amna: good evening. i'm amna nawaz. geoff: and i'm geoff bennett. on the newshour tonight. the supreme court hears a challenge to president biden's student loan relief plan with major implications for borrowers nationwide. amna: food banks prepare for a spike in demand as snap benefits implemented during the pandemic come to an end for many americans. geoff: and. nearly a year after their town was liberated, residents of bucha, ukraine reflect on the horrors and potential war crimes their families suffered at the hands of russian forces. >> no one has the right to kill unarmed people in an independent country. it's hard to accept the martyr's death they were subjected to. ♪

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kf.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. geoff: welcome to the newshour. the fate of some 40 million americans' promised student debt relief is in the hands of the supreme court. amna: the justices heard arguments today in high stakes cases over the legality of

president biden's student loan forgiveness plan. students, teachers and activists gathered outside the court highlighting their struggles and demanding debt relief. >> in order to become those -- the next generation of healthcare workers, the next generation of working in corporate america, basically being in your law enforcement. in order to do that, we must go to school. so how can we give back to our community if we don't have the resources? >> i have upwards of $80,000 of student debt. some of that is public. some of that is private. and i think that student debt cancellation would be a benefit for many, many people. millions. amna: the issue has been embroiled in the courts since the president announced his debt relief plan in august of last year. geoff: john yang has more on the day's arguments. >> the court heard two challenges to the president's plan. one from six republican lead states and one from two student lo borrowers, one who doesn't

qualify for relief and one who doesn't qualify for the program's maximum benefit. to discuss the arguments, marcia coyle went to talk about what is at stake, daniel douglas gabriel. there seem to be a lot of skepticism today about this biden plan. >> the skepticism seemed to be among primarily the court's conservative wing. it is always hard to predict, but my sense after the questioning is that there may be five conservative justices who looking at the merits of the case would not uphold the student loan forgiveness program. but standing in their way of gettingto the merits of that program is a big hurdle and that is called standing. justice barrett along with the liberal wing was very focused on standing. it is the legal right to actually sue.the challengers

have to show that they have a specialized injury, a concrete injury that is traceable to the conduct of the education department policy and that the court can remedy it. it is a huge hurdle and my sense after the arguments was also that the lawyers for the challengers were not making a really as strong an argument as the government made to oppose standing. if the cou doesn't find standing, the case goes away and the program stands. but if they do, they can go on to the merits. if you have five justices who really want to get to the merits, they may find standing some way. >> one reason the conservative justices were so skeptical about the constitutionality of the plan is that they say there is no specific legislation authorizing it. here is chief justice john roberts questioning the biden administration attorney. >> the case reminds me of the

one we had a few years ago under a different administration when they tried acting on their own to cancel the dreamers program. we blocked that effort. i wonder given the posture of the case and given our historic concern about separation of powers, you would recognize at least that this is a case that presents extraordinarily serious, important issues about the role of congress and the role we should exercise in scrutinizing that. >> this idea that congress should be the one to decide big issues has been a theme for the conservative majority. >> it is in a recent one that has to do with the major questions doctrine. the core said in june in a case involving the clean air act and the epa that if an agency issues a policy that has serious, major political and economic consequences, then the express

authorization of congress is required. that is the primary argument of the challengers in the case. that this is a major questions doctrine case and the courts should apply that to require congress to authorize what the department of education did hear. >> the liberal justices take a different view of that question of who should decide. this is justice sotomayor questioning the nebraska solicitor general. >> there are 50 million students who will benefit from this, who today will struggle, many of them don't have assets sufficient to bail them out after the pandemic. and what you are saying is now we are going to give judges the right to decide how much aid to give them. instead of the person with the

expertise and the experience, the secretary of education, who has been dealing with educational issues and the problems surrounding student loans. >> the three liberal justices seemed very sympathetic to the biden administration argument that this was authorized by congress. >> absolutely, justice kagan said the act that the department used to promulgate this program is very clear. she said it could not be any clearer that congress gave the secretary the authority to waive or modify student loan requirements. she said the court often gets statutes that are not very clear, but this one she said congress has made clear its intent here. >> there was a lot of discussion about those two words, waive and modify. >> that is another issue in the case. justice thomas was saying, waive and modify, how does that amount

to cancellation as can happen in some of the student loans that are being looked at here? the government argues that it is waive and modify the requirements around student loans and the secretary did both and once he waved and modify them, he imposed new ones. >> the conservative justices talked about fairness. >> that was a very interesting exchange. some of the justices, the chief justice, justice alito, justice kavanaugh spoke about, i think the chief justice gave the best hypothetical talking about two students who graduate from high school, one takes out a loan to go to college, another takes out a loan to crte a lawn service. why should the student who goes to college you will probably make more than the lawn service student in a lifetime, why should that student have a debt forgiven but not the lawn

service? the government said that this act involved student loans, not other types of loans and there are other types of aid available to the lawn service student who has that loan. there is that concern and they were asking whether they should factor into their analysis the idea of fairness here. >> if this program were to go away, what kind of student loan borrower would be most heavily affected? >> because student loan debt is disproportionately shouldered by black borrowers and borrowers of color, they would be the ones most likely impacted. i think it is telling that the administration chose to add a pell grant bonus, allowing for borrowers who have federal pell grants for low income students to receive an additional $10,000 and many people would qualify

for that because many of those who have gone to college in the last few decades have fewer resources than in generations past. >> without this program, when will the crunch come for these borrowers? >> the department of education has said payments will resume 60 days after a decision is made, certainly no later than june of this year. borrowers have not made payments, most federal student loan borrowers, for nearly three years at this stage. there is a lot of concern. this is that why the administration says the policies needed, that many of the borrowers will become delinquent or potentially default on their loans. >> in january, the administration unveiled a new income based student repayment plan. how does that work? >> this plan pretty much updates an existing student loan repayment plan by assuring that

borrowers pay less of their discretionaryncome for a shorter amount of time before getting their student loans forgiven. an undergraduate borrower who takes out $12,000 or less in undergraduate debt could pay 5% of their discretionary income for 10 years before the balance of the loansre forgiven. >> what are the options for the administration if the plan gets struck down? >> the administration could try to make this happen through an authority under the higher education act. that would require negotiated rulemang, which is a lengthy process and i think that came up today during the arguments. one of the reasons why it was not the most salient route for the administration is because it really undermines the idea that this is for an emergency, and national emergency, and this is to prevent any kind of fallout from that national emergency. the aga does not lend itself to that argument.

in the administration's view, the heroes act does. >> is the administration already thinking about these things? >> they are not telling me. [laughter] i've been asking a whole lot. they keep saying that they are very confident that the heroes act gives them the authority needed to make sure that this program will go forward and they are confident that the supreme court will agree. certainly after today's arguments, locks of fouts -- lots of fouts -- folks don't take that optimistic a view. but there is not a plan publicly being discussed if the plan is struck down by the court. >> thank you both very much. ♪ stephanie: i'm stephanie sy with

newshour west. here are the latest headlines. nonstop winter storms coast-to-coast. new blizzards in nevada with snow piling up around lake tahoe. the storm brought more snow to parts of southern california. in the northeast, snowfall melted into slusher in new york, but schools closed in parts of new england. thousands of people in michigan spent a six day with no power after last week's ice storm. chicagoans went to the polls to vote for mayor today. there was no outright winner with at least 85% of votes counted. a former ceo of chicago public schools who ran as a law and order candidate has advanced to a runoff election in april. the challenger with theext most votes will also advance. the incumbent is in third place. in ukraine, a top government commander now says the situation

around a key eastern town is extremely tense after mohs of brutal combat. russian forces are trying to encircle bakhmut and cut off its supply routes, but at a heavy cost. new footage today showed smoke billowing from buildings inside the battered city. the last of its residents navigated barren streets. meantime, russian president vladimir putin ordered beefed-up border security after a ukrainian-made drone got within 60 miles of moscow today. ukraine has received well over $100 billion in u.s. aid since the war started, and senior pentagon officials say it's being well spent. colin kahl -- an undersecretary of defense -- made that case at a congressional hearing today as republican congressman joe wilson and others pushed for stronger oversight. >> there have been billions in u.s. weaponry and financial aid flowing to ukraine and more coming to stop war criminal putin. we're all concerned about accountability and the american people need to know because somehow this hasn't been

recognized. >> we don't see any evidence of diversion in our reporting. we think the ukrainians are using properly what they've been given. stephanie: u.s. officials have pressed ukraine's government to police corruption in its ranks and some top officials in kyiv have been forced out. china today denounced a u.s. government ban on the popular video-sharing app tiktok. the white house has now given federal agencies 30 days to remove the chinese-owned app from all government-issued devices -- citing security concerns. but in beijing, a spokeswoman for the foreign ministry blasted the move. >> as the world's top superpower how unsure of itself can the , u.s. be to fear a young people's favorite app to such a degree? the u.s. has been overstretching the concept of national security and abusing state power to suppress other countries' companies. we firmly oppose those wrong actions.

stephanie: more than two thirds of american teenagers use tiktok. china has also rejected an assessment by the u.s. energy department that covid-19 likely came from a lab leak in wuhan. beijing insisted it has been open and transparent and believes the virus was spread from animals to humans. california formally ended its covid emergency today. just five states still have emergency declarations. still on the newshour, ukrainians whose town was occupied by russian forces reflect on what they lost. a former january 6 investigator discusses our releasing footage to fox could pose a new threat. and slices of life immortalized in historic charlottesville portraits. >> this is the pbs newshour from weta studios in washington and

in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. amna: in the last three years, households eligible for food assistance received at least $95 more per month as part of a pandemic air increase designed to combat hunger. tomorrow, those benefits expire nationwide, meaning a smaller monthly food budget for nearly 30 million americans. william brangham spent yesterday at a food bank in rural virginia gearing up to me's -- meet the increased need this cut will likely trigger. william: it's another busy week at the fauquier community food bank in warrenton, virginia. about 25 families tay come here to stock up on free groceries. 39-year-old tiffany robinson visits the food bank to help stretch the money she receives through the supplemental nutrition assistance program, known as snap, the very benefits that will soon be cut back. >> that's really going to affect

my budget because i'm going to have to come out of pocket even more than what i do now to get groceries. william: snap -- which used to be called food stamps -- is the department of agriculture program that provides monthly stipends for lower-income americans to spend on groceries. in march 2020, congress passed temporary snap increases to help people weather the pandemic-economy, but last december passed another law ending those increases. so tomorrow, americans in thirty two states and other jurisdictions will see those extra snap benefits expire. eighteen states have already rolled them back. a 2022 urban institute study found these emergency allotments kept more than 4 milli people above the poverty line in the last quarter of 2021, reducing poverty by nearly 10%. the coming reduction in snap benefits will be different for different households, depending on their circumstances. but on average, a family of three could lose neay $200 a month from their benefits.

the cuts will reduce payments to about $6 per person per day. robinson says that's not enough to feed her children and she'll need to depend on this food bank even more. >> i was panicking a little bit, like ieally was when i got that message. i was like, so what am i going to do? it really sent me into a stressful state. i'm worried about my children. my children eat before i do. i will probably have to come here more often or try to find other outlets so that i can get food for my children. william: food pantries like this are pressed on two sides. rising demand and rising costs constraining how much they can provide. staples like eggs are up over 70% compared to last year. most othese goods come via donations from local grocery stores, or bought with local donations, or proceeds from their thrift store next door.

sharon ames is the executive director of the fauquier community food bank. we talked yesterday about her community and what these cuts might mean for them. who is it that you serve? who are the people that come through your door? >> it's all walks of life. i will go back to the thrift store side. i have people now who used to shop over there and know their money went to buy food here, but now they've had to come to me and say, times have changed. gas is high, food is high. i need your help. we help those. we help the homeless. it's everybody. william: we're here talking to you because the pandemic snap benefit extension is about to expire. do you have a sense of what that's going to mean for the people of this county? >> we are going to feel it. they are going to feel it. they are starting to call now and ask us questions about, you know, if we can expand and they can get re food if need be and

we always answer, yes, we will do the very best we can. from what i'm hearing and i'm understanding, it could be around $95 to $100 or some a month. but again, that depends on your family, how big their family is, how much they get to what their cut will be. william: for people who may not appreciate the circumstances of the families that you help -- $95 to $100 a month. how significant is that? >> that's huge. that's $25 a week. that's huge. that's milk. that's bread. that's peanut butter. that's hamburger. it's huge. that's big to them. william: is it your sense that most of the families that are going to see a cut in the benefits are going to be ok? >> they will be ok, they will manage, they will survive. there will probably make an extra phone call to us and say, i've got three or four more days, i'm out of food, and we

will give them food. i believe in my community and i believe if we reach outnd say we need help, that it will be there. i think the other thing we have to look at is down the road, think about summer when the children are out of school. no free lunches, no free breakfast. william: there are some people in congress who argued that the snap program is too expensive and this pandemic extension was too much and that we have to dial those costs down. as someone who sees the beneficiaries of this program, what do you think of that argument? >> we are going to see children who are not going to function in school because they are not fed properly, they go to bed hungry. we are going to see elderly that give up their medicine, diabeti medicine, whatever it may be. it is going to affect everybody. i'm not really sure how congress

is coming up with the fact that it is too much money. when you are going to feed people and keep them healthy and make them part of our society. william: you think thais not the right place to cut. >> no. and i know the argument is -- a lot ofeople view a food pantry as you just walk in and say, i want food. it's not like that. we do qualify you, snap does too. it is a program that has rules. william: you are meeting people with demonstrated needs. >> you s somebody come to you and you give them a can of tuna and they hold it to them and say, my god, sharon, this is four meals. no it is not, it is one. that will make you stop and think. at our level, we see that, we

hear that. congress don't. william: thank you so much for talking with us. >> thank you very much. ♪ geoff: some of the first, and starkest images of russian brutality in ukraine emerged from the kv suburb of bucha last year. 1700 ukrainians were killed there, according to ukrainian officials, who also say 9000 war crimes were committed in the city. now, one year later -- and with the support of theulitzer center -- special correspondent simon ostrovsky and videographer returned to bucha to reveal the story of the final hours of one group of ukrainians executed in cold blood. a warning, many of the images in this story are disturbing. >> they call it the first draft of history. reporters arrive on the scene to witness events while they are

still fresh. a year ago, our news crew found this kill site located behind an office building that had been used by russian forces as a headquarters during their month-long occupation bucha. what we've seen here is eight bodies. some of them with their hands tied behind their backs. this could be evidence of war crimes. our images were among some of the early footage that poured out of bucha and opened the world's eyes to the brutality of russia's faltering war machine. the russian leadership claimed the pictures were staged as part of a crude attempt to tarnish russia's reputation. >> as for bucha, listen, i speak with my colleagues. they have relevant intercepts about the transport that was used to get to this town and create the conditions for the organization of this provocation, this fake. >> on the ground, evidence pointed to executions. many of the victims had their hands tied behind their backs, a good indication that a war crime

had been perpetrated. the victims appeared to have been killed with gunshots to the head and chest. but who were they? and who killed them? we could only speculate that retreating russian forces were to blame because of the litter they left behind, clearly marked as being from russia. several subsequent investigations conducted by pbs frontline, the new york times and the bbc piecing together cctv footage of the last moments of these men's lives have since established the facts and paint a grim picture of bucha under russian occupation. when russian forces first arrived in bucha in late february they did not expect to stay long. this was supposed to be just another town on the way to the catal, kyiv. instead, their armored columns were incinerated from the sky. >> russians.

come to us with the sword, die by the sword. >> the surviving russians pulled back and regrouped, re-entering bucha on march 3rd and 4th, as confirmed by surveillance footage captured from this auto shop. >> there'a bullet hole. they took it down. that is what is left of one of the cameras. one pointed this way and the other one was set in the opposite direction. >> ukraine's top prosecutor andriy kostin told newshour what the russians did not. >> on 4th of march 2022, members of the armed forces and other military formations of russian federation searched the residential buildings on the street. so they wanted to identify the servicemen of ukrainian army and territorial defense units. >> as russian troops poured into yablonska street to take over th neirhoo thent door-tdoor rouing up

civilians and men they suspected to be fighters. the chmut family had front row seats. so you saw everything happening from this window right here? >> yes. >> they watched as the ill-fated group of men were lined up in the courtyard. >> the hostages are all there. there they are, sitting under the fence. one, two, three, four, five, six. >> the auto shop cameras had an even better view of the group of nine men being led single file, barefoot and with their t-shirts pulled over their heads. eventually the russians came for the chmut family. tetiana and her sons were made to join a group of women, children and men who were not under suspicion. her husband serhiy was put in line with the group of men who had been forced to their knees. >> somewhere here. somewhere here they lined us up, right about here. >> one man already lay on the ground dead when serhiy arrived.

>> there was one. he was to my right. the only thing i could think about was that my family weren't harmed. >> serhiy was a hair's breadth away from being lumped in with the suspected ukrainian fighters. but his wife and children stepped in. >> we begged and pleaded. we said he's a fisherman, not even a hunter. he'd never served. doesn't know how to hold a pistol or a rifle. they said ok, move him over with the other men. >> the rest weren't so lucky. according to witness accounts, the remaining men were l away, tortured and interrogated and then shot. including this man, ivan skyba, o lived to tell the tale. >> i felt the bullet hit me. my arms were tied behind my back and i just fell.

>> skyba left ukraine for western europe after he survived his own execution. >> so i just relaxed my body and froze. i didn't even breathe because it was cold outside and you could see my breath. so that they didn't see that i was still alive. >> despite a gunshot wound, skyba managed to crawl to safety. the rest of the men's bodies would lay by the side of the building for another month until april 3, when we filmed them beg recovered. do you think the killings there were an isolated incident and a military unit gone bad or this is responsibility that goes up the chain of command? >> when we liberated kharkiv region, they committed the same types of war crimes. in kherson region they committed the same war crimes.

and this shows that this is not only pattern of conduct of russian military, but from our point of view, it is evidence of the persecutorial policy of russians against ukrainians. >> the eight bodies that the russians left behind here are a small fraction of the overall 458 fatalities in abuja, but the story -- bucha, but the story is becoming all too familiar in which a pattern of war crimes -- alleged war crimes has emerged across the country. today, the site has been turned into an informal memorial created by the families of the victims. oleksandr turovsky has come here with his granddaughter to commemorate his son, svyatoslav. >> he was a worker like everyone. this is his daughter. on her way to kindergarten she

passes the cemetery. she always says, my daddy's there. >> at the graveyard, where the bulk of the people killed during the russian occupation of bucha are buried, natalia matviyuk lays flowers at her brother's grave. >> he used to bike around this whole area so he knew it very well. so he passed the intelligence to his commanders. his hands and legs were tied and there were markings from a rope here. i looked at photographs of his body, his socks were worn through, they were barefoot. no one has the right to kill unarmed people in an independent country. it's hard to accept the martyrs death there were subjected to. >> even if they're captured by

the other side, they cannot be intentionally tortured and killed. it's a definite war crime. >> but the path from the crimes committed in bucha, to any eventual prosecutions is a long and uncertain and the pain, it one. never goes away. for the pbs newshour, i simon am ostrovsky in bucha. ♪ amna: a monday-night court filing in the defamation lawsuit brought by dominion voting systems against fox news revealed a new admission by rupert murdoch -- the network's owner. murdoch acknowledged that several fox hosts knowingly repeated false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. laura barron-lopez has more... >> the latest revelation from

murdoch's deposition follows another filing in the case -- that showed some of fox's biggest stars privately dismissed former president trump's election fraud lies. publicly, wever, they gave air time and support to these known falsehoods and brewing conspiracy theories. the findings come as house speaker kevin mccarthy has given fox host tucker carlson first access to more than 40,000 hours of the security footage from january 6. here to discuss is timothy heaphy who served as chief investigative counsel to the select house committee on the january 6 attack. thanks much for joining us. in the dominion court filing, they included exchanges from murdoch's deposition and i want to one true -- run through a little bit of that. the dominion attorney asked murdoch that you are now aware that fox endorsed these notions of a stolen election. murdoch, not fox, no, but maybe lou dobbs, maybe maria bartiromo as commentators.

the attorney asked him about janine pirro. murdoch, i think so. lou dobbs. . a lot. . sean hannity. a bit. about their endorsement of a stolen election. murdoch, yes, they endorsed. you investigated the january 6 attack f months. how did fox news' coverage and the lies about election fraud in the weeks and months contribute to january 6? >> what the fox news hosts were repeating without foundation was part of a chorus of repeated bogus theories of election fraud. they came from the former president himself. they came in the form of social media posts repeated. victim in the form of fundraising materials sent out by the trump campaign that became the stop conceal -- stop the steal money machine. there were lots of places where the false narrative, no

foundation in fact, was repeated and it had a lot to do with people getting really angry and going to the capitol and believing genuinely that.the election have been stolen speaker mccarthy is handing over footage, tens of thousands of hours, to tucker carlsen. what is the impact of the footage being shared? >> it's dangers, the committee got access under really tight controls. we had a dedicated terminal, only a couple of staff at access, it was password protected. even after we reviewed footage, if we were going to use any in a public hearing, we had to negotiate with the capitol police to trim how much of it might compromise a camera location or a route of evacuation or any security issue. we took very seriously the law-enforcement sensitivity of the information and took steps to minimize the potential damage of disclosure.

i don't know if mr. carlsen or others to might get access to it will abide by those same rules. that is why it is dangerous. if it is posted, it will make it easier for people to evade security protections in the future. >> there has been a lot of footage already out there, whether through your investigation or other personal body cameras. some capitol police officers told my colleague that they are not necessarily worried about the security risk or people finding out camera locations, but what they are worried about is the potential for fox to cherry pick a narrative out of the footage like this. >> the doj has been allowed to prosecute and jail hundreds of nonviolent political protesters whose crime was having the wrong opinions. >> he said nonviolent, but what do you say to that? >> look, there is no question you can look at all of that footage and find some people that were there and not engaging

in violence. not everyone was assaulting police officers. that doesn't take away from the fact that this was orion, this was a violent attack on the united states capitol. it is misleading to take a piece of footage from over here where there are people walking with signs, 150 feet away there were people hitting police officers and breaking windows. it is important to look at the entirety of what happened. not everyone there was bent on violence. there is no question that there were people who were nonviolent. the crimes extend beyond violence. the crimes extend to reaching across the barrier and trespassing on capitol grounds. there are degrees of culpability, as there are in any mass demonstration. >> looking at the bigger picture, your ultimate report, your committee recommended that donald trump be charged. in court, you have to show specific actions and convince a

jury beyond a reasonable doubt. what specifically did the former president do that you think he should be charged for? >> degrees of culpability, he's the main proximate cause of the right. the committee found evidence of his specific intent to obstruct, interfere, or impede the joint session. that's the main statute. there is lots of evidence of specific intent that president trump and his co-conspirators took to ensure that the joint session did not go forward, that the transfer of power did not occur. that started well before january 6 with efforts to use the justice department, pressure state officials, put pressure on the vice president, and ultimately on january 6 itself, an incendiary speech to a crowd he knew was armed and angry. and then in action once the riot occurred. he did not act. all of that informed the committee recommendation that

there is evidence of a violation of federal crimes by the former president and others in his immediate circle. >> special counsel investigation could potentially get more evidence than what your committee could get, namely in your investigation you spoke to senior staff to former president mike pence -- vice president mike pence and there is a fight going on about whether he will testify before a grand jury. given what you learned in your investigation, do you think that vice president mike pence's testimony would have vital information about what trump did in his actions, his statements around in the lead up to january 6? >> absolutely and it is predictable that the special counsel would want to speak to him. we spoke to his chief of staff, his chief counsel, everyone around him. the first-hand account of the vice president himself, conversations he had with th president, is lived experience

during that day, would be directly relevant. it would bear potentially upon the president's state of mind. that is the crucial issue for the special counsel and the vice president, who had a lot of direct communication, might provide really direct information. the justice department could through privilege assertions that limited us. there are a lot of witnesses who asserted an executive privilege and said, i will tell you about what happened, but i can't talk about direct communications between the president and vice president. a grand jury investigation arguably overcomes that assertion. that may be litigated quickly. those issues can be resolved and they could get new first-hand accounts because of the difference between the congressional process and the criminal justice process. >> thank you so much for your time. >> thank you.

geoff: we'll be back shortly with a look at a museum exhibit featuring uplifting historical portraits of african-americans. amna: but first, take a moment to hear from your local p-b-s -- pbs station. amna: on this lak

history month, we feature the stories of black southerners during jim crow, as told in a single frame. the newshour's digital anchor nicole ellis visited the university of virginia to see how historical portraits are helping redefine a generation in its own voice, and through its own lens. it's for our arts and culture series, canvas. >> a deacon and well-known member of the charlottesville black community. >> henry martin bor enslaved, working all his life either as an enslaved person or working as

a menial labor. never learned to read or write, but he was able to speak for himself through photography. >> the curator of an exhibition of portraits now on display at thspecial collections library. martin's larger-than-life portrait is featured along with historical items to contextualize it. he was a man so iconic a poem was written about him a century later. >> someone will pause to whisper, henry. and for a moment, my name flies free. [applause] >> martin's self-portrait contradicts and undermines how white students and alumni would portray him. >> it's a way of saying, this is who i am. no trace of a job as a janitor and bellringer. >> the portraits were taken

several decades after the south lost the civil war. >> they are really stunning in the way that they show dignity, respectability. that is a time of jim crow segregation. that is a time when there were lynchings in this area and you could see none of that. >> the university of virginia used at least 4000 enslaved black people to build and maintain the school. in 20, the university of virginia erected this memorial to honor like enslaved laborers. the portrait project aims to show a different side of the people enslaved in their descendants. those portraits told the story of his life there his eyes. a story still being told by those connected to him. >>'s first wife would have been

a great great aunt of mine. he is special to me. >>'s other family members under business and charlottesville. >> they were operating a barbershop that their father would have been my grt-grandfather established in 1865. people now understand that there is a segment of the charlottesville society that needs to have their story told. and celebrated. >> nobody in these portraits looks oppressed. nobody looks bedraggled. nobody looks beaten-down. and that is by design. >> for charlottesville, like much of the country, its reckoning with racism is ongoing. in the 1960's, historic black communities were razed to the

ground by the city. in 2017, a white supremacist mob held a deadly violent rally in responseo the removal of a robert e. lee statue. >> university has not always been a good neighbor to the african-american community. we have learned the hard side of history. we have not learned about black life, black joy, like family, black churches, black schools, black politics, black style. all of those things have been in the background. through ese portraits, we are bringing them into the foreground. >> the exhibit features other examples of black self-expression, like the only known surviving copy of the charlottesville black newspaper of the time. >> i want to tell stories about history through this exhibition. the portraits said to me, we can explore a side of history through these portraits that has

been not completely ignored, but hasn't been given its due. >> portraits like that of henry martin, a bellringer, but also men of dignity and a story to tell, a story that would long survive him. for the pbs newshour, i'm nicole ellis in charlottesville, virginia. geoff: you can see more of the university of virginia exhibit online. and find more of our stories on black histy month including one about how students digitizing historically blac newspapers are rediscovering forgotten histories about their hometowns. that's at pbs.org/newshour. amna: and join us again here tomorrow night, when we will explore the laws state legislatures are passing this year aimed at limiting lgbtq rights. that's the newshour for tonight. geoff: thanks for spending part of your evening with us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- ♪ >> 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 industry to -- 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. >> 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. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.] >>

>> this program was made possible in part by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> sweep all the way up... and palms to the chest. many of us lead such stressful lives and seemingly don't have a way to deal with the mounting stress. >> it's not like we just go on the yoga mat, and then we lead our life in a whole different way. but it's, like, what do we take from our yoga mat and bring out into the world? >> when i'm in mountain pose and just breathing, i relax and i can re-center, and i find that that's a really good way to handle stress and manage anxiety. >> well, i feel like i'm more peacefulh