geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the "newshour" tonight, hundreds more troops are deployed to the west bank after a new wave of violence between palestinians and israelis leaves vehicles torched and multiple people dead. geoff: crime is the top issue for many voters in chicago's mayoral race, setting up a tough reelection bid for incumbent lori lightfoot. amna: and an alabama artist works to correct the historical narrative around theeginnings of gynecology and honor the women who have been left off of state monuments. >> nothing of these 11 enslaved girls of african descent that were tortured, mutilated without anesthesia, nothing that talks about what they contributed, forcibly, of course.

>> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> and with the ongoing court of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the newshour. the william and flora hewlett foundation. for more than 50 years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote a better world, at hewlett.org. ♪

this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. stephanie: here are the latest headlines. tens of millions of americans are under winter storm advisories tonight, as a major front heads toward the northeast and new england. it's the latest in a barrage of late-winter systems sweeping the nation. they have forced blizzard warnings in california and piled up tornado wreckage in the southern plains. homes and buildings were leveled in norman, oklahoma, after fierce winds and at ast nine tornadoes touched down in oklahoma and kansas sunday night.

>> what in the world is that? stephanie: in parts of texas, winds reached 114 miles an hour. norman police chief kevin foster said no one was killed, but there were at least a dozen injuries. >> we have several homes, businesses and schools that appear to have some damage from the storm. there are multiple roadways still closed due to debris and downed power lines. stephanie: a cold front left more than 5.5 feet of snow in the upper of southern california this weekend, with more snow and rain expected through wednesday. >> we first were supposed to go out to our airbnb. and then, like, because of the snow, we could not get to the house, because the car was just trapped. stephanie: in a sight rarely seen, snow blanketed los angeles suburbs, while several inches of rain flooded highways and elevated area rivers. all of that moisture led to more erosion and the collapse of this cliff, taking an r.v. down with it. >> so, i haven't been to get

back in order to work for a couple of days, and, also, i'm just kind of afraid we are going to have to evacuate if it gets any worse. stephanie: meanwhile, in michigan, more than 150,000 customers started today without power, five days after a historic ice storm snapped power lines. and new england braced for its most significant snow so far this season. while no single weather event can be blamed on climate change, scientists say the occurrence of more extreme events are likely due to the warming planet. amna: the weekend snow in california followed a series of major snowfalls this winter, but the entire state remains under some form of drought emergency. air raid sirens sounded across ukraine overnight and intense fighting raged in the east around the town of bakhmut. president volodymyr zelenskyy said the situation there is worsening. meanwhile, u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen visited kyiv, and met with president zelensky she also visited a memorial wall

dedicated to war dead. in nigeria, all three presidential front-runners claim they are headed for victory, as results from the weekend's election trickle in. citizens of bamberg nation cast ballots to decide their next leader. officials said the voting was largely peaceful, despite widespread delays. a winner may not be announced until tuesday at the earliest. another sizable earthquake struck southern turkey today, killing one person and injuring more than 100. emergency personnel worked to clear debris from cars and collapsed buildings. the quake hit three weeks after a much stronger tremor devastated parts of southern turkey and northern syria. the world bank now estimates that overall damage in turkey has exceeded $34 billion. back in the u.s., law enforcement authorities in central california announced today the rest of 26 people in response to the massacre of six

family members in january. the sheriff department said two pounds of methamphetamine, guns d illegal firearms manufacturing operation were seized in the raids. authority said the killings were likely the result of rival gang activity. two suspects were arrested earlier this month. still to come, chicago's mayoral candidates offer various proposals to crackdown on violent crime. companies scrutiny for employing migrant children. the rise of sports betting places colleges in difficult positions, and much more. >> this is the pbs newshour, from wta studios in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. >> the renewed wave of violence and vengeance between israelis and palestinians continued today as a palestinian gunman killed a motorist near the city of

jerichon the occupied west bank. the u.s. ambassador to israel said the victim was an american, though the man has yet to be identified. the killing comes amid intensified conflict in nablus, and the town of hawara, also on the west bank. it's a dark new chapter in an old conflict, punctuated by the worst violence in decades. overnight, israeli settlers rampaged through the palestinian town of hawara, torching dozens of homes and cars. daylight revealed the extent of the damage, blackened buildings and burnt out vehicles. >> at night settlers attacked us, i saw them. when they burned the car my mother went down with bucket of water to put out the fire. >> they burned the container, burned the warehouses, burned the storehouse for electrical appliances and destroyed the house. >> these attacks were retaliation after a palestinian gunman killed two israeli brothers in a nearby jewish settlement.

thousandof mourners attended their funerals today in jerusalem. their mother, grief stricken. >> two loved ones, my sons, my loved sons, who walk in the path of god, for them i cry. we have suffered a rupture and there is no one to console us. >> just days earlier, an israeli army raid targeting militants in nablus killed 11 palestinians. this latest spasm of violence is showing no signs of abating. israel is now deploying hundreds more troops to the west bank. >> we've seen over the past several years a gradual increase in the number and intensity of settler terrorism against palestinians. >> khaled elgindy is a senior fellow with the middle east institute. he says settler violence in the west bank isn't new but has become more radical. >> this is happening within the context of israeli politics that have steadily moved more and

more to the right. when you have this convergence of the state power, combined with the very strong ideological extremism of settlers on the ground, it is a recipe for escalating violence. >> israel's ultra-nationalist public security minier itamar ben-gvir called today for an end to vigilantism. a settler himself, he spoke during the eviction of settlers from an illegal outpost on the occupied west bank . >> i understand the hard feelings, but this isn't the way. you can't take the law into our hands. israel's government, the state of israel, idf, the security forces, they are the ones who need to crush our enemies. >> israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu echoed those same sentiments yesterday. >> i ask that even when the blood is boiling and the spirit is hot, not to take the law into your hands. i would like to let the idf and the security forces do their job.

amna: but the recent wave of clashes is exposing divisions in israel's new right-wing government, and fanning tensions. tzvika fogel, a lawmaker from the ruling coalition, said rampages like the one this past weekend could deter further palestinian attacks. >> when there are those who say this enhances deterrence, that is actually the equivalent of incitement. amna: dennis ross was a middle east peace negotiator in both republican and democratic administrations. he's now a distinguished fellow at the washington institute. >> i think there are rifts within this and raise -- within this israeli government. the prime minister is calling very clearly that we are a state of laws. there has to be law anorder. is it's interesting that it took ben-gvir so long to say anything about that. and that's why i say i see the difficulty i see the challenge that prime minister netanyahu ces. he's got a government that is a very difficult government, probably more difficult than anyone who's ever had to manage before. amna: ross also lays blame for the uptick in violence on palestinian leaders.

>> part of the problem with the palestinian authority is it has almost no credibility with the palestinian public. it's a result of dysfunction. it's a result of great corruption. it's basically loss of faith in it. if there was to be a serious effort at political and economic reform, which also produce law and order, i think you would see the ability to get greater control er the current situation as well. amna: the weekend's violence broke out shortly after top israeli and palestinian envoys met in jordan to discuss how to curb violence ahead of the muslim holy month of ramadan. they issued a joint mmunique that, quote, reaffirmed the necessity of committing to de-escalation on the ground and to prevent further violence. israel also agreed to halt discussions of new settlement units in the west bank for four months. >> the fact that the palestinians were able to get an israeli leaders to commit to anything along those lines is an achievement in and of itself. but there is almost no hope of it being implemented on the ground.

and that's frankly, a responsibility of the international community to to compel israel in some form to to abide by these commitments amna: israeli forces have killed at least 62 palestinians so far this year. during that same time palestinian attacks have killed , 14 israelis. the u.s. is pushing for an end to the bloodshed. state department spokesman ned price. >> these events underscore the fragility of the situation in the west bank and the urgent need for increased cooperation to prevent further violence. amna: but divisions within the israeli government and increasing palestinian despair cast doubt on whether they'll answer that call. geoff: it was another deadly weekend in chicago. at least 14 people were shot and three people were killed by gun

violence in that city. more than 70 people have been murdered in chicago already this year. as john yang reports, crime has become the top issue in tomorrow's mayoral election. john: miracle boyd, and carrie hogan, two lifelong chicago residents from two different neighborhoods and two different perspectives. boyd grew up on chicago's gritty south side. just 21 years old, she says she has already seen far too much gun violence. miracle boyd: my brother was shot entering my freshman year of high school. john: her father, brother and uncle have all been shot. one, she said, was mistan identity, another a case of wrong place, wrong time. many of those she grew up with have also been victims of gun violence. >> i can count on more than both my han how many classmates have died, because it's more than 10, since elementary school all the way through high school.

i wouldn't like to say that some of our high schools and some of our youth are cursed, but that's what it is seeming to be. >> i literally dropped to the ground. i was laying on the sidewalk thinking, i don't want to be the next person on the news that's killed by a stray bullet. john: hogan is an attorney who lived in a north side neighborhood for nearly two decades and saw it change. after a family member was shot during a botched carjacking, hogan and her two chocolate labs packed up and moved to a sleek neighborhood in the center of the city. >> i'm living in a condo, so i have a door person now. i have 24-hour security. it just seems safer. it might be an illusion, but i feel safer here because there are more people around and the neighborhood is lit up. john: ask each of them their top issue in tomorrow's nonpartisan mayoral election, and it may sound as if they are in agreement. >> public safety is a number one issue. and if we could address public safety, then we could address crime. >> for me, crime affects everything.

it's the only issue that matters in this election. john: but, for carrie, the answer is more police. >> you have less police generally, and then the police that are left don't feel empowered to really do anything. and so that is a perfect formula for crime. john: and from miracle's pot of view, the police are irrelevant. >> the police show up after the crime has already been committed. they don't show up to prevent. >> public safety means very different things to very different people in chicago. john: heather cherone is a reporter for wttw, chicago's pbs station. she says sentiments about crime in the city is as much about perception as reality. >> we are seeing crimes and high-profile crimes in neighborhoods that are not used to being in the headlinefor those reasons. and that, i think, can add to sort of people's sense that, well, i used to feel safe here, but i don't feel safe anymore. and that is really in many ways disconnected from what the reality of crime is.

john: shootings spiked in chicago dung the pandemic. more than 800 people were murdered in 2021 alone. while the number of homicides dropped last year, reports of violent crimes continue to rise, up 12% since 2019, the year of the last citywide election. a recent poll found that nearly two-thirds of chicago residents say they feel unsafe from gu violence and crime. >> i'm not going to rest until we are the safest big city in the country. john: that could spell trouble for mayor lori lightfoot as she runs for a second term. she faces a crowded field. eight challengers are trying to make her the first incumbent in decades to be defeated for reelection. lori lightfoot: what we don't need is somebody who doesn't support the police and, in fact, wants to divert resources from the police to other projects. john: the candidates are drawing sharp contrasts over public safety in the city's police department, which remains under

a consent decree imposed after the 2014 fatal police shooting of 17-year-old laqn mcdonald. protesters: laquan! john: lightfoot points to her record as mayor, hiring more than 950 police officers last year and removing more than 12,000 guns from the city's streets. >> we are bending the curve on violent crime. john: every one of lightfoot's challengers has pledged to replace the police superintendent she appointed. teacher-turned-cook county commissioner brandon johnson. he says he would reallocate funds in the police departnt and focus on the root causes of crime by investing in schools and housing. brandon johnson: over 40 percent of the violence that happens in the city of chicago happens in 6 percent of the neighborhoods, where i live. >> let's get chicago back on track. john: congressman jesus "chuy" garcia says he would increase staffing and improve data

collection. >> people need to feel safe to do business. john: and current front-runner paul vallas, the former ceo of chicago schools, promises to hire 1,800 new officers with a focus on community policing. >> the community policing is critical, because you can't have half of the high priority 911 calls not being responded to. john: that's an approach carrie hogan says turned this one-time lightfoot voter onto a new candidate this year. why did you decide on paul vallas? >> we have to give power back to our police. we have to put more police back on the streets. we have to start policing our city again to keep it safe. so, paul vallas is the person that i think has the most rational, reasonable policies in that regard. john: in the closing days of the campaign, miracle boyd and the gun violence prevention organization she works with held a forum for chicago's youth to engage directly with the candidates. >> our communities are suffering. our youth are dying of gun

violence. john: of the four candidates polling in double digits, only johnson showed up. brandon johnson: i believe a better, stronger, safer chicago is possible, and we can build that together. john: johnson's plan for community-based interventions resonated with boyd, and was a big reason she says she's voting for him. >> he's actually been in the communities, been on our talks, been on zoom with us. the citizens of chicago is calling for treatment, not trauma, and not police to show up. john: while voters have been casting ballots for a month, it may be weeks more before they know which candidate will be tasked with trying to lower crime in chicago and to restore faith in the police department. if no candidate wins a majority of votes tomorrow, the top two finishers advance to a run-off election in april. for the "pbs newshour," i am john yang. ♪

geoff: the biden administration announced new steps today to crack down on child labor violations, including tougher investigations of the companies who may benefit from the work. it comes days after a new york times investigation into the explosive growth of migrant child labor across the u.s. the times found a major surge in child migrant labor in every state and under punishing working conditions, on factory floors, inside slaughterhouses, and atop buildings with children working as roofers. the times found at least a dozen underage migrant workers have died on the job since 2017. hannah dreier is a pulitzer prize-winning reporter who broke the story, and she joins us now. so, hannah, tell us about some of the children you encountered and the harrowing stories you uncovered. hannah: thank you so much for featuring this story. and, i mean, when i first started this reporting a year ago, i thought that this would really be an agriculture story. i thought that kids would be

working, but mostly on farms, maybe in restaurants. and i was shocked that i actually found most of these kids outside of factories, so in parking lots of meat processing plants, outside of auto parts suppliers. and the kids were young. i talked to a 13-year-old who had just come to this country a few months ago. he was looking for his first day of work at a day laborer site. i talked to a lot of kids who were making snack foods. some of them were making nature valley bars, chewy bars. and i ended up spending a lot of time talking to one girl who came to this country when she was 14 and ended up making cheerios. geoff: tell us more about her. hannah: so her name is carolina. she found herself in guatemala living with her grandmother during the pandemic. there wasn't a lot of food. there wasn't a lot of electricity, and she decided to come to the u.s. so she came

walking. and she was encountered at the border. she went through a government shelter and was released to her aunt, who she'd never met, in michigan. and her aunt said, sure, you can come and stay with me, but i can't really pvide for you. we are living on $600 a week. and so when i met her, carolina was going to ninth grade every day. and then every night, she was working eight hours a night in a dangerous factory, a place where there are fast-moving conveyor belts, there's mechanical arms, and she would work until midnight each night, get a coup hours' sleep, and then go back to school the next day. geoff: we should emphasize something that you note in your reporting, and it's that these children didn't sneak into the u.s. undetected. the federal government knows they're here. and the department of health and human services is responsible for matching them with sponsors. but you note in your reporting

that the systems meant to protect children have really broken down, especially since 2021, when this problem really exploded. hannah: i mean, one thing to understand here is that the nature of who's coming across the border has changed. so, there used to be some number of kids who would come here unaccompanied. and they were mostly released to their parents. now the majority of these kids that are coming here, they're really being sent by their parents. and they're living with more distant relatives, family friends, sometimes strangers. and once they're released by the government to these people who are supposed to take care of them, there's no follow-up for the majority of these kids. they get a phone number for a hot line that they can call. and several of these children told us that they ended up in real trafficking situations, called the hot line and never heard back. geoff: well, the labor department is supposed to find and punish child labor violations. but you spoke with inspectors in

a dozen states, and each said that their offices are understaffed, and that they could barely respond to complaints, let alone open new investigations. now the biden administration, because of your reporting, says it's going to crack down on these violations. how is that going to work when the department of labor is saying they can't keep up with the current demand? hannah: that is a great question. one thing that i found really surprising and kind of appalling with this reporting was how easy it was to find these kids. i mean, i thought i would have to crack some kind of subterranean trafficking ring. but what i actually did was, i showed up in different towns and cities, and, by the next day, i was usually talking to a migrant child who'd come here without their parents and was working in illegal conditions. so, throughout this whole process, i just kept asking myself, why isn't the department of labor here? and one thing that inspectors told me is, there hasn't been an emphasis on proactive child labor investigations. and that's one thing that

hopefully will change. with this new biden initiative, the department of labor is going to launch a new operation to go out, not just respond to tips, but go actively try to search for these kids. and the same staffing issues that have been there will be there. but i think a lot of people who work with these children are celebrating that part of the announcement, at least, today. geoff: yes. help us understand. i mean, these kids aren't working because they wanto. they're working because they have to. they are under intense pressure to earn money, to send it back home as remittances. what do solutions look like, when that pressure will still remain? hannah: i mean, solutions for immigration issues are tortured. in a lot of cases, i think they're going because their parents can't go to the u.s. their parents would like to be here instead of them working and sending home remittances. but the way the system is set up right now, those parents know

they will be turned around at the border. and so, instead, these kids come. one thing that a lot of child welfare advocates think is, at least, at the very least, the government could provide these kids with social workers, with soone to check up and monitor if they have fallen into a b, ploitative situation. another thing that struck me is that a lot of these kids actually could work legally. they're not here undocumented. the government knows they're here. and if they had access to legal services, they could get work permits and be working at mcdonald's. but because they can't get that lawyer, they end up in these jobs that will take fake social security numbers. and it's sort of the worst-case scenario in every way. geoff: hannah dreier, thanks for your time and for sharing your reporting with us. we appreciate it. hannah: thank you. ♪ amna: we are mere weeks away

from college basketball's march madness and, with it, billions of dollars' worth of wagers on the games. as more states legalize sports betting, paul solman reports on worries that some coeges are too involved in its promotion, a particular concern since, in all but four states, residents must be 21 years old to place a legal bet. this story is a partnership with the shirley povich center for sports journalism and the howard center for investigative journalism, both at the university of maryland's merrill college of journalism. >> i'm winning. then i feel like an idiot for not betting higher and betting more often. paul: saul malek, betting on sports through an online bookie at his texas college in 2017. saul: with my strategy, i can make hundreds of dollars in a minute. paul: once, says malek: saul i was up a few thousand credit that week, and i lost it all

betting on someone in an individual tennis game. and i didn't even know if it was a man or a woman. paul: eventually, he owed nearly 10 different bookies between $15,000 and $20,000. in 2018, the u.s. supreme court struck down a ban on sports gambling, making it even easier toet. more than 30 states have legalized sports gambling since, and enticing ads are now everywhere. >> $200 instantly just for betting five bucks. paul: offering free first bets. and now five major colleges, michigan state, lsu, maryland, university of denver, and the university of colorado, have announced multiyear partnerships with sports betting companies that include placing ads at games, along with promises to, for example, focus on responsible gaming and education. colorado was actually paid for bets made using a university promo code, until that deal became public. >> i think it's very scary. paul: sports economist andy

zimbalist. andy: there are many colleges now that are jumping into bed with sports book companies. they're allowing the sports book companies to come onto campus and to appeal to the students to get involved in gambling. paul: hey, i gamble on sports. it can be fun, sometimes lots of fun, but, says zimbalist: andy six percent of betters tend to become problem or compulsive gamblers. so, we're talking about tens of thousands of students who are likely to become or if they're not already problem gamblers. paul: students like these at the university of maryland. >> to introduce something like gambling on campus seems like putting kerosene on a fire. >> if there is supposed to be some sort of educational aspect about betting cultures, the negative ramifications that betting can have on students, particularly at a young age, why aren't we seeing that side of a program? paul: now, some maryland students said they like the partnership, but not social work professor greg stewart. >> i am concerned that certainly the state of ohio has made this

an option. paul: stewart studies addiction at the university of cincinnati in ohio, where sports betting became legal last month. gregory stewart: it's so convenient for people to engage in this experience, the use of my phone, and i don't have to go anywhere. i don't have to talk to anyone. paul: you could do it in class. >> you could. paul: and as m finance professor andy lo once told me: >> neuroscntists have documented that the component of the brn that gets stimulated when we engage in financia rewards is really the same component that is stimulated by cocaine. it's the dopamine system. >> ball: keith whyte is tracking that impact at the national council on problem gambling, supported in part by the gaming

industry. keith whyte: our national surveys between 2018 and 2021 show a roughly 30% increase in risk for gambling problems nationwide. but the majority of that increase in risk is among those young male online gamblers. people with gambling problems have much higher rates of substance use and abuse. but what we're really concerned about are things like the very, very high rate of depression amongst people with gambling problems and also a very high rate of suicidal behavior. paul: college kids, especially young men, are more vulnerable than most because they think they know sports, they like risk, and they are comfortable doing everything on their phones. >> much of the promotion that the gaming companies have sought to bring to college campuses seems pretty clearly aimed at building new customers. paul: and that's the problem, says fmer indiana governor mitch daniels, who wouldn't allow any betting on purdue university sports when he was, up until recently, president there. >> young people are facing more emotional and mental and psychological challenges, it appears, than they have before. at a minimum, schools should be careful not to be facilitating,

enabling, and, while they're doing so, profiting off the marketing that might spread this behavior further. paul: so, are they? all universities declined our five requests for interviews. the university of colorado sent the statement, "the last two years have demonstrated that the necessary safeguards are in place to ensure this agreement is beneficial and safe. the betting companies involved just didn't respond. but martin lycka of europe's entain did. and his is one of the world's largest gambling companies. >> i strongly believe that any country, including the united states, is much better off having regulated this space and help drive out the black market, the unlicensed bookmakers that afford their customers absolutely no protection tools, no nothing, than continuing to step in the dark. paul: if you were running a university now, would you invite

in your company or another sports betting company, or would you say, no, too much risk, too many young people? martin: i definitely would, because the young people a” now, we are filming this right after the super bowl, so all of them arguably would have gotten exposed to gambling-related adverts in the tv coverage. paul: but does your company have any deals with universities to do advertising, sponsorship and the like? >> no. that is a categorical no. my company has no commercial partnerships with universities. >> and will you never? >> no, we never will for those reasons you have just alluded to, because a shattering majority of college students are underage. they're under 21, and they have got nothing to do on the gambling side. so that is not our target audience. that is not the instry's target audience. paul: but how can it not be the target audience of firms that

partner up? in which case, why should universities allow it? well, says a former congressman: >> i don't think you can stop sports betting on college campuses. paul: also a former maryland basketball star, tom mcmillen winces at the partnerships, like his own alma mater's. >> but this is unique america. that you're going to have betting on cpuses, on events on campuses. and i think there are risks to higher education with that, but it is almost inevitable. you have this huge sports enterprise on campuses across the country. and so universities are adopting it, much like they adopted beer drinking and liquor at football games. paul: as for saul malek, he went into rehab four years ago and is still in recovery, still paying off his debts, and more worried than ever about college kids, like he once was. saul: it doesn't seem like you could just go off to college and lose your entire livelihood gambling, and you just don't know any better.

paul: until, for an estimated tens of thousands of u.s. undergrads year, if all colleges were to follow suit, it will be too late. for the "pbs newshour," paul solman. ♪ geoff: the history of gynecology as a medical specialty has deep roots in the american south, but that legacy is as complicated as the history of the south itself. correspondent fred de sam lazaro has our report from alabama's capital, montgomery. it is part of fred's series agents for change and our arts and culture series, canvas. >> welcome to more than a tour. >> for some years, michelle browder has conducted trolley tours of montgomery. >> this is her apartment. so i would invite you to get out. >> from rosa parks' homto the bus depot that is now the freedom rides museum.

>> this is where they were beaten and bludgeoned right here. >> alabama's capital is a living history museum of the civil rights era, with so many iconic events, people, and places. but, for browder, artist by trning, activist by leaning, there is one chapter of an earlier history that she is working to rewrite. it has manifested in a monument on the capitol grounds to james marion sims. he was a physician who practiced here in the 1840s, developing tools for pelvic exams and a technique to suture vaginal tears called fistulas. to michelle browder, that is only half the story. there is nothing on the monument now that says anything about the women that he worked on. >> oh, absolutely not, nothing of these 11 enslaved girls of african dissent that were tortured, mutilated without anesthesia, nothing that talks

about what they contributed, forcibly, of course. >> no mention of them either in a well-known paintings immortalizing sims as the father of modern gynecology. michelle browder first saw it as an art student three decades ago. >> i was triggered. from there, i promised myself that, one day, i will change that narrative. got the welding station. >> a promise renewed years later when she moved to montgomery and discovered the statue at the capitol. >> i was horrified. i still am. if he's the father of gynecology, the father of modern gynecology, then they are the mothers? >> browder decided she'd do something about it. relying heavily on sims' own notes, she focused on the only three women actually named in his writings. that is a lot of welding and how many people doing this? >> fifteen volunteers. >> today, about a mile from the sims monument are soaring wrought iron tributes to the women she calls the mothers of

gynecology, anarcha, betsey, and lucy. >> they didn't have autonomy, so it just makes sense for them not to have arms and feet. >> the young woman endured months of trial and error as sims honed his technique to repair their fistula the humiliating vaginal injury usually caused by obstructed labor renders women incontinent and unable to bear children. >> if you see around her legs there, that wire represents the silk suture, sutures that he used to basically torture them. and then of course, betsey, her crown is made up of the speculum. >> and tell us the significance of the flower and its place. >> yes. so, throughout all of the trauma, something came out of it that's been useful for women suffering from this condition. >> the first time that i ever viewed the monument, i cried. and i didn't know exactly why.

>> lauren marcelle and alana taylor are local artists and recent transplants to montgomery. they were on the day's tour. >> just seeing that work erected in such a way as a healing device was beautiful. >> the only thing that differentiates us from these women is time. >> there was no such thing as informed consent from patients or subjects in experimental medical trials in marion sims' day. the only consent that mattered had to come from slaveholders, who had a keen economic interest in the health of their workers and, because these were young women, a particular terest in their reproductive health, especially so after the transatlantic slave trade was abolished. >> if it's outlawed in 1808, that we cannot go back and traffic folks from africa, then where are we getting these people? from the neighborhood? breeding plantations. breeding. >> black women's -- their wombs

are the engines that maintained the institution of slavery. >> deirdre cooper owens is a medical historian and author. as for anesthesia, she says, it was not commonly used in sims' day. but his reason for avoiding it rested on a widely held stereotype, that black people do not feel pain, something contradicted, she says, in his own work. >> i call it racial cognitive dissonance. he holds on to the ideologies or sets of beliefs that are swirling in the 19th century, that black people are somehow different than white people biologically. but he will write, this patient lost sense of herself and struggled violently as we had to restrain her during surgery. why would you need to restrain a black patient who is insensible to pain? >> and you look at today, but even with all the advancements that we have, that african american women tend to have higher mortality and morbidity, and i think it's just a trickle

down from the troubles that our ancestors had to endure. >> latoya clark, a montgomery obstetrician-gynecologist, says anti-black stereotypes have endured through the years. even today, she notes, studies find many providers believe african americans feel less pain, that their complaints are exaggerated. the flip side, she says, is deep distrust of the health care system. do you have patients who actively want to see you because they think you're more culturally compete, because they think that you would better understand their predicament? >> yes, i have had numerous patients i'd say that i have , seen a man gynecologist all my life, and now i want to see a female gynecologist, or i wanted to come to an afro-american gynecologist. >> for michelle browder, the next step in reframing sims' legacy is quite literally, a mural based on that fateful painting, this time with sims on the operating table. it will be installed in a new

mothers of gynecology center she's opening in a downtown montgomery building that's brimming with history and irony. >> this is the site of the negro women's hospital. >> the very sited, it turns out, where j. marion sims experimented on his enslaved patients. when they weren't on the table, she says, these women became skilled surgical attendants, nursing women through their ordeals. and tell us your grand plan for this space now. >> prenatal care for women, upstairs, a teaching clinic, with the hopes of teaching empathy, dignity and respect. >> browder says she's faced occasional pushback in this deep red state, where sims is revered for work that was indeed groundbreaking. >> i have had some doctors say that 'm actually trying to stain this man's reputation who's actually done something good, he was a man of his time. in any case, whether or not he was a man of his time, then his

time was barbaric, and, therefore, he was barbaric. so let's start there, and then seek out ways to help and repair what is broken. >> and then there have been moments of grace, notably after she explained her plans for the new center to the white owners of the building. >> she says: "oh, michelle," just little ms. gone with the wind. she was like: "we're just so proud of you. and if you're going to do all of that, we're going to let you have that building for $35,000. >> not what you expected. >> just don't judge the book by the cover. >> the building is appraised at $250,000, she says. a ribbon-cutting for the mothers of gynecology health and wellness museum and clinic is scheduled this coming mother's day. for the "pbs newshour," i'm fred de sam lazaro in montgomery, alabama. geoff: fred's reporting is

supported in partnership with the iversity of st. thomas in minnesota. amna: and we will be back shortly with a brief but spectacular take on the power of a name. but first, take a moment to hear from your local pbs station. geoff:

♪ geoff: elliot wade is a trans advocate. who co-founded the louisiana trans name change fund. he was born and raised in cecilia, louisiana, where he didn't have much access to conversations about identity. he says he's looking to change that for others. tonight, wade shares his brief but spectacular take on the power of a name. >> i'm looking at these statistics, right, and i know that there are high rates of violence. i know that louisiana is one of the highest rates of murders in the country for trans people. i know that black trans people, especially black trans women, are subjected to that violence at a higher rate.

i know that i have to maybe prepare myself to be homeless. but i would rather live as myself or not live at all. i'm in cecilia, louisiana. people haven't really heard of trans people. it didn't really make sense to people. it wasn't something that they could conceptualize or wrap their head around. so i'm struggling with my gender identi and what that means for me. i'm agonizing over what feels like living a lie, because i have to interact at home in this kind of way or talk to my friends and have them call me elliot and then, whenever my parents are there, make sure that they're not calling me elliot. there's like a weird split that happens. and it's hard to keep up. you spend nine months in a womb, and your parents are thinking about the rt of person that you're going to become. and choosing a name for you, that is the first gateway into forminyourself as a human being.

whenever you choose your own name, you take the power to shape your destiny for yourself. the me change process is daunting, it's expensive, it's tiring, and it's intimidating. you have to go and interact in these courthouses with majority old white men that probably don't respect you. and, on top of that, you have to spend, depending on what parish you're in, maybe half-a-grand. in pretty much allacets of everyday life, you're going to need documentation for something, whether that's going to school or going to work. if you want to go to a bar and even just get a drink, they have to look at your i.d. a lot of the times, one of the first instances that folks have where they can be put in a dangerous situation is when those documents don't match their presentation, right? so, starting the name change fund, for me, was a necessity. i need other people to have the same access that i did. and i think about being the person that i needed when i was

17. in a sort of trans queer utopia in louisiana, people would just mind their business. that's it. folks would just have an awareness that trans people exist, that they're human beings, and they're just trying to live their lives like everyone else. so, in a trans utopia, no one cares that i'm trans. my name is elliot nicholas wade, and this is my brief but spectacular take on the power of a name. geoff: and you can watch more brief but spectacular videos online at pbs.org/newshour/brief. enjoy -- case. that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: on behalf of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by --

>> actually, you don't need vision to do most things in life. yes, i'm legally blind, and yes, i'm responsible for the user interface. data visualization, if i can see it and understand it quickly, anyone can. it's exciting to be part of a team driving the technology forward. i think that's the most rewarding thing. people who know, know bdo. >> the kendeda fund more at kendeda fund.org. supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation committed to building more just, verdant, and peaceful world. more information at mac found.org.

and with the ongoing support of these institutions. this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >> this is pbs newshour west, from weta studios in washington and from our bureau at the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. ♪ >> you're watching pbs.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ -today on "america's test kitchen," bridget and julia make the ultimate caramel-espresso yule log, and lisa reviews mini muffin tins. it's all coming up right here on "america's test kitchen." -"america's test kitchen" is brought to you by the following.