>> good evening. i am geoff bennett. amna: i am amna navaz. on the newshour tonight. >> nothing right now suggests that they are related to china. amna: president biden says the three objects shot down over north america were likely linked two private companies or scientific research, not foreign surveillance. geoff: earthquake devastation puts turkey's president under scrutiny. amna: in the aftermath of the ohio train derailment, residents grow increasingly frustrated, saying they aren't getting answers about their risk for toxic exposure. ♪

announcer: major funding for the "pbs newshour" h been provided by. the kendida fund. carnegie corporation of new york, supporting innovations in education democratic ,engagement and the advancement of international peace and security, at carnegie.org. and with the ongoing support of these individuals and 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. geoff: good evening and welcome to the newshour. president biden gave his most detailed assessment of the chinese spy balloon and other objects that have crossed into u.s. airspace. amna: addressing the country, president biden salt to calm concerns about the objects shot down over the u.s. and canada. the president made no apologies for ordering the takedowof these objects. you pres. biden: make no mistake, if any object poses a threat to the american people, i will take it down. amna: the remarks came days after pressure from lawmakers in both parties. following this closely is our correspondent laura perrone

lopez. good to see you. there have been questions about when or if the president would address these objects. you were there. what did we learn? laura: the president talked about these objects we shot down over the course of three days starting on february 10. those objects were shot down over the waters over the coast of alaska, the yukon territory in canada, and over lake huron over the coast of michigan. the president provided some of the clearest details about them and what type of entities officials believe were responsible for these objects. pres. biden: the intelligence community's assessment is that these objects were most likely balloons tied to private companies, recreation, or research institutions conducting scientific research. laura: president biden said the u.s. military and canadian military are working to get the

debris out of the ocean and lake , but weather is proving difficult. amna: it was the shooting down of the chinese spy balloon on february 4 off the coast of south carolina that triggered this. what is the latest intelligence? what do we know? laura: administration officials believe the spy balloon was intended to surveilled military bases over guam and hawaii. here is what we know about the flight path. it was intended to fly over guam and hawaii, but it took a turn and was directed towards alaska and over the continental united states before it was shot down over the coast of south carolina on february 4. despite the fact that chinese officials refused to take a call from secretary of defense austin, president biden said president biden is trying to

keep channels open with the chinese and is hopeful and expecting to talk with president xi soon. amna: one of the questions we have seen is, is there a plan? what is the policy for future flying objects deemed a threat? does the president have a plan? laura: the president deemed his national security advisor to establish some parameters, so today he did give some of the clearest points of this plan, which is specifically for unmanned objects in the u.s. airspace. it would establish better inventory and improve capacity to detect these objects, update regulations for launching and maintaining them, and the secretary of state is going to work to establish some common global standards. the president said he is continuing to get daily updates on all the intel gathered on these objects and will continue to share it with congress.

amna: increased vigilance of u.s. airspace, there has to be a cost. what do we know? laura: it is hard to get the entire cost of this, and some say this has been budgeted into the cost because these are training exercises. we did get cost data from the air force and gao about what it takes to fly these flying jets. the cost per hour is $85,000 per hour. the cost of an f-35 is $35,000, and each missile fired costs over, $400,000, as well as the tanker aircraft, they cost $25,000 to $30,000 per hour, depending on which they use. it costs a decent amount of money to shoot down these

objects in u.s. airspace. amna: thank you. laura: thank you. ♪ stephanie: here are the latest headlines. a special grand jury in georgia has concluded one or more witnesses lied under oh -- under oath about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. the panel focused on former president trump and his allies. the allegations are part of a final report released today. the grand jurors urged prosecutors to seek indictments for such crimes where the evidence is compelling. the report stayed silent on who might have lied. police in east lansing michigan , shed more light today on the shootings that killed three students at michigan state university. they said the gunman anthony mcrae had two guns purchased

legally but not registered. they found a note on mccrae monday night when he killed himself several hours after the attack. >> it appears based on the content of the note he felt he was slighted in some way by people or businesses. did a mental health issue amplify that or was it a component of that? we are not sure at this point. stephanie four students remained : in critical condition. a fifth has been upgraded to stable. a chinese immigrant farmworker pleaded not guilty to killing seven coworkers in half moon bay, california last month. authorities in memphis have suspended two sheriff's deputies for five days returning off body cameras at the scene of tyre nichols' deadly arrest.

a statement said the deputies violated many regulations. nichols died after being beaten by five memphis police officers. in ukraine, russia rained a new barrage of missiles as the war's one-year anniversary new year's. -- new year's. -- nears. ukrainian officials said more missiles got through in part because the attackers use balloons with reflectors to trick the radars. one soldier said the russians do not seem to care about casualties. >> they have a lot of manpower. they are sending a lot of troops. i don't think it is sustainable for them to keep attacking this way. there are places where there are bodies just piled up. there is a trench where they just don't evacuate their wounded or killed. stephanie the head of a russian : mercenary group acknowledged heavy losses but said his fighters will capture the city by april.

china says it has decisively be -- beaten the covid pandemic and is transitioning to a new stage. beijing announced that more than 200 million people were diagnosed and treated. it said 800,000 of the sickest patients have recovered. the outbreak spread quickly after containment measures were dropped in november. in this country, kentucky's supreme court allowed a near total ban on abortion to stand. the justices heard challenges to two laws that sharply limit abortions in the state. they ruled on narrow grounds and sent the case back to a lower court. president biden's doctors say he is healthy and fit to fulfill his duties after a medical checkup today. it drew more than unusual attention because president biden is already the oldest age of president at 80. the white house press secretary dismissed concerns he might not be up to the job. >> the president always said

this, watch him. and if you watch him, you will see he has a grueling schedule that he keeps up with. that sometime some of us are not able to keep up with. amna: in recent polls, majorities of americans, including most democrats, say mr. biden shouldn't run given his age. an appeals court in arizona today rejected republican kari lake's challenge of her defeat in last year's governor's race. the court ruled like fail to provide evidence that voters were disenfranchised when some vote counting machines malfunctioned on election day. lake vowed to appeal to the arizona supreme court. helical -- electric vehicle giant tesla launch a recall today to repair defects in software that controls the full self-driving mode. the recall impacts over 360 2000 teslas. the faulty code can cause vehicles to run yellow lights and disobey speed limits.

and former basall in broadcasting star tim mccarver has died. he was an all-star catcher who won 2 world series titles with the st. louis cardinals in the 1960's. later, he we on to become a hall of fame baseball broadcaster after his playing days ended. tim mccarver was 81 years old. people living with the effects of long covid detail how the disease has changed their lives. as senator fetterman seeks help for depression, we explore the challenge of dealing with mental illness while in the public eye and a new book details the struggle of black soldiers during world war two and much more. geoff: the death toll in the devastating earthquakes in turkey and syria has crossed 41 -- as hope of finding any 41,000. survivors fades, the focus is shifting from rescue to

reconstruction. inurkiye, thousands of buildings have been reduced to rubble. amna: but the widespread damage in towns and cities is not the only permanent scar left on the landscape. here's a report from a village in southern turkiye where the sheer destructive power of ts earthquake is clear. >> since the earthake struck southern turkey in the early hours of monday morning, most of the focus has been on the consequences for human beings. far less attention has been on the consequences for the earth itself. but here in the farmland outside on taqiyya there is a very good example of that. this is the world's newest valley. during that awful night as they cowered in their homes, the locals knew that something cataclysmic had happened. but imagine their surprise when they first saw this chasm.

we went to the bottom of it for the perspective from down there, but actually the best way to end what we're talking about here is from above. the local people said that at the time they thought it was an air raid. the sound of explosions created by cracking rock, the flashers by the sparks that flew as the earth's crust was torn apart. >> it used to be a flat field. i would ride my bike on it, said this boy. it was all an olive grove which is now bisected a gorge that in places is the width of a football field. the rift is so deep that a 13 storey building could fit in it

this boy said that just after first flight that morning, they came out here and found it. they were terrified and started crying. we thought we had witnessed something that's out of this world. eventually the cities d times will be clear of rubble. but this rupture, shaky ground permitting, will ensure as a reminder of the power of the quake, the power of 7.8. amna: that was john irvine. anger, recriminations and demands for accountability are echoing across turkiye, just three months ahead of a scheduled election. to discuss this we turn to the founding director of the middle east institute's turkiye program and author of the book already

wants war, a strongman struggle at home and in syria. welcome to the newshour and thank you for joining us. we invited you here because of your professional credentials, but on a personal no, we know you were in turkiye when the earthquake hit. we know you lost family, a we are so very sorry for your loss. these numbers are staggering, over 41,000 dead. help us understand what people on the ground are feeling now. >> there is a lot of anger over the government's slow response. it was not only slow, but very disorganized, too. the narrative on the ground from the victims is that erdogan's government had not prepared the country for the earthquakes and did things to pave way for the tragedy. the practice of granting government infrastructure projects to cronies who cut corners that played a role -- in the high death toll. another policy was granting

amnesty to unsafe buildings. according to state agencies, there are millions, more than half of all the buildings in the country received these amnesties. so people understand that, and compounding the problems for the government is the fact that state agencies were not there on time, and when they arrived, they did not want to do enough to help the victims. that frustrated a lot of people. amna: help us understand about the granting of these amnesties and president erdogan's role in that. the country did undergo a huge construction boom in recent years. what was behind that and what , was president erdogan's role in allowing some of those construction companies to get around the enforcement standards?

>> erdogan's government had a construction boom early in his tenure, and almost immediately after coming to power, he started grting these contracts to a handful of cronies who had little regard for environmental concerns or safety conces. he granted those contracts without any regulatory oversight, so i think that really compounded the problem, and on top of that, he collected large sums of money in earthquake tax, and those taxes were meant to build stronger buildings. apparently, from what we've seen from last week he has not built , strong enough buildings. amna: the turkish government said they have ordered over 100 people detained they are responsible for those many buildings collapsing. is that the accountability you want to see? >> not really. i think these are small private

contractors. i think a little over 100 have been arrested. i think the bigger problem is the five largest companies in the country, and they are very close personal friends of erdogan, and they have become very rich because of these government tenders, and i doubt they will be held accountable. one is the richest men in the country, a personal friend of erdogan, and he has received $42.1 billion in tenders since erdogan came to power. those people i doubt will be held accountable, and on the contrary last night, there was a government led campaign to raise money for the victims. he was there donatg over $160 million, and that happened right

after president erdogan's government gave them incentives. even that effort was an effort from the erdogan government to provide legitimacy to those companies. amna: president erdogan has declared a three month state of emergency that will go up to the election. could they be postponed? >> no they have to be held on , time according to the constitution. turkiye cannot hold elections later than june, but erdogan tested the waters in the last few days. one of his close associates suggested that turkiye should not hold ections soon, and it was said it was unconstitutional to hold elections after june 18. so i think erdogan will probably keep pushing for a later date,

in the hopes that he could use that extra time to rebuild those cities, probably with international financial aid, news the media under his control to shift the narrative in his favor. amna: that is the founding director of the middle east institute's turkiye program joining us, thank you. >> thanks for having me. ♪ geoff: now to the continuing concerns over a major chemical spill in eastern ohio caused by a train derailment. another train derailed outside detroit today. early report found that one of the cars that went off the tracks did have hazardous materials, but chemicals did not leak out. in ohio, anger and anxiety are running high after two weeks after the incident there.

frustration, fear and unanswered questions dnesday night in east palestine, ohio. >> i think most people are concerned they are going to sweep this under the rug. we have dead fish in the streams. there are a lot of reports of pets and animals dying. we just want to make sure we are taken care of here. geoff: residents worried about the danger of returning to their homes given the potential long-term effect of toxic chemicals in the air, soil and water following the ery train derailment. that's with evacuation orders lifted last week. no one was injured in the derailment, but as the cleanup continues, there are more questions about the chemicals relieved into the environment, including vinyl chloride, linked to cancers, and known to cause dizziness, headaches, and other symptoms residents have complained about. many now worried about the effect on the community's

children. >> my grandkids are only six months and two years old. i was very concerned with them growing up in this town that they will have to endure that. geoff: state officials insist that tests say the air is safe to breathe and the water is safe to drink, but residents say they are not convinced. >> i feel like the police department, fire department, first responders, i don't think they know. geoff: earlier thiweek, ohio governor mike dewine was asked if he would feel comfortable returning to home if he lived near the derailment. >> i think i would be drinking the bottle water, i would be alert and concerned, but i think i would be back in my house. geoff: notably missing from last night's community meeting, nor folk southern company telling "pbs newshour" in a statement, unfortunately, after consulting with community leaders we have

, become concerned about the growing physical threat to our employees. the company says it is creating a one million-dollar charitable fund for the community and has paid $1 million in relf so far. today epa administrator michael regan visited the community. >> we are absolutely going to hold norfolk southern accountable, and i can promise you that. geoff: at least five lawsuits have been filed against norfolk southern, including a class action by some east palestine residents. to help us understand more about the potential risks residents could face, i am joined by peter decarlo, and associate professor of environmental engineering at johns hopkins. if you lived in east palestine, what would you need to hear or see from officials in order to feel safe living there? peter: i think ultimately given the public information available, i would not feel

comfortable moving back quite yet, and what i would need to see is evidence that there are no more emissions coming from the accident site and that the inside of my home was safe to be in. i have not seen data that suggests either of those things are true yet, and for me with small children, i would not want to move back at this point. geoff: the epa is not providing that data, or the data you have seen is not suggesting it is safe? peter: the epa is providing monitoring and stationary sampling data. the monitoring data comes from monitors that are not designed to measure outside air quality. i believe these are not the instruments used to screen peoples homes. as an atmospheric measurement person, i would not feel comfortable with that level of screening. i would want more information. i would want to know what

chemicals are present. that would require air sampling, which means you take air into a stainless steel container and do much more detailed observations. that is the type of information that is needed to know that the air is safe. there are also surfaces in the home where some of the plume from the large fire could have deposited. we do not know what kind of chemicals are made when you burn something like vinyl chloride. we know it is a whole host of potentially toxic chemicals, and if those accumulate on surfaces in your home, that becomes another thing toorry about. we spend most of our lives indoors, so making sure that is a safe environment to go back to, especially if there are vulnerable populations, making sure tha

home environment is safe is key if i were to move back. geoff: we heard from a grandmother in our report, her grandkids are six months and two years old. what are some of the special safety considerations for children? peter: i have two young boys who are eight and 6, if it was on a toy or near their mouth, i would be concerned about exsures that could happen in that case. especially with young children who are touching everything, we know that kids are more vulnerable to chemical exposure, so extra careful especially when young children are involved because there are so many ways chemicals can get into these bodies. geoff: the release of these chemicals caused the death of 3500 fish. some residents have reported headaches and rashes in the days since the derailment.

the epa is telling people it is safe to return to their homes, but there are people in east palestine wondering how both things can be true, how they are being told on one hand, it is safe, but on the other, people are feeling physical symptoms. peter: our noses are not detailed chemical instruments to measure air quality, but they are detectors for measuring when something is not right. when people report smells, you know there are chemicals still in that environment at were not there before. so it is important to pcharacterize what chemicals are and aren't present. certainly early on in the accident and during the burn of the train car contents. you probably have the worst possibility for exposure. but that does not mean there are not residual exposures to these chemicals that continue to happen. it is important to characterize in a systematic way what is in the air and in the indoo

environment. geoff:geoff: what about the long-term impact? how long might it take to know the full picture of consequences? peter: that is difficult to measure because the data doesn't tell me as a scientist what is still going on. i need to understand, are ere continuing emissions, and without the data to tell us what is there and what continues to be emitted, we cannot put a timeline on any of this. fundamentally, we need the measurement data to understand exposure and how long this could potentially last. amna: peter decarlo, thank you for your time and insights. ♪

amna: last fall, president biden said the pandemic was over, and judging how most americans are ling their lives, they agree, even though the virus is killing about 2000 americans every week. as william brangham reports, a oader impact is being borne by the untold millions who have survived their infection but suffer from the troubling chronic condition of long covid. william: the specter of long covid th its mysterious cause and an unknown duration haunts millions of people. a moment, we will hr from a person who treats this condition, but first, let's hear from some who are suffering with it. >> one day, i woke up and felt like i had the flu. i had bodyaches and congestion and everything. it wasn't too bad it felt like a , flu i had before, so i didn't think anything of it.

and then as the weeks went by, i noticed the symptoms were not going away. >> physically, long covid has ruined my life. there's no other way to say that. many days i still cannot get out of bed. i now have chronic migraines. i can't walk very far at all without running out of breath. i am constantly getting dizzy, constantly going to the er because i have fallen. my joints hurt all the time. that is what people don't realize, how much pain is involved. >> after having covid the first time and recovering fine, i assumed having it again wouldn't be a problem because i was ok during my first infection, and i couldn't have been more wrong. now i have these debilitating symptoms, and there is no

treatment and no cure for it. doctors n't know what to do. >> i worked through it. the first year and a half, the only thing i could do was work, and the rest of the day i was pretty much out cold. i got reinfected in september of 2021 with delta, and for most of last year, i couldn't get off the couch. >> i started to have a heart attack symptoms. fortunately, nothing happened to me, but i did end up going to the er because i've never experienced any of these symptoms before in my life. basically my experience was that every time i would go to doctors or the hospital, they would say, you are fine. >> i have tried dozens of medications and dozens of therapies. i went through dozens of doctors. i finally have a great team of doctors who believe me and are

doing everything they can to treat me, but i am completely house-bound. >> i have shortness of breath and chest pain pretty much every day. that is one of the most frustrating parts, doctors don't know what to do with you. >> financially, it has been devastating. my husband is my full-time caretaker. he can't leave me alone for long periods lifetime because i fall. we don't have our business anymore. if it was not for the help of friends and family and the community, we wouldn't be able to survive at all. >> i am able to walk, but i am not able to do any exercise. even just the thought of getting a job, i wish i could work and live a life like most other

able-bodied people. >> i ran out of short-term disability. i cannot work. i am running out of money. the social worker i talked to said, don't bother applying for long-term disability because you are going to get denied. what are people in my position supposed to do? >> my friends and family have been very supportive, but to watch your life go down the drain is very depressing. people do not understand if you get long covid, it debilitates you to some degree. you are done for. there is no help coming your way. geoff: that is a small snapshot of the kinds of sytoms people e dealing with now. for more, we are joined by a neuroscientist and physical therapist, director of rehabilitation at the mount sinai health system, thank you

so much for being here. you ard those voices of people and what they are struggling with. do those stories sound familiar with the kinds of people you deal with every day? david: sadly, this is a common story. this is what we are hearing every day. unfortunately since the pandemic began, my team have seen over 3000 people with long covid, and what i heard is a very good representation of what we are dealing with every single day. geoff: in a recent commentary you authored, you noted that there are more than 200 symptoms associated with long covid, affecting virtually every organ system. given that are there proven , treatments that help? how do you help people who are suffering from a myriad of symptoms?

>> it is a great question and one we are working out as we go. the reality is, long covid is a subset of conditions. it is a number of different conditions that have been caused by an acute viral infection. and so we take a lot of care in our clinic to understand what type of subtype we are looking at. based on those, we offer different treatments. all we can do right now is symptom management, and we can do a good job of that, making people feel a lot better with the symptomshat they have, but we are not curing them. we are getting them to a point

where they may be able to leave the house, but the underlying cause is still there. geoff: that is such a distressing diagnosis to give to people. i know the national institutes of health has a project looking into this. what does the best research tell us as to why this is happening to people? >> there is a lot of uncertainty about the causes of long covid, but what we know for sure is that long covid is an organic disease. the virus has changed things within the body. there are three or four different ways the virus can change the body's physiology and start to lead to the symptoms we are experiencing, but what we understand very clearly is that this is not a psychological illness. this is not a psychosomatic illness. this is an illness that has been caused by the body responding to

a previously unknown virus. the immune system has become dis-regulated as a result of the virus, and it is leading to highly debilitating symptoms. i am optimistic we can close and on some therapies for people with long covid, but we need the public to understand that dying is not your only risk of serious, life-changing problems from covid. we need the government helping in infection prevention so that my clinic doesn't become even more overwhelmed in the coming months and years. geoff: i have to imagine in addition to physical symptoms there has to be a great deal of

depression with all the mysteries you are discussing, plus this notion that the country has moved on while they are in the middle of this. >> many people with long covid are experiencing a traumatic transition from previously being fullhealthy, never having a serious medical condition in their lives and transitioning to suddenly being complely debilitated, depeent on friends and family, as we heard in the last clip, just for basic survival here that is a tough transition to have to make. in our clinic, we try to make sure that in addition to care and research to treat e underlying causes of the

illness, we are also doing our best to provide psychological support and social support, with the understanding that this is not the overall cause, the transition from nondisabled to disabled is challenging. geoff: david petrenko, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. ♪ geoff: pennsylvania senator john fettermaannounced he is in the hospital after voluntarily seeking treatment for clinical depression. the senator is recovering after a stroke last may. his office said he has often experience depression but it became severe in recent weeks. millions of americans struggle with depression, but few share their stories publicly. jason kander stepped away from

his mayoral campaign in 2018 after acknowledging he suffered in silence with depression for a dozen years. thank you for being with us. you praised senator fetterman saying his decision to be transparent is awesome leadership. tell me more about that, why the public acknowledgment is so important. jason: so many of us tell ourselves stories about how whatever we are going through doesn't measure up or doesn't count. one of the benefits of having been public about my mental health challenges is i am a safe place for people to come and talk to somebody and say, here is what i've been going through. it affords me the knowledge that not everybody feels the license

or permission slip to deal with that stuff. whether you are a person that people know like john fetterman, or just somebody that people in the office know, if you are transparent and open with people in your life, and you say, this is what i am going through, that is contagious in a good way and causes people to feel like they have permission. and that saves lives. geoff: you talked about the benefit of your experience. what about the flipside of that? how did being in the public eye complicate things for you? >> for a long time, it kept me om going to the v.a. to get help.

it was a factor making me think, i am a politician. so i can't be out here admitting this vulnerability. eventually i did. there was an interesting aspect of it. when you are going through something, every day is not terrible. when you are going to therapy gradually, a lot of the days , start toe better than the day before, but what the public knows is the last thing that they heard or saw. which was, you are going through this thing. you could be at the grocery store, feeling pretty good that day and then somebody takes , it upon themselveso be the person who convinces you to feel better, and they say something that is awkwarbut well-intentioned, anthat can be a strange feeling, that everyone you meet sees you through the lens of having this mental health issue that you are dealing with or have dealt with. it can make you feel very fragile.

i'm confident that senator fetterman like many who go to get treatment for this, like any other physical ailment, i'm sure that will go very well and he will be back to feeling like himself, but what he will reckon with is when he meets new people, there will be a period of time where they see him through this lens and knowledge, but he will learn to navigate that and come to take pride in the idea that he can be an example of getting better, which encourages other people to get help. geoff: more than 50% of americans will be diagnosed with a mental illness over the course of their lifetime, according to the cdc. what lessons have you learned that might help out others? jason: i wrote a book about it. which i'm happy to plug. but one of the most important

lessons that i will share here is that it is not a contest. whatever you have been through or have not been through that led you to the place where you need some help, it doesn't really matter. -- doesn't matter how you got here. one of the things that is so important about what senator fetterman is doing is, while i've gotten credit for being public, society gives guys like me permission. i am a combat veteran. there is an expectation that somebody like me might have this problem, and there is less judgment than someone who is not in ts very particular group that society has given a permission slip to culturally. two having a mental health -- having a mental health problem they need to overcome. somebody like senator fetterman

doing this is important because so many people, to me all the time, and they will express something they have been through, but they will say, but i haven't gone to war. it doesn't matter. it's not relevant. what my brain experienced and your brain experienced, my brain doesn't know what your brain experienced, so it really doesn't matter. trauma is trauma. senator fetterman, whether it is clinical depression that he has had for a long time, like any other ailment you need to treat or related to the , trauma of having a stroke, fine, it doesn't matter. you don't need to justify. if it is something you struggle with, go and treat it. the other thing i can say about it is, i think i made a much greater impact on the world since going to get help since getting help. when i think about politicians who have announced they've gone to get help for a mental health issue, you said the number is 50% -- i think it's probably higher than that.

with people in leadership positions, i would rather they have dealt with themselves. i uld rather have people in charge who have dealt with that stuff ther than people who are suppressing that stuff. geoff: thank you for the conversation. i appreciate you. ♪ amna: stories of american military service and here was -- heroism in world war ii have been immtalized in books and movies for decades. missing from most of those naatives have been the crucial contributions of more than one million black americans who served in the war. no longer, thanks to the book "half american." the epic story of

african-americans fighting wars war two at home and abroad, which gives a detailed look at the dual battle that black service members played fighting fascism overseas and racism back home. i sat down with a history professor at dartmouth college to learn more. thanks for joining us. let's start with what brought you to the story in the first place. much of the narrative around black americans' service -- in world war ii is very limited. your research revealed service on a much broader level. tell me what you found. >> what we found is that black americans participated in world war ii. even though the military was racially segregated during the war, black americans were in the armynavy, marine corps. europe, the pacific. they built roads, bridges.

they fought in combat when given the opportunity. what i came away from with my research is you can't tell the history of world war ii without talking about the contributions of black americans. amna: did it surprise you to learn how widespread that service was? >> once i got into the research, i realized how vast the story was. it goes beyond the tuskegee airmen. you cannot talk about this without talking about the contribution of black americans. there are so many stors that typically don't end up in our history textbooks. and are not the kind of things i've had the opportunity to teach before. the opportunity to write the book gave me more opportunities to share these stories. amna: one of the themes i found fascinating was how black americans identified the threat from fascism long before much of the nation. for black americans, a real start date was well before the

bombing of pearl harbor. tell us about that. >> one of the important things is the chronology of the war changes. if you look at a black newspaper from the you would see 1930's, extensive coverage of the rise of fascism in europe. they could see hitler's was explicitly pointing to the jim treatment of jews in europe. later in the 1930's, you see the coverage of hitler's in germany, italy invading ethiopia, and the coverage of the spanish civil war in spain. all of those things captivated the imaginations of black americans. they understood that fascism was moving across europe, and something had to be done about it. if not, it would become a worldwide problem. amna: many of those black americans who chose to enlist had to travel to the jim crow south for training at those

military bases. what were the conditions like? >> that was some of the hardest research i did. reading the letters of what the black soldiers wrote while being on these bases was troubling. from places like chicago, cleveland, and new york. they would get on trains going to the south. they would describe having to pull down the shades on the trains so white people would not throw rocks. they described being called racial epithets daily, and violence both on base and in the small towns from white sheriffs and police. things got so bad that these soldiers were running two lawyers from the naacp and said they would feel safer being deployed to war in europe and the pacific than we feel on these military bases in geora and alabama. they described themselves being at war in the united states. before they were even deployed to the war overseas.

amna: you said one of the hardest parts was reading some of those personal letters and those accounts, including what happened when they came back home after serving overseas. what did you find? >> what is so troubling about the end of the war is that black veterans came back, and they were treated with hostility and violence in many of the communities they return to. one of the things, there were 12 black veterans who were attacked when they returned. some while still wearing their military uniforms. it was horrific, the kind of violence enacted against black veterans. the only inspiring thing is that black veterans came back and started fighting for civil-rights. one of the big dories the book tries to show is the war didn't end for black americans in they came 1945. home and started fighting for democracy in the united states. so there was real continuity about -- between black veterans

fighting at the war and coming home and fighting another war for freedom and democracy here in the u.s. amna: it strikes me that you and i are speaking at a time when our own american history in the history of racism in america and anti-black policies was part of a larger political debate. how and if we talk about it. i am curious how you as history professor, how do you view this conversation? >> it is troubling to see some of the debates and attacks on history across the country. you cannot talk about american history without talking about african-american history. we scholars focus on evidence. is true whether it is president biden or president trump or whoever is there in the future. these are not just arguments. these are factual stories based on years of research and evidence, and i think it is

important to reckon honestly with both the good and bad parts of our htory. if we cannot do that, we cannot understand how we might navigate the future. amna: the book is halfmerican, the epic story of african-americans fighting the war at home and abroad. the author is matthew delmont. thanks for joining us. >> thanks so much for having me. ♪ geoff: and that is the "newshour" for tonight. i am geoff bennett. amna: i am amna navaz. on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. announcer: major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by -- >> for 25 years consumer , cellular has been offering no contract wireless plans designed to help people more of what they like. our u.s.-based customer service team can help you find a plan that fits you. to learn more, visit consumer

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thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. cheers! it's just about family and food. emergency. the biscuit queen forgot flour. we have lots of good thanksgiving traditions. no pressure, your first tree golf tournament. i love when everybody goes around and says what they're thankful for. sarah will plan a speech. i just want it to be perfect, but you'd never know what u're going to get. ♪ i took my mom's best recipe and started selling handmade southern biscuits. now, i'm balancing a family, a business and biscuits every day. thank you so much. i'm carrie morey, and this is how i roll.

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