June 1, 2020

Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones explains that racism is in America’s DNA, starting with the original sin of slavery over 400 years ago. She spearheaded the New York Times’ groundbreaking 1619 Project last year, which re-framed American history from the moment the first enslaved Africans were shipped over. She joins the program to reflect on that history and how it informs our present moment.

One of America’s leading human rights activists is urging people to make themselves heard at the ballot box this November. Martin Luther King III tweeted about why we are seeing the violence: “As my father explained during his lifetime, a riot is the language of the unheard.” King joins the program alongside prominent Black Lives Matter campaigner DeRay Mckesson.

The images of protests rolling through more than 100 American cities since the death of George Floyd have stunned the world. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is a feminist and civil rights leader who took part in the Freedom Summer of 1964. She joins the program from Washington, D.C., to reflect on this long, difficult weekend.