06/03/21 06/03/21 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> to understand the secd amendment is to understand it is not about crime companies about controlling black people. amy: as gun debts sort in the united states, we look at the racist roots of the second amendment. we will sleep with professor carol anderson, author of the new book -- we will speak with

professor carol anderson. plus we will talk with her about the republican assault on voting rights. >> the assault on american democracy as we are watching these republican legislatures systematically go after the right to vote is unconscionable and it is jim crow 2.0. amy: carol anderson for the hour. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman. israeli opposition leaders say they've reached a deal to form a coalition government that would end benjamin netanyahu's 12-year reign as prime minister. the deal would see far-right politician naftali bennett serve as prime minister for two years, followed by opposition leader

yair lapid for two years after that. it's not at all clear whether the coalition might last that long. the new government includes a small party of palestinian citizens of israel known as the united arab list. netanyahu blasted the coalition as "dangerous left-wing government." naftali bennett is a multimillionaire who entered politics in 2006 as a senior aide to benjamin netanyahu. bennett previously led the israeli settler movement in the occupied west bank. he has called for the annexation of palestinian lands, opposes a palestinian state, and has compared palestinian citizens of israel to a "fifth column." at the white house, press secretary jen psaki on wednesday refused to answer a reporter's questions about whether bennett would be a partner for peace in israel. >> despite have you on -- biden

have a view [indiscernible] does he still think he is a partner for peace? >> we're not going away and on an ongoing political process in a foreign country. amy: theead of the international committee of the red cross toured the gaza strip wednesday, visiting neighborhoods devastated by israel's 11-day bombardment -- including a road where 42 people were killed. robert mandini called for israel and the palestinians to end the cycle of violence. >> it is heartbreaking to see and to hear about the people who paid the ultimate cost of this escalation. women, children, civilians who are living in their apartments and were caught in the rubble we see behind us. amy: israel's assault on gaza

killed 256 palestinians, including at least 66 children, while rockets fired from gaza killed 12 civilians in israel, including two children. the heads of the imf, world bank, world trade organization, and world health organization are promoting a $50 billion plan to increase vaccine access and end the pandemic faster. the agencies' leaders note that low-income nations have received less than 1% of vaccines administered so far, writing -- "some affluent countries are already discussing the rollout of booster shots to their populations, but the vast majority of people in developing countries -- even front-line health workers -- have still not received their first shot." meanwhile, a new report by the international labour organization finds the coronavirus pandemic has pushed over 100 million workers into poverty, wiping out 144 million jobs in 2020.

president joe biden has announced new incentives aimed at getting 70% of u.s. adults vaccinated by the fourth of july. biden said his administration would partner with black-owned barbershops and beauty salons across the u.s. to promote the shots. they would also have promotional giveaways to people who get shots -- including sports tickets, free childcare, and beer. i'm good anheuser-busch announced beer is on them until july the fourth. get a shot and have a beer. preview beer for everyone 21 or older to celebrate the independence from the virus. amy: was virginia has expanded prices to include weekly lottery drawings, rifles and handguns. covid-19 cases continue to fall across the united states, with

the average number of daily infections falling below 20,000. hospitalizations are at their lowest point in over a year, with doctors reporting nearly all new covid patients are unvaccinated people. an florida man who took part in the insurrection at the u.s. capitol pleaded guilty wednesday to one felony count. paul hodgkins, who carried a trump flag as he breached the senate on january 6, is just the second person to plead guilty and likely faces a maximum sentence of 21 months in prison, as well thousands in fines. -- as well as thousands of dollars in fines. meanwhile, former president trump has reportedly been telling people he expects to be reinstated as president by august. earlier this week, trump discontinued his blog after just 29 days due to low readership. calls are growing to abolish the filibuster in order to pass federal protections for voting rights as republicans push voter suppression bills around the country. on wednesday, president biden called again for passage of the "for the people act" and the "john lewis voting rights act."

california congressmember barbara lee tweeted in response -- "it's either uphold the filibuster or uphold our democracy." i democratic senators -- but democratic senators joe manchin and kyrsten sinema have staunchly opposed doing away with the filibuster, which would allow democrats to pass legislation with a simple majority. senator sinema was pressed on the issue yesterday as she appeared with texas republican senator john cornyn. >> i have long been a supporter of the filibuster because it is a tool that protects the democracy of our nation rather than allowing our country to ricochet wildly every two to four years back and forth between policies. amy: international pressure is mounting for ethiopia to declare a ceasefire and allow for delivery of aid to the northern tigray region, where millions of people are now facing famine. the u.n. says over 90% of people in the area need emergency food

aid after months of conflict and displacement. there have also been many reports of sexual violence and indiscriminate killings since the fighting erupted in november of last year. earlier this week, reports were published of a may 8 attack in which eritrean soldiers killed 19 civilians, mostly children and women, in a tigray village. one of sri lanka's biggest environmental disasters on record is set to get even worse after a stricken cargo ship carrying tons of chemicals began sinking in the indian ocean. officials are now bracing for an oil spill from about 350 metric tons of oil loaded in the sinking ship's fuel tanks. this week, sri lankan -- sri lanka temporarily banned fishing along a 50-mile stretch of coastline, devastating sri lanka's fishing industry. >> the ship has dealt a death blow to our lives. we cannot go to the sea, which means we cannot make a living.

amy: iran's largest naval vessel caught fire and sank in the gulf of oman wednesday. state media reported 33 injuries among the 400 sailors who had to evacuate the ship. hours later, a massive fire broke out at a state-owned petrochemical refinery near iran's capital, tehran. it's not clear what caused the fires, which raised speculation they were the latest in a string of sabotage attacks by israel. the disasters came as a european union envoy leading talks on restoring the iran nuclear deal predicted an agreement will be reached nexteek. the first iran nuclear deal was signed in 2015, but fell apart in 2018 after former president trump withdrew u.s. from the agreement, which has been opposed by israel. nicaraguan police arrested opposition leader cristiana chamorro and filed money laundering charges against her, in what critics say is an attempt to block a challenge to president daniel ortega in november elections. cristiana chamorro is the

daughter of former president violeta barrios de chamorro, who herself defeated ortega to become president in 1990. in 2018, anti-government protests erupted in nicaragua, demanding daniel ortega step down and release political prisoners. rights groups say police and pro-government militias killed hundreds during e uprisi. ortega has also come under fire for refusing to take public health measures to protect nicaraguans from the pandemic. "the guardian" is reporting the british royal family had a policy banning the hiring of people of color or foreigners in roles other than domestic servant until at least the late 1960's. buckingham palace was also able to negotiate an exemption from british laws that prevent discrimination. the revelations come as the royal family is still grappling with the fallout from an explosive march interview with meghan markle and prince harry, in which meghan markle revealed

a member of the royal family expressed concern about her then-unborn baby's skin color. in the interview, markle shared her mental health struggles during her time as a royal. back in the united states, texas republican governor greg abbott is attempting to revoke licenses for state childcare facilities that shelter unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. if successful, children and teenagers would be forced to stay in immigration jails run by customs and border protection and unlicensed temporary facilities, which are overcrowded and are not equipped to care for them. the department of health and human services, which oversees the state shelters, says they do not intend to close any centers as a result of the governor's order. former housing and urban development secretary and mayor of san antonio julian castro tweeted -- "this is a cruel political tantrum at the expense of children." california governor gavin newsom

has granted 14 pardons, 13 commutations, and eight medical reprieves. among those pardoned, two formerly incarcerated firefighters who faced deportation. kao saelee and bounchan keola were both born in laos but brought to the united states as small children. keola was incarcerated for over two decades after he was prosecuted as an adult for a crime he committed when he was 16 years old. he suffered a near-fatal injury battling california's record-shattering wildfires last year. saelee was transferred to a u.s. immigration jail last year to await deportatn after completing a 22-year sentence for a robbery he committed as a teenager. both men have rejoined their families over the weekend. and in dallas, texas, a high school class valedictorian tossed out her pre-approved commencement speech at her graduation on sunday and instead delivered a passionate denouncement of texas's assault on reproductive rights.

lake highlands high school graduate paxton smith was responding to a bill signed last month by republican governor greg aott banning all abortions about six weeks into a pregnancy. >> i have dres and hopes and ambitions. every rl graduating today does. and we have spenour enti lives working toward our future. and without our input and without our consent, our control over that future has been stripped away from us. i am terrified that if i contraceptiv fails, i am rrified that if i am raved, than my hopes d aspirations and dreams and efforts for my future will no longer matter. i hope that you can feel how gutwrenching tha is. i hope you can feel how dehumanizing it is to have the autonomy of your own body taken

away from you. amy: lake highlands high school valedictorian paxton smith giving a speech after she throughout her original written speech in texas. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. when we come back, we speak to emory university professor carol anderson about her new book about what the second: race and guns fatally unequal america." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. nermeen: welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: gun control advocates are pushing lawmakers to do more to stop a surge in gun violence.

a recent study by everytown for gun safety found gun violence took over 19,000 lives in the united states last year -- a 25% increase from 2019. gun sales are also soaring to record levels. despite this, republican lawmakers are pushing measures to loosen gun control regulations. in texas, governor greg abbott is expected to soon sign a recently passed bill which would allow texans to carry handguns openly in public without a permit. it also allows people without a felony criminal conviction to carry a handgun without a background check. abbott has praised the bill as the "the strongest second amendment legislation in texas history." well, today we are going to take a deep look at the second amendment and its racist roots. we are joined by carol anderson, author of the new book "the second: race and guns in a fatally unequal amica." professor anderson details how

the second amendment was written to empower local militia groups to put down slave revolts and protect plantation owners. she writes the second amendment is "rooted in fear of black people, to deny them their rights, to keep them from tasting liberty." carol anderson joins us from atlanta where she is a professor at emory university. she is also the author of "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy" and "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide." professor anderson, it is great to have you back on democracy now! congratulations on the publication of your book. one morning, no soundbites. so this book is really an epic work. it is a retelling, a reframing of an amendment that we have rarely heard talked about in

this way. can you go back in time to the founding fathers, as they say, and talk about where the second amendment came from? >> thank you. this emerged out of the fear of black people, from slavery, that there was this mass fear about the slave revolt. black people demanding their freedom, being willing to have an uprising to gain their freedom. and what that meant was you had this language of we' got to ke this voracious monster in chains. -- ferocious monster in chains. you sell wh each uprising, a series of statutes been put in place to say african-american, that the enslaved, that black people could not own weapons, they could not have access to weapons. you also saw the rise and structure of slave patrols and

militias that were there and designed to contain that black population. as the nation began to develop, as you had this war of independence, there was this fear of arming black people. the fear that even free blacks who were armed would provide a kind of a sense of what freedom looked like to the enslaved. but the contingencies of war required that arming, required having black folks in the continental army. but as the nation developed after that war, one of the things you had happening was with the constitution, with the drafting of the constitution. because e militias themselves had proven so and trustworthy, unreliable as a force to fight

against the british and asian and james madison in drafting the constitution had language that you have federal control of the militias. when the constitution went up for ratification to the states, by the time i got to virginia, the anti-federalis in virginia work in an uproar. george mason and patrick henry were thinking about this militia being under the control of the federal government. there were like, we will be left defenseless. we cannot trust the federal government that has these folks from pennsylvania and massachusetts to be willing to engage the militia when the slaves revolt. we cannot trust the federal government to protect us. we will be left defenseless. and they began to demand a bill of rights that would provide

protection, that would curil federal power and they began to demand as well a new constitutional convention. that threat of what thateant sent james madison into the first congress determined to write a bill of rights that would quell that -- would short-circuit that movement for new constitutional convention. and we have already seen what e power thisut has meant in terms of -- when the constitution was being drafted itself, how the south said we will not sign on to being -- come part of the unid states of america if we do not get 20 addional years on the atlantic slave trade, if we don't get a fugitive slave clause. e south had already wielded his power in ter of being

willing to scuttle the united states of america. and madison lieved strongly this threat coming out of the anti-federalist in the south, out of virginia, wou do the samehing. and that becomes the basis for the second amendment. amy: can you talk about all of the players? you@@ mentioned james madison, patrick henry, the slave states and how this country came together based on this terror of slaves rebelling? and slaved people rebelling? >> enslaved people rebelling and that fear that -- so you have george washington, who is a slaveowner who brings some of his enslaved people to philadelphia for the constitutional convention.

you have thomas jefferson, who was not there but he is writing in to madison and madison is writing to him. one of the things jefferson is concerned about is slavery, the way it will be dependent -- so you had theilence. there is a silence in the constitution. it is hovering over e formation of the constitution, like a ghost hunting it. shaping it. but not being explicitly said. but it is the power that is creating this really weird we believe in freedom and equality but we want 20 additional years onhe atlantic slave trade. what they said in south carolina was that south carolina would be just a backwardlace.

our wealth comes from the negroes, that is our natural resources we must protected at all cost. so this is what is part of the tectonic plates moving at this time, in this founding of this nati. nermeen: professor anderson, could you also explain the significance of the uniform militia act of 1792? and its role in ensuring weapons and guns remained in the hands of white people? >> yes. one of the first laws passed by congress was the uniform militia act of 1792. what is that was all able-bodied white men between the ages of 18 and 45 would have to be part of the militia. so he in the law, it is specifying white men. and it said they must own a gun.

this is part of the militia -- the militia is part of citizenship. it is how you get your service to the nation, how you provide yourona fides come as it were come as american citizens. so whiteen are the dinition of american citizens in this framing. and that they must own a gun. and so what you see here is the militia is given this high status in terms of what it means to be able to control any unruly population, what is seen as a dangerous population. nermeen: has her anderson -- >> sorry. interestingly for me, we have had shay's rebellion that happen right before the constitutional

convention were white men gathered together to attack the gornment because they did not like the taxation policy. and that the militia would not put down these white men. in fact, had membersf the militia joining this rebellion. you had boston merchants basically financed mercenary army to put down shay's rebellion. but what you did not see coming out of that was aaw saying white mewith arms are dangerous. white men with arms attacked the government. so we need to ban white men from having access to weapons. you don't see that happening but you do see that happening with slave revolt. you see the language, the loss coming in place saying they shall not have access, like people sean not have access to weapons and -- black people

shall not have access to weapons. the litias are there to ensure like people do not have weapons. nermeen: you began your book by talking about the police murders of philando castile as well as alton sterling and you point out the nra did not come to their defense despite the fact they were also killed for having guns in their possession, whereas in a comparable violence perpetrated by white mass violence, the nra immediately left to the defense of -- leapt to the defense of the people responsible for that, which were white men. >> there was basic silence on philando castile. nothing said about alton sterling. what was said about philando castile from the nra was -- and th was only after being pushed

by the african-american members -- was we believe everyone, regardless of race, sexua orientation should have access to guns, to arms. but nothing really substantial step what hapned after ruby ridge and waco, texas, the bridge civilians was that when lapierre called out federal office as being jackbooted government dogs who believed they have the right to storm into people's homes and tak their guns and kill law-abiding citizens. several officers have been killed in those events. so to then label the response as jackboed thugs when you get lence with philando castile, it really led me --

journalists were asking,on't african-americans have second amdment rights? that is what set me down this path all the way to the 17th century to be able to answer that question. amy: let's go back to 2016. you write in your book, the immediate aftermath of the police shooting of philando castile was broadcast live on facebook by his girlfriend diamond reynolds who is speaking in the car next to her dying boyfriend, as a police officer continues to point the gun into the car. her little child is in the backseat. a warning to our viewers, the content is deeply disturbing. >> they killed my boyfriend. he is licensed to carry. he was trying to get out his id in his wallet out of his pocket

and he let the officer know that he had a firearm and he was reaching for his wallet. the officer just shot him in his arm. amy: dash cam video released nearly a year later shows the four-year-old daughter of diamond reynolds consoling her heartbroken mother, who's handcuffed in the back of a police squad car minutes after st. anthony police officer jeronimo yanez shot and killed philando. >> mom, please stop cursing because i don't want you to get shooted. >> i can't believe they just did

that. amy: there we hear that crying of diamond's daughter. the video was released just days after police officer jeronimo yanez was acquitted of manslaughter. i want to ask you, carol anderson, to take us on that journey that you took. experiencing all of this, taking it in, telling us who philando was, talking about the fact he had a gun -- legally had a gun and told the police officer about it. in fact, he told his mother, i'm thinking of not caring again even though it is legal because just the day before another african-american man, alton sterling, had been killed by police in louisiana. but take us on this journey that led to this book. >> so it was the killing of philando castile -- i start off the book going it was like a

snuffed film because we all saw that video image. it was horrific. it was during. today get the back story that this was a man who followed nra guidelines, letting the officer know "i have a license to carry weapon with me. i am reaching for my id." the officer begins to shoot. so he is killed because he has a weapon -- not that he is brandishing the weapon, not that he is threatening anyone. he simply has a weapon. and that really led me to begin on this journey as i saw the nra's virtual silence, on this journey to figure out, do african-americans have second amendment rights? we are in this moment where the second amendment is like

hallowed ground. it is sacred. it is one of those things that has been defined as the bedrock citizenship. so i started looking. as i went on this journey, what i saw was it wasn't about guns. it was about the fear of black people. it was about the fear of blackness. it was a fear of the societal labeling of black people as dangerous, as a threat to whites, and that this architecture comes in place in order toontain this black population, in order to provide security and safety to the white community from this fear of black people. and you get this really weird matrix happening where black people are feared but needed. so it is the how do we contain them, how do we snuff at quest

for freedom , how do wesnuff other quest for the basic human rights while also keeping them as labor whout rights? how do we do that? how do we make that subjugation happen? how do we talk about in this land of the united states of america, how do we talk about freedom but try to keep it contained from this black population? we don't want them getting the ether that we are talking about in this revolutionary moment about freedom and democracy and justice. we don't want them hearing the words about equaly. how do we do that? and when there was a revolt in virginia in the 1800s with gabriel and gabriel had fed on the language -- the revolutionary language from the united states from the french revolution, and from that haitian revolution, that sent

shockwaves throughout the united states. in virginia was trembling -- and viinia was traveling at the expansiveness of the revolt and the response was, you know, the wrong people are getting the word about freedom and democracy. the wrong people are hearing this revolutionary language and seeking that it applies to them. this was the journey i was on to hear and to get into this milli eu of how frightening, how dangerous black people were seen as, and that you follow it all the way through to the 21st century by looking at do black people have the right to bear arms? do they have the right to a well regulatedilitia?

do they have the right to self-defense? and seng how each of those, it has been used against black people. and that the status, the legal status of black folks has not alterethat significantly. so whether enslaved, whether free blacks, whether denizen -- which was the halfway limbo land between a slave and citizen, whether newly emancipated free people, for the jim crow black or whether poseable rights african-american, the right to bear arms come the right to a well regulated militia and the right to self-defense are in fact fractured. that citizenship is fractured. it is hobbled by this intent antilacknessthis fear of black people, this ends up like people as a danger to white american society. nermeen: professor anderson,

could you talk about that, in particular, the role of black militias, would you talk about in the book, their role in the early 19 century to what use they were deployed, and then how it is that whites stripped black militias other official standing? >> yes. in louisiana when it was still the louisiana territory, before the u.s. had purchased it but it was on its wayyou had well-trained black militia that had been very effective. as the u.s. came i one of the first cries coming out of white new orleans was to strip the black militia, disband the black militia. well, the governor william clayborn -- at first he's like,

yes, asking for more arms because we have all of these free blacks and we have these black folks with arms so he is asking for more arms from the federal government. but then he starts noticing how effective this black militia is, so he tries to square the circle. white fear and the since the black militia is the only real effective force given all of the challenges happeng under the terrory at the time. what he comes up with is to remove the black offer class from this black mitia and put in white officers thinking that will be enough for whites in new orleans who want the black lucia disbanded -- alyssa sbande but then there is a massive, massive slave revo coming from charles delong. between 150 to 500 people headed

to new orleans, headed to what they bieved was freedom. it just sent terror what is called the german coast of louisian so william clayborn, seeing this massive movement, massive slave revolt, in fact begins to enlist the black militia as part of the forces to take on the slave revolt. the slave revolt is crushed. the u.s. army comes in, the.s. navy comes in. you have the whiteilitia that ishere,ut t black militia is very effective. so you have a black militia fighting against black folk who are enslaved and trying to be free. the reward that the black militia received for this was a further push to be disbanded, further push to notave access to be able to purchase arms.

they put a law in place that folks of color, blacpeople could not buy arms. then came the word of 1812 -- war of 1812 and andrew jackson is the leader, the military leader, and he sees the british coming and it is of new orleans. he sees this black militia and he is telling clayborn, we need them. this is an effective fighting force. and clayborn is like, yes, they are, but i'm telling you, they are not feing it right now because of the way we treat them. he's like, i will treat them equally. i will treat them with the honor that also jurors should have and they will be paid equal to whites. they will receive the same pay. besides a black militia, i want two additional baalions. claymore does clayborn came back and said, getting two additional battalions is going to be difficult because whites in this

area believe arming them is arming the enemy. so you have black folks who are identified as the enemy. and in that fighting fce, that force beat the british. it was le 3000 or so oandrew jackson's troop against 8000 british troops and they won. andrew jackson was like, wow, i knew you guys were good, i just did not know how good. but the reaction to that then was to send them off as a labor battalion to work in the swamps that white men did not want to go into to do the work. you have this denigration of black military ctribution t fighting formerica.

and that was a consistent theme we saw - you get this erasure of this history and this erasure for them i themselves who were doing the fighting, who were being wounded, who are dealin with the loss of their fighting brethren. that has been the since that black men under arms bear a threat and blacken who were trained how to use arms, they are really a threat. so they must be disarmed after they have served our purpose. amy: professor anderson come out of follow up on the term you used "anti-blackness." you are actually saying the second amendment is not about guns, but it is about anti-black ness. >> it is about the fear. the best way to do this is to talk about the kind of history that we have about the second amendment. we hear the history of the militia developing this real

effective fighting force to fend off a foreign invasion and also being there to fend off domestic tyranny, but what they knew at that time wathat the militia have proven to be uneven, unreliable in the war of independence, the war for independence. george washington was beside himself athe lack of reliability of the militias. sometimethey would show up, sometimes they would not. sometimes they fight, sometimes they would not. metimes they would just take f and run away. it is really difficult to form a battle plan when you're finding forces -- "i'm not feeling it today." led governor morris out of new york, one of the foundi fathers, to say, "to rely upon the militia against a foreign invaon is like to depend upon a broken reed."

they knew the militia was really not strong against a professional army. and then there was shea 3 billion. what they saw with shay's rebellion is you cannot really rely upon the militia in order to deal with an uprising and insurrection against government. you could not rely upon them for that. we're the militia was consistently good was in slave revolt, in crushing slave revolt. this is what led george mason and patrick henry to talk about we must control our militia. we will be left defenseless against slave revolt if the federal government controls it. so it is that fear of slave revolt, that fear of black rebellion, the fear of black is a dangous popution that must be controlled by these militia that was essential in the

drafting of the second amendment . when you think about the bill of rights, how you got the right to freedom of the press, how you have no statsponsored religion, how you have freedom of assembly, the right not to be illegally searched and seized, the right to a speedy and fair trial, the right to not he cruel and unusual punishment. so you see these incredible rights and then you have this well-regulated militia, the right to bear arms for the security of the state? that amendment is an outlier in this bill of rights. and that outlier is because it was the payoff to the south to have a force under state control that could contain black aspirations, black freedom

quest, that could contain what is seen as a dangerous black population. amy: carol anderson, we have to go to break and then we will come back to this conversation. carol anderson is professor at emory university in georgia. her book is just out this week "the second: race and guns in a , fatally unequal america." stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "hear my call" by jill scott. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the quarantine report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. our guest for the hour is carol anderson, professor at emory university and the author of the new book "the second: race and guns in a fatally unequal america." we want to get back to her previous book "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy" and also wrote the book "white

rage." nermeen, why do you start with your question? nermeen: another issue that you raised in the book is absolute critical, has to do with the denial of the rights of citizenship to blacks. if you could explain the crucial supreme court decision here dred scott versus sanford in 1857 and how even after the 14th amendment was passed, dred scott continued to take precedence? >> yes. the dred scottecision was designed to try to stop the explosion th was happening, the crisis happening in the united states because there had been a series of events. the missouri comomise, the war for texas, the kansas --

bleeding kansas. all of these things were about thexpansioof slavery and the fight to contract slavery. and so the dred scott decision -- dred scott was a black man who was enslaved. his owner had taken him to free soil states, wisconsin and illinois. then he was taken to missouri, which was a slave state. he had argued because he had been on free soil for years that he was free. what this decision said, written by chief justice roger cheney, was that black people were never considered citizens of the united states. they were not considered citizens at the founding with the constitution, were not considered citizens with the uniform militia act of 1792, not considered citizens with e

secretary of state refusg to issue black people passports saying they are not citizens. theyre denied the ility to carry the mail. all of these things proved they are not citizens. he said in his decision, if they were citizen they would be able to go easily from state to state. but there were laws that prevented that. and he said, and thewould be able to cay arms wherev ty went. and so in ere you see being able to carry arms is a sign of citizenship in this framing. and it is sing they are not citizens. dred scott was the one that said a black man has no rights that a white man is bound to respect. dred scott in facdid not stop the crisis. in fact, it added to it. itelped lead the vil war.

after the civil war, you had andrew johnson as the president of the united states basically issuing these mass amnesties to the confederacy, thconfederate leaders who then reassumed their positions in these states. and they passed constitutions and laws that denied black people their rights. one of the laws they passed were the black code. the black code, among other things besides trying to contr labor, it said like people cannot bear arms. they cannot have weapons and they needed to be disarmed. you had the rise of these paramilitary groups working with the new confedere states trying to disarm black people. you had a bloodied massacr one right after the next. there is a travel log of carnage by carl scherz who writes on the

report of the conditions in the south that is just harrowing. historian and legal scholar and gord reed calls it slow-motion genocide. and yo have black troops, black union troops, u.s. troops who are rt of the occupying army in the south. you have white stherners absolutely outraged at you would have black solers -- black soldiers as an occupying force in what they see as their space. anso they begin to talk about the violence that we are seeing, the violence that is happening is because these black soldiers are here. and these black soldiers were not here, then this killing would not happening. so andrew jnson removes the black soldiers -- first he removes them from the interior of the south and put them on the coastal fortification and then

shortly thereafter, removes them as an occupying force in the south together. those black soldiers saw themselves as thline of defens proteinthe newly freed people from the terror that was raining down on them. so the denigtion of black soldiers, the attempt to disarm black people after the war, the language that black people are not ally citizens, that black people are dangerous and cannot have accs to weapons because it cllenges the safety and the security of white southerners. that is what was going on at this time. amy: professor anderson, i want to leap forward to talk about how owners responded to the black panthers which purged black people to our themselves in the 1960's. this is the cofounder of the

black panthers self-defense party speaking in 1967. >> calls upon the amican pele in general and the black people in particular to take full note of the racist california legislature which is now considering legislation aimed at keeping the black people disarmed and powerless at the very same time that racist police agencies throughout the country are intensifying the terror, brutality, murder, and repression of black people. amy: if you could respond to this, carol anderson? >> what bobby seel is talking about is the death of the police violence a btality tt was raining down on the black community. the uprisings that we saw in watts, cleveland, newark to detroit we all fueled not only by those horrific conditions in those places, but also by police brutality. black panther party for self-defense was founded as a respse to the brutality of the

oakland police department. so what the black panthers did they said, we will police the police. they knew what the law said about open carry in california. they also knew what the law said about the distance that you had to maintain from a police officer arresting someone. so the black panthers would come to those arrests fully armed with the kinds of legal weapons they were alwed to have, and the police did not like it. they did not like it. sohe oakland police department went to a california assembly sa, we need your help. we need to make what the black panthe areoing illegal because currently it is legal. we stop them but they have got the right kinds of weapons. we cannot arrest them for what th're doing. we need to be able to make their workllegal. so what the assemblyman did with the help of the nra waso write

the mulford act, which bann open carry, which was a gun control act it was a gun contr act targeted at the black panthers. he said, no,here's no original targeting in this at all. this is about the klan as well. but it wasn't. the letters make it clear that the genesis for this, the catalyst for it was how do we curtail the black panthers? how do we make them illegal? amy: moving forward 20 years, i want to go to former supreme court chief justice warren burger, 1991, appearing onhe macneil-lehrer news hour. >> is our writing the bill of rights now, there would be no such thing as the second amendment. >> which says? >> a well-related shiing neceary for fense of the state, people's rights to bear arms. this has been the subject of one of the greatest is of fraud. i repeat the word fraud, the

american public. special interest groups seen in my lifetime. a make this has been the greatest fraud. we will have to end with this final comment of yours, professor anderson. yes. and that fraud has been the swaddling avenue the second amendment in the flag. patriotism. in a sense that the militias were there to defend and protect democracy when in fact the militia where they are designed to control black people and denied like people their rights. so in the second amendment, what we have is the right to destroy black people's rights. that is what has been committed. amy: what most shocked you in your research? >> how consistent this anti-blackness was and how it carries through to today with

stand your grod law's, how it carries through with the way that black people are seen as threats come as monsters, as dangerous simply because of their very being and inputs crosshairs on them. writing this book was hard because writing about the past and curing into the future in the midst of the killing of george floyd, ahmaud arbery, breonna taylor, was just in the midst of the pandemic was a lot. amy cooper -- dylan amy: profes, thank you. the book "the second: race and , guns in a fatally unequal america." also author of "one person, no vote: how voter suppression is destroying our democracy" and "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide."

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narrator: on this episode of "earth focus," the most basic human need is also its most precious commodity. in california's central valley, home to 19% of the food prodtion inthe word, many ve witho clean dnking ter whi at thedge rocco's saha regin, harvting wat from fohas the pontial toeeply imct a cultu. amera fos ring cckin hutterlicking]