were slaves, they gave them some protection. he is by letter of law sadly their slave owner. >> what a story. wow. >> the greatest story never told. no one knows this story. >> we do now. we are grateful to you. thank you for that. all of you can learn more about this story by turning to -- tuning in to his special podcast. you can listen now and you can hear new episodes every thursday. we are hours away of what could be the first u.s. moon landing in more than half a century. a private company will deliver a mission. if the mission succeeds, it will be the first private company to land on the moon after previous attempts have failed. that's going to wrap it up for me. andrea mitchell picks up with more right now.

right now on "andrea mitchell reports," national fallout from the unprecedented alabama supreme court ruling that frozen embryos are children. women across the state already having costly procedures put on hold. their family planning now in doubt. couples across the nation fearing a precedent that other red states will now follow. nikki haley is adding to the debate. already trying to clarify this comment to nbc's ali vitali. >> i mean, i think embryos to me are babies. when you talk about an embryo, you are talking about, to me, that's a life. vladimir putin congratulating russian troops for new advances in ukraine. the battleground situation becoming a crisis as the war enters its third year in a matter of days and u.s. weapons are blocked by republicans in the house. richard engel is there. >> reporter: there are almost no people left in this town. it's highly militarized.

russian forces are closing in. based on what we are seeing here, unless that aid comes and comes quickly, troops who are still defending this town are not going to be able to hold on much longer. with hostage families and arab leaders saying there will be no hostage deal as long as netanyahu is prime minister, we will hear from a former israeli hostage about the terror she survived and her continued fight to free her american husband and the others left behind. good day, everyone, i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the battle over reproductive rights is boiling over after alabama supreme court decided frozen embryos are babies prompting confusion and chaos. the state's largest hospital, part of the university of alabama at birmingham, and another fertility clinic in the

state, have stopped all ivf procedures as they examine the potential legal fallout. the university saying they are saddened but must evaluate the potential that our patients and our physicians could be prosecuted krim fally or face punitive damages for following the standard of care. alabama already has the most restrictive abortion laws in the country. there's outrage now among women and couples who are counting on ivf, including this woman who was unable to carry a child because of a rare blood disorder. her embryo implantation scheduled for tomorrow has been canceled. >> my husband and i want a child desperately. for it to be taken away potentially in alabama is devastating for families who all they want is a child. >> it's just a thoughtless decision. being so committed to this idea of being pro-life that they're

not thinking about how a decision like this affects people trying to start families. >> there's fallout in the presidential race as nikki haley tried to backtrack on her comments to nbc news just yesterday to ali vitali saying embryos are babies. listen to her on cnn last night. >> i didn't say that i agreed with the alabama ruling. what the question that i was asked is, do i believe an embryo is a baby. i do think that if you look in the definition, an embryo is considered an unborn baby. >> we have a fact check. it's on tape. here is the question that ali vitali actually asked nikki haley. >> something that's come up in alabama, the supreme court there said that embryos created through ivf are considered children and are offered the same protections. do you agree? >> i think -- embryos to me are

babies. >> even those created through ivf? >> i had artificial insemination. that's how i had my son. >> joining me now, ali vitali, who broke all that news, and from "the washington post," ashley parker, senior national political correspondent, and ruth marcus from "the washington post" and a harvard lawyer. ali, great interview. what do you make of nikki haley's attempt to clean up or let's say spin her comments? >> reporter: she certainly is trying to offer clarification there. i'm so glad you played the video. the question was exactly that, which is presencing what the alabama supreme court ruled, which is that ivf created embryos were children in their eyes and asking nikki haley if she agreed with that. she did say in fact, as you played there, that she agrees. we went on to have a lengthy conversation, several questions more about concerns that she may

have and that certainly others have expressed around the chilling affect that rulings like this one, and subsequent legislation should it be proposed, could have on couples trying to seek fertility treatments and trying to have children through ivf procedures. she went on to say in the interview she thought it was important for doctors and patients to be able to candid conversations, that it was a nuanced and complex issue. certainly all of that is true. one of the reasons why we are watching haley try so hard to clarify her comments here -- and in my mind, it only sort of muddiies the water more -- because she matched with the alabama supreme court. they see the embryos of having the protection of children. she tried to have a more nuanced position on the issue of abortion access, on reproductive health. she's tried to tow that line during the primary. we watched other republican rivals who have left the race

struggle with answering this question. certainly, it's one that's going to dominate in senate and house down the ballot. as this strays further from the abortion itself and gets into what it takes for women to have children, that makes the republican position on this harder to defend. you land in a place like this where haley is taking the pro-life position that embryos are children, but when so many people use ivf to conceive, polling shows it's unpopular to take. we are watching conservative legislatures try to continue legislating around reproductive health. >> ashley, reproductive rights is such a big issue and a losing issue for republicans in the recent cycles. the biden campaign pouncing on this today. the vice president is going to

be in michigan talking about this as well. the administration saying -- ashley, democrats are welcoming this fight. >> yeah, absolutely. i think as any woman of a certain age can tell you from either person experience or the experience of friends and loved ones, infertility is devastating. it's challenging for women and their partners who want to have kids and can't. ivf can be a godsend in some of the cases. it's an issue, as nikki haley herself demonstrates with talking about how she conceived her son, that cuts across all party lines. it doesn't care if you are a democrat or a republican. this is an issue that democrats are eager to seize on because there are a lot of republicans

who have conceived with ivf or who are struggling to conceive or in the middle of fertility treatments and can only imagine what it would be like if they lived in alabama. i will add, nikki haley has often -- democrats are worried if she got the nomination, she's very nuanced on these issues. at the end of the day, when you have to take a stance as she did in ali's interview, it's a stance that's widely not popular with huge swaths of the american public. >> ruth, speaking to you as a woman, a woman who is also a harvard lawyer and has covered politics for decades, your "washington post" column saying -- i understand there's a

movement, an evangelical movement to be more of a missionary in terms of imposing his views and now as the chief justice, he has a lot of clout on other people. >> he is one vote on the alabama supreme court. his concurring opinion was one of the most -- i'm sorry to use this word -- but it was one of the most chilling things i have read where he really spoke in the language of theocracy. this stems from a provision of the alabama constitution that talks about the sanctity of unborn life. the alabama supreme court said it we believe in the state of alabama that unborn life is sacred, we need to provide protectios not just to any unborn children but to the tiny -- they are tiny clusters of a few hundred cells at most. i want to say one thing, which

is i think this effort to go after ivf has been in the works for a long time among some particularly extreme segments of the anti-abortion movement. i don't think i agree with the statement from the biden campaign that this was only enabled by donald trump's supreme court nominees. alabama, for better or worse, would have been able to achieve this, i think, crazy, unnecessary and cruel result even without the dobbs ruling. >> the other issue is, ruth, we are expecting a decision from this court, from the high court, on a pill used for abortions in this country. >> this court told us it was getting out of the abortion business. ha, ha, ha. not going anywhere. we will see any number of cases

brought back to the court. the court told us that we were going to leave these issues up to the states. not really. we now see talk about donald trump wanting a 16-week federal abortion ban. by the way, if that sounds reasonable to you, it's not. we can talk about that another time. this court did not -- dobbs was not the final word. it just opened the door for more mischief. than >> thanks to all of you. i will talk to an ob/gyn about what she's telling her patients. the impact of the debate on reproductive rights. this is "andrea mitchell reports" back in 60 seconds. you are watching msnbc. msnbc that's why we're america's number-one motorcycle insurer. but do you have to wedge it into everything? what? i don't do that. this reminds me of my bike. the wolf was about the size of my new motorcycle. have you seen it, by the way? happy birthday, grandma! really? look how the brushstrokes follow the line of the gas tank.

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more than 97,000 babies were born via ivf in the u.s. in 2021. one in six are impacted by infertility. joining me now is a board certified ob/gyn, jennifer lincoln, saying this is more scarier than it appears on the surface. let's talk about the impact that you see of this alabama decision. >> yeah. thank you so much for the prior panel. i feel like you hit the nail on the head, that nikki haley is not moderate and this decision has been there for a long time. this plan to dismantle ivf. i want to highlight that. none of us in this work were surprised by this alabama decision. we knew it was coming. they have not been quiet about wanting to dismantle this. for folks who are surprised and for people who maybe identify as anti-abortion or pro-life and then heard this ruling that ivf -- these embryos are considered people and now feel this is one step too far, i want

to use this as a moment to call you in to say -- to understand this has always been the plan. it's not just in alabama but in oklahoma and florida and other places where they are pursuing fetal person who are laws. they will come for birth control and morning after pills. if you feel this is something you didn't sign up for and you are worried about your reproductive rights, they are all linked and we welcome you and we need you to think about these things, especially when voting, specifically in state elections as well. as your prior panelists pointed out, the alabama state supreme court could have done this regardless of what trump did in the federal supreme court. those are elected positions. in texas, those are elected positions. we need people to speak up, channel the surprise into action and to show up when it comes to voting, which i know people are sick of hearing, but it makes a huge difference. >> let's talk about the medical issues. people who are not involved, couples who are not involved may not realize how widespread the

impact could be, is already for those in alabama. first of all, a lot of women are staying in the workplace longer and not having children, delaying marriage. for them, this can be very, very important, because that's when infertility becomes more of an issue than women who were marrying in their teens and early 20s. there are people who have genetic issues, who even as college students, have double mastectomies, hysterectomies. so they store their eggs for later in life. talk to me about the medical aspects of that. >> right. absolutely. let's set the stage here in alabama. it's already one of the most dangerous places to give birth when you think about maternal mortality, infant mortality, pre-term birth rates. it's the state that has the highest rates of pregnancy

criminalization. it doesn't require sex ed. people who want to and should ben -- they shouldn't be told to move to start a family. that's not very american. those who do not have the money to do so cannot do that. they are pursuing growing their family and may need to, as you said, use fertility treatments because they have delayed childbearing, part of this whole package of wanting to take these things away from, as you highlighted, the evangelical side, the idea of getting women back in the home, nuclear family, not having women in the workplace, this is part of dismantling that. for people who have genetic disorders, they can safely grow a family, which is very pro-life and being restricted because of laws where justices think embryos are people, regardless of location, without limitation, according to the ruling. >> let me ask you, so people better understand, when you do

ivf, there are extra embryos that are harvested and are routinely eliminated. >> correct. if you don't understand ivf, it can be very hard to think why this matters. you will just get one embryo and transfer that. along the process, multiple things can happen where eggs don't take, fertilization doesn't happen, they may be fertilized and if you do genetic testing, they may be abnormal. there's natural attrition. if you do get a few healthy embryos, you pick the best to transfer. you may want to save the rest. people may decide their family building is complete or they may have genetically abnormal embryos. according to this law, are they able to destroy those? will they be liable for manslaughter or murder? it makes no sense. >> dr. lincoln, thank you very much for your. he per tease. executive order. a look at what president biden is considering to stop the flow

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of course, that's a major issue for voters. under consideration, restrictions that would make it harder to qualify for asylum. this could restrict migrants from claiming asylum if they enter outside of legal ways. welcome both. let's talk about this considering how much the country has changed in recent decades. is this the right time for the biden administration to make this kind of move? it does echo a lot of things that donald trump did, but it's the most -- aside from abortion, perhaps, it's the hottest hot button issue in this election cycle. >> indeed. you really see president biden here with not a lot of options, where immigration has reached a boiling point. it's interesting. think about the similarities of

resorting to executive action. donald trump did it in a way that was very much against the humanitarian spirit of our immigration system. if we think about it, president obama also had to rely on executive orders. that has become the default way of dealing with immigration, which are these tiny little band-aids that are trying to be put over a massive wound, which is, what do we do with our broken immigration system? an executive order is not how you deal with the change of an immigration framework. it really seems like president biden is in the corner and this is really the only option he has given the spike that we have seen. >> david, we have seen this movie before. it's been decades of inaction and failures. i thought that the bipartisan senate bill would have more of a

life in the house. clearly, that wasn't going to happen. speaker mike johnson denouncing it, saying biden falsely claimed he needed congress to close the souther border. he told him to take executive action. how do you think house republicans will respond if president biden takes these actions? >> very hypocritically. it was last decade, they said obama can't take executive action. i think with a broad brush, we see a more conservative biden on border security. saying he would shut the border down. today, floating out that he might address asylum claims in a way the court says, you can't do that. it serves to highlight a couple things going into this election. one is that joe biden is trying to act. that's important. he is able to stand up and say, not only am i trying to act, but i'm trying to act in a way that sometimes ruffls feathers on my

own team. it's a fairly aggressive position. it allows him to play offense against house republicans and mike johnson. it's setting up the opportunity to highlight for the american people a do nothing congress. not just on immigration but everything. the republicans want to make this november about immigration. they better watch out. we have seen this evolution in the last month where joe biden now has control of the immigration and border security issue and republicans no longer do. donald trump said, i don't want the house to act because it's good for the democrats. i'm sure joe biden will make sure voters know that in november. >> victoria and david, thanks to both of you. this is going to be a major issue continuing throughout the campaign. up next, while his troops are losing on the ground, in crucial battlefields, ukraine's president is asking for more aid. you are watching "andrea

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anniversary of the invasion of ukraine, russian troops are now making major advances on the ground. house republicans are blocking an emergency weapons package that kyiv needs. tomorrow, president biden is planning to announce what the white house is calling major sanctions to punish vladimir putin for the death of alexei navalny. richard engel has been reporting from the frontlines in eastern ukraine. >> reporter: despite more american sanctions coming and accusations of murder, president putin appears pleased that what matters to him most is war in ukraine is making progress while the u.s. congress holds up aid. putin visited an aircraft factory and met with troops ahead of the two-year anniversary of the war this weekend. long furious at his army's inability to defeat ukraine's smaller military, putin congratulated his defense minister for driving ukrainian

troops out of the eastern city of avdiivka this weekend. adding, we certainly need to expand on this success. ukraine's president saying the loss highlights the need for support. >> it's not money. it's people's lives. >> reporter: at a political fund-raiser in san francisco, president biden called the russian president a, quote, crazy sob. warning, we always have to worry about a nuclear conflict. the biden administration plans to unveil new sanctions against russia this week. >> the sanctions will be in connection both to the two-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of ukraine and to navalny's death. >> reporter: supporters of alexei navalny, the russian opposition leader who died in prison, have been arrested in the hundreds, simply for honoring his death. putin is tightening his hold on

power, dragging a russian american ballerina into court accusing her of treason. she allegedly donated $51 to ukraine, according to her american employer. her family and boyfriend are appealing for help. >> it's hard to enjoy anything right now knowing i have freedom and she doesn't. >> joining now is a former advisor to president zelenskyy. it's good to see you again. this is a critical time. we have gone through so many ups and downs. more ups than downs. but this is a terrible time. i was in munich, of course, covering president zelenskyy. he made a very direct plea to the american house of representatives because of the republican leadership going on a two-week break. he said, dictators do not take vacations. >> unfortunately, that is true. i have three important messages. number one, what we are seeing

here in ukraine on the front li frontlines is a reflection of the difference between the promises made and promised kept, unfortunately. that's how it works. we are paying for that with ukrainian lives. secondly, it's very important to realize that we have north korea, iran and a couple of other axis of evil backing russia. they are emerging as reliable allies in the moment, in comparison to that. third, most importantly, i hate the spread of that illusion that former president trump said he can end this war in 24 hours. this war ends three ways. either ukraine wins or ukraine loses.

>> let's talk about the battlefield. i will talk to richard engel. how big a setback was avdiivka? >> a major setback. it's not a major city. it's a town. it's a very important strategic town. it has been under ukrainian control since the first invasion after the annexation of crimea. at the same time, there's only so much we can do. we don't have any air superiority. we are running short on air defenses. they are throwing cannon fodder at us. they lost 40,000 troops trying to take that town, which is not that big of a town, actually. unfortunately, given that the politicians went on holiday, they haven't kept their promises, we have to retreat and lose lives. >> it's heartbreaking to talk to you at this point in the war. let's hope in the next couple of

days we can talk again and it will be better news. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. joining us now from eastern ukraine, richard engel. as aid for ukraine is stalled on capitol hill, richard, and you have been seeing firsthand what's happening on the frontlines. >> reporter: we talk about this and we have been discussing it all week. what's the impact on ukraine? how are ukrainians feeling? how is the military doing with this aid held up? and held up deliberately. that's the way it feels here, anyway. it is having a major impact. we have in a frontline town earlier today, not very far from here. we are in eastern ukraine, quite far east. not that far from avdiivka. if you represent the battle of bakhmut, this town is just outside of there. the soldiers there and the acting mayor told me they

believe that the troops -- the russians, after having pushed through avdiivka are spreading into other areas. they will make their way toward this town. when you lose territory, there are consequences. the consequences that they are going to keep moving. they are starting new offensives, new pushes on to other towns, other villages. the ukrainian soldiers told me they don't have enough ammunition to launch an offensive and barely enough to hold on to the territory, hold on to the terrain they are holding. they are not completely defenseless. they are ukrainians. they are still there and fighting. they don't have enough to fight back and barely enough to hold on. as we saw, they have started to lose in some areas. the soldiers and the political leader in the town told me, unless they get resupplied soon, they don't know how much longer they can hold on to that area. >> richard, when i was covering

president zelenskyy in munich this weekend, as he was meeting with kamala harris, he was saying that they need patriots, air defenses, they need the atacms, which now our colleague is reporting are going to be approved. then there's the supply line. they still don't have the f-16s that were promised months and months ago. how big a problem is that delay? >> reporter: it's massive. frankly, you know president zelenskyy. i have interviewed him several times. ukrainians -- he said this and other ukrainian officials have said this repeatedly. if the u.s. wants to help and europe wants to help, why not really help? why not do it all at once? why not just give them enough weapons and enough ammunition to fight the war instead of paying it out one nickel at a time. we are talking billions of dollars. but paying it out piecemeal. ukrainians feel that has been

allowing them to stay in the fight but never actually win. >> richard engel, thank you so much forever your valiant reporting. to both of you, stay safe. a survivor's story. a former hostage speaking out and voicing frustration at prime minister netanyahu as her husband remains a captive. that's next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. "ana mitchell reports" on msnbc energy that gets you to the next level. cirkul is what you hope for when life tosses lemons your way. cirkul, available at walmart and drinkcirkul.com. (ella) fashion moves fast. (jen) so we partner with verizon to take our operations to the next level. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. (ella) we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (jen) that's enterprise intelligence. (vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon. it's hard to explain what this feels like. ♪♪ moving piles of earth. towing up to 4,000 lbs. cutting millions of blades of grass.

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you would say that. every epic footlong deserves the perfect sidekick. a top national security council middle east official is in israel today meeting with the prime minister and, of course, the defense minister. this as president biden is increasingly at odds with netanyahu's insistence on a ground offensive in rafah, which the white house warned would jeopardize the lives of more than a million displaced palestinians living there as well as jeopardize the hostage talks. as a member of israel's war cabinet, retired general benny

gantz viewed as a potential interim sucessor to netanyahu said there is new efforts to revive the hostage negotiations. we believe that will happen. joining us now, molly hunter, in jerusalem and ambassador pinkus. molly, you just spoke with a woman held hostage by hamas after october 7th. she was released in november. her american husband is being held. tell us about her story, her experiences. >> reporter: andrea, that's right. we just learned from our colleagues at the white house that brett mcgirk is meeting with families of the hostages. they said they will expand the authority given to the hostage

negotiators, but for families of the hostages, that is way too little too late. this woman was released after 51 days. she was taken with her husband keith. he is american. he is still being held. take a listen to what she told me today. >> i think that netanyahu has forgotten about keith and forgotten to be human and bring the human people back. they need to come back as soon as possible. >> reporter: do you think his priorities lie elsewhere? >> i think that netanyahu is thinking about himself more than thinking about us and thinking about keith. he needs to think about keith and get him out as soon as possible. >> reporter: when you think about -- when you say think about him, you think he is prioritizing the war? >> i think so. he needs to stop the war and show us that he is doing something to bring keith home as soon as possible. >> reporter: now, andrea, she was very clear a cease-fire, a

stop in fighting is the only way to move hostages around gaza and the only way to get hostages out. i want to share one other moment. she said one of the things that will stick with her forever is a young girl who was being held hostage came out of the bathroom one day during her 51-day captivity. there was an armed guard nearby. this girl looked spooked. came up to her and said, he touched me. she has testified here about sexual violence. it's one of the things she says which worries her about the women and girls still left behind. >> yes. i have heard independently about the pregnancies of some of the victims. which is just horrific. women who are raped. thank you, molly. thanks for that report. ambassador, the cia director, bill burns, expected to be meeting in paris to hold talks with egyptian and israeli

officials, his counterparts, trying to reach a deal despite what the prime minister said about negotiations not going forward and putting all sorts of conditions on it. what are you -- >> there have -- >> what are you hearing about this? >> there have been reports in the last 24 hours, andrea, that there's been some breakthrough. i don't know what a breakthrough means anymore. that there has been some breakthrough in negotiations. everyone was summoned back to paris to begin again or to continue the negotiations that discontinued last week and about ten days ago mr. netanyahu refused to send the israeli delegation to paris and on and on and on. in that respect, it's consistent with what the former hostage said and tragically she may be right in terms of this not being netanyahu's priority. in fact, his finance minister,

an extremist politician said publically the other day, the hostages are just not the number one priority. he said it bluntly. he said it clearly. he never retracted. now, the problem -- you know this as well as i -- is that a hostage deal will entail a 45 -- at least a 45-day cease-fire, even if he call it cessation of hostilities or by any other name, it's a cease-fire. the americans -- the biden administration views such a cease-fire as the de facto end of the war in its its current format. mr. netanyahu knows that his -- you know, his statements about total victory and toppling hamas and eradicating hamas will have nothing to show for if the war

ends this way. and so this explains part of the hesitancy on the part of the israeli part. >> from my understanding the break-through probably involves hamas's initial demands for 1,500 hostages, a very high ratio and specific terrorists, convicted murders to be released, palestinians from israel in that first phase and that that is what may have given right now. we're going to have to leave it there. ambassador pinkas, thank you as always. we appreciate it. >> thank you, andrea. the power of reparations, how one man was able to set his family on a path to prosperity for generations to come. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. reports" only on msnbc even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. ask about nurtec odt. kayak. no way.

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and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. as we celebrate black history month this month, the question over what is owed to the descendants of former slaves continues to be debated across the country. nbc news correspondent trymaine lee has the story of one of the few black americans ever repaid for slavery and how those reparations went on to change his family's trajectory for generations. >> reporter: buried in the nation's capital by the passage of time is one family's extraordinary legacy, siblings adele and richard are seeing for the very first time a rare

document that forever changed their family's fortunes. >> it was a revelation to us. >> reporter: the civil war era filing signed by their great, great, great grandfather, a free black man named gabriel coakley awarded him something most descendants of enslaved africans have never received, reparations for slavery. >> it's mind boggling. >> reporter: in the middle of the civil war president lincoln signed the compensated emancipation act of 1862 ending slavery in the district, while also paying off d.c.'s white enslavers if they pledged loyalty to the union. >> it was an idea of abraham lincoln as a test to show that there was a way to end slavery but also provide relief to those slave holders who were losing their property. >> reporter: nearly a thousand white enslavers got reparations. among them some of the wealthiest and most powerful people in washington.

people like francis preston blair sr., an adviser to president lincoln, their, quote property were human beings. and those people generations of whom had endured tortured servitude were offered nothing for all that they'd lost, unless they agreed to leave the country, even though by this time many of the enslaved people were born in america, yet still not considered citizens. >> here's this opportunity to create a much more just society by providing newly emancipated people with the economic means to make freedom real. and we just didn't do it. >> reporter: but gabriel coakley, already free and the business owner himself found a loophole. >> as a way of keeping the families together and keeping them safe, one member would gain their freedom and then purchase the others. >> reporter: coakley had amazingly purchased the freedom of his sister, his wife, and their six children, to protect them legally, he never

registered them as free people, so technically they were still enslaved. >> many states had laws saying that if you gained your freedom, you had to either leave the state, pay a fine, or you were subject to whipping every six months. >> wow. >> reporter: he applied for compensation and was awarded the equivalent of more than $170,000 at a time when 90% of black people in this country were still enslaved. >> he overcame so many obstacles to purchase his family, and then to find the resources to get reparations. >> reporter: the family line since has been marked by black excellent, scholars, doctors, activists, clergy, even a recipient of the presidential medal of freedom. >> this is a remarkable leg stha -- legacy that he left for us. >> reporter: as they reflect on coakley's remarkable reparations story, his descendants wonder,

what could have been if all black people had gotten reparations after slavery. >> and trymaine lee joins us now. this is a remarkable story, and i'm thinking of different things that i knew about through history, how woodrow wilson closed down the federal civil service to black people, which immediately removed people who had been middle class citizens and had good incomes, especially in the washington, d.c. area and consigned them to poverty for generations, also tulsa, oklahoma, so many incidents and the way land was taken from people in california who would have otherwise been so wealthy given how land values have increased. >> that's right, andrea, with this story, you know, what we did with the podcast also uncounted millions, the power of

reparations, is to really put the focus on the humanity and the family. certainly gabriel coakley's extraordinary act to free his family, set them on a trajectory that they might not have experienced otherwise. he got paid when 90% of black people in this country were still enslaved. we're reminded through the story, that this is about family and family lines and opportunity and in america, quite frankly, as we know, it's money that can buy you that comfort and stability and allow your children and their children to experience the fullness of opportunity in this country, and so hopefully we're doing just that in this conversation, andrea. >> tremaine, it's such a privilege working with you. thanks for bringing that to us. we really appreciate it. >> thank you. and be sure to catch tremaine podcast, "into america presents uncounted millions, the power of reparations." that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." "chris jansing