WSSN Stories

Minority Health Institute and UCLA BRITE Center for Science, Research and Policy invite you to attend a virtual town hall with some of the nations’ premier COVID-19 experts and historically Black institution and organization leaders to address facts, fears and myths pertaining to COVID-19 vaccination as we fight to protect and save Black lives.

The townhall will take place on Saturday, January 16 from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. To register and participate in the COVID-19 Vaccination: It Matters in Saving Black Lives visit www.mhinst.org.

Opening in Select Theaters, Digital & Cable VOD January 15

MLK/FBI is an essential expose of the surveillance and harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (labeled by the FBI as the “most dangerous” Black person in America), undertaken by J. Edgar Hoover and the U.S. government. Based on newly discovered and declassified files, as well as revelatory restored footage, the documentary explores the government’s history of targeting Black activists. Directed by Emmy® Award-winner and Oscar®-nominee Sam Pollard, MLK/FBI recounts a tragic story with searing relevance to our current moment.

Q: You were part of a team who made arguably the most comprehensive documentary series about the Civil Rights movement to date. I’m not sure you ever had any reservations about approaching a massive undertaking like this one but talk a little bit about how you arrived at taking on one of the most iconic symbols of civil rights in the United States. What led you to the project? 

Sam Pollard: Working back in 1987 and 1988 on “Eyes on the Prize,” one episode I did was called “Two Societies,” which followed when Dr. King went to Chicago to bring the movement from the South to the North, and the hostility he faced. It was a wake up call to me to know that Dr. King wasn’t always loved and embraced by the American public. If we fast-forward, my producer Benjamin Hedin reached out to me over two years ago about making this documentary, and it was a continuation of my understanding of the contradictions in terms of how King is looked at today by most Americans, and how he was really looked at back then. 

One of those interesting things in our film is when Beverly Gage mentions the fact that there was a poll taken after King and Hoover met – the only time they ever met – about who was more popular. Hoover was much more popular than Dr. King. Most people forget that now, because Hoover is looked at as a pariah, but most Americans back then thought he was a hero. As did I, as a young African American man— 15, 16 years old— I embraced the American notion of what the FBI was all about. Watching the FBI show on television, watching an old movie from 1959, Jimmy Stewart. The FBI were heroes: beating the gangsters, fighting communism. 

It’s always interesting to learn the true story behind these organizations that we mythically make so heroic. We wanted to look at the complexity and the accuracy of the American landscape in terms of the federal government. I hope this film is a wakeup call for America. I understand how complicated this notion of being American is, and how complicated the FBI is today.

Q: We’ve generally known that the FBI spied on Dr. King. But obviously, your film dives deeply into this subject. How long did it take you to pore over archives and then newer revelations about the extent of spying? How long did it take to make the film? 

SP: My producer Ben was poring over archives from day one. We started to really dig into this material, these memoranda and unredacted material, from the beginning. We did our first interviews in December 2017 but the majority, with Beverly Gage, Donna Murch, Clarence Jones, and Andy Young, were in fall 2018, which in this business is pretty fast. We had our editor start screening the material and footage in November 2019. And here we are with the film world premiering in September 2020. 

But it goes back to this decision that was made in 1992, that in twenty-five years some of the documents collected by the Congressional committee investigating assassinations would be unsealed. Because they investigated both Kennedy and King’s assassinations, when documents are released about one, there’s always the other. We couldn’t have known what was in the 2017-2018 declassification. So I think that we were also very fortunate in the timing.

Q: What was new in that declassification?

SP: A lot about the informants and how surrounded Dr. King was. We knew, of course, there were allies in the movement who might be tipping off FBI agents about King’s plans, but the new discoveries make it plain how coordinated and vast the bureau’s sources were. You get to a point where, on the night he died, for example, they’re not even tapping his phones anymore, they have such good informant coverage. 

All the same, it’s important to note that, given Hoover’s motives, you can never take anything that is in these files, even once they are declassified, at face value.  One must always remember the source — where it came from and why. 

Q: It’s eerie how similar the crisis over Black safety inequality in the period covered by the film feels today. And Civil Rights issues are once again at the fore of the American consciousness. 

SP: We are a country that’s always constantly struggling with the issues of race, because this country is founded on the backs of slaves. We have what we call a tipping point and a reckoning in America with Trump in office, with the Black Lives Matter movement and the protests after the murder of George Floyd and the horrific murders that are taking place in this country. So it is extremely timely. But I would say that this film will always be timely in the American zeitgeist, because America and the issues of race never leave. Black men being murdered in the streets of America, by the police, is endemic. It happens every damn day. The work of administrations is to say there’s chaos in the streets, get your weapons out because America is going to fall apart -it happens not only in the Republican administrations, but it happens in Democratic administrations. This is not unusual, but it’s like a huge avalanche now.  What Dr. King went through and what America’s going through today is so connected. At the end of the film, when Beverly Gage talks about the First Amendment, the importance of protesting, it speaks directly to what’s happening in the streets of America today. 

We could have done this film a year from now and it would still be timely as far as I’m concerned. Because this is America, quite honestly, and unless we have a real revolution, it’s going to be the same cycle over and over and over again. 

Q: Dr. King’s legacy has morphed so much from when he was living in your documentary. At one point in the film, someone refers to Dr. King as the most “dangerous Negro in America.” Can you talk a little bit more about how you dealt with his legacy? 

SP: I think it’s important to say a couple of things. First, I think his legacy is going to stay intact. What happens to people who are very important in our history is that over time they are revisited. A great example is how I grew up thinking Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. He was a great president. That’s what was taught to me. Now, we learned over time that Lincoln didn’t initially want to free the slaves. It just became something that was necessary to win the Civil War. In some ways he wasn’t “The Great Liberator” or “The Great Emancipator.” But has it really tarnished his reputation? Abraham Lincoln? Not really. You know, he is still considered one of the great American presidents. So the fact that we have known this already about Dr. King, that he was not a monogamous man, that he was a human being like everybody else. I don’t think it’s going to do anything to hurt his reputation.

We had this discussion when we decided to make the film. We talked about it. When we decided to include the rape allegations, we felt like it was important, as serious filmmakers. To look at all sides of this story, we couldn’t skirt that issue. We had to deal with that. Was Dr. King complicit in whatever went on in that room?  Why would the FBI not go in there and interrupt and arrest them if they knew a woman was being raped? And this all comes from a handwritten note on a memo- there aren’t transcripts of the allegation. It begs many questions, but the information is out there, has been reported on, and we as filmmakers needed to include it in a responsible way, as part of the larger picture of the surveillance. In terms of what the FBI said on the subject, they’re going to couch it in a way that makes King look as horrific as possible. So you have to question everything about it. I don’t think anybody alive really knows what happened in that room. 

When you create a film about someone, you have to look at everything, all the edges. Every part of the human being.  If you wanted to see what I call a whitewashed version, it’s easy to do. But to me, as a filmmaker, I believe that all of us are flawed human beings – as James Comey said. My job is to look at all of that and question it. In a responsible way, but you have to do it. And if you don’t do that then you’re not doing your job. To me, whoever King was as a man didn’t take away from what he did as a great Civil Rights leader. 

What we arrived on after scouring the documents and looking at the facts is that the FBI was so frightened and afraid of this man they were willing to go to any lengths to destroy his reputation.  Something people overlook, is that the civil rights movement was not just Dr. King. America always has to create one person who takes us to the mountaintop, when there were lots of foot soldiers in the Civil Rights movement who got us to the ‘64 and ‘65 Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act – Fred Shuttlesworth and Ralph Abernathy and Dorothy Cotton and Fannie Lou Hamer – there were so many people, it wasn’t just King. He’s been made into the titular head. There’s more than one way to look at Dr. King, and at the movement. 

There’s a very important distinction at the end of the film that the FBI wasn’t a rogue agency. King was pitted against the entire power structure of the government, in that the White House was privy to the surveillance. They would listen in on the recordings. The Congressional committees all knew about it. Nobody stopped it. So it was something that went just beyond the FBI headquarters and the suspicion of King in the halls of power persisted for so long. You know, Reagan didn’t even want to sign the holiday into law. And that’s more than a decade after he was shot. 

Q: Can you talk about the stylistic choice to use archival?

SP: We had discussions in terms of stylistic approach, how we wanted to put it together. Normal rule of thumb is usually you have your interviews on camera and you interweave the archival footage with it. But we felt like we wanted to make sure that you get a real sense of the narrative visually, with this wealth of archival. We wanted to let you just marinate in that new archival material, like the footage of Dr. King at home with his kids.

I want to really tip my hat to Laura Tomaselli, the brilliant editor of the film.

Q: Sorting through all of the archives and materials must have been a huge undertaking. How did you get a hold of rare footage? How did that all come together to shed light on the surveillance of Dr. King? 

SP: We had a great archivist, Brian Becker, and it was important to use footage we hadn’t seen before.  So we privileged that. If it had been seen, it was almost like it was off the table. And we benefited quite a bit from stuff that exists but hadn’t been digitized. The March on Washington footage, the Library of Congress just digitized that a couple of years ago. That film’s been sitting in their warehouse, so that was a source also. 

The footage of King with his family, I’ve never seen before, nor the footage of James Earl Ray being arrested in London. And that’s always the great thing about when you have a good archival producer, who will go to any lengths to find new and fresh material. This gentleman, Brian Becker, did an extraordinary job doing that. 

Q: Can you talk about the experts and the voices you chose to include in the film? For example, we hear from James Comey, former FBI director. The voices were distinct from one another. How did you decide which voices stood out to be included in your documentary? 

SP: One thing we decided early on was to limit the number of interviews to focus on people who could provide cultural and historical context, as well as people who were close to Dr. King.

Donna Murch’s book on the Black Panthers and Black activist groups, “Living for the City: Migration, Education, and the Rise of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, California” and Beverly Gage’s forthcoming book on Hoover, “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the American Century” made them important voices for context. 

In terms of people who were really close to King, Clarence Jones is the man. Clarence Jones is the man because he was at King’s side for many, many years, as was Andrew Young. Both of them were great.

David Garrow’s research remains foundational: he wrote the first major biography of Dr. King, in 1986, and the FBI at one point offered him a monetary settlement if he would not publish his book on the bureau’s campaign against King . And Marc Perrusquia was crucial because he knew about the informants, specifically Ernest Withers. He waged a long court battle against the FBI to get the records proving that Withers was a paid informant. So this was a small group that each person really fitted their particular role.

It was also extremely important to include Bureau sources. As FBI Director, Comey tried very much to take on the legacy of the King surveillance. He would send agents in training to the King Memorial on the Mall and he would have them write a paper about it. Comey said that he kept the original wiretap request that Hoover sent to the Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, in October 1963, the initial request to tap King, under the glass on his desk when he was director as a reminder of the abuses of power. The other FBI source in the film is a guy named Charles Knox, who wasn’t an agent while King was still alive,but what he did was close the “Solo” file. And “Solo” is the codename for a pair of brothers who were embedded in Moscow, maybe the most successful case of informants that Hoover ever had. And it was the intelligence they were providing about the Communist Party that initially sent Hoover on the trail of King. Knox understood the whole sort of arc of the Bureau’s obsession with King. 

Q: The surveillance tapes are under lock and key until 2027. Was it a predicament or a challenge not to have those tapes? 

SP: The big question for me was what if they opened the files in 2027, would the film become irrelevant? I believe that it will still be relevant. Above all, it’s what this story tells us about the American character. Especially right now. Which is why we decided to proceed. I think anything in the tapes will just flesh out what we already know. 

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.”

— Martin Luther King Jr.

LOS ANGELES, CA— Three African American health leaders — advocates for expanded health care who are on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19 raging across California — took a moment to reflect on the state of health care as the holiday honoring civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. approaches on January 18.

Doctors David Carlisle, Elaine Batchlor and Adrian James are admirers of King and find his words of injustice in health care even more profound as hospitals and clinics are overflowing with COVID-19 patients — many of them African Americans and other people of color. 

“On the day that we celebrate the great civil rights icon’s birthday, Dr. King’s sentiment has never been more relevant than today, as the pandemic has laid bare the great health inequities that remain in this country,” said Dr. Carlisle, president and CEO of Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. “COVID-19’s disproportionate impact on communities of color makes it more important than ever that African Americans, Latinos and other people of color seek out affordable health care coverage, such as through Covered California, and also get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available.” 

Carlisle, Batchlor and James recently teamed up with Covered California to address vaccine confidence and encourage Black Californians to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available, and to sign up for quality health insurance coverage through Covered California or Medi-Cal.

“Every day at MLK Community Hospital in South Los Angeles, we see high rates of unmanaged chronic disease that lead to poorer health outcomes,” said Dr. Batchlor, the hospital’s CEO. “This is illuminated by the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on the African American community. We must change our country’s separate and unequal system of care, which is perpetuated by a payment system that disincentivizes doctors to serve in low-income communities like ours.

“I believe access to high-quality health care is a basic human right, and providing universal quality care to everyone, regardless of income level, race or political beliefs is a fundamental act of social justice,” Dr. Batchlor said.  

Dr. Adrian James of the West Oakland Health Council in the San Francisco Bay Area said he and his colleagues are fighting misinformation circulating in the African American community about the vaccines to fight COVID-19.

Underlying medical conditions caused by inequality make people of color more susceptible to illness caused by COVID-19, Dr. James said. Other challenges Black people face include the inability to work from home and social distance.

“The quote from Dr. King that ‘Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman’ is true because it may lead to death, which is the worst possible outcome. In California, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the African American community,” Dr. James said.

The pandemic has also highlighted the importance of quality health care coverage. Right now, an estimated 1.2 million Californians are uninsured — including an estimated 67,000 African Americans — even though they are eligible for financial help through Covered California, or they qualify for low-cost or no-cost coverage through Medi-Cal.

“Roughly nine out of every 10 consumers who enroll through Covered California receive financial assistance — in the form of federal tax credits, state subsidies, or both — which helps make health care more affordable,” Covered California Executive Director Peter V. Lee said.

Covered California’s current open-enrollment period lasts until Jan. 31. Consumers interested in learning more about their coverage options can:

• Visit www.CoveredCA.com.
• Get free and confidential in-person assistance, in a variety of languages, from a certified enroller.
• Have a certified enroller call them and help them for free. Call Covered California at (800) 300-1506.

By Lou Yeboah

You better know that you know. And if you didn’t know, now you know. He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ [Isaiah 6:9]. So I will choose their punishments and will bring on them what they dread. Because I called, but no one answered; I spoke, but they did not listen. And they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight. [Isaiah 66:4]. Therefore, I say again, remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lamp-stand out of its place. [Revelation 2:5]. Take the gift – “Second Chance,” and use it wisely. Repent! For there are serious consequences that would result if My instructions are ignored and My laws are violated [see Deuteronomy 28].

Listen, God is patient, but God is just. In His mercy, He provides us time to repent. In His grace, He allows tragedy to be a warning about judgment rather than executing wrath on us. Make no mistake; it is mercy for us to be warned in this way. But, God will not be patient forever. For those who ignore His kind warnings, like the people in Noah’s day, they likewise will perish also. Don’t you wait until its too late! “For NOW is the acceptable time, for NOW is day of Salvation” [2 Corinthians 6:2].

As Joshua challenged the people to choose who they would serve! The same choice stands before you today! Forsake the foolish, and live, and go in the way of understanding. For as [Hebrews 10:26; Isaiah 58: 1], says, “If you deliberately keep on sinning after you have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire…”

Do not receive the grace of God in vain. Do not ignore, neglect or cast aside God’s offer of mercy. Respond to it now, as it is offered to you. It is a mercy call. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction…”[Matthew 7: 13-14].

“As I live! declares the Lord God, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn back, turn back from your evil ways! Why then will you die?” [Ezekiel 33:11].

SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, Assemblymember Chris Holden introduced, AB 229, legislation that establishes use of force trainings within the existing courses provided by the California Private Security Services Act. Under current laws, no use of force trainings exist for Private Patrol Operators.

“When private security are responsible for the safety of the general public, those private operators must have the proper training in order to apply the appropriate use of force in any particular situation,” said Assemblymember Chris Holden. “We put a lot of attention on our State’s peace officers, but private security, who sometimes are in similar circumstances, need comparable training.”

In 2019, Mario Matthews was restrained face-down on the floor at Golden 1 Center by two security personnel after he ran on to the court following an NBA exhibition game. According the lawsuit filed by his parents, his hands were handcuffed behind his back and the two security personnel got on top of his back.  One security guard used his right knee to apply pressure to the side of Mario’s neck for approximately four and a half minutes.  In addition to the initial two Universal Protection Security personnel, a third security officer placed himself on Mario’s back. 

After approximately ten minutes, several Sacramento Police Department officers arrived and used maximum restraints; they tied his legs together with one strap and another strap around his waist.  For a total of 20 minutes, Mario was facedown with as many as four people on top of him. Mario became unresponsive and was taken to the hospital.  He passed away two days later.  The lawsuit claims that the Sacramento County Coroner acknowledged that restraint was a cause of Mario’s death. 

“What happened to Mario is unacceptable, and proper training will play big role in avoiding unnecessary harm or death to others,” said Holden.

AB 229 requires the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services (BSIS) to develop curriculum and training courses on the appropriate use of force for private security services employees in consultation with the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

By Tanu Henry | California Black Media

Gov. Gavin Newsom sounded upbeat when he announced at a press briefing Friday afternoon that he has submitted a $227 billion budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year to the State Legislature for approval.

The spending plan reflects a brighter picture than the gloomier one Newsom presented last summer when he projected a steep budget shortfall of more than $50 billion. In this proposal, the governor’s office is estimating that there will be a budget surplus of about $15 billion over the 2020-21 fiscal year, with nearly $3 billion stashed in the state’s operating reserve.

“In these darkest moments of the COVID-19 pandemic, this budget will help Californians with urgent action to address our immediate challenges and build towards our recovery,” said Newsom. “As always, our Budget is built on our core California values of inclusion, economic growth and a brighter future for all.”

The proposal includes significant investments intended to shore up and revive the state economy battered by the COVID-19 global pandemic. It proposes $2.4 billion for a one-time payout of $600 per individual from the “Golden State Stimulus” fund for the lowest earning Californians, many of them essential workers, who have been hit hardest by the global health crisis and the economic dip it caused. The majority of workers that have been affected are African American, Hispanic or from other ethnic groups in California and across the country.

To ensure a swift economic recovery, the governor has allocated $372 million to facilitate the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccines across the state.

Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Los Angeles), chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus and the only African American lawmaker in the upper house of the California legislature, says he is pleased that the governor’s budget invests in equity. He told CBM that he will work with the governor’s office to make sure the proposals in the plan, particularly the relief for businesses, benefit Black Californians.

“Governor Newsom’s 2021-2022 budget proposal reflects what we are all hoping: that things are getting back on track and in a better way. The COVID-19 pandemic continues to devastate California, but thanks to the swift actions taken last year by the Legislature and the Governor, we are in a strong position to combat this crisis and rebuild our economy,” Bradford said

 “We do not want to go back to where we were. We want a more just economy moving forward,” the senator added.

Workers at hospitals, grocery store clerks, public transportation operators and more had to continue showing up to work through the most difficult and uncertain phases of the pandemic last year. And entrepreneurs like barbers and beauticians and workers in retail, food and beverage service, hospitality and the leisure sectors suffered the most job losses. Newsom announced $777.5 billion in his budget for economic recovery, including assistance to businesses of all sizes – more than $500 million will go to small businesses — and money to support the state’s minimum wage increase to $14.

Bradford, who is also chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, applauded Gov Newsom for including funding for improving prisons and criminal justice reform efforts.

“As Chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee, I am also pleased to see funding for the maintenance of California state prisons, Los Angeles County, use of force investigations by the Department of Justice, and rehabilitation and educational programs for our inmate population,” he said.  “Following the work I began in 2018 with the California Cannabis Equity Act, I am delighted to see the permanent funding of the state’s local equity grant program, which is a momentous step toward a fair and equitable cannabis market.”

The money for COVID economic recovery comes at a time when there looms the threat of another economic downturn. According to numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor Friday, payrolls across the country decreased by 140,000 jobs in December. It is the sharpest drop in jobs since last April. The economy has not fully bounced back since the beginning of the pandemic last march when it lost 22.2 million jobs. Only 12.4 million jobs have been recovered so far.

Although the governor’s budget projects optimism, and it provides substantial funding for critical ongoing government priorities like education, transportation public safety, higher education, health care and green initiatives, it is short on details. It does however include a clear high-level breakdown of where the money will be spent – if not exactly how. For example, Gov. Newsom calls for $2 billion to help schools across the state to reopen in the next couple of months. The budget also allots $85.8 billion for schools, which includes teacher training, early childhood education programs, teacher recruitment and money to extend learning into the summer.  The governor is also proposing that the state invests $500 million in low-cost housing tax credits; $1.75 billion to continue purchasing motels to house the homeless under “Project Room Key;” and $353 million for job training and creation programs.

Over the next 5 months, Gov. Newsom says he and the Legislature will be working to hash out, distill and define budget priorities. Through the process, they will determine how and at which level of government – state, county or municipal – the monies will be spent. Then in May, he will present his revised, and more detailed, budget to the legislature for final approval before the fiscal year begins in July.

Senate Republicans say over 19,000 small businesses in the state have had to shutter since the pandemic began. Therefore, they are urging the governor to increase funding for them.

“Over the past ten months, the Governor’s shutdowns and COVID-19 challenges have made it difficult for millions of Californians,” said Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) and Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Tehama) in a statement responding to the governor’s budget.

Some environmental groups complained that the budget redirects cash to emergency preparedness, “short-changing” programs that provide funding to underserved communities, some of them places where Black Californians live.

“The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund is meant to cut pollution in our most impacted communities,” said CEO Debra Gore-Mann, president of the Greenlighting Institute, a public policy and research organization based in Oakland. “Funding for wildfires should come from the utilities whose recklessness led to so many problems.

Gov. Newsom says now that he has presented his budget, the hard work begins.

“The Budget makes progress towards the goal I set when taking office to harness California’s spirit of innovation and resilience and put the California Dream within reach of more Californians,” Gov. Newsom said.