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welcome to "our world with black enterprise." a very special edition as we celebrate our 100th episode. i'm marc lamont hill. in the past five years, we've covered ground-breaking stories, featured award-winning celebrities and showcased provocative trendsetters. we have been there for the triumphs and the tragedies and tackled the challenges facing black communities around the country. let's take a look back at the highlights of "our world" let's take a look back at the highlights of "our world" starting now. captions made possible by the u.s. department of education and central city productions, inc.

welcome to this special 100th edition of "our world with black enterprise." in the past five years we have seen breath-taking strides for black americans in the political arena. we were on hand for an incredible series of firsts, including the historic run for the white house. across the nation, there was change in the air. for the first time, the country actually seemed ready to entertain the candidacy of a woman seeking the nation's highest office. or prepared to reconsider a politician who had run before. but there was a young community organizer who had a different outcome in mind. it was on our very first show that the then junior senator from illinois expressed his intentions. >> there was a joke that, you know, every senator in the senate, the day they arrive, are already -- >> they are looking down the street. >> looking down the street.

and i would be foolish not to think about the most influential position in my field. >> i stand before you today to announce my candidacy for president of the united states of america. >> from that moment, "our world" was there with barack obama all the way to the white house. >> that is why i'm running to be president of the united states, so i can listen to you and help set the agenda for change in this country. >> the best thing for me to do is just to make sure that i am delivering my message with clarity, a message of unifying this country, getting beyond some of these old stereotypes, making sure that people feel that i'm sincere in terms of how i want to move the country forward. if we do that, then i'm confident that we can still win.

>> if there is anyone out there who still doubts that america is a place where all things are possible, who still wonder if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still question the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. >> i barack obama do solemnly swear to preserve, protect and defend the constitution of the united states. >> so help you god? >> so help me god. >> congratulations, mr. president. [ cheers and applause ] >> there was a michael steele before there was a barack obama. i was the only african-american lieutenant governor in the nation for two years before senator obama was elected.

>> michael steele was tapped as the first african-american chairman of the republican national committee. >> the republican party's often criticized because you don't have any blacks, you don't do anything to lift blacks up within the party, encourage them, so you guys are nothing more than racist. when we do lift blacks up and encourage them and give them positions of leadership, then we get oh, tokenism. you can't win. you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. >> across the political spectrum, black americans scored a series of firsts. >> you find yourself governor of people well beyond massachusetts, that a whole lot of people place their hopes and their aspirations in you and in your success, and i appreciate that. i'm honored by that. i'm humbled by it and it certainly is something i will have in mind. >> new york democrat charles rangel became the first black chairman of the powerful house ways and means committee.

up next, the hottest stars in our world. >> i know that if this is successful it will open doors for more movies and it's so relevant and so important. i didn't care if i was in this movie for two minutes. i just wanted to be part of it. [ waves crashing ] [ martin luther king jr. ] i still have a dream the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th. [ female announcer ] real fruit... means real fruit smoothies from mccafé.

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make people laugh and give them a message. there are so many messages that need to be brought to our community and there's no way to do it, like nobody has an effective way to do it. this character has been such a great tool to get effective messages into the community. i'm so proud of that. >> tyler perry made great inroads as the first african-american to own a major film studio but he received sharp criticism from fellow film maker spike lee for the type of films he was making. >> a lot of stuff that's out today is buffoonery. i know it's making a lot of money, breaking records, but we could do better. >> our first five years turned out to be break-through years for black actors on the big screen, the small screen and on broadway. >> reading the play, it was obvious that david mahmet was willing to put on page and then on the stage thoughts and ideas that people have all the time about race, and aren't necessarily willing to say. >> to do a dramatic role by a

preeminent writer on broadway was this cast, i jumped at the chance. this was a high point in my career. >> i've had more people coming up to me, oh, i can't wait. pele are fascinated with gangster movies. they really are. even my own sons. >> a child can be susceptible. a child might watch "american gangster" and say i want to be a gangster but it's really about what's going on in your homes. >> "dream girls" is using the success of ray and success of hustle and flow and it's going to be a no-brainer. when somebody starts to talk about another african-american or black film, it works now because we allowed it to be black, say that it is black and then transcend that. >> i know that if this is successful, it will open doors for more movies and it's so relevant and so important, and i didn't care if i was in this movie for two minutes. i just wanted to be a part of it. >> even in animation, where

anika became the first black princess in disney history. >> this is opening up a world to these children to think of themselves as something beautiful with their curly hair and their round noses and their full lips and their brown skin, as something beautiful and worthy of being held aloft. ♪ >> yet black hollywood's resolve to create game-changing opportunities has never been stronger. >> it's just unfortunate because what they do, the industry, meaning they, belittle your work, you know. i know that i can fill a theater. like i know that i can at least get $500,000 worth of tickets but yet and still, i'm not making that. but at the end of the day, i'm a soldier and i'm going to kick the doors down if i have to do it manually with my own foot,

so. >> when you're a black entert n entertainer, you get the word stereotyped and pigeonholed and for white actors it's called character acting. >> you think of all the money spent to do "transformers" and "harry potter" and "spiderman 3" and "pirates of the caribbean" and not one brother got a big movie. that's the part that's disappointing about this business. television is the same way. >> we have to take advantage of the opportunity, maintain a standard of work, because that's what's changed. we expect more from ourselves as actors, as professionals. that's what made the difference. >> there is opportunity. i'm not going to say more opportunity. but there is opportunity for us. the door is open, only a select few are welcomed in. the rest of us have to kick the door dow and you know, make our presence known.

>> hill harper offered a clear and critical view of hollywood in his book. >> part of the reason why i felt the need to do the book was because i'm part of an industry that i believe has decimated the self-esteem of our young people. simply put. >> chris rock and neil long raised eyebrows and questions with their film exploration "good hair." >> this is $1,000? >> yes, it is. yes, it is. >> it was unbelievable to me. >> it has an actual impact on african-american relationships between men and women. this cost is like, you know -- >> it's a habit. >> it's a habit. it's like dating an addict, almost. >> those in the spotlight helped point out concerns to be addressed. john legend called for action in education. >> there are so many kids around the country that are in that

same environment, black and white, hispanic, all over the country, who are in schools that just aren't getting the full potential out of them, and we need to do more to make sure every kid has a quality education. too often i think we end up blaming the students themselves and we blame their parents, when their parents were in the same system, you know, 20 years ago and we are expecting different results but we're not changing the system. >> celebrities shared their challenges with us. in an award-winning show, charlie wilson talked about his fight against prostate cancer. >> they did a biopsy and he called me into his office, said i got some good news and i got some bad news. which one you want to hear first? i said give me the bad news first. he said charlie, you have prostate cancer. at that moment, everything that i loved, i thought just went out the window, that i thought. i looked at my wife and she

looked at me and said okay, what's the good news. he said the good news is we've -- this is early stage and i've been doing this for 30 years and i think we can get this. >> eddie lavert recounted his struggle with losing his son. >> i don't think i'll ever really heal from it because i just don't feel like it's fair that i'm still here, i'm 64. it should have been my time. this is the worst thing that could have ever happened to me in my whole life. >> when we return, how "our world" covered the triumphs and the tragedies. >> i went underground for a bit, you know, picking up bodies,

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welcome back to this special edition of "our world with black enterprise." in 100 shows, we've explored major issues of our time. "our world" cameras caught the best that humanity has to offer, and the worst that nature can create. >> we were there for the floods of katrina. we saw miss ethyl freeman, elder african-american woman in the chair, but there was no story. it's an image. when i saw that picture, my mother, my grandmother is 100 years old and is still alive today in atlanta, georgia. so when i saw miss freeman slumped over dead in that wheelchair, i saw my grandmother. i want to get the story. all i had was the picture. so we found her son, herbert freeman, got the story.

>> and the earthquake in haiti. >> dealing with a little kid here, we don't even know if they're 8 or 9 years old. you know what i mean? this is the reality of what we're dealing with right now. >> i went underground for a bit, picking up bodies, bringing them to morgues, digging holes, burying certain people. things like that. that's what we've gone through, you know. everything you used to sing about, you used to talk about, that you believe about, it gets tested at that moment because it's like, you know, you wore that flag on your back at the grammys, you know, and that's the first time they saw the haitian flag on tv but what does that mean, though? if you can't be on the ground right now picking up your own brothers and sisters, you see.

>> in our years, we've covered race. >> for the young brothers and sisters, who have like i had, a rage at the center of my soul, how do you transform that rage or channel that rage into positive venues? >> we questioned responsibility. >> we have to take immediate responsibility for the images that we portray of ourselves. we cannot expect for others to respect us if we don't respect ourselves. therefore, we go out of the way to show the positive images of african-americans as much as we possibly can. >> and targeted violence in our community. >> i think we've got to say enough. we've got to stand up, we've got -- this is not about just saving a child. this is about saving thousands of kids.

>> we asked are the police friend or foe? >> the concept of policing as a friend but when you have those agencies that cannot properly monitor police behavior, that's when it becomes a foe. that's the aspect that we want to fight against. >> we tackled topics from the troubling actions of some black athletes -- >> you have to be a role model to the masses. you have to set an example that people would want themselves to follow or people would expect of themselves, expect of their children, et cetera, and especially when you are put in the public eye. i don't think it's fair to them, but nevertheless, it's a responsibility that isn't going anywhere. >> -- to images of black women in music videos. >> images of black women have progressively gotten worse. they haven't gotten better. it's not like all of a sudden having this conversation, women are more dressed, it's not like they're not glorified props. they continue to be these characters that are constantly

degraded in these videos. we need to have this conversation until things change. >> irts' not like we're talking about all women. you have women that definitely respect themselves and you have some women that don't respect themselves. >> you think different because of the fact that i was raised by my mother and my grandmother was around a lot. i seen strong, powerful women, it's just like i got another image of what a woman should be and what women are. >> and considered the relevance of black leadership from education to mentoring to bullying. nothing escaped our focus. >> too many educators and adults across the country shirk it off, shrug it off as if it's a rite of passage. the unspeakable tragedies over the last several months, what miss stone has been through with what happened to her son tells us that this myth that it's a rite of passage, we need to flip that. >> i just can't take it anymore because people are not paying attention to the pain and the sadness that's in our children.

>> well, the day i found out that i was hiv-positive, i had been in the hospital for two and a half weeks, in and out of icu, there was a knock at the door and i told the doctor he could come in, and he said i have something more serious to tell you. me being 19 years old, i said am i pregnant? he said no, you're not pregnant, you're hiv-positive. >> these are the questions you need to ask nowadays. what's your status. not your loan status. what's your hiv-aids status. do you sleep with women and men? those are hard questions to ask and if your self-esteem and your personal power is not in the right place, it's hard to say that to a man because you want one, and if you got one, you want to keep him. >> "our world" was witness to an extraordinary milestone as two major civil rights organizations, the naacp and the national urban league, reached

their 100th anniversaries. we took pride as our parent organization, black enterprise, celebrated its 40th anniversary. bursting with fresh flavors, perfectly blended with ice and low-fat yogurt. when i say mmm, y'all say ahh! mmm! [ crowd ] ahh! mmm! [ crowd ] ahh! [ male announcer ] the simple joy of a real fruit experience.

we've had a great first 100 shows here at "our world with black enterprise." we hope you stay with us as we continue the journey. in case you missed any