this morning my question why do some folks have a problem with the simple fact that black girls rock. plus a justice department delayed could mean justice denied. and response to the noose found on a tree at duke university. but first, the political evolution that seems to have caught republicans by surprise. good morning, i'm melissa harris-perry. today is one of the biggest days in college sports the final four. today in indianapolis the final four teams in the men's ncaa basketball tournament face-off to determine who will compete in the championship game on monday. this is huge. those office bracket pools, they add up. americans will gamble more than $2 billion on march madness this

year. the ncaa makes more than 90% of their annual revenue from this tournament alone. 53 million people watched the tournament last year on tv and online. thousands of fans of michigan state, duke wisconsin and kentucky are flooding indianapolis today to watch the games in person. will be a welcome relief for many in indiana to have the spotlights in the big games instead of on the state house because all this week indiana found itself the target of a nationwide public shaming thanss to the so-called religious freedom restoration act the governor signed last thursday. the law allows for-profit business to use religious believes as a legal defense when fuelled by the government or another private party. the original bill made no reference to lgbt folk, but religious freedom bills like indiana's or arkansas's or arizona's last year are designed

to protect christian business owners from discrimination suits if they refuse to provide service services for same sex weddings. the outcry that followed was deafening. ceos, the ncaa and other state government. s decried the law. some banned employees from traveling to indiana at all. mr. pence and republican colleagues seemed shocked at this turn of events and did not waste time before back pedaling. legislative leaders quickly huddle ed huddled with business interest to write new language for the bill and by thursday the new language was signed into law. governor pence stood by his law even as he called for the changes. >> the religious freedom restoration act was about religious liberty, not about discrimination. >> now, indiana's freedom restoration act includes provisions banning the law from

being use odd to deny services on the basis of among other things, sexual orientation or gender identity. some of pence's critics backed down. executives that had opposed the original law even stood with republican leaders when they unveiled the new language. but the question remains, is this really a win? joining me now is the president and ceo of victory fund and institute. dave psi ron, sports editor at the nation magazine. and david cohen, law professor at direction sell university and co-author of the book "living in the crosshairs." is this a win? >> certainly not a win. this thing is certainly not a fix. so essentially what happened in indiana after all the crazy down

fall that the governor experienced is that they said okay, what we're going to do is kind of resend what we're trying to do to make sure the laws on the books in some of the cities around the state are not going to be trumped. so they said originally we're going to make sure people are protected. now they are saying okay places like indianapolis and south bend already have some law on the book that protects sexual orientation from discrimination so we're not going to create legislation that usurps that. >> the revision of the text says this chapter does not authorize a provider to refuse or offer to provide facilities use of accommodations, goods, employment or housing to any member of the general public on raceancestry, origin, disability gender identity or u.s. military service. i was like did we just get an expansion of rights?

>> no the key words are the first two words there. this law can't be used as the basis of discrimination, but the backdrop just like almost 30 states in the country and federal law is that discrimination is perfectly lawful. the problem is that there hasn't been the affirmative step of adding sexual orientation into the state-wide antidiscrimination law and that's true of most of the country and that's the real shame of the outcry this past week is people have missed that fact. >> that idea that i think marriage has been the kind of central, defining argument at the forefront of the public conscientious, but it's neither the most important or central civil right on this issue. >> i think people have to understand that a huge lie has been told in the media this week. this bill in indiana is no different from the '93 federal

bill that was signed. the indiana bill is like the frankenstein's monster child of that '93 bill. that's been so lost is that the '93 bill came forward because a native american man took pay owety and failed a drug test and he should have a right to keep his job. this is a corporations are people my friend bill. it specifically goes through that corporations are people and therefore corporations have the right to say you violate my religion and that's so different from what '93 was. >> this is also interesting it to me in part because as soon as you say corporations are people, that also draws up for me a whole settle of concerns about citizens united that isn't really about civil rights per se but is about this right this idea of corporations having

religious interests. >> i would disagree with the guest here saying that i think it's a huge victory for the gay and lessbian community. laws are reflections of the culture. what we heard from the culture this week are if you're going to be anti-gay and that's how it was interpreted by the public the public is saying that's wrong. a republican conservative did an about face in a week. that's huge. that's a huge victory. so we will see how it plays out and i agree it's not the deal we wanted, but we weren't going to have any time soon a law in indiana protecting gays but the fact that sexual orientation is mentioned in this bill it's huge. >> and i think your point is well made that there are important questions about the actual law, the policy here. there's also just this idea that the world has shifted so much on

its access that look my favorite thing that happened this week was in north dakota around a very different kind of law. legislators trying to take away a protection law and a coffee shop in fargo was like i'll tell you what if you vote down the bill, we won't serve you in our coffee shop. >> that's the thing. but the shame of it was no one was focusing on north dakota when the vote was happening. people were focusing on indiana and arkansas. the focus on those states took away the focus from a state that could have actually been protecting lgbt people in that state. all of the attention this week which was wonderful, and i agree it was a bit of a victory, but all of that attention should have been focused on north dakota. because if the same companies that said they were going to boycott indiana said they were going to boycott north dakota or microsoft, it's a big employer there. they could have come out and

said that we're going to feel the same way about north dakota that others are feeling about indiana. >> those same corporations it would be great where they say you can't do this. because there are people who shop with us. at the same time i'd love for those corporations to be proactive and say why don't you you have a statewide policy on the books already. we do this in our businesses. that's what's missing. >> i'd love for walmart to care as much about child labor as whether or not they sign this thing. it's interesting the selective morality. but to me do you think this week that was like i'm going to remember not saying for arkansas saying he wasn't going to sign the legislation not because walmart uses him as a meat puppet and you have to do what they say, but because he said my son said i shouldn't do it. there's a generational revolt against these laws that is about

lgbt and about straight kids who grew up in an atmosphere where there are groups in their high schools and how can you legislate against my friends. >> stick with us. we're going to let dave go in on the power of sports. d, know your numbers, and stay focused. i was determined to create new york city's first self-serve frozen yogurt franchise. and now you have 42 locations. the more i put into my business the more i get out of it. like 5x your rewards when you make select business purchases with your ink plus card from chase. and with ink, i choose how to redeem my points for things like cash or travel. how's the fro-yo? just peachy...literally. ink from chase. so you can. these new nature valley nut crisp bars are packed with nuts, seeds and sweetness. stick to simple, like nature valley nut crisp bars. nuts. seeds. sweetness. boom. delicious. okay, listen up! i'm re-workin' the menu. mayo? corn dogs? you are so

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a major push to revise their religious freedom law came from the ncaa. they are a local business head quarter ed quartered in indianapolis and employing some 500 people, which explains part of the pull. but the college sports association decides where to hold the men's basketball tournament game. s, which means big business for whatever cities get chosen. especially when it gets down to the men's final four. last year the final four was held in arlington, texas, and the region claimed that the

games brought in $276 million in economic activity. this year the men's final four is in indianapolis. and the women's final four is playing for indianapolis next year. an agreement between the ncaa and the city has final four games set in indianapolis once every five years. when the ncaa threatened to cancel those future moneymakers, it was a major reason why the religious freedom law got changed. was it odd to be on the same side of the ncaa this week? >> naz car, ncaa and charles barkley, this has been a very discomforting week for myself. i was thinking about it. if that's happening, nascar, ncaa and charles barkley agree on the same thing, that means it must be monstrous. it must go beyond advocacy and exchanged opinions that people see this for what it is, which

is corporations are people, my friend. they don't want to be associated with any kind of stink related to it. the ncaa presents a tricky proposition because their headquarters are in indianapolis. it is the taj mahal that unpaid labor built. you get in these weird situations where you have an institution like the ncaa which makes billions of dollars on the basis of the organized theft of black and youth wealth that's how it makes its money. tom izzo, he just got a $25,000 check from nike for making the final four. he wasn't wearing nike sneakers but he gets that check. the ncaa gets to play high and mighty about this law. i think as activists, as people who care about this stuff, we have to thread this needle carefully and say it is great that you're on this side but what are you going to do next? >> this is a tough one.

this really is about the idea -- part of what i find fascinating from the republican party is threading that needle around business economic development and this question. all of it happening in a presidential primary season which we'll talk about now. that idea of the ncaa finding itself against a republican governor just strikes me as shocking this week. >> i have been working with corporations for inclusion and that the gay community was a great ta lon and you should hire us. we have won that war. i have to say my jaw dropped when the ncaa i was stunned because that is a male oriented sport and when i'm seeing the military, when i'm seeing the sports community come around that's why i think it's important for us not to look at the enemy of the good.

we should applaud when something good happens. whether it's the ncaa or walmart. >> do you think it's the youth thing? all i kept thinking is it's in part the idea that ncaa is about young people and there's this generational shift on the question. >> there's two things. one, in the corporate world, they have come to understand the only competitive advantage we have is our creative class. the ability to think of new things. and they have discovered that diversity far from being something that should be forced on a company is an asset. so when you live in the midwest, if you don't have that your kids grow up in indiana and they bolt to the coast to live in a creative community. indiana has spent millions of dollars to stop the brain drain of that state. that's why indianapolis freaked out when that happened. it gets branded as a place that's not creative. >> is the ways in which it still

feels -- and maybe to the good of the overall movement but worth asking about, that the presumption here is in part about the consumption power and the class where lgbt people live because the movement has been about marriage quality and represented in the bodies of white men who have disposal income. good job using that as the kind of central front runners because people will respond, but i know that you have written so frequently and now as part of the viktly fund about that intersection of race and lgbt status that many are not in that class. and so the protections needed are quite different. >> i have been talking about this from the idea of race and class for a long time. but i think what we're seeing bubble up now is this idea of legal equality and how they interact or don't. what people are realizing even

when you have favorable rulings around marriage that creates this lived equality cared so deeply about, they are realizing there are other areas in their lives that are going to be tapped away at. and i think the community has gotten a real great awakening that we're going to have to stay vigilant and keep fighting for their rights. >> when the supreme court rules that there's marriage equality for the whole country, in a lot of states the couple who gets married on sunday can come into work on monday and put a picture on their desk and be fired for putting a picture on their desk of a man with his husband because there's no protection for that. so marriage equality is a huge victory, but it's a victory for certain groups of people and needed protections against employers, schools and landlords. >> stick with me. we want to go deep into the

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indiana's governor says he did not see the backlash coming when he signed the religious freedom law. if he was caught off guard that's nothing compared to the republican presidential contenders who found themselves forced to take a stand on the issue that divides big business on one side and conservatives on the other. former florida governor jeb bush, here's what he had to say on monday to a conservative radio host. many of them likely gop primary voters. i think governor pence has done the right thing, i think once the facts are established, people aren't going to see this as discriminatory as all. that was governor bush speaking

before indiana provided the fix to the law. here's what mr. bush reportedly had to say two days later at a fund raiser in silicon valley home base to the tech companies like apple that have been some of the strongest voices against indiana's law. according to "the new york times," he took a somewhat more measured stance saying by. the end of the week i think indiana will be in the right place. we need in a big country like america, we need to have space for people to act on their con house is. we shouldn't discriminate based on sexual orientation. apple, silicon valley, coastal brain drain, it was playing out in the presidential primary. >> we're seeing the candidates evolve in realtime. look at the president and hillary clinton and look how they have evolved on the issue because the politics changed in their party. they have two primaries going on now. one is places like iowa and

south carolina which is the wing of the republican party that dooms you for general election. but there's also an invisible primary of donors. it has an opportunity it to ask why company walmart are giving to a candidate that says this anti-gay thing. we actually have opened up an interesting new lobbying mode to candidates to question where are you getting your money and why did that company give to that anti-gay ted cruz i won't buy your product. >> i so appreciate that you pointed out that there was a similar evolution, although perhaps not as swiftly, on the democratic side as well. i think there's a part of us that for real doma lives in the clinton white house. it is president obama saying i have evolved on this issue. in both cases, it has to do with the presumption about republican voters. so in this case, you have to get the republican voters in the

primary. clinton and president obama, we have to get the republican voters in the general election. had everybody miscalculated about bigoted republican voters are? i'm serious, i wonder if the fact they are underestimating their own voters at this point. >> i sure hope so because we saw in 2004 when marriage equality was on the ballot, people came out to vote against it. i think this is going to be for voters in. the general election a non-issue because people are past the idea that this is something that discrimination is okay. but we need to see the politicians saying that and the legislators enacting laws that do the same thing that i believe the people want. >> you know who is not past it? cardinal dolan. >> they were saying wait a minute without questioning the

rights of the gay community, we also have to make sure that the rights of the religious community are protected. i just wish we could do that in a temperate civil way instead of screaming at each other. >> once again, the misinformation about the indiana law, how is a factory a religious community. how is a coffee shop a religious community. >> and how is the gay community on one hand and the religious community is on the other hand and they never even -- many of the religious people are also the gay people at the same time. >> people don't have the luxury of being in one camp or the other. i did want to speak to something you said because i think you're right about the presidential race if the democrats lack the courage to put it front and center and say, why did you say this in the primary and putting it front and center. i think if the democratic party is bold courageous and aggressive, and i don't think

they usually go with the democratic party, and say this is a civil rights issue of our time. which side are you on? there's a black transwoman who risks life every day by getting out of bed. do you stand with protecting this person or not? and i think the public would be on the side of the person who is bold. >> ted cruz, i don't want to miss this. ted cruz in his first campaign stop in iowa said the fortune 500 is running shamelessly to endorse the radical gay marriage agenda over religious liberty to say we will persecute a christian pastor a jewish rabbi. so this is the one guy not in the shadow. he's really running and is still using -- i just want us to be careful that it's all over. this guy is running for the republican nomination. >> that's the thing and you just said it so eloquently. he has to run and try to win through the primary. what we know is politicians across the board often miscalculate what motivate

theirs base u to come out. you see the people showing up in the primaries most vigorously who are going to be more extreme on both sides. and i think that part of the challenge is making sure we have politicians running that are speaking to the needs and interests of a broader electorate than the couple they have to pander to to win because you'll get more people motivated to come out. the problem with his party, the republicans, endorsing crazy laws like this is they are isolating the electorate of the future, which will be minorities, a lot more women coming out and young people who come out. >> if you're ted cruz you're running right now and not in the future. you're hoping that there's -- you're trying to get to the right of bush because this is where you think you can pick up primary voters. you can see more of that interview with cardinal dolan on "meet the press" tomorrow on msnbc. when we come back the woman not running for president weighs in

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among the class running on the republican side so far there's a lone woman. she's the former chief executive of hew lit packard. she served as a surrogate to the mccain campaign and in 2010 she lost in her race for the u.s. senate to barbara boxer. speaking to fox news this week she said there is a more than 90% chance that she will run for president. viewed as a long shot she would stand out in the republican primary not just for being a woman in a faeld of men, but a business executive in a field

largely made up of politicians. so when she weighed in this week speaking to "usa today" on indiana's religious freedom law, she went directly at the private sector calling out business leaders for what she says is their hypocrisy. >> it's interesting there isn't the same outrage in on twitter about the subject gags about the rights of women and gays in many countries where these companies do business. where is the outrage about how the gays are treated in iran? where is the outrage in algeria? >> i u don't know what twitter verse she hangs out in but mine is outraged about it all the time. is this a reasonable critique? >> i really think this line of critique which you're hearing from other republicans as well

why is everybody going after indiana when apple does business in other states, they are going to get hoisted with their own because you turn around and say do we really want to talk about this. let's talk about the bush family's relationship with saudi arabia u. do we have to have a conversation about other states? let's educate what other states. there's a way in which by trying to deflect that they are going to start a brush fire which is going to make this a bigger discussion than they want it to be. >> is it a good strategy to run against big business? that seems like a bad strategy. >> i actually thought what she was doing, and this is just me coded, i thought she was going after hillary clinton as another woman in the race saying the clinton foundation has taken all this money, it's going to be a huge issue in the campaign. i thought that was -- judge thomas being an example of this.

it says we know we needy versety so we'll pick someone. she has more potential than people think because she's the only woman. >> i don't think for the top of the ticket but i certainly think if hillary clinton ends up the democratic normalminee, there will be a scramble to look for a woman on the vp side for the gop. my picks are nicki hailey because they are women of color and they are governors. they do a certain kind of work. >> and they are competent. >> one may disagree with them. >> she was a bad business executive. it did not go well. >> the idea she's jabbing at hillary is an interesting one. so what has clinton said at this moment? you're a democrat in your own shadow, are you thrilled by what the republicans are doing right now? she did tweet last week sad that this new indiana law can happen

in america today. we shouldn't diskrimcriminate against people because of who we love. >> look at that side eye. >> i'm sorry, i need to pull myself together. but i do wonder if there's a point about accountability. maybe they don't want to go down this road. is there something to be said around civil rights questions both domestically and globally? >> i think businesses play a huge role. e we see this in the supreme court. the businesses submit briefs on these major issues. they helped save affirmative action, even just in a little piece, in 2003. they helped defeat doma. they are writing briefs to the supreme court about marriage e e equality. they are going to help defeat that. businesses can play a huge role in this. >> but hobby lobby sitting there

around reproductive rights. i'm not quite ready to welcome corporations into this because i feel like there's a moment when we're in kind of agreement and many moments when we're not. and it feels at least as fraught as the relationship whether or not you want a moral religious discourse in your politics or not. >> we want everything to be all or nothing. it's a lot more complicated than that. one of the interesting thing about businesses is that there are larger companies like the fortune 500 that have been way ahead of the curve in understanding the meaning of diversity. they have had their own policy internally and that is something to be said for employer who is are employing a lot of people in these states. i think it is very dangerous and we try to give political will to corporations.

hobby lobby was a disaster in many ways for that reason of trying to make corporations people. though a lot of the folks leading the charge are larger than the people in hobby lobby. >> let me ask one more republican question here. i have wondered since the initiation of the tea party whether or not we're going to see a durable realignment of the american political party system. whether or not the folks that represent the law have republicans and other economic conservatives on some sets of topics but not others will ultimately break away or whether or not we're just so trapped in what our current distributions are that this is the only we can imagine. they have shifted places. >> they have. there was the southern democrats and the president had had to go to a democratic governor to desegregate the south. i think there will be a liberal and conservative party. the question as a republican light now is the demographics cannot remain the same.

we are a white party, we are an old party and there's death. that's just a fact. the country is become diverse. it's becoming multicultural. so the country is change. you don't change into that market, how long does it take to learn that lesson? to the point we made earlier, they are running a primary from the past. they don't realize there's a lot of young people doing start ups that love to be republican. they know more about equity than any business person in my generation, but they can't because of the discrimination. it will be a new conservative party. >> it will be fascinating to watch that play out over this it election but then over the next couple months as well. thanks to the panel. still to come this morning, the long long wait of loretta lynch and one of the men standing in her way. and then i saw him slowly coming down the aisle. one of those guys who just can't stop talking. i was downloading a movie. i was trying to download a movie.

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headlines this morning. video is emerging from kentucky where two days of torrential rain triggered massive flooding. a huge chunk of road collapsed and the asphalt washed away by the current below. more than 160 water rescues took place during the worst of the storm. and two new developments this morning in thursday's terror attack on a university in kenya. the red cross confirms a 19-year-old woman was found alive this morning inside a dorm at the school. she was hiding in a crawl space in the ceiling. in the meantime five more arrests have been made and security has increased in the area. kenyan officials say 148 people were killed when gunmen stormed the college campus. and reaction to thursday's big breakthrough when iran the u.s. and five other world powers reached a nuke agreement. while no deal has been signed yet, the framework includes an agreement to stop making

plutonium and enrich less uranium and yield to inspections inspections. world powers agreed to lift sanctions. nbc news bureau chief has reaction there from the ground in iran, but first, i want to go to john yang in washington, d.c. for more on the domestic politics perspective. how is congress receiving the details outlined by the administration? >> if you think the administration had a tough time getting this agreement with iran, they are going to have perhaps even a tougher time preserving it. keeping congress from what the administration fears will be derailing it. in a couple weeks, the senate foreign relations committee is going to take up a bill that would require congressional approval for any final agreement. now the challenge o to the administration, it's probably going to go through because republicans control both houses but the challenge for the administration is to keep enough democrats off the bill so that they don't have a veto-proof

majority. why would democrat os pose this? some have concerns about the iranians, whether they will keep their promises. a lot of them are allies of israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu, who is against this in a big, big way. there's some who just believe that constitutionally this is not something the president should do alone. this is something that congress should have a say in. now the administration knows they are in for a tough fight. it's all hands on deck for this selling of it. the president talked about it this morning in his weekly address. they have vice president biden making calls. they have chief of staff, sue ran rice the national security adviser, they have a fight on their hands. >> john thank you for the update. i want to bring in nbc news's bureau chief. ali, how have the clerics the

powerful religious establishment there, reacted to the details of the framework? >> the most powerful man in the country the supreme leader has remained quiet. but a litmus test clerics who present friday usually speaking on his behalf delivering messages that he's approved. throughout the country, most of the clerics delivered their sermon promoted this bill. they said this was a good deal for iran and we should standby it. there was some political uncertainty of how this would pan out with congress and everything but they largely said this was a good deal. . the president came on television selling the deal as a huge step forward for iran saying this wasn't just good for iran but it benefits everybody in the world. he said that he would stretch his hand to friendship for other people. people are saying it's a good deal, but that's not to say it's

not without its detractors. a vocal hard liner, the editor in chief in a major newspaper and an adviser to the supreme leader, was critical of the deal. he came out yesterday and said this was a good deal for the west and a bad deal for iran, making the analogy that iran gave up a racehorse and received a torn bridle instead. while other people members of a hard line militia that have been allowed to organize rallies and demonstrations against a nuclear deal tweeted as soon as they found out that iran was only allowed to keep 5,000 centrifuges tweeted we'll have enough to make carrot juice. so there's a lot of detractors here. over the coming days and weeks, we'll hear more from hard liners in iran as details become more relevant. >> i want to go back to john for a moment. i'm wondering if these images of the celebrations in terms of the

reception of the iranian negotiator make it more difficult to do that sale job to congress whether or not we presume that if iran likes it it's necessarily bad for the u.s. >> i think it does the optics do complicate things. it is this heroes welcome that the negotiators got in tehran. i think will bolster the argument of some of the opponents to this that the united states gave up too much that the president gave up too much. he was so eager to get an agreement he gave away too much. it's interesting that some iranians are saying that they didn't get enough in this. so i think this is a complicated issue in the days ahead. >> in the case of negotiation, if the fringes of both parties are mad, it probably means you found a good middle. thank you to nbc news bureau chief.

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we learned something important from a member of the senate this week. on thursday illinois senator mark kirk announced that he will vote to confirm attorney general nominee loretta lynch. this makes him the fifth republican to back the a.g. nominee. meaning that if all the senate democrats and independents support her, loretta lynch will have enough votes to secure confirmation. but mark kirk can only vote for loretta lynch if someone calls for a vote, and that has not happened yet. lynch remains in limbo as a result of one of the longest confirmation delays in modern history. as of today, she has waited 147 days to be confirmed and that is why my letter today is to the man who has the power to end the wait by calling for a vote. senator majority leader mitch

mcconnell. dear senator mitch mcconnell it's me melissa, and i'm writing to say one thing, set the date. back in november president obama officially nominated loretta lynch to serve as the next attorney general of the united states. she is standing on the press pous of making history as the first african-american woman to serve as attorney general. but mitch mcconnell, you are standing in the way of one kind of history while making another. starting tomorrow loretta lynch will have waited longer than any cabinet nominee, period in the past three administrations. all we're asking for is a vote. so senator, set the date. janet reno took 29 days. john ashcroft, 42. eric holder 64. so why, as of today, is loretta

lynch's wait time a whopping 147 days? and what exactly has lynch done with all that time? a hell of a lot. she sailed through her senate judiciary committee and made the rounds on the hill. she secured the majority vote she needs for confirmation while you, on the other hand, have spend these days crafting delays. first, you held up her confirmation over objections to her support of president obama's exec executive action on immigration. you're so busy sparring you can't make time to vote on who will become the nation's highest law enforcement officer. here's the thing. lynch has nothing to do with this partisan fight, but the senate can do more than one thing at a time. you can fight with the democrats and schedule a vote. so senator set the date. what is it that worries you

about lynch? the fact she's a double harvard grad. an experienced top federal prosecutor, she handles cases that include cyber crime and corruption, financial fraud and organized crime and terrorism? maybe that she led one of the highest cases in the 1990s against the nypd and still has the respect of former mayor republican rudy giuliani. senator mcconnell, set the date. if you refuse to set the date, that's all goo to do. because the longer you wait the longer eric holder remains attorney general and while we are all ready to see our sister resume the leadership, in the meantime, we'll certainly enjoy watching holder continue to enact civil rights protections and policing reform. more holder that's just what your gop congressional colleagues have been clambering for, isn't it senator? you just don't get it, a justice

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pam helps you keep it off. welcome back i'm melissa harris-perry. it was a dramatic scene in an atlanta courtroom on wednesday. 11 people led away in handcuffs facing up to 20 years in prison convicted of racketeering. the same charge used to go after mob mobsters. but these were not any real life sopranos they were educators, convicted in one of the largest cheating scandals in u.s. history. the verdicts capped a seven-yearlong trial that teachers and administrators orchestrated cheating on standardized tests. a state investigation found that cheating had occurred in at least 44 institutions, nearly 80% of all atlanta schools and

involved 180 educators. at the trial prosecutors claimed the educators falsified test results in an effort to earn bonuses or keep their jobs. one former superintendent who died last month of breast cancer was accused of pressuring teachers to inflate scores to meet benchmarks and receive additional funding. hall always denied the charges but during the trial some teachers it testified about the pressure they faced. >> it was pressure to get scores by any means necessary. >> i erased and rewrote. >> and is that what each of your colleagues was doing? >> yes. >> students also testified about the toll the cheating scandal has taken on their education. >> i'm not in high school reading. i'm still in middle school reading, i think it's the 6th grade reading level. >> after the guilty verdicts despite the objections of

several defense attorney, the jurge ordered all but one of the educators to be jailed immediately while they await sentencing. >> i don't like to send anybody to jail. it's not one of the things i get a kick out of, but they have made their bed and they are going to have to lie in it. it starts today. >> this is the most appalling decision i have ever seen. i don't see how you send educators to prison. >> the possible penalties are stunning when you consider that seven years after a much larger cheating scandal the mortgage meltdown that nearly brought down the u.s. economy only one went to prison. the atlanta case not only tarnished the reputation of the school system, it's also raised questions about the role of high stakes testing in education and whether the entire system is putting teachers in a no-win situation. if the stakes are so high and the rule so rigid, is cheating so unexpected?

it's a feeling some parents frustrated with underperforming schools may share. parents like tanya mcdowell of connecticut who was arrested and charged with larceny for enrolging her son in the wrong district. and now we have educators facing up to 20 years in prison for cheating to try and meet federal testing standards knowing that their jobs and the future of their schools may depend on it. it all raises the question of whether this is about failing schools and teachers or failing system. joining me from atlanta is attorneys angela johnson and robert rubin, whose clients are among those educators facing up to 20 years behind bars. so nice to have you both with us this morning. when you look at what has happened, do these convictions represent justice being served

from your perspectives? >> from my perspective, no melissa, my client pam served the atlanta public schools for 27 years. she was a first grade teacher. first grade scores did not count towards bonuses and she didn't receive any bonus money. she didn't have any financial incentive to cheat, so i think it's a little different than the narrative that's kind of been spread in what most people think. >> so help me to understand what you see as different. the discourse we have heard is that there were financial incentives here that these teachers were under a great deal of pressure they made changes to these test scores but you're suggesting something else is going on here. help me understand that. >> i would reject that very basis premise that teachers were

pressured to cheat, at least in the school that i'm familiar with, my client was the principal of an elementary school that cheating occurred before she ever got there. and teacher after teacher testified that the principal, my client, did not pressure them to cheat. i think the cheating occurred because people made individual choices to take shortcuts, to be lazy, to not believe in the children. but the testimony does not bare out that people cheated because of pressure to get high scores. >> so this is fascinating to me. stay with me. i want to come out to my table. i have some folks here that i also would love to have weigh in on this. so let me start with my panel. glen martin founder of just leadership usa. rich tafel, founder of

republicans law. so glen this is interesting, it's a little different than what i was expecting to happen here because part of what i have been outraged about is there was a structure that encouraged bad behavior. now i'm hearing the attorneys say this is about individuals who may have made bad choices, even if my client isn't the person who did it. >> what stands out for me is the severe punishment these folks are facing in the situation. . if we were as addicted to education as we are to punishment, we'd be so much better off. years ago we decided to move our education dollars into the criminal justice system. now our response to a situation like this is harsh punishment. >> it feels like a part of a big story we have told about the criminalization of -- we have talked about it as a school to prison pipeline. we have talked about the criminalization of bad acts of kids, so you have kindergartners getting arrested for things that are just school violations. while i don't think this is a

good set of behaviors for educators, watching them be taken away in handcuffs is just stunning to me. >> this is the saddest story from beginning to end. from kids who didn't get the education that their parents hoped they would get to the teachers who felt under enormous pressure to a system that was rewarding them for getting test scores, which they probably did not have the resources to get, to seeing teachers being taken away in handcuffs. i find it stunning that the judge decided that they needed to stay in prison until sentencing unless they were severe flight risks and you can always take away a passport. i don't understand what the point is. and also for the governor to come out so aggressively to make it look like he's so great on education that he's sending the teachers away, it's heartbreaking. >> angela and robert, let me come back to you on that. this decision to have these teachers jailed while they are waiting sentencing, were you surprised by that decision? >> i was very surprised. it was heartbreaking.

even though you tray to prepare your clients for the worst, i think just the whole way that you saw them being treated in the process, it was r heartbreaking. i would like to clarify also that pam is looking at possible 30 years. 20 for racketeering and 5 years each on the false statements charges and that she was convicted on the testimony of two women who admitted to lying several times under oath to the georgia bureau of investigation and other parties. one got immuneity and one got a plea deal and was under investigation at the time that she participated in the crct for cheating on a test the month before. >> i know you all are attorney who is are representing individual who is are still facing sentencing so i know you have constraints, but help me

understand -- this is just tough for me. what is the motivation? what is going on here? what are we not understanding pr sitting up here in a new york television studio about what is happening in atlanta right now? >> there's a couple things going on. number one, there are politicians out to make names for themselves and how they deal with education, despite the fact they cut the budget for education almost in half ten years ago. this is what you get as a result. schools without resources. there's a judge who wants to send a message to the community, whatever that is, that's why he put the educators in jail right after the verdict. and there's the focus on how to you fix education, which no one is talking about. talk about the trial and the drama of a criminal trial, but no one is talking about fixing the education for these title i children. >> thank you both in atlanta with a tough story, thank you

for your time this morning. the iranian deal may have grab.bed the most headline but there was another announcement that could have an immediate impact for thousands of people right here at home. that story is next. ♪ at mfs, we believe in the power of active management. every day, our teams collaborate around the world to actively uncover, discuss and debate investment opportunities. which leads to better decisions for our clients. it's a uniquely collaborative approach you won't find anywhere else. put our global active management expertise to work for you. mfs. there is no expertise without collaboration.

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in august of 2010 president obama signed the fair sentencing act, an historic piece of legislation that reduced the disparity in sentencing between crack and powder cocaine. previous drug policy mandated a 100 to 1 sentencing gap, which meant the sentencing trigger for crack required 100 times the amount of powder to invoke the same sentence. despite the similarities between the two forms of the drug, that

law helped create a racial disparity that left a number of african-americans serving terms in. federal prison for low level drug crimes. so the president's 2010 legislation was intended to decrease that disparity by narrowing the sentence gap from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1. but it didn't apply to the 30,000 people already in. federal prisons who, according to the sentencing commission would have been eligible for a reduced sentence. last year the justice department offered a second chance to those offenders when it announced new rules expanding president obama's discretion to pardon or reduce their time in a prison. and the president exercised that power on tuesday offering clemency to 22 low level drug offenders, 8 of whom had been sentenced to life sentences and would otherwise have died in jail. which bringing all the president's comations to 43 40

of them for drul drug-related sentences, a number that's earned him criticism that say with 35,000 inmates still wait ing for clemency applications to be consider canned, he's not moving fast enough. in a recent interview, the president explained why the process has been slow going and why we can expect him to pick up the pace very soon. >> the first year the way the system worked was the department of justice recommended, there was an office that would recommend the pardons. most were legitimate but they didn't address the broader issues that we face particularly around nonviolent drug offenses. so we have revamped now the doj office. we're now getting much more representative applicants. >> with the way clear for the names of federal drug offenders to reach his desk, the president says he will be using his pardon power more aggressively.

joining me is glen martin, the richard tafel and david kocohen, lawyer from direction sell university. so glen, celebration or not enough? >> communities that are heavily impacted by the justice system hear that as declaration of the end of a war on drugs. when you have a war you lost you have a responsibility to turn back and figure out what to do with the prisoners of that war. 35,000 people are languishing in prison, their families are broken apart, communities are broken apart waiting for something for a response that matches the scope of the problem

problem. and in the president's defense, the comation power is a blunt instrument in a situation where everyone's case is highly individualized. so this really is the president responding to the shortcoming of congress. >> in part this ought to be probably dealt with with legislative action. but so ought many things in the country be dealt with legislative action which is probably not forthcoming. it would probably be a bad idea for the president to let out 35,000 drug offenders. i could see that going badly for him. >> i waited four years to hear the president say we revamped that office. and there are changes that have been made and i can feel more comfortable exercising my one big unfeddered power. that's a good thing. 22 people, that's about as many as reagan and george h.w. bush combined over 16 years. so 22 people that's a low

number. there's about 5,000 of the 35,000 who immediately could have been released had had the legislation been retroactive. so even if it's kind of individualized cases, and i understand that, that's really what the pardon power is for. i think i would not want to see the president wait until very late in his presidency as president clinton did where all of a sudden at the very end, you're releasing huge numbers of people. there's very little time for accountability and just enough time to come after him for having done huge amount of comations with little oversight. >> so do it now while there can still be political? i get it, i do. particularly as someone who wants to e see that drug war come down, wants to see it over and a sense of justice. on the other hand if you were sentenced to life in prison for

growing marijuana in 2002 sentenced to life in prison this is the madness of where we have gotten to. you're happy if you're francis hayden. >> for the 22 people it's wonderful, but the president's power is so limited. the court's powers are very limited here. they are not going. to do anything. this is up to legislators and the states too. we can't forget about the prisoners in state prison who also have the same problems of racial despairisparities and same problems with e low-level drug offenders so state legislatures need to do something too. putting all the focus on president obama, he can certainly do more but this is a legislative, political problem. >> i don't want to miss what's happened around the federal. if we look at federal inmates by the offense committed, we're talking about nearly half are in there for drug offenses, the vast majority of those being low

level. that line, that's just kind of everybody. it also happens in a particular moment. so if you look again at that population in 1980 to 2013 it's going along with some increase and crime is not associated with that. crime does not do that same thing. >> yeah, well what's happened is there was a high crime period. we saw the crime rate drop shs but it's continued to drop over the last decade but we have seen the prison population increase. the reason it comes back to the story we saw in the school system in atlanta. we have incentivized at every level putting people in prison. many politicians made their careers as district attorneys so they increase the number of people they have sentenced. police departments have a new metric for us. and we have turned our prisons over to for-profit institutions who are on the profit system of how many people they keep and

keep coming back. if we change the incentives and said to prisons, we'll pay you bonuses for people who do not come back we'll see a shift. but right now, this is a very easy bipartisan issue. it's amazing how well it polls. >> we have to take a break. but that's what i want to talk about when we come back is this bipartisan coalition that has emerged on bringing down the drug war. who would have thought it. audible safety beeping audible safety beeping audible safety beeping the nissan rogue with safety shield technologies. the only thing left to fear is you imagination. nissan. innovation that excites. the garden is the story of our lives... told and retold. it's as old as our time on earth.

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with over incarceration. it's brought together partnerships like corybooker and rand paul who got together for criminal background checks. and washington was unbelievably the site of political unity when a criminal justice summit has blue state and red state officials and tea party benefactors and right wing conservative christians agreeing that now is the time for reform. so is this the moment that you and other folks have been waiting for? or are you nervous? sometimes when it gets bipartisan, i think, u ho oh, maybe i shouldn't be in this coalition. >> when you look at the institutions and what we did back in the '60 and '70s. that was a bipartisan effort to get people out of those institutions that were damaging people and families and communities. look what we ended up with. people ended up with our criminal justice system. when you have a top down

approach to reform where i believe we need to do a better job of getting americans to understand that this system is not working, i worry that systems of oppression are durable and they tend to reinvent themselves. so if the premise of our system is punishment and it stays that way and we don't think about redemption and transformation we get some sort of reform maybe less people in prison but some other system of punishment that creates an underclass of citizenship in america. >> i hear you on the notion of punishment being the underlying aspect of how we think about what is happening, but i am also appreciative of the idea that it's a set of financial incentives that could be simply taken away. if we look at that same time period 1980 to 2014 on the cost of operating the federal prison system, you'll see it's going along, all of a sudden it's going to spike up and that spike is all in buildings and facilities. so that red line on the bottom there is what people actually

make for working in the federal prison system. wages stay low but build inning a prison becomes the way to do construction in your community. >> it's also killing the budget of the justice department. the bureau of prisons is taking up such a huge chunk of that budget that even the justice department realizes this is too hard. we have too much on our plate and can't let this amount of money go to building these kinds of facilities. the one thing that was interesting to me in what the president said is he specifically used the word interest instead of action. so there's bipartisan interest and that's true. we have good people on both sides who are taking an interest in the issue. rick perry aside who are had the ability to make changes in his state, it's not enough. it's great that we have senator booker and rand paul, who are interested in this kind of bill they need to build a broader co coalition in the senate to have action. that's really the test and the president sees it. >> it does appear in 2016 we're not going to be running on law

and order platforms that are about locking up more people as a way of gaining vets. i want to go back to a point you made. the president wrote a brief. letter to the folks, the power to grant pardons is one of the most profound authorities. i'm granting your application because you demonstrated the potential to turn your life around. it's up to you to make the moegs of this opportunity. it will not be easey. he goes you have the capacity to make good choices. i get it. it's a lovely letter. but if you ban the box, there's a set of structural things that aren't addressed as fantastic as this letter is. >> i have had the opportunity to work at a homeless shelter and a third of the people that would come in would be from the prison system and say i was dropped off in washington with $10 in my pocket. i now have a record.

i don't even have my. birth certificate so i can't get a driver's license to get a job. i had three meals a day. i just don't know what else to do. my family is embarrassed by meso now what? it was a really horrible situation. it was any of us put in that situation, the incentives would drive us back into a system that would make money off of this process. >> it's hard to make good choices when the choices are so constrained in that way. >> it's really immoral. >> i'm listening, when i came out of prison and earned a college degree while on the exist, which really didn't exist after pell grant eligibility was taken away of but i went to employers looking for a job who immediately turned me down because of the record. take the record into account, look for a relationship, public safety is an issue. beyond that people with criminal records need the chance to compete to get back into the

labor market. we create all of these obstacles. while the person is on supervision, you need to find a job, stable housing, become a citizen and we put these barriers in the way of that happening. >> your point about public safety is an important one, but we're talking about many activities which are now legal in many states so the idea that there's a clear public safety problem when we're looking at low level drug offenses just doesn't stand up. my thanks to the panel. up next, reaction from those on campus to a noose found at duke university.

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around 6:00 p.m. sports fans will be on the duke blew devils taking the court against michigan state. this is the game, the event that could have the whole country talking about duke. or so the university might want to believe. in reality, there's one piece of news currently eclipsing the final four faceoff and it was summed up by this photograph. a photo shows a yellow rope tied in a noose and the noose was found hanging from a tree in the middle of campus early wednesday morning. police removed it by 2:45 a.m. duke university police have been investigating since wednesday and have since identified a duke student who admitted to hanging the noose on the tree. the university is discussing possible criminal charges with state and federal officials, but duke officials are still investigating allegations about another incident of racial intimidation that occurred about two weeks ago when a student reported that a group of white men chanted a racist song at her. it was the same song heard in a

video that went viral last month showing oklahoma students chanting racial slurs and making references to lynching. joining me to discuss the investigation and the current climate at duke university is karla holloway author of "legal fictions." and henry washington president of the black student alliance. henry, let me start with you. how are students particularly students of color feeling on campus right now. >> you know i think students are feeling exhausted. i think the thing that sometimes people forget is that these huge events like a noose being hung from a tree are not things that happen every day but the kind of microaggressions, the things that happen every day, my intellectual legitimacy those things happen on a daily basis. i think we have to remember that the noose incident is indicative of a campus culture built around

issues o of race class and gender that's problematic. >> karla, you know i'm a duke alum at the graduate level. you were one of my advisers working on my ph.d.. we have talked often about the challenge that occurs when there's a single incident that becomes the opening point for conversation about issues of race on campus. so we don't yet know what this noose incident is. we know there was a noose, we don't know who hung it or what their motivations were. again, i worry, as we know has happened in the case of campus issues before, that when the conversation about those racial aggressions rest on this one moment, i keep being nervous about how we need to enter into this conversation. >> we need to enter much more courageously than the university has in the past and to understand that the consistent

repetition of students feeling like henry washington feels and other black students i have talked to the fact that this keeps happening at duke is evidence of a structural problem we haven't yet addressed. and until we address that problem, we can anticipate an isolated event resurrecting these other issues that are ongoing in the lives of black faculty staff and students at duke. >> so clearly when you talk about that sense of exhaustion, this is where you are a student, but it's not just duke. we have seen cases of this around the country. the chant at oklahoma the case of the university of virginia, who experienced being roughed up by police so are duke students seeing this as a specific duke moment as tied to a larger set of campus kmpb concerns in the country?

>> i think that's where we would like the conversation to shift. it's difficult to have the conversation shift in that direction. i think a lot of students would like to say this is an isolated incident and that the hatred or the recklessness of one student doesn't necessarily give a commentary about what the campus culture is like, but i think that's just not true. i think the black student alliance has released a set of four action points for the min administration to consider. we're hoping that this arouses the discussion around the entirety of the campus culture. >> let me just say this. while you are talking, we're watching a video after this happened. just from looking, that's a multicultural crowd, a lot of white students, you can see students there across racial backgrounds. i'm wondering if that is the story we ought to be telling rather than what at least at the moment is a relatively isolated

incident. how do we put those together? >> i u think we put them together our audiences are broad and diverse and that the institution has to understand that when something happens that seems to address a black issue the campus community is involved. so the complex of our allies is an important part of this discussion and the institutions taking responsibility not for isolating this as being about black students or black student feelings only that they are outraged as well. so one of the things that that debate, that protest did was to give a wonderful visible indication of how many are ready to stand up and stand against this kind of aggression on campus and not just the aggressions that come from this one foolishness but the aggressions that come from everyday life at duke. >> thank you to both of you.

i'm glad you have an action plan. just make it happen. thank you and keep fighting for duke. it is my alma mater many and i want to see it be a good institution. up next, a very special on this day. (son) oh no... can you fix it, dad? yeah, i can fix that. (dad) i wanted a car that could handle anything. i fixed it! (dad) that's why i got a subaru legacy. (vo) symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 36 mpg. i gotta break more toys. (vo) the twenty-fifteen subaru legacy. it's not just a sedan. it's a subaru. e plane and thought... yeah! empty seat next to me. and then i saw him slowly coming down the aisle. one of those guys who just can't stop talking. i was downloading a movie. i was trying to download a movie. i have verizon. i don't. i get that little spinning wheel. download didn't finish. i finished the download.

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attendant: welcome back. man: thank you. it's not home. but with every well considered detail . . . it becomes one step closer. no wonder more people. . . choose delta than any other airline. a baby girl was born. her name marg recent johnson. she was born poor and black before american law began to recognize african-americans as full citizens. she spent much of her childhood in arkansas where the ravages of the great depression and jim you shackled black folk to grinding ine equality. adjust eight years old, she survived rape but became moot after her attacker was killed because her own voice was responsible for. the death of a man.

but she did not stay in silence. called forth by her beloved brother, this moot girl became a woman with a legendary voice and a name by which the world came to know her, dr. mya angelo. she performed as an actor and singer on the stage in the united states and abroad. she met with malcolm x and she went on do become a coordinator in the civil rights movement. her birthday was bitter sweet because it's also on this day when dr. martin luther king jr. was assassinated. in 1969 angelo published the autobiography "i know why the caged bird sings." in 1993 when fellow arkansas native bill clinton was named president of the the united states he called on mya angelo to mark the day with poetry and she gave us on the pulse of morning. >> the horizon leans forward

offering you space to place new steps of change here on the pulse of this fine day, you may have the courage to look up and out and upon me the rock, the river, the tree, your country. >> to know these accomplishments is not enough. to begin to glimpse her power, you must understand what it meant to encounter mya angelo for a moment. michelle obama captured the essence of angelo oes power with these words. >> mya angelo knew us. she knew our hope our pain our ambition, our fear our anger, our shame, and she assured us that e despite it all, in fact because of it all, we were good. that was mya angelou's reach. she touched me all of you. >> indeed she did.

because she was a teacher. she joined the faculty of wake forest university in 1982 and a decade later i took my first course with her as a student at wake forest. she demanded that we read widely, discuss openly disagree respectfully and we leave her classroom different than when we entered. i am not a writer who teach, she said. i'm a teacher who writes. but i had to work at wake forest to know that. she was my teacher, indeed she was the world's teacher, and on tuesday the united states postal service is unveiling the forever stamp, a fitting tribute to the girl from stamps arkansas who changed the world with her words. she made her final transition at the age of 86 and she left us too soon. but today we rejoice and celebrate the life and gift of dr. maya angelou who was born this day in 1928.

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tomorrow evening millions of people are expected to watch this year's black girls rock awards on b.e.t. the award show that is quote, dedicated to honoring exceptional women of color around the world who stand as inspirational and positive role models. at the show's taping i was honored to have the opportunity to join extraordinary women, such as ava, jada and first lady michelle obama who had a powerful message for all. >> to all the young women here tonight and all across the country, let me say those words again, black girls rock! we rock. let me tell you, i am so proud of you. my husband, your president, is so proud of you. >> and although many of us black girls were proud to have the first lady rocking with us

there was a question for why there needed to be an event for black girls. here to tell us why black girls rock and why it matters, black girls rock founder and ceo beverly bond and her mentees. why does it matter to have black girls rock as a specific space? >> because we are excluded so much in media. and it was important for us to have this affirmation that's missing. it shouldn't be surprising to people, especially people tuning in to black entertainment television that there would be a show that recognizes women of color. >> sage and kathy, i'm so interested in what it meant to you to hear the first lady say, i'm proud of you, my husband, your president, is proud of you. i know how i was feeling as a grown-up girl but sort of what it meant as a young woman to

hear those words. >> representation has never really been there for people who look like me. so sitting there hearing her say that, it felt like someone was telling me not only do you rock but i know you rock and it's cool affirmation is not just about knowing something but hearing it from all different places. it was really cool to hear that from the first lady. >> that's valuable insight. how was your experience? >> definitely. hearing that is so encouraging. people told us over and over and over again that black girls rock. i know it was just one time. but hearing that one time was just so important because you leave there just feeling so empowered and inspired and feeling like you can take on the world. >> i was so honored to be a part of that night. but it is an awards show but it's so much bigger than that. tell me about the bigger structure that's around this moment. >> when i started black girls rock this affirmation was bigger than me.

it was an idea i had for a t-shirt. in that same moment i was like this is way bigger than a t-shirt, it's an affirmation our girls don't hear or see on tv. everything from selling cosmetics, if we're in a cosmetic ad, for example, we're altering our natural aesthetic. we don't play the leading ladies to men who look like us. we're missing in the story, our narrative is missing. or when we do see ourselves, a lot of times, we're being degraded. or demeaned. i knew there needed to be a counter to that. i knew i needed to start not only the awards show to show what young girls what role models look like who they are and to share our accomplishments with the world, but i also knew it was important to mentor our young girls and to make sure that they had a place and space to find not only the affirmation of knowing that they rock but

giving them tools to understand how to become better and be greater. >> i'd be interested, what are the tools you've learned as being part of black girls rock in terms of a leadership? what new thing can you take hold of as you become a young leader? >> deejaying is the main part of our organization and it's completely changed my perspective. when you're behind two turntables, it gives you a certain power in a room. you're controlling the music that people listen to as well as you're giving the audience a sort of feel-good. it was important for me to go through that. it opened up the door for me to participate more and speak more and just open up. >> how about you? >> i'm the president of the book club so for me it's really cool because i get to bring black girls rock to my academics, as well as my sisters.

it was cool to do the research. even though i'm bringing this information to them and we're all learning together i realized that i hadn't been taking in a lot of black literature. so it was important for me to do that research and bring the books to them. in that little process i learned so much. >> both of you, although talking about literature on one hand and books on one hand and music on the other, you're actually talking about the same idea of setting the tone setting the music, creating the air that we're breathing and this idea of young women of color doing that young black girls who are generating the world we're now living in. >> absolutely. it's funny because they read your book, too. but it's important for our young leaders to have a space where they can come together. it's important for them to be affirmed and to understand that discipline integrity, work ethic, the importance of service, those are the things that we really emphasize in black girls rock programs.

>> i wonder when you encounter negative images of black girls and black women in popular culture, because there's a lot, what do you do to push back and fight back against it? >> well the whole idea i have braids right now and there's this whole thing that black girls can't do anything with their hair. so i think, i could own this. so i got really bright braids. >> the level of jealousy i have about your braids right now is very high. i've repeatedly wanted to do red, white and blue in mine. >> exactly. i feel like reclaiming those images and making them your own, and i get a lot of comments from white people from every type of people on the street oh those are really cool. for me that's taking back those negative images and showing people that my culture is beautiful and just as beautiful as yours. >> i love that. i love that idea of taking spaces that are often negative turning them into a giving and empowering agency to black girls who undoubtedly rock.

and i'm the mom of two black girls so i so appreciate this kind of intervention in our culture. thank you to beverly bond and to sage and to kathy. once again, 7:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow evening for first lady michelle obama tracy ellis ross regina king and more when "black girls rock" awards airs on b.e.t. that's our show for today. thanks for watching. "weekends with alex witt" is next. you can't predict the market. but at t. rowe price we've helped guide our clients through good times and bad. our experienced investment professionals are one reason over 85% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper averages. so in a variety of markets we can help you feel confident. request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing.

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