on the back of the book is a wonderful piece by brian stevenson. were you stu were -- there are no two people in this country i respect more. they both love you and have written about you. michelle alexander referred to you as the 21st century harriet tutman. i saw the same phrase in the "new york times" that you are the 21st century harriet tutman. that is a lot of love. i raise it not to embarrass you but ask you whether or not your work feels like you are on a journey to rescue people and save lives? >> i know that what i do rescues people, allows them to have an analysis of what is happening in their lives and breaks them free of the criminal justice system. you know when we talk about slavery, we have to go back to the 13th amendment that says you can be a slave if you are incarcerated. so does it feel like harriet tutman? i think so. i didn't imagine that when i started out, i just thought if i can help a handful of women come home it would be okay. but then i started looking at the larger picture and the systemic oppression that we can pay $

for us to make the progress that needs to happen. >> brian stevenson. thank you for being with us. >> my pleasure, thank you. >> with the president under fire. mark strassmann checked in with republican whose voted for him. loshiqua hughes. >> has your support for trump lessened one bit? >> not at all. i don't look at him, as you know my pastor. i look at him as the leader, governmental issues. we are not looking for somebody charming. looking for a man who know house to turn things around. he has got a track record of turning things around. >> when you saw charlottesville. what did that say about where we are as a country. >> it wasn't necessarily a black, whiter to. but i think the media is turning it into a black, white issue. it's definitely a left/right issue. but it is left fringe. right fringe. >> confederate statues don't bother you. >> no. it is history. i wasn't born back then. he wasn't either. why is that affecting us. we should grow and learn from it like martin luther king said. don't judge people by the color of their support is for the p

. >> brian stevenson is a civil rights leader in montgomery, alabama.people know the equal justice initiative. he is building in montgomery a memorial to the victims of lynching there are no -- there is no memorial to the victims of lynching in the united states. montgomery has dozens of memorials to the confederacy. that may be one answer. that you don't take the other memorials, but you add other memorials. >> in southampton, virginia, there is no memorial to nat turner who led a slave revolt that didn't last very long, but was an important chapter in history there is one little roadside marker. there is, you know, there is a lot of monuments obviously to the confederacy there. >> a democratic mayor who took a different approach than the mayor of charlottesville is mitch landrieu in new orleans. new orleans is a place where slaves were sold. it was one of the capitals of the slave trade. and there are no real monuments to that in new orleans. there are dozens of confederate monuments. he gave a very important speech a few months ago that a lot of demo

wonderful leaders brian stevenson said that we have a nation that treats you better if you're rich andy than poor and innocent. in this case, again, if you are poor, if you're a minority, you are the ones that are overwhelmingly seeing the enforcement of marijuana laws, not people who are rich, not people who are elected and connected. those folks are not seeing the kind of enforcement that devastates lives. you're a kid that gets -- a teenicer that gets a marijuana felony charge, you can't get a pell grant, you can't get a job, business licenses and more. >> we are out of time but since i have you here, are you running for president in 2020? >> i joke often that i'm running from the president right now. the reality is, is look, we've got a real job ahead of us here in washington throughout this nation with donald trump at the helm, coming after civil rights, voting rights, undermining our health care. this is a full-time job. this is my focus right now. let's leave three years from now to then. right now my job is being new jersey's senator. >> we'll ask you again in three years. sena

presumption of guilt the legacy of america's history of racial injustice and it was written by brian stevenson. the second essay is the endurance of racial disparity in criminal justice by mike mauer head of the sentencing private in d.c. i should say brian and i heard some of you comment so you know who he is. remarkable hero of mine who runs equal justice initiative. the third essay is called boys to men. the role of policing in the socialization of black boys written by professor kristin of georgetown and this i'll tell you all this essay almost djt make it to the book so focused on black men and a then -- after talking to chris is one of the nation's top leading experts on the juvenile justice system, i realized wow, of course we have to talk about black boys and -- that chapter remarkable because black boys are treated worse than black men so that essay is pretty revealing. the next one is called racial profiling the law that policy, and the practice written by professor renÉe of the university of maryland. racial profiling is housed for killings start and explain hads it. next chapter is

and so brian stevenson's chapter lays that out and explains that so well. but, and of course there should be a focus on police officers. police officers have a tremendous amount of power and discretion on the street to stop people, to search them, and the law makes it very easy for them to do that. but i think people should focus also on prosecutors, and i don't think people have been focusing on them a lot. they are the most powerful officials in our criminal justice system. police officers absolutely have a lot of power to stop people on the street, search them, frisk them, arrest them. but police officers can only bring people to the courthouse door. it is the prosecutor who decides whether they remain entrenched in the system and end up with a criminal record and all of that. the prosecutor has so much to do with that. and that is because of the two powers they have, the charging decision and the plea bargaining decision. those two decisions made by prosecutors almost predetermine the outcome of criminal cases. and why do i say that? well, if a police o

brian puts them on top. and that put them on top and then two down in the ninth inning, rookie andrew stevenson makes the diving grab to seal the win. nats win it 3-2. they host the giants tonight whether permitting at 7:05 for the weekend. guys. back to you. >> thank you, george. >> go ahead. >> we continue to be following the weather on the nbc wain amelia will have more coming up tonight at 11:00. >> thanks for joining us. nightly news is up next. shoulders don't just carry pads. they carry your fans passions, hopes, and dreams. and maybe, a chance at greatness because shoulders were made for greatness. not dandruff. >>> tonight, locked and loaded. president trump's latest warning to north korea -- make any further threats to the u.s. territories or allies, and you'll regret it fast. >>> american citizens on guam advised what to do if there is an attack, but is there still a diplomatic way out of this? >>> hospital emergency. patients and staff evacuated in a mass casualty event. tonight, the cause still a mystery. >>> concert crackdown. the new way the boss and others are taking a stand against ticket scalp