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- [00:15]
Amy Goodman
From New York. This is Democracy Now.
- [00:19]
Juan Gonzalez
All I know is that Todd Blanche is great. He's going to do a great job. Everybody knows it. And I understand there's been a sign off, but I don't know what they agreed.
- [00:31]
Amy Goodman
Todd Bl Blanche, the former personal attorney of President Trump, is one step closer to becoming attorney general after two Republican senator holdouts said they were satisfied by a written order from Blanche issued Sunday that purports to rescind the $1.8 billion so called anti weaponization fund, what others call a slush fund, created as part of a controversial settlement deal between Trump and the irs. The of that deal granting Trump his children and his businesses immunity from retroactive tax audits remains intact. Meanwhile, US Attorney Gene Pirro dropped the criminal charges against former Olympian Davey Hearn over alleged vandalism of the reflecting pool, saying instead the damage was from a rushed and flawed renovation. We'll speak to attorney Norm Isaac then. Emmett till would turned 85 on July 25th.
- [01:41]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
What if Emmett Till lived? What if he had returned home still a child, alive and free? What would that life have required of us? All These questions invite a reckoning with the past and a probing investigation of the current state of American life.
- [02:05]
Amy Goodman
If Emmett Till lived. That' the title of a new book in photography exhibit opening next month in Chicago. We'll be joined by cultural historian Sarah Elizabeth Lewis to talk about her collaboration with Emmett Till's cousin, the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. He was with Till almost until his lynching. And finally, the life and legacy of radical historian, scholar and activist Johanna Fernandez. She died last week at the age of 50. Foremost scholar on the radical 60s civil rights organization the Young Lords, no more
- [02:48]
Johanna Fernandez
integral matter in the United States than the struggle for freedom, democracy and to redefine the United States as a country.
- [03:01]
Amy Goodman
We speak with our own Juan Gonzalez about his many years in conversation with Professor Fernandez. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy now, democracynow.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Iran and Oman appear to be near finalizing a deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz and give Iran far more control of the strategic waterway than before the US And Israel attacked Iran five months ago. Under the proposed deal, ships heading into the Persian Gulf would transit through a channel controlled by Iran. Ships leaving the area would travel on a channel controlled by Oman. Iranian officials say ships would be forced to pay a service fee that would be divided equally between Iran and Oman. Meanwhile, Iran and the United States have traded new threats. On Monday, President Trump threatened Iran with decapitation if it doesn't agree to a new deal, while Iran is threatening to target US Warships if the US doesn't lift its naval blockade of Iran. This comes as oil giants continue to report soaring profits thanks to rising gas prices due to the war on Iran. BP reported making nearly $6 billion between April and June, double last year's profit during the second quarter. Saudi Aramco has reported it made $33 billion during the quarter, a 33% jump over last year. On Tuesday, President Trump criticized oil firms for making too much money and called on them to lower prices. In Gaza, a mass funeral is being held today for 112 Palestinians from two families killed in an Israeli attack on residential buildings in Gaza City, November 2023. A total of 308 people are believed to have been killed in the attack, but the bodies of the victims remain buried under rubble for over years. During an operation in mid July, Palestinian civil defense workers recovered 112 bodies, including 44 children and 37 women. Those bodies are being buried today. Mahmoud Basel, a spokesperson for Gaza's Civil Emergency Service, spoke at the funeral while holding remains wrapped in a Palestinian flag.
- [05:34]
Norm Eisen
Oh nation, why are children getting killed in Gaza?
- [05:37]
Juan Gonzalez
Why are women getting killed in Gaza? Why are masks committed against innocents in Gaza?
- [05:43]
Amy Goodman
Todd Blanche's nomination to become the next attorney General appears to be back on track after Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina said they will now support him. On Sunday, Blanche issued a written order that purports to rescind the $1.8 billion so called anti weaponization fund that was part of a controversial settlement of Trump's lawsuit against the irs. Blanche also said in writing the immunity agreement Trump struck with the IRS quote applies only retroactively, unquote. But critics say there are major loopholes in Blanche's written assurances. The Senate Judiciary Committee is voting on Blanche's nomination today. Blanche is Trump's former personal attorney. We'll have more on this story after Headlines President Trump has publicly blasted U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro and is considering firing her after she dismissed charges against individuals accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
- [06:48]
Juan Gonzalez
And I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. Really disappointed with Jeanine Pirro. She folded like an umbrella and people get away with things. It's a disgrace.
- [07:01]
Amy Goodman
Trump met with Pirro at the White House. For months, Trump's claimed without proof that vandals, including a former US Olympian canoeist, had damaged the newly renovated reflecting pool caus the water to turn green. Pirro initially claimed there was tremendous evidence of vandalism, but in recent days she admitted the damage was caused by a, quote, hasty and botched renovation. We'll speak with Davey Hearn's attorney, Norm Eisen. Ukraine is continuing its drone attacks inside Russia. On Monday, a drone hit a Russian Black Sea resort, killing at least seven people, including three children. 58 people were wounded. Footage showed the drone slamming into a crowded beach. Earlier today, a Ukrainian Ukrainian drone strike killed at least five people around Moscow. This comes as Russia continues to strike Ukraine. A Russian drone and ballistic missile attack killed nine in Kyiv on Saturday. Russian strikes killed another five Ukrainians Today. Europe is grappling with a record breaking heat wave as Greece and France continue to battle wildfires. Wildfires outside Athens jumped containment lines. This comes a day after two firefighting helicopters collided in midair, killing two crew members in France. Firefighters in the region around Bordeaux guarded against potential flare ups in England and Wales suffered the driest July in nearly 200 years due to a prolonged heat wave and lack of rainfall, according to the UK's weather service. In Sudan, a Sudanese army drone attack killed 35 people in Darfur, according to the Emergency Lawyers Group, which has documented abuses by both sides of the civil war in Sudan. The strike on Sunday hit a court in the village of Gara al Zawaiya in north Darfur, which is under the control of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. According to the UN, more than 1,000 civilians were killed in drone strikes in Sudan during the first five months of the year. The conflict, now in its fourth year, has killed at least 59,000 people, displaced about 13 million, and pushed much of Sudan into famine. The state of Michigan's reported the first two deaths tied to the nationwide cyclospiriasis outbreak. More than 11,000 cases of the illness have been detected in the state and 193people have been hospitalized since May. According to the CDC. Cases have been found in 45 US states. The outbreak comes a year after the Trump administration ended the Food and Drug Administration's mandatory tracking for cyclospora and five other pathogens. This is Dr. Rabia de la Tour, a gastroenterologist at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine.
- [09:54]
Johanna Fernandez
2025 there was a change in the actual regulation of cyclospirasis in tracking and tracing this specific parasite, and it was changed from being a mandatory tracking and
- [10:04]
Amy Goodman
tracing program to voluntary for states.
- [10:07]
Johanna Fernandez
And I think that is also contributing to the fact that this outbreak was so massive.
- [10:11]
Amy Goodman
It's Election Day in Michigan in the Democratic Senate primary, Dr. Abdul El Sayed faces off against Haley Stevens, one of the most closely watched primary races of the year. The winner will face Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November. Polls show the progressive El Sayed will likely win the race even though APEC and its affiliated groups have spent over $46 million to help Congresswoman Stevens. Key backers of Dr. El Sayed include Senators Bernie Sander and the United Autoworkers, while Stevens was endorsed by much of the political establishment, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Voters are also going to the polls in Kansas, Virginia, Washington state and Missouri, where former Democratic Congressmember Corey Bush is challenging Representative Wesley Bell in a rematch of their race two years ago on Capitol Hill. A number of religious leaders and activists were arrested Monday while protesting the war in Iran and the Trump administration's attack on voting rights. The day of action was led by Bishop William Barber of Repairers of the Breach and it's kind of shameful that
- [11:26]
Juan Gonzalez
you get arrested for shouting out for voting rights, but you don't get arrested for voter suppression.
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Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
You get arrested caring about voting rights
- [11:33]
Amy Goodman
and living wages and health care, but
- [11:34]
Juan Gonzalez
you don't get arrested for an illegal war.
- [11:37]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
But we're going to arrest the attention of the nation.
- [11:40]
Amy Goodman
25 Democratic led states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration Monday arguing the president exceeded his legal authority to tax import with his newest tariffs on goods from 60 countries. The states are asking the US Court of International Trade to block and overturn the tariffs and refund duties they've paid. In New Jersey, a Salvadoran immigrant has died while being held at the notorious ICE jail known as Delaney hall in Newark, New Jersey. 41 year old Edwin Lopez Conejo is the 22nd person to die in ICE custody this year and the second to die at Delaney Hall. The cause of his death is unknown. Lopez Conejo leaves behind a 12 year old daughter. His mother, Maria Conejo, told the New Jersey Monitor, quote, I never got to see him. He didn't get to see his daughter for six weeks. When he told her what happened, she let out a big scream and hasn't been the same since. She can't sleep or eat. Neither can I, his mother said. Said According to court records revealed by the Guardian, the Trump administration tried to subject at least 10 hunger striking ICE prisoners to involuntary medical procedures, including force feeding. At least three and possibly five prisoners were actually force fed while five others abandoned their hunger strikes at the last moment rather than be inserted with a tube through the nose and down the esophagus and into the stomach One Kurdish asylum seeker and hunger striker detained at the privately run Port Isabel Service Processing center in South Texas was subjected to force feeding for nearly eight months. A federal judge Monday blocked New York's law barring federal immigration agents from wearing masks and requiring visible identification. The judge found the US Is likely to win its Supremacy Clause argument that states cannot regulate federal officers. But the judge allowed New York's separate ban on cooperation agreements between local police and ice. Meanwhile in Pittsburgh, the family of Daffy Michel, a 31 year old Haitian asylum seeker, is expected to sue ICE after she died of hypothermia at a bus shelter days after her release from ICE custody. The Allegheny county medical examiner said her death was a homicide. The medical examiner found she was a vulnerable adult with untreated severe mental illness and a significant language barrier. Her Family's attorney says Ice fitted her with an ankle monitor, dropped her 25 miles from home and left her in the February cold wearing summer clothing. Federal workers sued the Trump administration Monday over its policy ending gender affirming care coverage for adults federal employee health plans. The lawsuit brought by the Human Rights Campaign foundation, targets an Office of Personnel Management mandate that directs insurers to eliminate coverage for transition related medical care. And here in New York, a dozen current and former home care workers have begun an eighth day on a hunger strike to pressure the New York City Council to pass the no More 24 act to ban 24 hour shifts. Home care workers often work consecutive days providing round the clock care for elderly and disabled patients. Over the past week, the home care workers have protested outside New York City hall and the home of New York City Council Speaker Julie Menon, one of the home care workers on hunger strike. Shui Jiang Chen spoke at a rally Sunday.
- [15:31]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
Today we say the 24 hour workday
- [15:34]
Johanna Fernandez
is not only an act of violence
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Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
against home care workers, but also demeans everyone who provides care, including mothers and sisters everywhere.
- [15:43]
Amy Goodman
And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman in New York, joined by Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. Hi, Juan.
- [15:56]
Juan Gonzalez
Hi, Amy. And welcome to all of our listeners and viewers across the country and around the world.
- [16:01]
Amy Goodman
Well, later in the broadcast, we're going to go to an exhibit about to open in Chicago about the life and death of Emmett Till. But first, this top news. Todd Blanche's nomination to become the next attorney general appears to be back on track after Republican Senators John Cornyn of Texas and Thom Tillis of North Carolina said they will now support his confirmation. On Sunday, Blanche issued a written order that purports to rescind a $1.8 billion so called anti weaponization fund, what many call a that was part of a controversial settlement of Trump's personal lawsuit against the irs. Blanche also said in writing the immunity agreement Trump struck with the IRS applies only retroactively. But critics say there are major loopholes in Blanche's written assurances. The Senate Judiciary Committee is voting on Blanche's nomination today. Blanche, who is Trump's former personal defense attorney, first told senators we're not moving forward with the fund during a hearing last month.
- [17:13]
Norm Eisen
Not moving forward with the fund, period. The reasons for the fund is something that President Trump talked about for a long time, which is the fact that there were a lot of people in this country who had their government weaponized against them. The reasons for the fund I think were remain as important as they were before, but we are not moving forward with the fund.
- [17:36]
Amy Goodman
That's what he said. But until this weekend he didn't put it in writing and we'll find out if the writing matters. This comes as U.S. attorney Jeanine Pirro Friday dropped the case against the former US Olympian canoeist Davey Hearn, accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool. On June 19th. Hearn stopped by the pool while on a 64 mile bike ride. He says he touched the pool to see what it felt like and was then arrested, handcuffed, held for five hours by US Park Police. He was then charged with a felony. Prosecutors in Washington also dropped charges against three others who are similarly accused of damaging the pool. President Trump, in response, blasted the U.S. attorney Janine Pirro, who said the damage to the reflecting pool was ultimately due to poor construction and not to vandalism as Trump had claimed for months. In her filing, Pirro blamed the Department of Interior DOI for failing to provide accurate documentation on the case. Before her office wrote the indictment, Pirro said her office had received new information showing the damage was, quote, the result of a botched installation and not vandalism as initially represented by doi, unquote. Piro also blamed Trump over his demands to finish the pool's renovation by the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. She said the rush to complete the project led to hasty and botched work that was not remediated before the project was finished and the fencing removed. Given all this newly discovered information, it's difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the reflecting pool to vandalism, unquote. The filing contradicted Pirro's initial claim that there was tremendous evidence of vandalism. Meanwhile, CNN spoke to sources who said Trump was furious in considering removing Pirro as U.S. attorney. Trump met with Pirro at the White House Monday. He spoke from the Oval Office.
- [19:41]
Juan Gonzalez
That was the one mistake with the reflecting pond. They hadn't put up the cameras yet. They had enough up because you see what's happening. But if they would have had them up, we would have had a lot of it would have been a lot easier. But and I was disappointed with Jeanine Pirro, really disappointed with Janine Bureau. She, she folded like an umbrella. And people get away with things and it's a disgrace.
- [20:07]
Amy Goodman
More we go to Washington, D.C. where we're joined by Norm Eisen, co founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund, one of Davey Hearn's attorneys. He was White House special counsel for ethics and government reform in the Obama administration, considered Obama's ethics advisor. Welcome back to Democracy now, Norm. We last had you on when Davy was charged. Now the charges have been dropped. I want to talk about both Davey Hearn and Blanche. Blanche now signing this statement that some say is actually not worth too much, that Trump could re sign an executive order almost immediately around getting rid of the $1.8 million slush fund. And the whole question Trump being audited retroactively, his, his tax returns, his children's and his businesses. Why don't you start there?
- [21:09]
Norm Eisen
Well, Amy, at Democracy Defenders fund, we represent 35 former federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties who filed in the federal district court in Florida. Judge Williams that oversaw the underlying dispute that gave rise to the slush fund and the associated purported releases for Donald Trump and his family. The judges made the point that there's no case or controversy. It's not a real case dispute between Donald Trump and the federal government. And under the Constitution, you have to have a dispute in order to have a slush fund or in order to have these kinds of releases. The judge in response to our papers, found that there was no legal basis for this, ordered that you can't even refer to these documents, including the one Blanche signed as settlements. And we're continuing to litigate that. So we have profound concerns about the whole mess. We're going to keep going in court. And it just is not right to take this $1.8 billion to try to take it away from the American people. And then the additional documents filed by Mr. Bland Branch with the Senate don't really materially change the fundamental illegality of the whole thing.
- [22:58]
Juan Gonzalez
Well, what about this whole issue that what has survived is this retroactive immunity for Trump and his sons and the Trump Organization on any tax charges or investigations.
- [23:16]
Norm Eisen
The releases, supposed releases, can't be valid if there was never an underlying claim or controversy, a constitutional basis to start the case. It's just a giveaway to the president. It's a shock that our Department of Justice would engage in that behavior. Behavior. These documents that Mr. Blanche filed with the Senate don't really change that. And we're going to keep on going in court to make sure that this is never acted upon. I think if Donald Trump ever tried to use that to say, hey, I got a release, courts could throw it out. They could refuse to recognize it. The whole thing is an example, one of the worst examples of the corruption of the Trump administration.
- [24:15]
Juan Gonzalez
And could you talk in general about the role of Todd Blanche since he was named Attorney General?
- [24:26]
Norm Eisen
Well, it's been profoundly concerning. There have been a series of offenses against the rule of law, miscarriages of justice. And we saw that with the wrongful prosecutions of Tish James, of Jim Comey, David Huerta, the labor leader in California. I was part of that defense team. That case was just thrown out. He was prosecuted for peacefully protesting. They had to drop that case. And that, of course, brings us to the case of Mr. Hearn. Of all of the things that we can say about the Department of Justice, the single worst thing that it has done under Todd Blanche's leadership is go after innocent people. That's the opposite of justice should be called the Department of Injustice.
- [25:29]
Amy Goodman
So what happens with Davey Hearn now? And can other charges be brought? And do you think U.S. attorney Pirro is out?
- [25:41]
Norm Eisen
Well, the latest reporting after yesterday's meeting was that she had not offered her resignation. Her resignation had not been requested at that meeting. We'll see if that turns out to be the case. Look, Davey Hearn was innocent. We've said so from the very beginning of this case. The Department of Justice knew he was innocent. We started filing a series of motions the day after the arraignment. We filed one with before and after pictures based on the government's own evidence showing that the reflecting pool was unchanged, changed after Mr. Hearn touched it. It was the same before as it was after. So it's appropriate that the Department of Justice has requested the court to drop the charges. I think it would be pretty tough. Also terribly wrong to charge Mr. Hearn again after the admissions that the Department of Justice has made in their filing at the end of last week. That they can't establish proof beyond a reasonable doubt that they don't have evidence that the damage that they claimed actually happened, that the cause of the damage to the reflecting pool was a botched and rushed renovation.
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Amy Goodman
And let's remember this botched and we're going to Amy let's remember this botched renovation was as a result of a no bid contract given to a friend of President Trump, Norm Eisen. We're going to leave it there. Co founder and executive chair of Democracy Defenders Fund. One of Davey Hearn's attorneys was White House special counsel for ethics and government reform in the Obama administration. Coming up, Emmett Till would have turned 85 on July 25th. What if Emmett Till lived? We'll speak with cultural historian Sarah Elizabeth Lewis. Stay.
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Johanna Fernandez
Riverside,
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Amy Goodman
Sweet honey in the rock, down by the riverside. Performing at our Fire House studio years ago. This is Democracy now. Democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman in New York with Juan Gonzalez in Chicago. What if Emmett Till had lived? What if he'd safely boarded the train back home to Chicago? More than 70 years after the kidnapping, torture and lynching of 14 year old Emmett Till in Mississippi, a major new photography exhibit and companion book ask those question by imagining not only the life young Emmett lost, but the decades he was denied. This is the exhibit's curator, Sarah Elizabeth Lewis.
- [29:41]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
What if Emmett Till lived? What if he had returned home still a child, alive and free? What would that look life have required of us all? These questions invite a reckoning with the past and a probing investigation of the current state of American life. This exhibition, this publication and the invitation together offer a collective arena to consider how freedom has been secured on American ground. It is a creative monument to Emmett Till's unlived life. It lets us picture what could have come, what should have come. It lets us imagine it, what it wrought and what it signals about the work that remains.
- [30:41]
Amy Goodman
If Emmett Till had lived, he would have turned 85 years old on July 25, the day the Illinois Governor J.B. pritzker has declared Emmett Tillday. But Till was murdered at the age of 14 on August 28, 1955, dragged from his great uncle's home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men for allegedly whistling at a white woman. They beat, tortured and shot. Till tied a heavy cotton gin fan to him with barbed wire, threw his body into the Tallahatchie River. His body was discovered several days later. Mamie Till Mobley, Emmett Till's mother, had his body returned to Chicago for burial. She insisted on an open casket so the world could see the brutality of bigotry and racism. JET magazine and other publications carried photos of Emmett Till's beaten, distended face in his coffin, shocking the world and galvanizing the civil rights movement. Speaking to Democracy now in 2000, Mamie Tomobley reflected reflected on the painful moment she learned about her son's murder. We knew that Emmett was dead. Our first action. We couldn't take time to cry as I announced to the family what was happening.
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Juan Gonzalez
Of course there were screams, people were
- [32:07]
Amy Goodman
hitting the floor and hysteria was setting in. And I remember standing
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Juan Gonzalez
announcing that we
- [32:16]
Amy Goodman
don't have time to cry now.
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Juan Gonzalez
We've got to do something.
- [32:20]
Amy Goodman
I don't know what to do and you've got to help me come to make some decisions. Amy the voice of Mamie Till Mobley on Democracy Now a quarter of a century ago. To see the whole interview, you can go to democracynow.org, the new exhibit, if Emmett Till Lived Freedom on American Ground, opens Sept. 10 at the museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia Colle, Chicago. Drawing from the museum's permanent collection, it invites visitors to imagine the decades Emmett Till never lived, the neighborhoods he might have walked, the civil rights struggles he might have witnessed, the family he might have built, the ordinary moments of joy he never had the chance to experience. It comes as the Trump administration's escalated attacks on dei, diversity, equity and inclusion moved to censor how US History is taught and presented in targeted museums and cultural institutions over installations and program reckoning with Racism and the Nation's Past. For more, we're joined by Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, cultural historian who collaborated with Emmett Till's cousin, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. The last living witness to see Emmet, to curate the exhibition and the accompanying stand alone publication, the book if Emmett Till A Creative Monument. Professor Lewis is founder of the Vision and Justice Initiative and currently the John L. Loeb Associate Professor, Humanities and Associate professor of African American Studies at Harvard University. Welcome to Democracy now. It's great to have you with us.
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Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
It's an honor to be with you. Thank you.
- [33:58]
Amy Goodman
What a journey you have been on and you're taking us all on. You have just returned from being with Emmett's cousin, the last one of the last people except for his murderers, to see him alive. You went to Mississippi. You came back to Chicago. Can you talk about this journey and what inspired this remarkable that's going to come out soon?
- [34:23]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
If Emmett Till lived, yes, again, it's an honor to be with you and to know that Mamie Till Mobley also spoke with you. Who inspired this entire journey for me, have we made good on the sacrifice of Emmett Till's life? This is a question I asked myself when I went to Mississippi and saw for myself the evidence of the resistance to honoring his life even 70 years later later. The bullet shot marker at the Tallahatchie river site, Greybull Landing, for example, being one. And I asked myself, what more could I do? We all have a role to play. And asked myself if we have found if we need new ways to see anew. To see his life anew. This exhibition was inspired by Mamie Till, Mobley's professor Prophetic act. She challenged us to understand the power of witnessing an American democracy. She said, as you know, let the world see what they've done to my son. In that moment, she was living out an idea that so many before her understood. Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. du Bois. That we would need the power of the image to understand the unspeakable American democracy. But the question I asked myself is, what's required today? Have we seen so many images of injustice that we might be numb to it? And so, through the extraordinary collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography, found an arena, a way to invite people in, to understand his humanity, all of our humanity, and resulted in this exhibition that opens in September. And it's culled from the collection. Approximately 70 photographers deliberately to rhyme with the nearly 70 years that have passed. And really is joining so many others in this moment. From the National Trust that is doing extraordinary work to renovate Roberts Temple, to the state of Illinois where Governor Pritzker announced that we would have an Emmett Till day to really ask this question, if Emmett Till lived, what would that life have looked like for us all? And so it brings everyone in to this conversation and Sarah Lewis, I wanted
- [36:45]
Juan Gonzalez
to ask you, you mentioned the bulletproof marker at Greybull Landing in Mississippi. I'm not sure that most of our audience is aware of its history. Could you talk about that and the resistance to it?
- [36:57]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
Yes. Thank you. The Emmett Till Interpretive center began to honor the site where his body is thought to have been brought out of the Tallahatchie River. In 2008. That first marker was shot, defaced, with acid and thrown into the Tallahatchie river shortly after it was erected. 35 days, I believe after it was erected. The second marker was shot 317 times at and the third marker had the same fate. One of the markers is in the Smithsonian today. The fourth marker, which was erected recently, is deliberately bulletproof, weighs 500 pounds and is fronted with abrasion resistant acrylic to protect it from these acts of violence. When I saw the reporting on this in 2019, it was because a group of students at University of Mississippi had proudly displayed themselves having shot the marker on their social media page. And I was stunned. I needed to see for myself the site, the context, to understand the act itself. Was it a highway shooting? How premeditated was this? And saw that that road to Grebel Landing makes you pay for every inch. You have to know where you're going. The gravel on the ground for forced my car to slow down to such a speed that you would have to be conscious of where you were. This is a sacred sight. What does it mean? That over 70 years later, we still cannot let his body rest. The bullet shots on each marker to me indicate a symbol of why bravery is required in American democracy today. The acts of resistance give you a sense of the urgency to understand the significance of Governor Pritzker's act, of the Roberts Temple renovation, of the decision and the announcement by President Joe Biden in 2023 that there would be a tri site monument to Mamie Cholmoble and Emmett Till. Unless you understand the resistance, the bulletproof marker being, I think, the most vivid one, you don't understand the significance of these acts, of these mon, these markers. So that's it.
- [39:23]
Juan Gonzalez
And I'm wondering if you could put this in context today. Last year CBS ran a piece titled National Monument honoring Emmett Till at risk of removal due to Trump's anti DEI initiatives and budget cuts. Your response?
- [39:39]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
Well, I don't believe that, that, that the Smithsonian ever removed anything, from what I understand. But what it does indicate, what this cultural moment indicates, is the significance of markers and monuments for American democracy. One of the hidden forces in American democracy is the power of culture. Right? This is we really today asking ourselves, what does truth and reconciliation require? It requires witnessing again. This is what Mademy Till Mobley was so prophetic. And understanding it requires that we actually see our history. And if we ignore the role that mutations, museums play, that displays play, that markers and symbols and monuments play, we're missing how we've actually constructed and assembled our democracy. We also are in need of a new assembly today in American democracy. And that's being constituted by lawyers like Bryan Stevenson and Sherrilyn Ifill who understand the importance of culture for justice today. Bryan Stevenson creating the legacy sites in Montgomery to honor the over 4,000 lynched men, women and children whose lives have not been ignored, acknowledged or honored and dedicated his nonexistent free Time to creating a memorial complex. Sherrilyn Ifill, with her new 14th Amendment center, is seeing culture as a pillar for democracy. Why? Because art really is one of the critical modes of creating an appeal to the moral imagination. What do you do in the face of unjust law? You have to appeal to the conscience. And the power of the art artist is to do precisely that. We see this with Gordon Parks. You see this with Lewis Hine, whose work transformed labor movements. You see this with so many of the artists who are also in the exhibition itself.
- [41:24]
Amy Goodman
And I want to talk about that exhibition and the book. You have Lonnie Bunch, what if Emmett Till lived? Quoting from Mamie Till Mobley after a moving hours long conversation with her, he said, she said she had carried the burden of Emmett's memory for nearly 50 years. And it was time historians like myself share that burden. She ended our conversation by saying that to her, Emmett was crucified on the cross of racial hatred and injustice. Lonnie Bunch, head now of the Smithsonian, under so much enormous pressure. I want to go to the cosmic cover of this book, this astounding cover. If Emmett Till lived. Tell us about the photograph and overall the photographs you chose.
- [42:15]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
Thank you. Well, this, I'm not afraid to say, was inspired by what I can only describe as divination. I went through 18,000 photographs in the museum's collection and asked myself, what would Emmett Till want for the unfurling of his life? And then asked a set of individuals, including lonnie bunch, Ava DuVernay, many others. Alicia Garza founded the Black Lives Matter movement to select images as well, to walk alongside Reverend Wheeler Parker and Mamie Till Mobley. But this photograph by Stephen Mark that's on the COVID taken in 1988, struck me as an emblem for the entire project. It is not constructed. It is a real life event that he witnessed on a beach in Chicago. Father tossing his young boy up in the air. And he saw it and he asked, he had one frame left in his camera film, of course, if he could do it again. And he did. And he captured the exact moment he wanted. I asked myself as I looked at it, which one is Emmett Till? It could be, of course, the young boy suspended, secure, almost impossibly confident in that state of this ascent. But it should also be able to be the father. He should also be able to see Emmett Till as that father. And it prompted me to think of the life denied. That tilted horizon line, I think, speaks to the work we need to do to write our foundation and secure American grounds. So that all are secure on it. Stephen Mark, this extraordinary photographer is one of many in the show. He happens to be a relative of Dr. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress. But this photograph becomes an emblem for the central question. What if Emmett Till lived and speaks to. I think the work we need to tilt that horizon line to straighten our ground.
- [44:17]
Amy Goodman
You'll be. You were on Friday with Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. Emmett's cousin, next door neighbor, went with him to Money, Mississippi was with him the night the white men, the mob came and ultimately lynched him. And he ended up in the bottom of the Tallahatchie River. You were at Mamie Till Mobley and Emmett Till's grave. Describe that journey.
- [44:42]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
If every American took the journey that Emmett Till walked to go to Mississippi and that his body went through to meet his end, we would have the truth and reconciliation we need in this democracy. It has been a profound time. What an honor to be able to co curate the show with Reverend Wheeler Parker, who has such an extraordinarily open heart, has seen the worst, has forgiven all. It has been really unspeakable. We recently went to Mississippi on what is his final journey to the ground where Emmett Till was last free and then died. We went to every site pertaining to that, his time there. Thankfully, we did photograph and film it because it's impossible to describe. So hopefully you'll be able to see here, for examp, an image of us at the barn, the site that is now in the hands of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. It was the first time that he had met the owner of the barn who held it for over 30 years and the first time that they met. And you can see in my face the tension and the nervousness about that meeting. It is the equivalent, this barn,
- [46:07]
Juan Gonzalez
if
- [46:07]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
you were to make an analogy to the Holocaust, the oven, in effect, this is our symbol, right? And there Emmett Till was tortured and lynched. Willie Reed heard those sounds. What was it like for Reverend Parker, I have to wonder. He described it to me, but we'll never fully know. He thought of what his best friend was going through. But he also also describes this fundamental fact that Emmett Till did not end in the casket. His life lived on with all that came in its wake. So he has an understanding of the sort of redemption that did transpire for the country. But it was painful to watch him there. It was inspiring to see in Chicago and in Mississippi too, how. How his testimony inspires. You know, when you're in his presence and you hear him think through the journey of the 70 years that have happened since. When you hear him describe that he was sent out on the first thing smoking, as he says, back to Chicago after Emmett Till was kidnapped, you realize that Emmett Till, you know, is so many of us. Emmett Till could have been Reverend Parker. He knows that he lives with that survivor's guilt, as he describes it, and has turned the intensity of that, that heat into light to illuminate what we need to understand about ourselves in this democracy.
- [47:39]
Amy Goodman
If Emmett Till Lived is the new book and the photo exhibition at Columbia College that opens on September 10th and that date that he died, August 28th, also the date most people don't realize that Dr. Martin Luther King held that rally on the Mall. If I have a dream, August 28, 1963, it was eight years later, Mamie, Tom Mobley saying she wanted that casket open for the wake and the funeral, for the world to see the ravages of racism, the brutality of bigotry. Sara Elizabeth Lewis, thank you so much for being with us. Cultural historian who collaborated with Emmett's cousin, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. The last living witness to see Emmett. They've curated the forthcoming exhibition Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, opening September 10th. The exhibit titled and the new book titled if Emmett Till Lived. We will cover all that transpires coming up. And I look forward to being with you, Professor Lewis on August 11 in Edinburgh along with Bryan Stevenson and Ken Burns and Nikki Benedetti and Wynton Marsalis for an amazing event talking about all these issues and more. Coming up, the life and legacy of the late historian and activist Johanna Fernandez. Juan Gonzalez remembers. Stay with us. Get back home.
- [49:19]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
Be something
- [49:22]
Amy Goodman
I just want to fall in line do my time Be something I just want to prove my worth
- [49:32]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
on the planet earth and be something
- [49:38]
Johanna Fernandez
I just want to fall in love
- [49:40]
Amy Goodman
and not ruin it and feel something
- [49:43]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
Something
- [49:46]
Amy Goodman
well, lately I don't understand what
- [49:49]
Sarah Elizabeth Lewis
I am treated as A fool not quite a woman or a man
- [50:00]
Amy Goodman
well, I don't know. I guess I don't understand the plan.
- [50:09]
Johanna Fernandez
Colonized and hypnotized, Be Something
- [50:16]
Amy Goodman
Polante, performed by Linda Segarra. And hooray for the Riffraff at Democracy Now's 30th anniversary in Riverside Church in March. This is democracy now, democracynow.org, i'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez as we turn to the life and legacy of the Dominican American historian, activist, prison abolitionist, Dr. Johanna Fernandez. She died July 30th after a years long battle with cancer. She was 55 years old. As a professor of history at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center. Fernandez was a leading scholar of the Young lords, the radical 1960s civil rights group founded here in New York and modeled on the Black Panthers, also founded in Chicago. Juan Gonzalez helped to found the one here in New York, York. Professor Fernandez published the award winning book the Young A Radical History in 2019. In 2015, she curated the exhibition the Young Lords in New York. Fernandez also created the Latinx Freedom Movement Archive and Exhibition project alongside the historian Felipe Hinojosa. The exhibition is currently on view at the Shed in New York City as well as in Chicago and Los Angeles. Iterations will also be presented in Houston and D.C. a statement by exhibit organizers including Fernandez, said quota Scholars of U.S. history were deeply concerned about the widespread lack of knowledge about American history, particularly regarding the origins of Latinos in the country and their contributions to the expansion of American democracy. Closing the knowledge gap about Latino history through public education is central to our work, they said. This is Professor Fernandez speaking on Democracy now in 2015 about the Lords what
- [52:04]
Johanna Fernandez
we see is that the movements of the 1960s, what is known as the New Left and the Black Power Movement, transformed the relationship between people of color and white people, challenged US Foreign policy, but also transformed our understanding of gender and sexuality. And those were the issues that the Young Lords were concerned concerned with. The Young Lords are important because in my opinion, from my research, they are the single group in the New Left that was most effective and most active even though we know very little about them.
- [52:43]
Amy Goodman
That was Dr. Johanna Fernandez in Democracy Now. Years ago in 2020, Congress passed legislation to build a National Museum of the American Latino. A temporary exhibit was opened by the museum at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in 2022, called Present A Latino History of the United States. Backlash to the exhibit led the Smithsonian to halt plans for a future exhibit on the Latino civil rights movement that was in development by Johanna Fernandez in 2023. I asked her about the exhibit and the significance of the backlash.
- [53:19]
Johanna Fernandez
What's important is that it establishes the question, who are Latinos? Knows? How did they get here and what's their relationship to their communities and to the nation and the world? Well, I think we have to look at this conflict in the broader history of the last 10 years, when conservatives have launched a calculated and broad sweeping campaign to essentially eliminate the teaching of black American history, Latino history, ethnic studies, women's history and LGBTQ history in the schools. And now what we see is that through this witch hunt and by smearing historians and curators as Marxists These conservatives, conservatives are using fear to essentially push through their agenda. And now again, this has reached a federal museum, and not just any federal museum, but the largest network of museums in the world, which is known as the Smithsonian. In many ways, this sounds and looks like a repeat of the Redskins scare or previous moments of repression in the United States.
- [54:53]
Amy Goodman
That was historian, professor and activist Johanna Fernandez on Democracy now in 2023. Juan Gonzalez, you knew Johanna for so many years. She died just last week at the age of 55. Talk about her significance.
- [55:12]
Juan Gonzalez
Yes, Amy, Well, Johanna was, as you mentioned, a consummate historian, a committed activist, abolitionist and fighter for social justice, and also a warm and generous human being. She did more than any other scholar of the past half century to chronicle and preserve the legacy of the Young Lords, to document and analyze the lasting impact the Lord had on movements of Puerto Ricans and other Latinos for self determination, for civil rights and for revolutionary change. I met her more than 25 years ago when she was a graduate student at Columbia University. And I was speaking there to some students. And over the years she contacted me on many occasions, interviewed me and many, practically all of the Young Lords, and did enormous archival research to produce her book, which by the way, won one of the top prizes of the Organization of American American History, the prestigious Frederick Jackson Turner Award for a history book. But she was also an activist. She did a lot of work in support of Mumia Abu Jama, produced a film, justice on Trial, about Mumia's case, and of course, as you mentioned, organized the Latinx Freedom Movement Conference, which brought Together scores of four former 60s and 70s activists of the Chicano Puerto Rican, Dominican Cuban Revolutionary Movement in New York just in April. That was the last time I saw her, was in April at that conference. And even then, as she was battling cancer, she still found time to finish the work of that conference and to do all the oral histories of all of the activists. She was an amazing person with enormous energy, energy and spirit. And we are all better people for having known her, but obviously all feeling very much her loss, the loss of her at this time.
- [57:17]
Amy Goodman
Well, Juan, we're going to end with the words of Professor Johanna Fernandez as she long talked about the case of Mumia Abu Jamal, talking about his lack of a fair trial, the politicization of his case. This is Johanna Fernandez speaking about Mumia abu Jamal in 2018.
- [57:39]
Johanna Fernandez
Philadelphia is the city that imprisons the majority of black and brown youth. This is the city that has also imprisoned and attempted to silence the most important political prisoner in the history of the United States, essentially the Nelson Mandela of our time. So the if there's a victory in this case, in the case of a man who's been demonized for essentially illuminating the truth about black oppression, about the predations of capitalism and imperialism, a man who is mild mannered but is unwilling to compromise with justice, this is the reason why he's been demonized by the police.
- [58:20]
Amy Goodman
Those were the words of Professor, Professor Johanna Fernandez. She was a professor at Baruch College. She died last week at the age of 55, continuing to champion the case of Mumia Abujamal, who remains in prison after 44 years. To see all our interviews with Johanna Fernandez and Mumia Abu Jamal and Beyond, go to democracynow.org that does it for us. A show again. I'll be in Edinburgh on August 11 at the Edinburgh Festival. I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez.