a tightrope. >> he may not have been born in this country. >> surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith or for that matter my citizenship. >> announcer: this is an msnbc special series. we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. >> race is an issue that i believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. a part of our union that we have not yet made perfect. >> we know the march is not yet over. we know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged all of us by the content of our character requires admitting as much, facing up to the truth. ♪

i have never been so naive as to believe we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle. or with a single candidate. particularly -- [ applause ] particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own. but i have asserted a firm conviction that working together, we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that, in fact, we have no choice. we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. >> i think that we understood, the majority of us, that he had to walk a tightrope. and he was going to have to do some things we didn't understand. but we knew if he fell off that rope, all of our hope was gone.

he had his black critics that wanted him to do more. some of it was personal. some of it was sincere. but he had to strike that balance and walk that tightrope. it was a test about having steel nerves. because he couldn't say it, even in private. he could only just infer that, trust me, i understand why i'm here. >> one of the ways obama was able to convince america to elect him is because he wasn't the angry black man. i'm not the guy who's going to holler at you and shout at you and point my finger and guilt you. that's not my approach. i'm calm and rational and reasonable. >> what was always clear to me throughout all the years

covering him was that both he and michelle, they had to do whatever they could to minimize the distractions that could come from being the first african-american president, particularly in the first term. he didn't want to engage on racial issues. >> almost all of what obama did was race neutral. he was rescuing the economy, he was restructuring health care, he was implementing green energy reforms. and on and on and on. but the issue of race was infusing everything he did, even when it on the surface was race neutral. obama understood that the topic of race was his greatest vulnerability. he had to handle it with enormous care. >> dear president obama, i congratulate you on your ascending to the highest office in america. i never thought i would live to see the day when a black man becomes the president of the united states.

nonetheless, i hope you remember where you came from and would make it your duty to ensure that the black population of america is given priority employment, social and educational opportunities. otherwise, you may force your fellow african-americans into a position of believing that you are a sellout against us. richard. >> i was aware -- i don't know if i was aware as a journalist or as an african-american that this is tough territory, because this is a president who vowed and campaigned on the idea of being a president for all the people. this was not a black american, not a latino american, not an asian american. this is a united states of america. i think he was always hesitant to get too pulled into racial discussions and for him to be seen solely as this black president with an agenda that

was essentially black issues. i think you kind of saw that struggle, certainly during the first term. >> prominent harvard scholar henry louis gates jr. says he wants an apology from a white police officer who arrested him last week after gates, an african-american, forced his way into his own home after having trouble with the lock in cambridge, massachusetts. >> henry louis gates jr. is a black national resource. a professor in the ivy leagues. at the heart of african-american studies in the country. he's one of our most gifted minds. to see him handcuffed, to see him handcuffed on his own porch, this is crazy. >> police say gates was exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior. the report also says gates was calling the police racist and shouting, "this is what happens to black men in america." >> it became a confirmation at

least for me that no matter your standing and station in life you can get reminded very quickly of who you are in relation to some folks. >> i've had enough. >> prosecutors dropped the charges against the professor and the city of cambridge calls the incident regrettable and unfortunate. >> we are here today to support professor gates, to demand apology from the cambridge police department -- >> i think president obama understood some of the dynamics and some of the -- not so much the fear but some of the suspicion between the african-american community and police, a historic sense of distrust. and this was an opportunity to hear him articulate that. >> good evening. please be seated. >> president obama's comment took place at the very end of a press conference solely focused on the affordable care act. and on the last question lynn sweet from the "chicago sun-times" asked him about gates. and president obama responded

kind of viscerally and off the cuff. >> i think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry. number two, that the cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home. >> good morning. harsh words. president obama slams the officers in massachusetts who arrested a prominent black scholar in his own home. >> i could not believe my ears this morning when i heard obama make that statement. >> that choice of words has ignited a strong emotional response. >> i think the president could have stopped short at labeling the entire police department as stupid. >> it was as if a bomb had been lit on the right. >> what kind of president of the united states immediately jumps on the police? >> it gets so extreme on that side. glenn beck said, you know, i think barack obama just hates white people and the white culture. >> this president i think has exposed himself as a guy over and over and over again who has

a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. >> so they just had this relentless drumbeat that barack obama is an angry sort of demonic force of black nationalism. >> in an unannounced visit to the white house press briefing room president obama attempted to tamp down a media firestorm he sparked himself wednesday night. >> i could have calibrated those words differently. >> a meeting between sergeant crawley, professor gates, and the president is likely in the offing. >> there was discussion about he and i and professor gates having a beer here in the white house. we don't know if that's scheduled yet, but -- >> we've got the understandably upset gates. you've got the police officer who feels like his work has been impugned and doesn't really understand why. so what does obama do in response? he brings the police officer and gates to the white house for a beer summit. >> i noticed this has been called the beer summit. it's a clever term. but this is not a summit, guys. this is three folks having a

drink at the end of the day. >> you know, it's the ongoing task, whether you're in the white house or you're teaching at princeton or you're working at the post office, is to figure out how to dampen white fear. i've got to make white america comfortable with me again. so let's have a drink. let's create the conditions under which we can at least make the theater of race in the country less threatening. >> the table was set. the press was in place. there were refreshments. there was even diplomatic language. >> we had a cordial and productive discussion. what you had today was two gentlemen agree to disagree. >> it led to this multiday freakout on cable news and ultimately this kind of very dumb beer summit where obama has to sit there with the cop and gates and look like everything's okay. >> what is this performance? what is he doing?

who are they trying to make comfortable? because he said something that was obviously true. that the police officer acted stupidly. that you have to bend over backwards to make certain folk feel comfortable in this country. >> i learned two very important lessons as a result of the gates issue. first of all, that anything can serve as a distraction to your agenda. for the next week that's all that the press was talking about. the second lesson is that every single word that president obama said had the potential to be a lightning rod. and particularly when it came to the issue of race. >> i think the lesson that obama took from that is, it's a loser. everybody's going to want me to touch this third rail and just talk about racial issues all the time. but if i do that, i can't talk about governing this country. enh with powering through,

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obama, pelosi got to go! >> we must stop this government takeover of health care. >> the situation with henry louis gates really was an ignition in a lot of ways. coming together at the same moment with big change in washington. the first black president. if you were to listen to critics of him, trying to tear up the health care system in america. you can think about how that was being received in certain parts of the country.

there was definitely something happening at that time. >> tens of thousands of people gathered at so-called tea parties coast to coast, protesting the obama administration's spending and bailout plans. >> the tea party movement began in 2009 as tea being an acronym for taxed enough already. and to be fair, a lot of people were financially hurting. a lot of people were jobless. so the argument then was, so why are the democrats not just doing everything they humanly can to create more jobs? why do they want to have a big government takeover of our health care system? so the tea party movement began under the guise of being a fiscal grievance. but it was clear that it was pregnant with much more than that. >> you know, ironically enough, if you're concerned about the economy, it was horrible under george bush. why didn't the tea party arise then?

there was a lot of racial animus and hostility involved. >> this war against barack obama's liberal polices that were going to bring down capitalism turned into this nasty, personal, and of course racist movement. people are showing him as a monkey. people are showing him as an african witch doctor. i interviewed a guy who was a tea party leader who insisted he wasn't racist but walked around with a sign saying "taxes are the chains and white people are the n-words." and he didn't use n-words. he actually wrote the word on his sign. >> obviously, i have different views than many in the tea party and certainly they would say they have very different views from me in terms of the proper role of government in our society. but my general view is that the more engaged the american people are, the more focused they are, then the better off our democracy will be over the long term. >> barack obama did the best he could to try to play it straight

and suggest that as americans we could best come together by believing in transcendent principles. but the tea party was pretty adamant. >> just over six weeks now until the midterm elections. and both parties find themselves dealing with the sudden impact of the tea party movement. >> i need you because this isn't going to be easy. >> fearing a lack of enthusiasm as the election draws near, and with democratic control of congress in doubt last night the presidential delivered an urgent appeal to his party's base. >> the midterm wasn't a surprise to president obama. i went and saw him about four weeks or so before the election for an interview and he knew it was coming. you could see he knew it was coming. he was already processing in his head why it was going to happen and what it would mean for him. >> i think the president was probably pretty clear-sighted about this, that his party was going to pay a price for the affordable care act. and i think he probably was willing to do that, understanding that the affordable care act was an enormous achievement.

>> at the capitol tea party activists were preparing to celebrate their arrival as a force in american politics. >> we've come to take our government back! >> votes have been tallied. republicans will control the chamber. >> the elephant in the room tonight is the tea party. >> the power of the tea party. >> the unbelievable surge of this movement. >> some election nights are more fun than others. some are exhilarating. some are humbling. >> it's hard to know whether barack obama fueled the rise of the tea party or the tea party emerged on its own and he became their symbol of all that was wrong with this country. but nonetheless, the two things collided, the barack obama presidency and the rise of the tea party. suddenly he was being challenged on more than just policy issues but on his intent, his patriotism, who he is, literally who he was. >> i am the first to confess, i'm not always right.

michelle will testify to that. but surely you can question my policies without questioning my faith or for that matter my citizenship. [ laughter ] [ applause ] >> we began to see the makings of something called the birther movement. and one of its chief promulgators was a businessman from new york and reality tv star named donald j. trump. >> you are not allowed to be a president if you're not born in this country. he may not have been born in this country. >> it was about accusing the first black president of not being a citizen. and perpetuating some giant hoax on america and being an illegitimate president. >> trump didn't create this movement but he gloms onto it and he stokes it. >> i'm not saying it happened. i'm saying it's a real possibility. >> why was he on television? just a real estate developer, reality guy with a racist

conspiracy theory, it deserves endless airtime for like two or three months? >> why doesn't he show his birth certificate? i think -- >> why should he have to? >> because i have to and everybody else has to, whoopi. why wouldn't he -- excuse me. >> it wasn't just fox news. donald trump was on "good morning america," the "today" show, "the view," cnn. what was the news value in that? >> as staff we were furious about the whole birther thing. he took it a lot better than we did because he's just kind of even-keeled like that. >> president obama looks out and he sees donald trump leading this birther idea that he wasn't born in the country. and on the one hand he takes it -- it's all a joke. he sees trump as a carnival barker who shouldn't be taken seriously. this is all just nonsense. and yet it clearly has an impact. >> 51% of republican primary voters believe that barack obama was not born in the united states. >> you see, he's hammering president obama over his birth certificate although the officials in hawaii say there is no controversy.

>> now, to some people this was an absurd, fantastical notion on its face. to others it was deeply offensive and frankly racist. but there was also a crowd that was very hospitable to it. >> daddy was a kenyan. makes him an illegal president. he needs to step down! >> it was not the kind of thing you'd hear a speaker john boehner or senate leader mitch mcconnell voice. but they also didn't push back vociferously against it. >> how do you think it comes to be that this kind of misinformation gets spread around and prevails? >> i have no idea but i take the president at his word. >> they won't endorse it but they won't repudiate. they won't say it's wrong. they'll say something like, i take him at his word. >> the state of hawaii has said that he was born there. that's good enough for me. the president says he's a christian. i accept him at his word. >> obama would say to me, not so much surprised as in kind of

dark humor, like they can't even condemn the birther movement? >> it really is not our job to tell the american people what to believe. >> they were okay with this. right? the energy that this was generating. the energy in their base was more valuable to them than the idea that it's wrong to say that the first black president was born in africa. >> if i were advising then-president obama, i would have said to him, hell, no, don't show them nothing. you go out there and you give a speech and tell them to kiss your ass and move on. >> i think obama just decided he had had enough. he called in the white house counsel and was like, i want you to do this. i want you to go get my birth certificate and we're going to release it. >> the white house this morning has released the long form copy of his birth certificate. >> i know that there's going to be a segment of people for which

no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest. but i'm speaking to the vast majority of the american people as well as to the press. we do not have time for this kind of silliness. we've got better stuff to do. >> i think when he had to finally release his birth certificate the political side of me said, okay, now that shuts that down. the core of me said, we still have to keep proving that we are americans. >> i was working with a dozen young black journalists. i think all of us were angry. we were angry at him because we felt that he should have never had to give in to that kind of indignity. >> the most disappointing part

for me, aside from the b.s. that trump and others were perpetuating, was the fact that the president actually showed his birth certificate. and i understand why he did. i just thought that for me it gave too much power to the wrong people, to the wrong voices. and it said that even as a black president, i still have to prove something. the fact that i am president isn't proof enough. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold.

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the time that i spent working at the white house, you know, gave me a wonderful perspective of history in general. as an african-american man, i used to walk the halls and just kind of reflect, like, wow, i wonder how people would feel to know that we've progressed this far in these same halls to not only come to a place where the

world is a more equal place but on the top floor sits a african-american president and his family in buildings that were built of the hands of slaves. you walk through those halls and your shoulders lean back more. you feel a little proud. and, you know, just blessed to have an opportunity to share in that time. >> i was honored to go to the white house for everything from super bowl parties to michelle obama's birthday party. and they were just regular people. they'd come in and they would talk to everybody. they knew all of us. you could exhale and be who you are. >> john legend, live at the white house. >> i remember when we had the birthday party. they had prince as the surprise guest. and as prince was performing, he

went into one of stevie wonder's songs and stevie walks out. and i looked at the president and i looked at the painting on the wall of george washington and i said, george washington never thought he'd see this. it don't get no better than this. and that's the kind of world they were in. but at the same time michelle obama said, have fun, they're going upstairs, good night. and it's almost like you're in chicago, party's over, everybody go home. you don't have to go home but you're leaving here. that kind of thing. that kind of authenticity set a different tone around this country. and i think that authenticity came through because of michelle obama. >> you really got the sense that the advisers around president obama objected to the idea of him skating too far into blackness because of the fear that it would turn white voters off. but i think that the trayvon martin case was one of those case that's for barack obama

represented kind of a tipping point for him personally and for his family. >> 17-year-old trayvon martin was walking to a family friend's home in a gated community in sanford, florida, when he was shot dead by a neighborhood watch captain. >> the shooter, 28-year-old, george zimmerman, has not been arrested. >> we don't understand why he has not been arrested. >> did george zimmerman in fact fire in self-defense? >> when trayvon martin was killed, the issue when they came to me was they wouldn't arrest zimmerman. as if to say, it's just all right to kill him. it's fine. he's a black kid. his life means nothing. ♪ we shall >> community leaders are outraged, holding rallies, demanding an arrest. >> i am -- >> trayvon martin. >> no justice. >> no peace. >> no justice. >> no peace. >> we want an arrest. we want a conviction. and we want him sentenced for the murder of our son.

>> he saw how much the community was hurting all around the country. and really wanted to, i think, give voice to it. so valerie and i were talking to him, and he wasn't asking us for our advice on what he should say. it was more like, i'm going to go do this, guys, get ready for it. >> i remember being in the oval office with him, and he was so upset about the fact that this young man couldn't simply walk down the street without being perceived as a threat. and he said to david plouffe and to me, "if i had a son, he would look like trayvon martin." with intense emotion and anger in his voice. and he said to david, i know we're having a press conference on an unrelated matter but i want somebody in the press to ask me what i think about this. >> in the obama white house we knew which reporters were particularly interested in which issues. and what we could do is give those reporters a heads-up that

if they asked their question that president obama was likely to answer it. >> white house kept in touch with us and one of his aides called me and said, you and the parents ought to watch his statement. and i told the parents. and that's when he came out in the rose garden. >> mr. president, let me ask about this current case in florida, very controversial allegations of lingering racism within our society. can you comment on the trayvon martin case, sir? >> well, i'm the head of the executive branch. and the attorney general reports to me. so i've got to be careful about my statements to make sure that we're not impairing any investigation that's taking place right now. but obviously, this is a tragedy. >> that was one of many moments where he didn't sit down with his communications team and have a lengthy discussion about the strategic right thing to say. >> my main message is to the parents of trayvon martin.

if i had a son, he would look like trayvon. >> he felt in the moment it was true and it was important to say out loud. >> obama made an active radical identification with him. i understand who that young kid is. >> thank you. >> he was speaking for hundreds and thousands of fathers. he was sharing their pain, their hurt. and i think many young people are appreciative that he would say something. >> the martin family said that they are deeply humbled by the president's concern about their son's death, and they hope that all this attention ensures that no other young child is ever the victim of such a senseless tragedy again. >> we had the rally. over 10,000 people. and it really started shifting the national spotlight. and within days george zimmerman was arrested. >> as attorney crump said, this is just the beginning.

we've got a long way to go, and we have faith. >> good morning. george zimmerman, acquitted. >> cheers and protests as george zimmerman is found not guilty. >> he loved his wife. >> innocent child. >> this whole system is wrong! >> rallies and vigils took place across the u.s. >> thousands of americans expressed their disappointment in the jury's decision. >> i want to talk to obama. i want to talk to the congress. i want to talk to anybody's that's going to really listen. u hot liquid medicine. powerful relief so you can restore and recover. theraflu hot beats cold. cranky-pated: a bad mood prelated to a sluggish gut. miralax is different. it works naturally with the water in your body to unblock your gut. free your gut, and your mood will follow.

good evening. i'm dara brown. concerns are mounting over the slow pace of the coronavirus vaccinations. only about 3 million americans received vaccinations in december, far short of the goal set by the trump administration. and police are investigating the vandalism at nancy pelosi's home. reports are that fake blood and a pig's head were left at the scene. now, back to "tightrope." at some point we became aware that michelle obama had strong feelings about the trayvon martin case and, more important, what the president should be saying or what the expectations on him were in that

critical moment. the first time we heard from him, you know, he gave the idea that if he had a son he might look like trayvon martin. and that in itself seemed rather personal. >> fast forward when he then makes another speech and partly pushed by michelle and michelle's family and michelle's brother, who were all very close to him, to say, you've got to say more than that. >> when trayvon martin was first shot, i said that this could have been my son. another way of saying that is that trayvon martin could have been me 35 years ago. >> he talked about, can you imagine what it might mean to be in the other person's shoes and in this case african-american shoes and why there was such enormous hurt and pain and grief. >> there are very few african-american men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. that includes me.

there are very few african-american men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. that happens to me, at least before i was a senator. >> when you put a person in the highest office in a position in the world in the shoes of someone who was shot and killed essentially for being black, it's just like -- it makes you think about things differently. it shined a bigger light on the prejudice that existed in the country. >> i don't want us to lose sight that things are getting better and that along this long, difficult journey we're becoming a more perfect union. not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.

>> he would put these things in these personal terms that i think with his intent was that america could stand back and kind of process these things and see them through the eyes of the african-american experience which, you know, many americans simply don't -- aren't familiar with. >> the killing of trayvon martin, that was the beginning of black lives matter. then you get to the summer and you get death after death after public death. >> police shooting of a teenager -- >> 2014 was one of the worst years i would say probably for president obama. i can't speak for him, but he seemed to be in a lot of pain personally. and the country was being in a lot of ways ripped apart on the matter of race and police violence. eric garner choked to death on the streets of new york city while he's saying "i can't breathe." tamir rice, a little boy, 12 years old, who later is shot by police officers. the body of michael brown lying in the street for four hours and his mom not able to go to him. and then you have this black man in the white house trying to figure out what to say.

>> tensions are boiling over in the st. louis suburb of ferguson, missouri -- >> you were seeing black americans saying, there's something happening here. and we are demanding better. >> i've said this before. in too many countries around the country a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement. >> obama may have been a bit tone deaf. >> there are young black men that commit crime. >> he said there are some black people who do commit crimes and if they do they must be held to account. right after mike brown? right after the disconsolation that black people feel in the face of the fact that police people seem to be out of control and kill black people without legal redress. >> while i understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of michael brown, giving in to that anger by looting or carrying guns and

even attacking the police only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos. >> obama stumbled. you know, he was torn as to how to address race. >> there's always going to be tension when it comes to race matters and the first african-american president. there was already underneath the surface this idea that the black president's going to look out for black people. from a political standpoint i understand that he can't give too much fuel to that fire. is it fair? no, it's not fair. but it's the political reality. for people living with h-i-v, keep being you.

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when you had the killing of young black men, the trayvon martins and all of these storylines begin to evolve, you could see his conflict play out where he looked at a trayvon martin and said, that's me. he's right about that. america didn't really understand that. and there was reaction, negative reaction to his saying that. and then he backs off of it. >> how do you balance talking about race and being in that position of president where you know that's not what people are always trying to hit? it's guilt there. it's shame there. when it comes to racism. and some people just feel like we don't want to deal with it because it's not affecting us and we want to stay in our comfortable place. >> black lives matter and all those other groups and organizations, they're supposed to put pressure on the president. i get that. and i get the drive and push for the president to do more

specifically throughout the african-american community. but barack obama had to walk a very fine line. the moment barack obama seemed to be leaning toward one group or another, it all explodes. >> i'm proud to stand with law enforcement, to stand with the police and firefighters and first responders. they're american heroes. and we need a president who doesn't attack and vilify them and who doesn't seek to tear us apart along racial lines. >> in selma, after a horrible year in terms of race and police violence the year before, i think president obama began to find his voice in a really -- in a new way. >> it was the 50th anniversary of the marches from selma to montgomery where young black people, but not only black people were marching for their right to vote, not looking for

special treatment, just equal treatment that this country promises. ♪ >> and it was the perfect jumping off point for him to really give an impassioned speech about the lingering stain of racism in this country. >> we gather here to honor the courage of ordinary americans willing to endure billy clubs and the chastening rod, tear gas and the trampling hoof, men and women who despite the gush of blood and splintered bone would stay true to their north star and keep marching towards justice. >> he was able to bring together ideas about our possibilities, about pain, about racism, about our current condition. >> just this week i was asked whether i thought the department of justice's ferguson report shows that with respect to race little has changed in this country. and i understood the question. the report's narrative was sadly familiar.

it evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the civil rights movement. but i rejected the notion that nothing's changed. what happened in ferguson may not be unique, but it's no longer endemic, it's no longer sanctioned by law or by custom. and before the civil rights movement, it most surely was. >> he could find a way to speak to everybody in a way that as speechwriters we wouldn't always do. he always talked about how a white woman who watches her husband leave for work as a police officer always worried he won't come home, there's some common cause with a black mother who sees her teen leave the house worried he won't come home. and these are things we can try to understand about each other. >> together we can raise the level of mutual trust that policing is built on, the idea that police officers are members of the community they risk their lives to protect. and citizens in ferguson and new

york and cleveland, they just want the same thing young people here marched for 50 years ago, the protection of the law. >> you can look at the progress we've made on race relations as a country and celebrate that progress while also realizing how much further we have to go. >> we know the march is not yet over. we know the race is not yet won. we know that reaching that blessed destination where we are judged, all of us, by the content of our character, requires admitting as much, facing up to the truth. >> shooter, multiple people. >> we just need to open our eyes and our ears and our hearts to know that this nation's racial history still casts its long shadow upon us. >> active shooter. need at least four medic units. your heart isn't just yours.

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if anybody actually thought barack obama becoming president of the united states meant race relations were going to be perfect from then on, nobody thought that, he never thought that. but he say able to talk about it in times that made a difference in real peril. >> how do you take a situation that is so tragic and offer some comfort to people who have been so terribly affected by such an unthinkable crime? >> we are following the breaking news overnight. nine people have been killed in an historic african-american church in charleston, south carolina, and this morning the police chief says he believes it was a hate crime. >> nine people were dead, six women and three men including the church's beloved pastor. >> as details came to light all the victims were african-american, and their assassin was a white kid who later claimed he wanted to start a race war. >> nine people living lives both

ordinary and extraordinary. gathered together in prayer and gone much too soon. >> president obama expected to personally deliver the eulogy this friday. >> churches have been safe spaces for black people in the united states. folks who are just coming for sunday school, reading their bibles. and what happened? it's the height of a certain kind of barbarity. >> that first meeting sitting there with a couple of speechwriters and a couple members of his staff, it wasn't as if we were sitting there and he said, i know exactly the thing to do. it was actually the opposite of that. he was expressing frustration about, i know i have to do something and i want to do something to offer some comfort to people who are hurting so badly, but what am i supposed to do? >> this was just so beyond overwhelming. in some ways we've become numb to this sort of thing.

but in 2015 this was -- it wasn't just raw and painful, it was new. >> over the course of the weekend something extraordinary happened. the shooter was in a bond hearing. one by one in open court every single one of the family members said i forgive you. and the president thought about it and said if we are going to give a eulogy that's what i want to talk about. >> i was on marine one with both president and mrs. obama. we were feeling that sense of dread about going to this memorial service. and what i feared would be a depressing memorial service turned out to be an extraordinary celebration of life. >> the president of the united states of america, the honorable barack obama.

>> out of this terrible tragedy god has visited grace upon us. for he has allowed us to see where we've been blind. [ applause ] if we can find that grace anything is possible. if we can tap that grace, everything can change. amazing grace, amazing grace. >> i remember wondering, is he

just going to stop speaking, because there's no words. there was this sense of what is a way you can address something like that with words, and i think to some extent the answer that he provided was, well, you have to go a little beyond words. ♪ amazing grace how sweet the sound ♪ ♪ that saved a wretch like me ♪ i once was lost

but now i'm found was blind but now i see ♪ >> when he hesitated right before he sang i wondered was he thinking, sing, no sing, and later he said, no, i was just trying to figure out which key to sing in. >> african-americans needed to see that, that that was in him, he wasn't just an intellect that can talk about race and that can examine our racial condition like a surgeon, that he also can be a pastor. >> suh found that grace. >> he gave us hope. he lifted us.

maybe just maybe in that moment he brought us together as one people, as one family, as one house. the american people, the american family, the american house. >> that's when black america knew, yeah, he really is one of us. but not only did it identify with us in our gospel roots to be comfortable enough to do that in the most catastrophic situation, it was his way of governing bringing about healing. i sat there and said, he's really grown into not only being president but he's made the presidency grow. >> i have asserted a firm conviction that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds and that in fact we have no choice. we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union. not a perfect union but a more perfect union.

>> we're still at war in iraq and afghanistan where we're really on the edge. >> geopolitics is not for amateurs. >> peoplewrong. >> there's been another mass shooting in america. somehow this has become routine. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." i call and her phone went straight to voicemail, over and over and over. i realized something was wrong. >> i got the call that they had found heather's car. >> we pop the trunk, and there's our victim. >> a body of evidence that made no sense. >> she was wearing an oversize mickey mouse shirt. >> reporter: she own any mickey mouse clothing? >> no. >> she had long hair. >> reporter: and her hair was cut? >> her hair was cut. >> who could be this sick in the head to do this?