry is paiing it as idyllic. for women there, it's nothing of the sort. >> literally begging to be valued. i'm terrified that it's going to continue. we will all be in vain. >> we want change! reporter: politicians have nothing to lose by exceeding to the women's demand. if violence wins, the twin island state risks being damped a paradise lost. pbs newshour.

♪ anchor: the national calls to action and protest over racial justice have brought new awareness of past injustices in many parts of our society. that's true in the fields of science and medicine which are starting to look more carefully at their own history. we focus tonight on some of these developments, part of our continuing series on race matters. reporter: the american medical association is one of the country's oldest, largest, and best-known associations of doctors. it's voice has been influential. now, it is finally beginning to come to terms with racism in its own past. it recently issued an 83 page report that found that the organization is rooted in white patriarchy and affluent supremacy. the report outlines a number of examples including the groups past support of excluding

physicians of color. it notes that ithe 19th century, the president of the group practiced vaginally surgeries on enslaved black women without anesthesia. it is vowing to take action on racial justice and health equity. the ama chief health equity officer started work on the report two years ago. think you for joining us. i want to start by saying, you did work on this report. tell me about what was mo troubling to you when you look at what was uncovered and what the report says. >> when you start tdig into the history, you are not sure what you are going to find. most of the history and some of the points you already mentioned, many of us knew it. we had an understanding of the exclusion of black physicians and the consequences of shutting down black med schools. that has a direct connection on the lack of diversity today. to uncover that, i don't feel we've done it to its fullness

yet. this was more so a taste for us to get to that point and start demonstrating the importance of naming the harms and being an example to start doing that. reporter: jay marion sims practiced vaginally surgeries on enslaved black women's. talk to me about the harm that was done then and the consequent is of that -- consequences of that in present-day. >> without anesthesia. it's a representation of how bodies literally were used, were experimented upon, were not valued. without any consent. how that translates to some level today. the realitys, women's bodies, black women's bodies, bodies of other people of color and those that have been historicay marginalized, are still not fully valued. that's really what our da and evidence is showing us. if we look at the covid-19

pandemic, the data is telling us that we are not valuing all lives the same way. everybody doesn't have the power or resources or conditions in order to achieve optimal health. that is still pervasive through our healthare and medical system. we really wanted to make sure that we were very explicit about that in this report, that we didn't tiptoe around the edges. we really names the root causes of oppression in this country, even speaking to and starting to name the impacts of colonization as well as capitalism as an introduction. as you can imagine, many of these terms are not -- our new to the people in the health care profession and make people very uncomfortable. we are trying to find ways to bring folks along while at the same time being very direct and instructive that this is where we need to go if you are

committed to advancing equity and racial justice work in health care. reporter: there's this idea that there were physicians of color that were excluded. there was the closing of those medical schools catering specifically to black people and women. how is that showing up in present-day diversity issues in medicine? >> there's a tremendous lack of diversity. having black physicians and latinx physicians and native american physicians who have been excluded from the medical physician. we are the ones who commissioned abraham flexner. we valued this model of significant scientific rigor and evaluated schools across the country in the early 1900s. if you didn't have that, if you did not havthose types of resources, we did not think you were a good enough school to stay open. that impacted, as you can imagine, many black med schools that aren't going to be resourced.

five were recommended to shut down. in addition, the part that really speaks to the impact, at that time, ama was excluding back physicians. -- black physicians. act then, in order to get licensed to hospitals, you had to be a member of the medical society. within your local community, which was ama affiliate. if you could not gain membership to an ama medical affiliate, u could not gain a license to work at the local hospital. now you have black physicians who also can't find hospitals to work at which impacts our communities. we have to take a look at that entire of the history and its impacts. reporter: there are some who say it lks deep timelines and targets. what concretely does the plan do, given the history that is known? >> when people say it lacks teeth, i'm close to it. we've spent a lot of time, over

a year and a half, working together to pull this report together. if you look at health care and how far they have not gone as it relates to talking about equity and justice, using terms such as white sremacy, you don't see that in health care. we really wanted to make sure that this report did go far enough. we will need to have mantypes of partners in order to help propel this forward. more important link, i think most important leak, is the accountability piece. i think that's the part where i accept criticism or push at any institution, especially an institution that is historically known to embody discrimination and racism and perpetuate institutional structural racism, hold us accountable. i absolutely call upon others in the health care counity to do that. all the folks who are impacted

by the decisions that we make and contribute to and influence at the policy and advocacy level, also at t system level of health care. reporter: an incredible conversation about equity in health care. thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. ♪ anchor: this year marks the 50th anniversary of mpr. a new book, the story of the founding not -- members, explores the careers and friendships of trailblazing journalists. judy woodruff recently spoke with the author of that book about how those four women helped build national public radio into one of the country's

most popular and respected media outlets. reporter: susan stenberg, lisa natalie, so good to have both of you with us. at a book. it is npr'50th anniversary this year. these women you'vehosen to write about, they are women we are familiar with today. u remind us what extraordinary uphill climb they had. >> these women needed a book together to celebrate their work with each other. also, how they helped npr launch. of course, it had not launched. it would not have without them. porter: what was it that your you to them? so many people think they know them. we hear their voices and we have seen them. what drew you to this? >> that's exactly it. i knew their names. i've been following them for years. i did not know where they had come from. that's why i love writing books. i love practicing journalism.

writing books, you can dig deeper and find out the why. what really surprised me is the troubles that women faced. new from my mother that the economics for women were not always equitable. i certainly did not realize that there was a time when women weren't allowed to be on the air or even have a byline in the newspaper. as a researcher and a writer and an amateur historian, i love telling the story of this media outlet through the lens of these four women that were maple to 8 -- make inroads that they couldn't have a few years before. reporter: you are the first. you were the pioneer, arriving out what was to be npr in the 1960's. you were sue levitt from the upper west side of new york city. your great credential, graduating from college, was that you could type 90 words per minute. >> better than that. 100. you slow down.

they tell a story about going for different jobs and being told, we already have our women. linda tell stories about having worked at the bbc in london. the women would go out, record someone on tape, come back, and they would edit out the woman's voice. and then a man would come in and voice between the clips. they were never heard. reporter: what is so remarkable about the stories is that each one of you made it to the successful place that you are today. we lost cokie, our beloved friend, a year and a half ago to cancer. each one of you mada norma success but through very different routes. you went overseas. you came back. what explains the fact that it all worked in the end?

>> npr was a start out. there weren't a thousand people ahead of you in the job you were dying to get. that makes it tough for anybody, men are women. particularly difficult for women. my theory is total luck and very persistent telephone calls. i would call and go after a job and drive the people crazy. they just wanted to get me off of the phone. [laughte reporter: from your perspective, what was it about these women that made them endure? that made them become who they were? >> oh boy. you don't find for people like this very often. their stories were so different. i don't think a lot of people remember that linda wertheimer was a consumer reporter before

she knew congress or that susan had been behind the scenes and have the life that she had. or that cokie had to cry and beg to get a job. it was so difficult for her. i think it is staying power. i don't mean to diminish anybody's talent a lot of it is left. they were there at the birth of medium. it was a start up. it was fm rio exploding and public radio beginning. that's what i love about the story. it's all these little elements that came together. it was a combustible moment. reporter: the fact that cokie's husband steve roberts gave her resume to nina totenberg because he wanted his wife to have the job that she wanted. people look at npr. maybe they don't realize how different public radio is from

commercial. how do you explain it to someone who isn't in the middle of it? >> it's not commercial. we don't interrupt things constantly. much like yourself. we do a lot of underwriting. that's a great strength. you can listen to it straight, get the information straight. also, full and balanced. much of news on television is opinion nation. there's no effort to make it balanced or objective. npr does. it's what we do. that's how i explain it. it's full of very terrific women. reporter: what a great gift this book is for all of us who are dependent on npror all of these years, to read in such fascinating detail about the

lives of these four remarkable women. thank you and thanks to susan stenberg for being there at the creation. we owe you a lot. thank you both much. >> thank you. >> thank you. ♪ anchor: now, a sneak peek at a unique program premiering tonight on the newshour's website and our youtube page. it's called disrupted, how covid-19 changed education. it was produced by our own student reporting labs. it explores what this video diaries.tirees.orsas like take a look. >> schools have been shuttered for weeks across the country. reporter: concerns about coronavirus have led to school

shutdowns in almost every state. >> i no longer have school for the rest of the school year. >> disneyland closed. premier league postponed. nba postponed. >> i cannot stand it. it's truly bong. >> school and my home life makes it one and the same. ♪ >> it's not just you. we are all exhausted. >> antonio? antonio! >> anyone? is anyone out there? >> hi. >> how's it going? ok. >> i never thought i would say this. i miss school. i miss going to school. ♪ >> my school year has been so weird so far.

lots of new rules. lots of new procedures. everybody has to follow them. >> when i went to school to become a teacher, there was no lesson on how to teach while also being stuck behind a screen. >> three cameras on! oh my gosh! it's a world record! [applause] we have seven cameras on. i'm tearing up. my heart is overwhelmed. >> we don't need to re-create what we had. we don't need to re-create the old magic. need to go forward. >> we are all in it together. it's a really weird time to grow up. >> those of you that are still with me, stay with me. let's do this. ♪ anchor: disrupted starts in just a few minutes over on the newshour website and the youtube page, streaming live at 7:00 eastern time. it's watchable there any time. please join us. i hope to see you there. that's the newshour for tonight.

please join us online and again here tomorrowvening for all of us. thank you. stay safe. we will see you soon. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ consumer cellular. johnson & johnson. financial services firm raymond james. bnsf railway. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of international peace and security at carnegie.org. the target foundation, committed to advancing racial equity in creating the change required to shift systems and accelerate equitable economic opportunity. and with the ongoing support of

these instutions. ♪ this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. ♪ ♪ this is pbs newshour west from w eta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ ♪

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