12/12/22 12/12/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> we are receiving the nobel peace prize during the war started by russia. this war has been going on for eight yea, nine mths, 21 days. for millions of people, torture,

deportation have become commonplace. amy: the nobel peace prizes have been awarded to human rights groups in ukraine and russia, as well as an imprisoned belarusian activist. we will air part of saturday's award ceremony in oslo. then "lowndes county and the road to black power," a new documentary looks at the pivotal role one county in alabama played in the black power movement. >> this is a dangerous time. >> people were followed. people could lose their jobs. >> a lot of black people came up missing. >> it is called because of the unrelenting violence. >> they were literally putting their lives on the line. >> and they still organized. >> we wanted a movement that would survive the loss of our lives. amy: all that and more, coming up.

welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden pledged to help strengthen ukraine's air defense system as he and other g7 heads of state spoke with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy ahead of a virtual summit today. the talks come after another weekend of heavy fighting in ukraine. russia launched a drone attack on the port city of odessa saturday, cutting power to 1.5 million people. ukrainian forces, meanwhile, struck the southern russian-cupied city of melitopol, reportedly using u.s.-supplied long-range himars rockets. ukraine also reported it killed a number of fighters from the private military wagner group after targeting its headquarters in the russian-occupied luhansk region. meanwhile, a russian court sentenced prominent kremlin

critic ilya yashin to over eight years in prison, accused of spreading fake news after he spoke out in april about suspected russian war crimes in the ukrainian town of bucha. yashin's lawyer said they would appeal the verdict. >> the prosecutors have not proven the information conveyed was a lie or that it was deliberately wroful. amy: in peru, two teenagers were killed sunday in the andean city of andahuaylas as police tried to quell protests demanding the release of ousted leftist president pedro castillo and calling for new elections to be moved up. at least 20 others were injured. >> my request to the minister of the interior is to stop the bullets. we must investigate the wounds of all of those who were wounded by pellets, bullets, or i don't know, stones. justice must be served. amy: following the unrest, newly appointed president dina

boluarte announced she would move elections up by two years, to april 2024. the department of transportation has launched an investigation in kansas after a rupture in the keystone pipeline caused a massive oil spill 160 miles north of wichita. the pipeline's operator, tc energy -- formerly known as transcanada -- estimated some 588,000 gallons of tar sands oil spilled into a natural waterway. that's nearly enough to fill an olympic-sized swimming pool. it's the largest u.s. crude oil spill in nearly a decade, and the worst in the history of the keystone pipeline, which carries oil from canada's tar sands to refineries in illinois and the gulf coast. in canada, hundreds of people marched through the streets of montréal on saturday to demand a strong deal to protect wildlife as the u.n. holds a major summit on biodiversity. the u.n. biodiversity conference, known as cop15, seeks to protect an estimated 1 million plant and animal species threatened by extinction, most

of them due to human activity. activist charlene george of the ts'auk nation says any deal on -- needs to ensure the rights of indigenous people who've worked for millennia to protect their lands. >> today is about the used and they're having a voice and it is a really important voice because some other people are afraid to stand up and the youth -- to say the words. they are the ones that could inherit all of this mess. amy: the fbi says it has arrested the man accused of building the bomb used to bring down pan am flight 103 more than three decades ago and will extradite him to the united states. former libyan intelligence operative abu agila mohammad mas'ud was being held in a libyan prison on unrelated charges. it's not clear how the u.s. took him into custody. the 1988 bombing over lockerbie, scotland, killed all 259 people aboard as well as 11 people on the ground.

the cdc has made the bivalent covid-19 booster available for children and babies six months to five years old following approval last week by the fda. the booster was formulated to tackle omicron subvariants though around 90% of children in this age group have yet to get any covid vaccines. this comes as covid numbers are on the rise, with daily deaths averaging over 460 in the united states, around 1.5 times higher than the previous week and hospitalization levels not seen since last winter's surge. officials across the u.s. are urging people to wear masks while indoors to protect against the tripledemic of covid, flu, and rsv. in related news, a congressional report released friday accuses the trump administration of a "persistent pattern of political interference undermined the nation's ability to respond." the report says the u.s. was

vastly underprepared for a public health crisis due in part to "chronic underfunding and long-standing health disparities." covid has claimed the lives of some 1.09 million people in the united states in lesthan three years. in arizona, immigration and environmental activists are denouncing the illegal construction of a makeshift wall along the u.s.-mexico border built with double-stacked shipping containers, pieces of metal, and razor wire. the efforts are being led by republican governor doug ducey, whose government has for months been installing the barrier filling up the gaps left unfinished by former president trump's proposed border wall. advocates have led mounting actions to block its construction as they say the wall is destroying precious desert biodiversity and is forcing asylum seekers to find even more dangerous routes to come to the u.s. for refuge. this is karina ruiz, executive director of the arizona dream act coalition. >> i think it is more of a

statement that governor ducey wants to make -- because want to continue the rhetoric on the border, i believe the solution is [indiscernible] there has to be a pathway not just for those of us that are in the country already, but also for those that are coming in. amy: here in new york city, part-time faculty members at the new school have ended their nearly month-long strike after reaching a tentative deal including the first pay raise in four years and improved healthcare benefits. the strike brought the new school to a standstill as the vast majority of its faculty is made up of adjuncts. last week, dozens of students started occupying a university building in solidarity with the strike and parents threatened to sue the new school. in los angeles, disgraced councilmember kevin de león has come under renewed fire after a video posted on twitter shows him assaulting an activist.

protesters have been demanding de león resign after he and other officials were caught on a leaked audio tape making racist remarks against black and indigenous people. in the video, de león, who was attending a community holiday event, is confronted by a group of protesters, then violently shoves black community organizer jason reedy to the ground, even though reedy had his hands up in the air. elsewhere in l.a., karen bass made history sunday as she was sworn in as the city's first woman mayor and just second black mayor. she was sworn in by another historic californian, vice president kamala harris. mayor bass is declaring a state of emergency starting today to address the crisis facing thousands of unhoused people. >> if we just focus on bringing people inside and comprehensively addressing their needs and moving them to permanent housing with a way to pay their bills, we will save lives and we will save our city.

and this is my mission as your mayor. amy: but housing activists warn the move will only lead to the displacement and further marginalization of unhoused people. ahead of bass' swearing in, people were forced to vacate an encampment for the unhoused across from los angeles city hall. due to heavy rains, the ceremony was ultimately relocated to another, indoor site. and pioneering black feminist dorothy pitman hughes has died at the age of 84. she co-founded "ms. magazine" with gloria steinem in the 1970's. the duo also toured the country to speak about the women's movement. hughes was a passionate advocate for racial justice, as well as for children and families, starting a cooperative daycare and co-founding the new york city agency for child development. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the nobel peace prize's were given out saturday on international human rights day

in oslo, norway. the awards went to the ukrainian organization center for civil liberties, the russian group memorial, and ales bialiatski, imprison human rights activist in belarus. the nobel peace prize ceremony came nearly 10 months after russia invaded ukraine on the same day as the nobel ceremony russia launched a drone strike on ukraine import city of odessa, cutting power to 1.5 million people. millions of ukrainians face a winter without heat or electricity after russian strikes on civilian infrastructure. we begin today's show airing excerpts of the speeches from saturday's nobel peace prize ceremony. this is the head of this center for liberties of ukine. >> we are receiving the nobel peace prize during the war started by russia. this waras been going on for

eight years, nine mths, a 21 days. for miions of people, shelling, torture, deportation have become commonplace. but there are no words which can express a mother who lost her newborn son and shelling of a maternity ward. a moment ago, she was caressing her baby, calling him by his name, breast-feeding him, and the next moment, a russian missile destroyed her entire universe. and now her beloved and her long for baby lies and the smallest coffin of the world. help make human rights meaningful again. peace, progress, human rights are inextricablyinked. a faith that kills or disperses

peaceful demonstrations. such a state poses a threat to the entire region and peace and at theorld as a whole. therefore, the world has to adequately respond to systemic violations. political decision-making, human rights must be [indiscernible] russia destroying its own civil society, demonstrated this very well. the countries that the democratic world have long turned a blind eye to this. th continue to shake hands with the russian leadership, build gas pipeline and conduct his news as usual. for decades, russian troops have been committing crimes in differentountries but they always got away with this. the world as not even at ugly responded to the act of

aggression and annexation of crimea, which -- russia believes they can do whatever they want. russia is deliberately inflicting harm on civilians aiming to stop resistance in occupied ukraine. russian troops intentionally destroy buildings, churches, schools, hospitals. torture and kill people in occupied territories. the russian people will be responsible for the disgraceful page in their history and their desire to forcibly restore the former empire. people of ukraine what peace more than anyone else in the world. peace cannot be reached by laying down arms.

this would not be peace but occupation. after deliberation, we found a lot of civilians murdered and industries and courtyards of their homes. these people were unarmed. we must stop pretending threats are political compromises. the democratic world has grown accustomed to making confessions to dictatorships. that is why the willingness of the ukrainian people to resist russia -- so important. we will not lead people in occupied territories to be killed and tortured. ople's lives cannot be called political prop remise -- compromise. it means protecting people from its cruelty. in this war we are fighting for freedom and every meaning of the word and we're payg for the highest possible price for a postop we come ukrainian

citizens of allationali, should not discuss our right to a sovereign and independent ukrainian state and develop meant of the ukrainian language and culture, as human beings, we do not need approval of our right to determine our own entity and make our own democratic choices. this is not a war between two states, it is a war of two systems. we are fighting for the opportunity to build a state in which everyone's rights are protected. authorities are accountable. police do not beat peaceful demonstrations in the capitol. we do not want our children to go through war and sfering, so as parents we have to resume the responsibility to act, not to shift it on our children. humanity has a chance to overcome global crisis and build

a new philosophy ofife. it is time to assume the responsibility. we don't kn how mucof the time we still have. this nobel peace prize so many place during the war. i will reach out to people and call for solidarity. you don't have to be ukrainian to support ukraine. it is enough just to be humans. amy: that was oleksandra matviichuk, the head of the center for civil liberties in ukraine which received the nobel peace prize on saturday. the russian human rights group memorial also won the nobel peace prize. this is a human rights activists . >> memorials human rights of his work has included the search for the missing investigation of extrajudicial executions and reporting on forced disappearances. it has included years for help treat refugees and forcibly

displaced due to these conflicts. memorial has been carrying out the monitoring of political repression and legal assistance for political prisoners. today the number of political prisoners on russia are more than the total number and all of the soviet union at the beginning of the period of the 1980's. the struggle for freedom has continued since the soviet regime. here the past and the present come together. the soviet empire come in had tems by people to fight for national independence or simply manifest a national consciousness that did not fit the soviet union dog network nationalism and brutally suppressed. after the collapse of the u ssr, have their own historical narratives that did not once i with the official soviet mythology. soon after vladimir putin came to power, the new russian leadership ended ideological servants again violent memory

wars against their neighbors. this was done for the sake not of historical truth but for theiown political interests. the result was the russian propaganda against nationalism, putin's called vendettaism, became the ideological justification for the insane and criminal war of aggression against ukraine. one of the first victims of this madness was the historical memory of russia itself. in order to pass off aggression to consider neighboring country as fighting fascism, it was necessary to twist the minds of russian citizens. now the russian mass media refers the unprovoked armed invasion of a neighboring country the annexation of territories tarik and civilians

and in the occupied areas and war crimes as justified though the name to fight fascism. hatred is incited against ukraine, his culture, and then which are publicly declared inferior and ukrainian people ar deemed not to have a separate identity from russia. resistance to russia is called fascism. such propaganda absolutely contradicts the historical experience of russia and devalues and distorts the memory of truly anti-fascist war of 1941 to 1945 and the soviet soldiers who fought against hitler's. the words russian soldier in the minds of many people will now be associated not with those who fought against hitler, but those who sowed death and destruction on ukrainian soil. amy: that was the russian human rights group memorial, one of the three recipients of the nobel peace prize this year. the third winner was ales bialiatski, human rights activist imprisoned in belarus.

he was detained there after the 2020 protest against the reelection of president alexander lukashenko. bialiatski remains in jail without trial and faces up to 12 years if convicted. at the nobel award ceremony in oslo on saturday, his wife natalia pinchuk delivered the speech on behalf of her husband. >> i want to express my profound gratitude to the no region nobel committee. -- oslo region nobel committee. not only is ales in prison, but there are tens of thousands of repressed unjustly imprisoned for their civic action across the country. hundreds of thousands have been

forced to flee the country for the mere reason they wanted to live in a democratic state. unfortunately, the war of the authority sickens her own people, language, history, and democratic alleys has been waged in belarus for years. supreme pain and vigilance. as today's political and military events threaten belarus , the loss of statehood and independence. unfortunately, the authorities choose to engage in society for the use of force, grenades, stun guns, analysts arrests and torture. theres no effort or talk about asherah compromise or dialogue. th persecute girls and boys, women and men, minors, elderly people. the inhumane face -- [indiscernible]

in light of such a situation, it is no coincidence the authorities arrested ales and his associates for the democratic beliefs and human rights activities. human rights defenders are behind bars. ales could not convey the text of his speech from prison but he managed to tell me a couple of words, therefore i will share his thoughts. the latest in those recorded earlier. these are fragments of his previous statements writing and reflection, here are his reflections about the past and futuref belarus. about han rights come about the fate of pee and freedom.

i passed the floor to ales. i my homeland, the entirety of belarus is in prison. journalists, political scientists, trade union leaders are in jail. there are many of my quentin says and friends among them. the court works like a conveyor belt, conducts are transported to penal colonies and new political prisoners take their place. this award bongs to all my human rights defender friends, all civic activists, tens of thousands of belarusians who have gone through beatings, torture, arrest, prison. this award belongs to mindsets belarusianitizens who stood up and took action in the streets

and unlike to defend their civil rights and highlights the dramic situation for human rights in this country i recely had a short dialogue. when will you be released, they asked me? i am already free in muscle, was not -- in my soul, was my reply. amy: that was the wife of ales bialiatski. next up, "lowndes county and the road to black power." a new documentary looks at the pivotal role one county in alabama played in the black power movement. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman.

with the election, the reelection of georgia senator reverend raphael warnock, the first african american democrat elected to the senate from the former confederacy and with voting rights on the chopping block at the supreme court in moore v. harper, a case that could upend democracy, we look now at a new documentary that examines how we got here. this is the trailer for "lowndes county and the road to black power." >> if you want to go back and understand why we are having these conversations about reparations, whether racial wealth cap exists, could you know better than looking back at lowndes county. >> lowndes county was one of the poorest counties in the country. >> 80% african-american and a

1965, there were no black people register to vote in lowndes county moore, alabama. >> it is a dangerous time. >> people were followed. people could lose their jobs. >> a lot of black people came up missing. >> it is called that because of the absolute unrelenting violence if you tried to register to vote. >> they were literally putting their lives on the line. >> and they still organized. >> we wanted a movement that would survive the loss of our lives. >> the strength will come from the work together. >> we were just interested in the vote, we are interested in changing who ran the county and alabama. >> you could have an independent party. >> this was a clear effort to have black people participate in government. >> the white establishment side as a fundamental threat. we saw it as a fundamental necessity.

it is a play for power. >> we live in a world that is so heavily shaped by the movement. >> we have to continue to tell the story of how we got to where we are. amy: that is the trailer for the new documentary "lowndes county and the road to black power." it is directed by sam pollard and geeta gandhir. there film sheds light on the rarely told history of the grassroots movement and alabama and the civil rights movement that would become in some ways the first iteration of the black panther party. in this clip from the film, professor jeffries describes the firstime john hulett and a group of fellow lowndecounty organizers attempt to register to vote. lowndes county was 80% black,

but due to sustained campaigns of voter obstruction and white supremacist violence, had zero black voters registered at the time. >> march 1, 1965, john hulett, his wife, a group of 39 others that he had been talking to decided that we are going to go down to the county courthouse and see if we can get register to vote. he goes right into the registrar's office. former football player, one of the county registrars,nd he sees this black man barge in. don't you know how to knock? is that, i did not come here to knock, i came here to register to vote. that is throwing down the gauntlet. he also says if you are serious, want to do this, then leave all your names. want to know who is showin up. which of you had the gall to

challenge white power. they were literally putting their lives on the line. every single one of those folks who showed up, they put their names on a sheet of paper and they brought it back and they said, this is who we are. and then two weeks later, a slightly larger group showed up again and said, look, we are back. you have our names, you sent people to visit us. we are back. after that second meeting, they realized we are going to do this, did we need to be organized. so in late march, they formed the lowndes county christian movement for human rights. amy: in a minute, we will speak with the directors and one of the people featured in "lowndes county and the road to black power." sam pollard is a veteran feature film and television director whose work includes the groundbreaking "eyes on the prize" and "slavery by another name." he has edited over half a dozen spike lee films including "four

little girls" and "when the levees broke." we also spoke with codirector geeta gandhir, award-winning director, producer, editor. we are joined by one of the people featured in the new film, reverend wendell paris, former field secretary for the student nonviolent coordinating committee and after the lowndes movement in alabama, founding the southern cooperative developing group and now with new hope baptist church in jackson, mississippi. first, one more clip from the film. it shows how sncc first began working with the lowndes county event. there was no place for the sncc organizers together, forcing them to make dangerous drives in and out of town, risking arrest or attacks. in this clip, john jackson describes how his father matthew jackson turned a small house on their property into a home base for the lowndes county freedom movement and sanctuary for the

sncc. courtland cox and professor jeffries describe how despite the modest facilities, continued organizing in lowndes county would not have been possible without the freedom house. >> when sncc firstomes in, they are going back to selma where sncc's regional headquters was and they're spending the night there and getting up early and coming back to this county. that is dangerous to be on the highways. >> my daddy said, yo come down and take a look at it. they came down and -- the first thing he said is, no restroom in this house. you are welcome to stay here so you don't have to run back. >> there was no water.

there was a pump in the back. they had a roof that leaked. they h one butane gas heater in the house. so when it got cold, had to go into one room. but it was very come in very important to us because it allowed us to be in the county. >> this becomes the freedom house. this becomes the base of operations for sncc activists for the next year and a half. >> they protted us and kept us alive. all of theeighbors, people around had guns and they would protect as an they gave us gun to protect ourselves. >> since the federal government is not going to protect us, since the state government is notoing to prect us, and since the local government is not going to protect us, we have the right and responsibility to protect ourselves. amy: that is "lowndes county and the road to black power." that last voice, reverend wendell paris, former field secretary for the student

nonviolent correlating committee , after the lowndes movement in alabama, founded the southern cooperative development group now pastor at new hope baptist church in jackson, mississippi. go back to then, what you are just describing, and talk about what was happening and the kind of danger you faced as a sncc organizer and the movement you found already in lownd that was not getting attention that other places were from selma to montgomery. >> it is important to note lowndes county as a rt of what is called the alabama black belt that stretches from the westernmost county all the wa across to the hometow of george wallace. an area where you have this

concentration of black people. the black belt is named because of the -- black people were brought to pick cotton. lowndes county, bloody lowndes , one of tse areas we had such as the jackson family and whole community that had gone to stand up and recognize that in these communities where basically all types of vigilantism -- chief of police and where all the law enforcement officials as well as the other elected political positions in the state of

alabama. talking about a land grab, talking about dispossessing people, then your movement neededo reach not only those officersf -- law enforcement officers, but you needed to also make sure you could get your people elected to vote -- axes come ected to office and then elected to vote and then become part of the who apparatus. in fact, if you have the numbers and yet the local organized people, then you ought to take control. we believe in majority rule in this country. so if you are 80% of the population, then you ought to rule. that helps to form the thinking that went into the establishment in lowndes county.

understand, ere are those communities where people recognize that they needed to stand togeth to defend themselv. as -- my daddy said to us, these folks come in here and help us get registered to vote. we will let them stay in her house and we can do that because i don't owe them anything. that level of independence coming from a small farmer. that is what you had in lowndes county, was small farmers, 40 res more or less. that level of independence that you don't know. that is the backdrop for me being a resident of the alabama black belt basically all of my life. amy: geeta gandhir, what of the

things you do in this films feate women's voices. i'm looking at "t washington post" from years ago in the first light is by all rights really sales should have been killed on friday, august 20, 1965. can you set up this clip in lowndes county >> complete disregard for what authority and a reference i think inspired her. at 17, which is incredibly young and incredibly brave, she went down to lowndes county was arrested shortly after she arrived. she and a fellow activist jonathan daniels who was white and also had come down from t north to support the movement along with a few other folks, or

walking -- they have been released -- they were held in the local jail for a few days and and were subsequently released without notice, without warning, suddenly, told to leave or, you know, they were threatened basically, t out of here or we will blow your brains out by, you know, by local law enforcement. so they left and walked down the road to a small store. they were thirsty. it was very hot. they tried entered the store to get some soda. tom coleman,ho was the sheff at the time, he basically threw open the door and -- with a shotgun and shot at ruby daniels, who was the first one to try to enter the store. -- i'm sorry, rubysales. and jonathan daniels, as ruby

recounts, grabbed her and pulled her down and out of the way and took the shot. subsequently was killed. another white i believe pastor was also injured in the shooting , and so it was a murder. jonathan daniels was literally murded -- and this is, again, another one of the stories we don't hear much about. we have not heard about the murders of other civil rights workers, particularly civil rights workers to the freedom struggle, but this one, not so much. it is a purposeful -- it is purposeful in the story of lowndes county, again, perhaps a story that is more threatening or dangerous to the powers that be because of the type of organizing that it involves the

narrative of history. amy: when we come back, we will bring you that clip of ruby sales and more from this remarkable new film called "lowndes county and the road to black power." we have been speaking with geeta gandhir, codirector with sam pollard, of the film. back in 60 seconds. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. as we continue to look at this remarkable new documentary about the local movement for voting rights to and the civil rights movement that is rarely included in history books, it is called "lowndes county and the road to black power." it is directed by geeta gandhir and sam pollard. we spoke to them on friday along with the reverend wendell paris,

former sncc field secretary. in this clip, we meet ruby sales, organizer with the student nonviolent coordinating committee, or sncc, in lowndes county. alabama. >> [indiscernible] i came from a very sheltered environment. all of the sudden, and face-to-face with white america. it was nothing to be writing down highway 80 and suddenly a pickup truck of what men pull from the side of the road. start chasing this with their guns hanging out the windows. carmichael was asked to drive 90

miles per hour to make sure they would not kill us. looks there's no fear here. i just like to drive effectively so when they chase me, i would be able to dodge them and they would run into a truck or dig leave them in themoke. >> survival instcts at i best. amy: reverend wendell paris, you know ruby sales. how this shaped the movement from there on in? >> well, if i knew ruby sales, she was a student at tuskegee where i was a student at the time. our organization, a studt organization, alned with sncc, student nonviolent cordoning committee.

we had fellow students arrested in selma. after that, the student body decided we would go into montgomery to protest what was happening in selma and also- call for the killing of jimmy lee jackson, which was [indiscernible] it started in marion alabama. while they were marching in marion, even with the federal court order, even with a federal court order the board of registrars said, we are not going to allow you to regist to vote so the problem we are seeing in lowndes coty wasn't just suffered by lowndes county alone. all of the state of alabama, george wallace called for the killing of civil rights workers.

"the new york times" reported he called for in 1963 what turned out to be the killing of four young girls in birmingham. george wallace did that. george wallace called for the killing of somebody in. county -- perry county and the state it up killing henry lee jackson. as students you needed to move forward so ruby as well as myself -- he just love being a student at morehouse. guess she just left being a student at morehouse. we knew ruby from that respect.

has remained involved. amy: reverend wendell paris, you are wearing a shirt, as you were in the found, that says black voters matter, which takes us to today as we look at the kind of organizing and the dangerous -- and dangers faced in the 1960's yet people still organized, to what we're seeing today out of the 2022 midterm elections come the first black democrat to represent the former confederacy and the senate, rev. raphael warnock has been reelected. what gives you hope today? >> what we see is a continuaon of the struggle. lotta people say t civil rights movement has ended. it has not ended. there e other segments of the

movement that have come to the forefront. what we recognize is -- you say in sncc, the struggle continues. we must continue to organize until we have a full citizen ship status in this country. the 1965 voting rights act, as important as it is and was, is a temporary measure. it is a temporary build. we still do not have full voting rights in this country. there is still work for us to do. julian bond who also worked in lowndes county and was a student at morehouse and was one of the first to go into the georgia legislature in 1965, all of

those folks who were engaged in are movement recognized we were just in for two or three years of struggle, we were the for a lifetime. so a lifetime struggle for full rights as not ly citizens, but as full human beings, still before us. we worked with folks in southwest georgia who were also part of sncc. 20 counties of southwest georgia for the election there in 202 to get mr. warnock elected. we moved the needle from about 20 counties -- move from 10% to 22% increase in the election runoff is what got him elected.

if you have that kind of movement in a runoff election, you know a lot of work has been done and it is still being done on the ground. so you have to have and you have to maintain a movement base at the local level. and you build on that base. the reason lowndes county was so important was because you built local people, indigenous people to take the leadership role. you alwa need learship, but he was going to prove that leadship? lowndes countyas a perfect example of local people organizing and continuing to organize and sustain the movement, and that is what we are seng being so sucssful in georgia. amy: we are going to end with the two directors. sam pollard, i want to add to that question about the significance of an ash erasing the term black power which is part of the title.

the black panthers is a symbol for lowndes county, which the black panthers adopted, the organization. >> one thing important to say is this, and i really want to piggyback off what wendell just said, the struggle continues. the black power that is so still talked aut in mississippi is about the idea, political empowerment, economic empowerment. that is what they should always be about in terms of black power. people were terrorized when they heard that term back in the 1960's, but they should not be because it is for black people to empower themselves politically and economically. as wendell said, the struggle continues. even though it is ftastic raphael is now the senator, one of the senators in georgia, it

does not mean you have to stop. we know there is i was people out there who will try to stop us from voting, stopping us from being in power in our community. we have to continue to fight and continue the struggle. y: geeta gandhir, if you can address this issue of the symbol of lowndes county not only the image, but what that also means for today and what you learned in making this film? >> sure. what is so interesting for me is sam mentioned i did not want to make this film alone. i wanted to give some context. to make, it is incredibly important on 18 and i wanted to make sure there was a director or codirector at the helm of this with me who had the lived experience at this time period, who was of the community, and also could -- had deep ties to

the south. i think -- then narrative is the civil rights movement has been i think shaved by the powers that be. the foundation of our country is also only white supremacist -- ultimately what's a premises, christian, patriarchal. i think those are things that we have to consistently work to dismantle and in this film, we saw a movement that essentially come again, a leaderless movement that did that work and it is really -- there is a model he in this film that any community can follow when it comes to seeking power. in order to build a true democracy, we know as ruby sales so eloquently puts it, black power can -- and what's a premises cannot exist in a true democracy.

the onus is on all of us to work toward that and within our communities and again what happened in lowndes county doesn't have to be specific to community in the south such as lowndes county. this is a model for organizing everywhere. i think that is what i really took away from it. the bravery that the people of lowndes county showed an continued to show today --lowndes county remains one of the counties in the country that has the highest voter turnout. and that to me is phenomenal. the goal, too, as mr. paris and some others have said, the idea is to build a movement that survives the loss of our lives in our community's. i think that also is a really important point that i took away from that. amy: that is geeta gandhir, award-winning director, producer, editor, codirector of "lowndes county and the road to black power" was empowered.

she recently won a 2022 naacp award for best directing and independent spirit award for best documentary. she has worked with filmmakers. sam pollard is a veteran feature film and television director who work includes the ground breaking "eyes on the prize" and "slavery by another name." he has edited over half a dozen spike lee films including "four little girls" about the bombing of the birmingham church and "when the levees broke." we spoke to them on friday along with the reverend wendell paris, former field secretary for the student nonviolent coordinating committee, after the lowndes movement in alabama, he founded the southern cooperative develop group and now is at the new hope baptist church in jackson, mississippi. "lowndes county and the road to

black power" is now playing in theaters and streaming online at apple tv and amazon prime. we end with the words of senator raphael warnock at his victory speech -- after his reelection last week. >> there are those who would look at the outcome of this race and say there is no voter suppression in georgia. let me be clear. just because people endured long lines that wrapped around buildings, some blocks long, just because they endured the rain and the cold and all kinds of tricks in order to vote does not mean that voter suppression does not exist.

it simply means that you that people have decided that your voices will not be silenced. amy: senator raphael warnock is the first black democrat to be elected to the senate from the former confederacy. and that does it for our show. juan gonzalez is speaking today in new york before he moves to chicago. he is speaking today at 6:30 p.m. at the cuny graduate center in manhattan. his final speech will be on latinos, race, and empire. you can visit democracynow.org for more details. on friday, he spoke at the cuny school of labor and urban studies about 50 years of defending and chronicling america's workers. you can go to democracynow.org for his colombia journalism school address about his 40 years fighting for racial and social justice in journalism.

today's speech at 6:30 p.m. to be streaming online. we will link to it at democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]

♪ hello and welcome back to nhk "newsline" . i amtakao minori in new york. western leaders are trying to figure out how best to help the people of ukraine. they are making the push-ups another round of russian strikes that have left millions in the cold and in the dark.