underpaid. that is our broadcast for this wednesday night. i'll be with you tomorrow, 1:00 p.m. eastern time, that's when our live coverage of the president's first formal news conference begins. the news conference set to begin at around 1:15. then, of course, we'll see you back here tomorrow night. so, on behalf of all the good men and women at the networks of nbc news, good night. lot to get to this hour. this is going to be a busy show and a big one. in the obama administration, the issue of gun violence, specifically the idea of gun violence being treated as a public health issue, that almost derailed president obama's nomination for surgeon general, a dr. named vivek murthy. republicans held it up for basically a year in order to try to make some sort of scapegoat

out of him for the nra. despite that year delay, he was ultimately confirmed and he served as surgeon general under president obama, he served as surgeon general, in fact, until president trump fired dr. murthy from that job in 2017. president biden has just brought vivek murthy back to be surgeon general again. he was confirmed by the senate last night. he should be sworn in soon. tonight, the senate also confirmed the official who will be vivek murthy's boss at the department of health and human services, dr. rachel levine was confirmed to be assistant secretary of health. that is a history-making appointment, dr. levine is now the first transgender official to ever be confirmed by the u.s. senate. the highest-ranking transgender u.s. government official in history. she will be the number two official at hhs. all republicans accept two voted against her nomination, only susan collins and lisa murkowski voted for her.

she'll be vivek murthy's boss. dr. levine's boss at hhs is the new secretary of health and human services, xavier becerra. no republican senators voted for him, at all, but democrats were able to confirm him on a party line vote. in order to become health secretary, mr. becerra had to leave his job, attorney general of the state of california and there has been discussion that congressman adam schiff of california, frequent guest on the show, he had such a high profile role particularly in the first impeachment of president trump, there had been lots of discussion that congressman adam schiff might replace becerra, he might get appointed to be california attorney general once becerra got confirmed for his cabinet position in washington. today, we learned that congressman schiff will not be going home to california to take that job. he will stay in d.c. as a congressman, and an important one, as chair of the intelligence committee. instead of him, california's

governor picked for the job in california a man named rob bonta. he is a state representative in california. he will the first ever filipino-american to have that powerful gig. attorney general of the most populous state in the country. at the justice department in washington, though, there's trouble. we've been reporting for weeks now, for months now on how the trump presidency and the tender of attorney general bill barr really ripped the u.s. justice department apart at the seams. president biden's new attorney general merrick garland, he's been confirmed, he's in position now, but he's not just got the hard work to do of running federal law enforcement as attorney general, he's now got to figure out what to do with all of the trump and bill barr-era scandals that are still straggling around the halls of main justice, you know, dragging their entrails down the hall. i mean, where do you start? at least four different trump cabinet secretaries, we now

know, at least four of them, were referred to the justice department for potential criminal prosecution for various kinds of corruption. four cabinet officials. and all of those criminal referrals were dismissed out of hand, instantly. criminal cases, of course, against the president's friends or against people who could conceivably testify against president trump in their criminal trials, those cases suddenly dropped by the justice department or interfered with at sentencing by the justice department, even after guilty pleas were entered, even after convictions were handed down by juries. the president's personal lawyer, not the one who went to prison, the other one, the president's personal lawyer of late, implicated in both of the scandals for which the president was impeached -- mr. giuliani, the subject of an active federal criminal investigation, but the u.s. attorney's office investigating him was blocked from getting search warrants for mr. giuliani in conjunction with that case, thanks to direct interference from trump

appointees at the highest levels of the doj, reaching down and stopping search parents being issued in the criminal investigation of rudy giuliani. i mean -- that's not okay. it's -- it's not just a mess there to clean up, like, it isn't a bunch of cabinet-level agencies after the trump administration. at the justice department in particular, it's not just a mess left over, it is an ongoing mess. it's not just past scandals that need attending to, it's current cases that have been tam personed with along the way during the trump era. it's interneerns in law enforcement that still needs to be fixed and potentially prosecuted. it is a huge, ccomplex, really bad problem that the biden administration has had foisted on it and i don't think it's getting nearly enough attention, frankly. this is, like, you loan somebody your car for a week, they did give it back at the end of the week but now, while you need your car to get to school and

get to work and do your errands and stuff, it turns out the guy you lent it to spent the time that he had it pouring sugar in the gas tank and stripping out all the wires and inviting an extended family of raccoons and squirrels to live permanently in the back seat and make nests. hey, merrick, here's your car back, thanks for the loan. hope it's still cool that that's going to be your daily driver and your commuter car. watch out, the squirrels bite. i mean -- we have to use the justice department for stuff. so, yeah, this is about what the last administration did, but it is a current problem, and for all the help that attorney general merrick garland is going to need handling that disaster and digging out from it, i mean, just this week, the bill barr appointee who inexplicably got in put in charge of the u.s. attorney's office in d.c., just this week, he appears to have actively screwed up all the most serious prosecutions of alleged january 6th u.s. attackers.

he did that this week. even now, the trump folks left over at the justice department are still messing stuff up. really serious stuff that's at the top of the priorities list for garland. so, for all of the help he's going to need in cleaning this up in righting the ship at the justice department, so far, and this is important, he has none of his senior staff in place to help him get ahold of things there. none of them. he's been confirmed, yes, but nobody else. republicans have blocked all the other appointees at senior posts at the justice department so far. including one that's coming to a head tomorrow morning. and i'm going to be watching that when it comes to a head tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. in the senate and i will tell you why. here's the thing to know. this is swisher county, texas, up in the texas panhandle. amarillo is an hour due north, lubbock is an hour due south from the county seat in little swisher county which is called

tulia. tulia, texas. even if you don't know the name of every little town of 5,000 people in texas, the name tulia, texas, might ring a bell for you, if, for example, you ever watch "60 minutes" on cbs. since tulia, texas, was a subject of one of the most astonishing interviews the great ed bradley ever put on tv as part of that show. >> early one morning in 1999, tom coleman's efforts culminated in the arrest of 13% of tulia's adult black population. they were rousted out of bed, paraded in front of local television cameras in handcuffs. many of them half-dressed. and charged with selling cocaine to tom coleman at various times over the course of his investigation. the town newspaper declared tulia's streets cleared of garbage. it may be no coincidence that the road led tom coleman to the

town's black community. it was well-known that he had used racial slurs in front of his superior officers in tulia. >> everybody's making a big deal, oh, god, he said [ bleep ], like, oh, let's put him in the electric chair. well, yeah, the word [ bleep ] was bad back in the '20s, '30s, '40s -- now, it's just a common slang, you know? i mean, people -- you can watch tv and hear that word, you know? it's a greeting. >> coleman told me he used the n-word to fit in with blacks during his investigation and admits he also used it among his white friends. >> the word [ bleep ]? yes, sir, i've used that word. i've used it a lot. yeah. what's up [ bleep ]. >> is that a greeting you'd use with me? >> oh, no sir, not you. >> but it's okay to use it around other people?

>> yes, sir. >> oh, no, not you, sir. you, i would never look in the face and call the n-word, but i otherwise use it all the time. one of the most amazing things i've ever seen in a "60 minutes" interview and for "60 minutes" that's saying something. but the overall story was just insane. sort of a small town, right, about 5,000 people. one morning, they mass arrest more than a tenth of the entire black population of the town and all of them, more than 40 people arrested, they're all accused of being big-time, like, cartel level drug dealers and drug kingpins. here's how bob herbert described it at the time in a column he called "kafka in tulia." he said, on the morning of july 23rd, law enforcement officers fanned out and arrested more than 10% of the tiny african-american population. also arrested were a handful of whites who had relationship with blacks. it was covered by the local

media, which has been tipped off in advance. men and women, bewilders and unkempt, were paraded before tv cameras and featured prominently on the evening news. they were drug traffickers, one and all, said the sheriff. among the 46 so-called traffickers were a pig farmer, a forklift operator and ordinary young women with children. if these were major cocaine dealers, they were among the oddest in the u.s. none of them had any money to speak of and when they were arrested, they didn't have niko cane. no drugs, no money, no weapons were recovered during the surprise roundup. the first convectivictions came quickly. one of the white defendants was sentenced to more than 300 years in prison. the hog farmer, a black man in his late 50s, was sentenced to 90 years in prison. a 24-year-old black man was essential tensed to 60 years in prison. and so on. the entire operation was the work of a single police officer who claimed to have conducted an 18-month undercover operation. the arrests were made solely on

the word of this one officer, tom coleman. mr. coleman's alleged undercover operation was ridiculous. there were no other police officers to corroborate his activities. he did not wear a wire or conduct any video surveillance. he did not keep detailed records of his alleged drug buys. he said he sometimes wrote such important information as the names of suspects and the dates of transactions on his leg. in trial after trial, prosecutors put coleman on the witness stand and his uncorroborated, unsubstantiated testimony was enough to send people to prison for decades. uncorroborated, unsubstantiated. what was all the more amazing in this, the cop in question, who was the single-handed law enforcement source and the source of all evidence in this entire roundup of more than 40 people, the cop in question cheerfully admitted that he had absolutely no evidence, absolutely no corroboration, absolutely no way to

substantiate anything that he was saying against any of these people whatsoever. all of it, all of it was just what he said. which he was happy to admit because clearly that was enough. >> they were all given harsh sentences, ranging from 20 to 341 years in prison. even though the arrests had turned up no cocaine, no drug parathen neilia, no weapons, money or other signs of drug dealing. the convictions were based solely on the uncorroborated word of tom coleman who had followed none of the standard procedures routinely used in undercover drug operations across the country. just for the record, did you wear a wire or other recording device? >> no, sir. >> did you have any video or photographic evidence that the buys took place? >> no, sir. >> did you have any independent eyewitness testimony from another undercover officer? >> no, sir. >> did you have any fingerprint

evidence? >> no, sir. >> but don't you want something more than your word? >> uh-huh. >> another little piece of evidence that can point the finger at that person? >> yes, sir, that would have helped. but that's not how the operation went. >> sentences of up to 341 years in prison. dozens of people arrested, convictioned, sentenced to very hard time. the cumulative number of years folks got in prison was over 750 years in prison. they're all arrested that one day, all based on that one officer, with no supporting evidence whatsoever. texas state officials at the time were beside themselves, by which i mean, they were delighted. more than 10% of all the black people in that town arrested and put in prison. a third of all the black men in that town. give that officer a reward. they actually did give him an award. the texas state attorney general

at the time gave that officer the lawman of the year award. the state attorney general of texas did that. and then it all fell apart. it all fell apart astonishingly. >> more than a dozen people convicted of drug charges are expected to be freed from prison today, after the officer was charged with perjury. we have more on this story. >> good morning, ann. a huge drug case for such a small town involving minorities, but now, apparently, it is falling apart. in july 1999 the authorities in tulia, texas, population 5,081 made a drug bust, arresting 46 people, 39 of them black, as part of a sting operation conducted by one undercover cop. tom colema claimed he bought cocaine from the suspects. some plea bargained for short prison sentences. the others went to trial and on

the strength of coleman's testimony only, 19 of them were accept tensed to about a total of 800 years in prison. on judicial review, coleman's cases fell apart. >> every transcript from every trial that took place around the sting has evidence of tom coleman per judging himself on the stand. >> one woman could prove she was in oklahoma city cashing a check the same day coleman testified she sold cocaine to him in tulia. there is outrage over this drug bust. the texas legislature passed a bill calling for the release of all the suspects until the appeals of this case are heard. so, later today, in the same courthouse where they were convicted, the remaining 13 people will be released by a judge. >> that was june 2003. that was a morning report that aired on nbc and "the today show" that morning. and then later that day, that judge did free everybody, because it turns out, when

pressed, when somebody actually tried to defend these people against these charges, when you started to investigate whether or not what this one cop had said was true, it turns out the cases against all of them were entirely made up. >> basically, i'm a trial judge. >> so, two months ago, ron chatman ruled that all tulia's suspects had been improperly convicted. today, 12 of those still doing time were brought back, in chains, to the same courthouse where they had been tried. >> let these people go, let them go today. >> and the judge did, released them until their cases are decided on appeal. meanwhile, coleman has been indicted for aggravated perjury in another case. it was jubilation for them and their loved ones. joe moore was the first to be convicted and he got 90 years. he was asked what he had lost from this experience. >> just about my life. >> tonight, most of the drug suspects now have a chance to

resume their lives. >> great day. great day. >> good afternoon. i'm an attorney with the naacp legal defense fund. following a dramatic trial, judge chatman ordered the release of 13 individuals that were wrongly convicted in tulia, texas, and who have been in prison for years. judge chatman found tom coleman to be, quote, the most devious, nonresponsive law enforcement witness this court has witnessed in 25 years on the bench in texas. according to the court's findings, coleman submitted false reports, misrepresented his investigative work and misidentified various defendants during his investigation. in addition, testimony by coleman and other law enforcement officials involved in the tulia drug sting revealed coleman's arrest of theft charges and abuse of official

capacity while conducting the tulia investigation. >> you catch that last bit? the cop in question here, the cop who made up all the information that resulted in the arrests of all these people and them getting these 60, 90, 300-year sentences? the cop himself got arrested during the course of this investigation for theft and abuse of office. the up ending of this town was the work of this one crooked police officer who himself had been charged with theft and abuse. who would go on, in fact, to be convicted of perjury. that young civil rights attorney who went to tulia, texas, in the wake of all these convictions, who went through all of the cases and realized that they were all built on nothing, who personally lined up lawyers from all around the country for more than 30 defendants who didn't have any defense counsel, whose appeals had already been rejected, who acted as lead counsel herself for the naacp in

all those defendants' cases, who got the crooked cop to melt down in the stand in march 2003, which did break open the case and all the convictions were overturned and all the prisoners were freed and in august 2003, rick perry issued a full and complete pardon for all of those poor people. that young civil rights attorney who exposed what happened there, who made that happen, her name sven nita gupta. >> i spent two full days in the swisher county courthouse going through files, trying to piece together the stories of these cases and then found out who their family members were in the town and just drove to their homes and spent a fair amount of time really just kind of getting to know them. >> wasn't just a little lady with a little voice, she was a little lady with a lot of power and a lot of knowledge and a lot of caring. >> we will not rest in our quest to right the horrific wrongs

that have been inflicted on our clients and on this community. i came back to new york and i made a chart of the 46 individuals and kind of compiled all that information. we needed to put law enforcement on trial. i also realized that i was one attorney with 46 potential clients. so, i mobilized the law firms in new york city and washington, d.c. >> footage from one of several documentaries that has been made about this landmark miscarriage of justice and what it took to expose it and end it. that lawyer went on to become the head of the civil rights division as the u.s. justice department under president obama. widely respected in that role, she served in that very high profile job without any whiff of scandal or trouble. president biden has since nominated her to be the number three official in the whole justice department, assistant attorney general. in that nomination, she has, among other things, the support

of every major law enforcement organization in the country, including the fraternal order of police, which is the police union organization that twice endorsed donald trump, even they support vanita gupta. she is one of the senior justice department officials who is not confirmed in this administration, because republicans are not only blocking her nomination, they are slow walking it through the senate. they're trying to trip it up, trying to keep her from being confirmed. and here's the thing. here's why this is all worth knowing. ready? who do you think is the republican senator who is leading the charge against vanita gupta? merrick garland doesn't have any of his top people there with him. she's going to be the number three official. she's not there yet. why is that? well, there's a republican senator taking point on this. leading the charge to try to keep her from being confirmed. who is that? it's a senator from texas -- a senator from texas who used to

be attorney general of the state of texas. it's texas senator john cornyn who, when he was attorney general of the state of texas, is the guy who gave officer tom coleman the texas lawman of the year award for his great work in tulia, texas. before vanita gupta came in and exposed who that guy actually was, before he was convicted of perjury, before every single one of those cases was overturned because that guy made them up and they all got full pardons from rick perry because of the nightmare and disaster that was that guy. who john cornyn named lawman of the year. i wonder, i just wonder if senator john cornyn might be at all embarrassed about this. and about the young lawyer who came to texas and exposed this thing, this terrible and cartoonishly evil thing that he had helped along, that he had celebrated, that he had given an award to.

it is now senator john cornyn leading the charge against vanita gupta to be the number three official at the u.s. justice department. even against all of those law enforcement agencies endorsing her. judiciary committee is due to vote on her nomination tomorrow. republicans have been demanding that she actually needs to come back and do her confirmation hearings over, a second time. that's not going to happen. tonight, we have obtainobtained exclusively, i think, the reply letter from democratic judiciary committee chairman senator dick durbin. the reply to republican senators demanding she needs to do her confirmation all over again. senator durbin telling republicans, no, they are not going to stop the nomination any longer. it says, in part, dear senators, while i always appreciate hearing from colleagues on the committee, your request to hold a second hearing on gupta's nomination appears to be little more than a delay tactic aimed

not at gathering more information, but at obstructing a highly qualified and historic nominee who has dedicated her career to the protection and expansion of several rights. the committee will not hold a second hearing and her nomination will move forward with a committee vote. a second hearing is unwarranted and unnecessary. the committee will vote on her nomination tomorrow. sincerely, dick durbin, committee chairman. vanita gupta is going to be confirmed by the senate. she will be the number three official at the u.s. justice department and that is despite unified republican opposition to her, led by the senator who she humiliated and exposed in texas nearly 20 years ago, for his enabling, encouraging, celebrating role in one of the worst, most racially explosive, astonishingly brazen law enforcement putup jobs in the last generation. senator cornyn, i do not know if

he's ashamed by his role in all that. i wonder if he ever tried to get the award back? but his effort to get revenge on the woman who had to come in and fix his mess, that effort will fail. she will win and he will lose again. god bless texas. it's going to happen tomorrow morning, 10:00 a.m. i for one will be watching. . gee, i wonder where the kids are? but we found out their clothes hide a lot. turns out we can't even see 70% of the dirt that's trapped in their clothes. which concerned us, especially with their sensitive skin. that's why we always look for new tide hygienic clean free. it goes deep into fabrics, to remove the visible and invisible dirt. and, it's designed for sensitive skin. hey! what's that? it's got to be tide hygienic clean free. we need to reduce plastic waste in the environment.

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today in the senate, we saw something we basically never see. this was the top democrat in the senate, chuck schumer, and the top republican in the senate, mitch mcconnell, squaring off opposite each other at a hearing. i don't know if you watch a lot of footage of the u.s. senate, you might not be quite as big a civics nerd as i am, but you should know, this is something that doesn't happen. if you're the leader of one of the parties in the senate, you don't sit on any committees and so you never see them at hearings, you never see either of them sitting up at the dais at a committee hearing, let alone both of them at the same time at the same one. but that is how important this hearing was today, that the leaders of both parties in the senate came in person, in part so they could yell at each other. this was the first hearing on

s-1, senate bill one, the for the people act, which is the democrats big voting rights protection bill. former attorney general eric holder and other witnesses gave testimony on the bill to the senate rules committee, chaired by minnesota senator amy klobuchar today. as i said, the leaders of both parties were there in person. this voting rights legislation is probably the one thing that could stop the hundreds of state level voting rights rolebacks that are currently in the works in republican-controlled states. it has already passed the house, but how can it pass the senate in senator schumer keeps saying, failure is not an option, on this bill in particular. today, he said this bill will pass this body, meaning it will pass the senate. why does he keep saying that, though? i mean, is he cheerleading for that to happen or is there some plan to make that happen? republicans are 100%, 1,000% opposed to this. how is it going to pass? joining us now is senator amy klobuchar of the great state of

minnesota, she's chair of the rules committee and she ran this landmark hearing today. senator, great to see you. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you, rachel. and by the way, thank you for covering have a nita's hearing tomorrow. i'm going to be there. and she will just be fantastic at this job. perfect for this moment in time with major prosecutions going on of hate crimes and thank you for really showing her strength as a candidate and how great she'll be in the justice department. thank you. >> well, thank you for saying, so, i mean, i'm struck by both her, the back story about her, what she's done and how she ended up as a relatively young person in these high level positions in the justice department because of her incredible track record starting at a really young age, but the bad blood behind what appears to be some of the republican-led opposition to her just strikes me as something that ought to be national news. if you gave the tulia, texas, detective an award, maybe you should step aside when vanita

gupta sits down in your committee hearing. >> speaking of bad blood, speaking of it with our hearing, this is a moment, though, this bill, when you look at some of the things we've been dealing with tonight, background check bill that 80%, 90% of the american people want, all of the things are just stuck. a lot of it has to do with republican attempt at grid lock. i personally favor getting rid of the filibuster, but what you saw in our hearing today was the strength of this bill. you didn't just see eric holder testifying for it, trevor potter, remember that name? the former head of the federal election commission, republican head, chief counsel to john mccain in both his presi testif. because he believes we just need to pick up our democracy again. brush it off, move forward as a country.

hundreds of bills trying to suppress the vote, yet we had 160 million people vote in november in the middle of a pandemic. why? because a number of states had extended vote by mail, they made it easier to register, they made it easier to early vote. why would we close the door on that now? this is a moment you only get maybe ever 50 years for civil rights, for elections, and that is why senator schumer made this s-1 and why we are so devoted to passing this bill. >> i feel like the devotion to passing this bill is something that i am seeing in real-time, and i believe in the sincerity of it. what i don't understand is the plan to get it passed. this is -- if the filibuster is still in place, then the only way to pass things without republican support is to go through budget reconciliation, this isn't, broadly speaking, the kind of thing that canrecon. what is the plan, to hope that

public support eventually drives republicans to change their minds? >> let's start with this, it passed the house. first time we've ever had a hearing on this bill and we're going to have a markup to get it to the floor, which we can do in a 50/50 senate after, in april, the month of april, on my committee. then we go forward and this bill's led by senator merkley, doing a great job. we go to the floor. and there, of course, we -- there's nine bipartisan provisions in there, we try to build support, but barring that, we already have senator manchin talking about the fact that with some version of this bill or any bill, he's willing to move to a talking filibuster. you know what that means? that means we actually make -- make the other side speak. we make them stand and speak. and they have to come in day after day and night after night like in "mr. smith going to washington" and own their objections to common sense reforms, supported broadly by

democrats and republicans out there. to me, it's a little like the american rescue plan. they were the -- objecting to that, but the people wanted it and we got it done with 51 votes. so, we start with getting it to the floor and from there, jump ball, a lot of things can happen. >> sign me up for a front row seat. senator amy klobuchar, chair of the rules committee. that's more than just determination, that sounds like a plan. thank you for helping us understand it tonight. >> all right, thank you. >> all right, much more ahead here tonight, stay with us. t coy asthma attacks i've had. i've been on and off oral steroids to manage my asthma. does that sound normal to you? it's time for a nunormal with nucala. my nunormal: fewer asthma attacks. my nunormal: less oral steroids. nucala is a once-monthly add-on injection for severe eosinophilic asthma. it targets and reduces eosinophils, a key cause of severe asthma.

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trust me, no one wants to get back to classroom learning more than teachers like me. using common sense safety measures like masks, physical distancing, and proper ventilation. safety is why we're prioritizing vaccinations for educators. because together, we all have a responsibility to do our part. and together, we will get through this, safely. small business insurance is usually so complicated, you need to be a lawyer to understand it. that's why three was created. if you own it, three covers it. got a cheese slice for “spokesperson?" that's me. i don't even need to see what's happening behind me to know it's covered. three. no nonsense. just common sense. she was the only person who showed up for geography that day. september 12th, 1974, valerie banks and her backpack were the only ones in class. a court had just ordered city of boston to desegregate its public schools. the court said boston had to begin bussing white kids to

black schools and black kids to white schools. lots of families from white neighborhoods in boston balked at the idea of sending their kids to school in traditionally black neighborhoods. they balked especially at having black kids coming to white schools. the first day of school under that court ordered bussing program. white parents just flat-out refused to send their kids to school if there were going to be black kids there, too. within a year and a half of bussing starting in boston, a third of white kids got taken out of boston public schools. and it is painful to see that young girl sitting all by herself in that classroom. but it only got more traumatic for kids like valerie from there. black students on their way to school were the target of big racist mobs in boston, often really violent protests by white people in boston. they threw rocks at the kids. black kids had to duck

shattering glass coming at them through the bus windows as the buses were attacked. here's a woman screaming at a bus full of black children who are being taken home after school. the photographer said she was yelling to those little kids, "go home and stay home." yelling at the little kids. people walked through black neighborhoods in boston wearing ku klux klan gear. they set a mannequin of a black person on fire. this is a building in a white neighborhood in boston, a message for all the black kids, all the black students being bussed in to see on their way to school every morning. we blurred what the word is, but you know what the word is. the trauma those kids had to endure, it would have been -- it would be almost unbelievable if there weren't the pictures to prove it. >> i remember riding the buses to protect the kids going up to south boston high school and the bricks through the window, signs

hanging out those buildings, [ bleep ] go home, pictures of monkeys. the words, the spit. people just felt it was all right to attack children. >> i had no idea what to expect to the bussing thing. i didn't know anything about south boston. i didn't know anything about, you know, they didn't like us, i didn't know anything that was in store for us, but when we got there, it was like a war zone. i came back, i told my mom, i'll never forget, i said, mom, i'm not going back to that school unless i have a gun. exactly, at 14 years old. i am not going back to that school. >> that overt racism, those racist attacks in boston, it took years before any of that simmered down, but scars never faded away. boston remains an incredibly unequal place to live. the net worth for a white family living in boston was roughly

$250,000. net worth of a black family living in boston was an average of $8. boston police department is 65% white, even though white people make up less than half the city. that's still today. if you look at what the city itself is investing in, where they're dolling out lucrative contracts of the more than $2 billion handed out by the city between 2014 and 2019 in contracts, one half of one percent of those contracts went to black-owned businesses. and you see it in representation at the highest levels, too. the mayor of boston has only ever been a white man. for all time. for the last 91 years, that white man has been either of irish or italian descent, full stop. 91 straight years. the city of boston has never been represented by a black person at the highest level. the city has never been represented by a woman -- until now. this is kim janey.

her family has lived in the boston area of rox bury for six generations. she became a mom when she was still in high school. she started at community college and enrolled at smith college in massachusetts. she worked a job cleaning bathrooms while she was a student at smith so she could provide for her daughter. she spent years as an organizer, pushing to reform boston's public schools. 2017, she was elected to the city council in boston. she was chosen by her peers then to become thecouncil's president. and as city council president, well, there she was, in place. that is how this week, kim janey became mayor of boston. the last mayor of boston, marty walsh, just resigned to become president biden's labor secretary. when the mayor resigns, the line of succession in boston is that the president of the city council gets automatically elevated to be acting mayor. that makes kim janey the first black person to lead the city of

boston, the first woman to lead the city of boston. she was also one of those boston kids in the '70s who was pelted with rocks and racial slurs on their way to school. kim janey was 11 years old when she got on those desegregation buses in boston. she was bussed to a school in the same part of boston where they set that mannequin of a black person on fire. yesterday -- yesterday, she went back to that school that she was bussed to in 1976. she went back this time as the mayor of boston, massachusetts. >> i was nurtured by a family who believed in me and surrounded by good neighbors who knew my name. it was my village. but when i was just 11 years old, school bussing rolled into my life. i was forced onto the front lines of the 1970s battle to desegregate boston public schools. i had rocks and racial slurs

thrown at my bus simply for attending school while black. and just yesterday, on my first full day as mayor, i visited my childhood alma mater. i saw students happy to be back in school with their teachers and friends instead of the pain and trauma that i had experienced in middle school. to think that my teenage grandsons were born at a time when there had never even been a black woman on our city council and today, my 6-year-old granddaughter rosie an other little girls can see themselves represented in massachusetts' highest court, the halls of congress and now in the 55th mayor of boston. >> the new mayor of boston, massachusetts, mayor kim janey joins us live here next. stay with us. us

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here's how adrian walker put it. he said, quote, how far behind is boston? welcome to one of the few major american cities that has never elected anything but a white male mayor. and cities like new york, chicago, los angeles, this barrier fell a generation or more ago. even cities that don't post particularly big black populations like seattle and denver have elected black mayors. in some cases more than one. but here, here in boston, the old line held. not anymore. joining us now for her first national interview since becoming mayor of the great city of boston is kim janey. thank you for being here and congratulations. >> thank you so much. it's an honor to be here, i'm a big fan. thank you for having me. >> it's nice of you to say. let me just ask you one of the things you said in your speech when you were sworn in today was that you bring to this moment life experience that is different from the men who came

before me. tell me about what that means for this job, for the city of boston, how that will influence this incredibly large job you're taking on now? >> well, as a woman growing up, as a little girl growing up in roxbury, as a black woman who has lived through some of our darkest days in our city, i certainly bring all of that with me, but i also know that our city is a city of hope and possibilities and so i am encouraged, certainly by what i saw when i visited my childhood alma mater. as you have said, i was bussed during the desegregation era here in boston, it was a very traumatic experience growing up, a very violent time in our city and me sitting here as mayor does symbolize how far we've come as a city, but we have a

lot of work to do. yesterday on my first full day as mayor, i had the opportunity to go back and see young people learning in the classroom. i actually visited a classroom where they were studying desegregation in boston and to be there in that classroom as someone who lived through that experience and able to share that experience with the students was pretty incredible and to be there as the first black mayor and the first woman mayor for our city was just mind blowing. you know, it was great to see students in the classroom learning and engaged and not having to worry about that painful time in our history. that being said, we do have a lot of work to do in boston. these issues, these challenges are not new. they are centuries old in the making. there is a lot of work to do

when it comes to combatting structual racism in the city. i will bring my lived experience and perspective as a black woman to this work. >> it strikes me also that from a national perspective, boston has a pretty unique role right now in the response to the pandemic. just because boston is, a, not only a tech hub, but also a health care capital for the country. and massachusetts has had a hard time with covid. is the vaccine rollout in boston and other elements, logistical elements of the covid response, now going to land in your lap as mayor as you take on these responsibilities? >> yes, it's a huge priority for me, making sure that we are rolling out the vaccine equitably, so communities that have been hardest hit, it's no surprise that communities of color have been hit particularly

hard here in boston and in other cities across our nation. and that's due to the pre-existing inequities before covid and so, it is incredibly important that we make sure we're getting the vaccine out equitably, that we are reaching all communities and lifting up those who have been hardest hit and that is a number one priority for me so that we can reopen safely, make sure we're getting businesses open and workers back to work and our students back in the classrooms with their teachers and their peers. >> kim janey, sworn in today as the new mayor of the great city of boston. again, congratulations. you have a huge task ahead of you, god speed. come back frequently and it's good to -- it's so good to see you in this job. >> i'd love to. thank you so much, rachel. take care. >> all right. we'll be right back. stay with us. stay with us

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