of violent oppression came down especially hard in mississippi. now all of this was happening in new york city. a 25 year old map teacher at a private school in the bronx was reading about this and felt compelled to get involved. there he found out not only had a talent for math in education but also had a incredible talent for organizing and talking to folks, for mobilizing. his name was bob moses. and 1964, this softspoken matched teacher with a masters degree in philosophy from harvard, would become the principal organizer of the freedom summer project, an effort to dislodge the state of tyranny by initiating voter registration. >> we hope to send into mississippi this summer upwards of 1000 teachers, ministers, lawyers, and students from all around the country who will engage in what we're calling freedom schools, community center programs, voter registration activity, research work, work in the white communities and in general a program designed to open up mississippi to the country. >> people did come and so did the violence to meet them. in

he went down to mississippi. and there, he found out that he not only had a talent for math and education, but also had this incredible talent for organizing. for talking to folks. for mobilizing. his name was bob moses. and in 1964, this soft-spoken math teacher with a masters degree in philosophy from harvard would become the principal of an effort to dislodge the state of tyranny by initiating voter registration drives. >> we hope to -- to send, into mississippi, this summer, upwards of 1,000 teachers, ministers, lawyers, and students from all around the country, who will engage in, what we are calling, freedom schools, community-center programs, voter-registration activity, research work, work in the white communities. and in general, a -- a program designed to open up mississippi to the country. >> people did come. and so did the violence to meet them. in a summer of 1964, alone, mississippi journalist jerry mitchell reports klansmen had killed six people, shot 35 others, and beaten another 80. the homes, bu

one out of every six jobs in louisiana is from the mississippi river. i like to say it's one of our greatest-- probably our greatest natural resource. >> reporter: hathorn has navigated large ships up and down the channel for decades. >> our area is one of the most treacherous pilotage areas in the world-- very congested, with tens of thousands of barges, hundreds of tow boats. we have i think seven bridges in between new orleans and baton rouge to navigate through. it can be very trying on a person. >> reporter: even in normal conditions, navigating the mississippi is so challenging that a specially-trained local pilot must steer every international freighter safely to port. but the unpredictable high water season is making that job tougher. 2019's flooding was record- setting for both its duration and volume. >> we've had twisted anchors, broken anchors, brok chains. ten, 15 years ago, you didn't see that. >> reporter: captain jared ruiz of the east baton rouge sheriff's office deals with the aftermath of broken chains and twisted anchors. >> we'll co

she grew up in jackson, mississippi and worked for years in low-paying jobs. like many parents who can't afford reliable child care, she had to come up with patchwork solutions which included having her older kids watch their younger siblings. >> i wanted to be able to work. i wanted a career. i wanted a place where my kids could grow and be kids and not have to worry about the responsibility of taking care of the younger kids a having such a burden on them at a young age. >> reporter: ethel's story is not unique. mississippi has the nation's highest rate of women as primary breadwinners for families. and most are in low-paying jobs, living below the poverty line with little to nothing left to pay for child care. according to one study, a typical family in mississippi, with an infant and a four-year- old, has to spend about 20% their income on child care. but there are federal programs to help low-income parents-- head start and child care subsidies in the form of vouchers. and neither program is universal. carol burnett is director of the nonprofit mississipp

for the "pbs newshour" i am t wise in mississippi. judy: and join us tomorrowight as our series travels to nebraska where a lack of affordable childcare highlights how rural parts of the country face a dilemma similar in many ways for in major cities. , too and you can watch last nights story and all our coverage in this series on our website, pbs.org/newshour. ♪ as statues of generals robert e. lee and stonewall jackson were taken down in charlottesville, virginia this weekend, communities around the country continue to grapple with reminders of confederate culture. in an exhibit in lincoln, massachusetts, a sculpture park and museum features the look and winning behind the confederate flag. special correspondent jared bowen explores the exhibit of the 2020 winner of the museum's prestigious prize, as part of our "race matters" and "arts and culture" series. reporter: feeling much of the gallery space is a confederate flag of truce, or as the title of the exhition explains "we should know." >> i want everyone to know what this flag

it began in winona, mississippi, on a july morning in 1996. shortly after tardy furniture opened for the day, the store's owner, book-keeper, delivery man and a 16-year-old were shot in the head, execution style. no one saw it happen. when you heard about the crime and the way they were murdered, what was your reaction? >> curtis flowers: well, my heart dropped. the, the first thing, you know, i-- i felt sorry for them. then i thought, well, i could've been there. >> alfonsi: curtis flowers had worked at tardy that summer for three days, delivering and fixing furniture, but he was let go after he stopped showing up. almost immediately after the murders, some victims' families suspected flowers. the police questioned him, but made no arrest. months passed. flowers moved to texas to live with his sister. and there's a knock at the door. >> flowers: and i answered it. and the next thing you know i was all up against the wall, being handcuffed. and he explained to me that, "we just have a warrant for your arrest back in mississippi." i said, "for

let's take a, mississippi, new cases are up 95% in mississippi over the last two weeks. hospitalizations are up 79%. only 34% of mississippians are fully vaccinated. they are tied for last place with this most proportion of their population fully vaccinated. the states with low vaccination rates like mississippi, continue to be in dire straits until more people get vaccinated. that will take work. it will take creativity. it will take someone like denise taylor. denise taylor used to be a professional basketball coach. she was the head coach of the woman's team a jackson state for ten seasons. she went on to be a coach for the wnba. these days, she works in health care. she runs an operation for a clinic and the restaurant started the -- part of the state. now she's doing something in mississippi that could be the playbook anywhere, struggling to get people vaccinated. mr. taylor is essentially one woman traveling salesforce trying to sell the vaccine across our community to people who have not gotten it. she drives around looking for pockets of unvaccinated neighbors ha

in mississippi, reports of children on ventilators. whit johnson tonight on this highly transmissible variant. >>> just in tonight, the fbi under fire for its handling of sexual abuse claims involving former u.s. gymnastics doctor larry nassar. tonight, what the inspector general has uncovered. did the fbi disregard allegations by gymnasts and to cover their mistakes? tonight, the fbi just issuing a statement, saying the actions of certain fbi employees are inexcuse blg. and this question -- how many young women were assaulted after the fbi was notified? pierre thomas standing by tonight. >>> there are reports of a tornado on the ground as we come on the air. the potential for more severe storms in the heartland and the northeast. and, of course, the massive fires burning out of control in the west tonight. >> an entire community in washington state evacuated. residents running for their lives. matt gutman and senior meteorologist rob marciano on the worsening situation. >>> was iran planning to kidnap an american citizen here in new y

he sate quote, pretty much all cases in mississippi are delta variant right now. vast majority of cases, hospitalizations, deaths unvaccinated. 7% of deaths in vaccinated worrisome. we are allowing too much circulating data to reach the most vulnerable. he is saying 7% of the deaths were in vaccinated people, which of course, is troubling. do you know anything about that or is this number, this 99.2% will be eroding as delta surges? >>. >> i don't believe so. not from delta because the vaccines do work there. i don't understand the data from mississippi and i'd really like to understand what was the nature where those individuals who actually necessarily died of covid or of something else. so that ought to be looked at. all of the other data we've seen says 99 plus percent of people in the hospital with covid are unvaccinated. you quoted that result from los angeles, 1,000 people in the hospital all unvaccinated. i hope people will hear this right now listening to this. if you're on the fence about whether vaccination was going to help you, listen to those numbers

mississippi has children in icu. some on life support from covid. and the patients are reportedly younger and they're sicker and they're dying, and the u.s. surgeon general says these are all preventable deaths. think about that's where we are right now. but here she is, luann woodward, talking about science and her word as a medical professional being drowned out by facebook. >> sometimes i feel like the voices of science and medicine are drowned out by the, you know, facebook experts. but there are many voices out there saying this is the right thing to do. this is what we need to do. the vaccine is safe. but sometimes i feel like we're outnumbered. these are mississippians we are here, we love the state, our families are here, they're saying please get vaccinated and it's like we are yelling into a void. they trust us for so many things but there is just this big disconnect and blind spot around the vaccine that to me i cannot reconcile rational thought with that. >> this is a frightening moment in our country's history and the u.s. surgeon gener

we have the mississippi caucus here. i will now go to the third member of the mississippi caucus here, elysse jordan. when you're from mississippi, you spend your nights listening to ole miss or mississippi state football on saturday nights along with tornado warnings every 15 minutes. so we can tell you a lot of tornadoes off the end of hurricanes. >> yes, that's where i'm from, tornado country indeed. so eddie, i would just encourage everyone to read your tremendous book, the writing is beautiful. the message is so powerful. but shifting gears a tiny bit. let's talk about bob moses and his legacy and what he did for mississippi. and what can we learn from the amazing bob moses? among so many civil rights organizers was just so humble and did so much for mississippi and mississippians and the country and the world. and what can we learn from him and how can we apply his lessons to today? >> thank you so much for asking that question. bob moses is one of my heroes. i wouldn't be here fit wasn't for his sacrifice in the s

but would you be wearing a mask in biloxi, mississippi? >> i think there would be a good reason to do that. we said so often that vaccines are not nearly as good as they are and highly effective, nothing is 100%. if you put yourself into an environment in which you have a high level of viral dynamics and a very low level of vaccine, you might want to go the extra step and say when i'm in that area where there is a significant degree of viral circulation, i might want to go the extra mile to be cautious enough to make sure i get the extra added level of protection, even though the vaccines themselves are highly effective. >> asymptomatic spread was the real killer of this virus, right? it's what made it so difficult at times when we first were dealing with it. can a fully vaccinated person be an asymptomatic spreader of the virus, and more importantly, the scenario? >> i would have to say yes. if you look at the studies being done, we will get the answer to that because we are looking at situations where you have vaccinated people who have

a similar increase has occurred in mississippi. right now florida has the second highest rate of covid in the country up more than 250% over the last two weeks. that is not good. and the highest rate in the country is the one in tennessee, a state that we talked about last night and will talk again about tonight, whose average daily case rate has increased more than 420% over the past two weeks. all these places are relatively behind the vaccination curve. so they're rise in cases was not an foreseeable. >> here in the south, particularly in louisiana, mississippi, we're seeing low vaccination rates in less than 10% of via adolescents are vaccinated in many of the southern states. so we have a real vulnerability here. remember that this time last year we were looking pretty good and then we had that enormous acceleration after the july 4th holiday, july, august, september was terrible in this part of the country. and we have to assume that mother nature is telling us that the same thing is gonna happen again. some really holding my

and this is a live look at gulfport, mississippi, from fox 25, our affiliate down there. the big story there tonight, mississippi state defeats vanderbilt to win the college world series. school officials say they will stage a parade friday through downtown starkville. it is the first team sport national championship for mississippi state. congratulations. that's tonight live look outside the beltway from "special report." we will be right back. ♪ ♪ we made usaa insurance for members like martin. an air force veteran made of doing what's right, not what's easy. so when a hailstorm hit, usaa reached out before he could even inspect the damage. that's how you do it right. usaa insurance is made just the way martin's family needs it with hassle-free claims, he got paid before his neighbor even got started. because doing right by our members, that's what's right. usaa. what you're made of, we're made for. ♪ usaa ♪ i've got moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are getting clearer. ♪ ♪ i feel free to bare my skin yeah, that's all me.

but if i were indoors in places like mississippi, louisiana, tennessee, arkansas, missouri right now, now going into northern florida, yeah, you might still want to do that if the force of infection because of that high delta low vaccination rate continues. >> dr. peter hotez, i appreciate it. thank you. just ahead another american arrested in connection to the assassination of haiti's president. we'll have a live report on the investigation when we come back. do you struggle to fall asleep and stay asleep? qunol sleep formula combines 5 key nutrients that can help you fall asleep faster, stay asleep longer, and wake up refreshed. the brand i trust is qunol. new projects means new project managers. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. the moment you sponsor a job on indeed you get a short list of quality candidates from our resume database. claim your seventy five dollar credit, when you post your first job at indeed.com/home. ♪ ♪ when technology is easier to use... ♪ barriers don't stand a chance. ♪ that's why we'll stop at nothing to deliver our technology as-a-se

investigate the january 6th insurrection with only one republican of conscience and a black congressman from mississippi in the lead, who will join me shortly, by the way, i'm disturbed. less by the thuggery of the insurrection, and more by cowardice of the republican lawmakers who refuse to prosecute it as we would with any other attack on our soil. of course, there isn't much incentive as the top republican in the house is reported to have threatened his caucus with career sabotage if they should choose to participate but at a symbolic level, it sends a distinct message to black america this july 4th as nearly half of our federal legislators now overlook a mob with racists violating our people's house. and more than 100 of them voted last week to keep memorials to dead confederates in that house for generations to come. it's a message we have seen contended with since 1776, the idea that white separatists as still just as patriotic, if not more, than black soldiers and public servants. all that shortly, with the best guest possible. and we're keeping an eye on the white house south lawn, where the pre

i think the eight people that she has appointed with it being chaired by bennie thompson of mississippi and yes, including liz cheney, who showed she has the courage, the fortitude and the integrity to call them as sees them. so i am very hopeful that leader mccarthy will, as we did in the benghazi investigation, participate, appoint members and proceed. >> now congressman, help me out. why did so many of the same lawmakers who last month voted overwhelmingly in favor of a national holiday celebrating black freedom from slavery, voted this week to keep statutory of slavery's most passionate defenders, those that quite literally founded a hostile nation, why did they vote to keep those statues in our u.s. capitol? >> i don't know that i'm the one that could answer that question. they have to answer that question. i don't have an answer as to why they would do that. again, they're soft pedaling the insurrection that occurred on january 6 with one member saying absurdly, oh, well, they just looked like tourists visiting the capitol. anybody who has seen the videos know that's not true. and

but if i were indoors in places like mississippi, tennessee, arkansas right now now going into norp florida, yeah you might still want to do that because the low delta high vaccination rate continues. >>> just ahead another arrested in connection to the assassination of haiti's president. we'll have a live report on the investigation when we come back. limu emu... and doug. so then i said to him, you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. oh um, doug can we talk about something other than work, it's the weekend. yeah, yeah. [ squawk ] hot dog or... chicken? [ squawk ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ here are the two battling to the line and allyson felix... simone manuel's above her trying to fight on, and above simone... getting an opportunity to show her stuff. nonstop, displayed at the highest performance level... finding something and the us takes gold! ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ ♪ dream on ♪ - yes! ♪ ahhhhhhh ♪ ♪ dream until your dreams come true ♪ >>> multip

mississippi at the bottom, less than 35%. mississippi, alabama, arkansas. if you had a resurgence or spike, would it be regional as opposed to national, so in those places with the low vaccination rates. >> absolutely, jim. think about vaccinations like a fire break that's dug into a forest fire, preventing the fire from jumping into new timber. a lot of, you know, dry brush on the ground is fuel for the fire, and in this pandemic, the fuel is a mass of unvaccinated people, and we're seeing that in the south and southwest and out through the midwest. you look at a state like arkansas. arkansas, which has a very low vaccination rate, has seen over 100% rise in daily cases over the last two weeks. we're seeing this. 55% increase in florida. we're seeing this in states that are lagging, and you're right, it's a vred/blue split. >> i read this morning that 99.2% of covid deaths in june were unvaccinated. it's remarkable. but there is still vaccine hesitancy in a big portion of the population. a new "washington post" poll found that nearly three-quarters of peop

i spoke with representative bennie thompson of mississippi who chairs the select committee on investigating the january 6 attack. what can people expect to learn from this investigation that isn't going to come from the number of other investigations underway? rep. thompson: well, the charge that this select committee is tasked with is looking at the circumstances and e facts surrounding what occurred and coming up with a body of recommendations. we have a number of committees of some jurisdiction, our charge is to collect all of the relevant committee information and synthesize it into one select committee report. we have staff, we have the budget necessary to do that. so to some degree, with singular focus on the events of january 6. judy: you have subpoena power, the select committee does. do you expect to call individuals including former president trump, former vice president pence, others in the white house? rep. thompson: let me just qualify saying we have the subpoena authority. if the facts themselves lead us to any individual we will not hesitate to bring them before the committee

. >> guad venegas, thanks to you and allison barber in mississippi. talk to us about the medical experts and what they're trying to do to stop the spikes there and the concern they have over children and of course, the delta variant. >> reporter: right. children are a focus in part not necessarily because of the new delta variant causes more severe symptom, but because it seems to be spreading so very fast that particularly those children under the age of 12 who cannot get vaccinated, they are living in a state where a lot of the adults and the older teens who are eligible to get vaccinated have chosen not to, and that means that they aren't totally protected within oftentimes their own homes and their own communities and because when people are unvaccinated there is a bubble that protects people that are unvaccinated. the american academy of pediatrics say there's new information out today and they're seeing the trends of a substantial reduction in covid vaccine uptick around children. i want to run through numbers. at the end of may, the number of f

but i was glad to see congressman johnson chair this committee, someone who grew up in mississippi, had to face down racist attacks throughout his entire career. what we are looking at is this concept of who people see as legitimate citizens and not legitimate citizens. and african-americans have long had to face that question, whether it was us advocating for equitable education, access to voting or just to make sure that the constitution also applied to us. what we've seen on january 6th was an insurrection. that insurrection was based on white supremacy. and we've seen it before. but it was during the civil war. >> we don't often play profanity and epithets on air. but we thought it was important to hear that, because there's something different about doing this under oath and telling the nation in an investigation into what happened. does anything change because of that part of the testimony? do you think there are people who have denied the importance of studying january 6th and the movements that may have led to it, might tonight register that the penny might drop for them and say

massachusetts has a high vaccination rate, and mississippi has a low one. if the delta variant is the majority variant in the country and it is only going to get worse, tell me how people who live in those two states should think about the delta variant, given the levels of vaccination in those two places. >> doctor: okay, john, that's a great question and it's a pretty simple answer. the vaccines that we have available to people, for example, that you mentioned in massachusetts and other states, who have a high degree of vaccination, are quite protected against the delta variant. all the data that we have from this country, and from several other countries, not just the united states, shows that the vaccines that we are using right now do very well in protecting against the delta variant, particular protecting you against severe disease that might lead to hospitalization. so for those states that have a very, very low level of vaccination, you're dealing with a virus, the delta variant, that eficnt in seading from person to person. and the numbers don't li

he is credited with helping to dismantle segregation in mississippi. and in the '80s he founded the algebra project to help teach math to poor students. the group says that moses died this morning in hollywood, florida. he was 86 years old. >>> and when we come back, a determined young athlete climbing to new heights at the olympics. why hide your skin if dupixent has your moderate-to-severe eczema or atopic dermatitis under control? hide my skin? not me. by hitting eczema where it counts, dupixent helps heal your skin from within, keeping you one step ahead of eczema. and that means long-lasting clearer skin... and fast itch relief for adults. hide my skin? not me. by helping to control eczema with dupixent, you can show more with less eczema. don't use if you're allergic to dupixent. serious allergic reactions can occur including anaphylaxis, which is severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems, such as eye pain or vision changes, or a parasitic infection. if you take asthma medicines don't change or stop them without talking to your

in mississippi, with two-thirds of residents not fully vaccinated, officials are urging older and chronically sick people to avoid indoor crowds. >> we have a vast pool of unimmunized people who are a perfect breeding ground for delta variant, and it's going to kill folks. and it's already killed folks. >> trevor ault joins us now outside a school here in new york city. trevor, the cdc is urging districts to fully re-open, but an important point here, this is even if they can't follow all the new covid guidelines. >> reporter: that's right, whit, and the cdc is saying school districts should defer to their local health officials when making decisions about masks or social distancing, but this does seem to be an acknowledgement from the agency that while the threat of the virus is still very serious, keeping kids at home is also did etrimental. >> trevor, thank you. >>> be sure to watch "this week" tomorrow morning. george stephanopoulos interviews dr. anthony fauci about the surging delta variant, plus the cdc's new guidance to fully re-open schools. >>> now to the growing turmoil in haiti. d

jarius huddleston from mississippi, separated by his duties and the pandemic, he has not seen his family in years. when he got the call to return home for his father's 70th birthday, jarius knew he wanted to do. casually walking up to his front porch. dad, charles, sitting on the front porch, and jarius walks right up. this father seeing his son for the first time in two years. at 70 years young, charles leaping over that railing to hug his son. his father had said all he wanted for his birthday was someone to go fishing him. he got his wish. jarius saying, he's much happier in his children's happiness than his home. tonight, the soldier returning home and the father jumping for joy. happy birthday, charles, and jarius, thank you for your service. >>> a loud explosion has been heard. >> a frightening crash near monterey as a plane slams into a home only about a mile away from the airport. >> you are watching abc7 news at 4:00 . the twin cessna had just taken off from the nearby monterey airport when it went down just after 10:30 this morning. the crash caused the mountaintop home to catc

jarius huddleston from mississippi, serving in the u.s. army, separated through his duties and then, of course, the pandemic, he has not seen his family in two years. and when he finally got the all-clear to return home, just in time for his father's 70th birthday, jarius knew exactly what he wanted to do. casually walking up to his family's front porch. his father charles sitting on the porch and just listen as his family begins to chuckle. this father seeing his son for the first time in two years. at 70 years young, charles leaping over that railing to hug his son. his father had said all he wanted for his birthday was someone to go fishing with. he got his wish. jarius telling us, my dad is much happier in his children's happiness than in his own. tonight, the soldier returning home and the father jumping for joy. happy birthday, charles, and jarius, thank you for your service. i hope to see you right back here tomorrow. until then, good night. here >>> following the money, san francisco spends millions to keep the program going the i-

patrick was a volunteer fire fighter from mississippi. >> volunteer fireman. >> greatest job in the world. >> sean: you don't even get paid for it. >> well you do what you love. >> sean: in 2001 he ran into a burning building to rescue a woman that was trapped inside. suddenly the burning roof collapsed directly onto patrick's head. >> roof collapsed on patrick knocking down his helmet. he felt the mask on his face was melting. >> sean: patrick held his breath. he jumped out of a window with his melting face mask clinging to his face. it exclaimed his scalp, his nose, his lips, his ears his eyelids and all the skin on his face. >> i remember everything from getting in the ambulance to the helicopter. don't remember very much after that. >> sean: he was burned so badly that his fellow fire fighters, they couldn't even tell who it was. >> i had no idea who i had until we put him in the rest and he pulled it down over his face and had the picture with the kids. that's when i knew who i had. i mean, it was a rotten dam day. >> sean: you said in an interview you would do it again tomorrow. >>

with nearly 20,000 new covid infections reported in children last week, the state health officer in mississippi says ten children there are currently on life support because of the delta variant. cluster of cases at summer camp are fueling new worry when school returns, there could be a fall surge. >> the threat is incredibly real, and we're already seeing surges in parts of the country where there are high pockets of unvaccinated people. add to that an in-person school attendance of primary apply unvaccinated children, and you have an opportunity for surges and hot spots. >> as delta forces some hospitals to reopen covid wards, cases are on the rise again in 27 states. after outbreaks in rural and mostly unvaccinated communities, a troubling number of infections are now being detected in cities like st. louis, new york and los angeles, an evolving virus with an emerging threat just as the youngest unprotected americans get ready to return to the classroom. >> nbc's miguel almaguer with that report. meanwhile, the tennessee health department will halt all adolescent vaccine outreach. not just f

census bureau here in mississippi pt% of adults behind on their rent face likely eviction in the next two months and that's the highest rate in the nation. >> scott is responsible for distributing mississippi's federal assistance. >> how much have you given away? >> $10 million has been approved for payment or out the door. >> reporter: what's the challenges in distributing that money to the people that need it. >> awareness to the program, access to technology and wing -- getting the word out. i have plenty of money to give. i need application and time. >> reporter: burse prays that help will come soon. do you have hope? >> faith. i know if i do my part he'll do the rest. >> we thank morgan radford for that important reporting. eugene we have an economy that obviously a lot of crosswinds going on there. we have poverty at record low rates, more job openings in this country than we've ever had before. even extreme poverty globally is at its lowest rate. though there's still such a long way to go. but as morgan said and as we've read in "the new york times," the challenge is a lot of t

transmission, including every county in arkansas and louisiana and nearly every county in missouri, mississippi, alabama, and florida. >> we're heading into a rough time. >> a former cdc director warning, within another four to six weeks. >> it's likely if our trajectory is similar to that in the united kingdom that we could see as many as 200,000 cases a day, four times our current rate. >> reporter: the last time there were more than 200,000 new u.s. cases in one day was in january according to johns hopkins university data before vaccines became available widely and before the more contagious delta variant took hold. now the u.s. seven-day average of new cases is the highest in three months. >> the key here is transmissibility. >> reporter: the problem, a third of those eligible to get the vaccine have not gotten the shot, something experts say must change if the nation ever to emerge from the pandemic. >> what we want to do is stop the transmission. how do we get variants? we get variants because the virus gets into somebody who is not protected, it undergoes mutation, and then it spreads t

our challenges are similar to our neighbors in arkansas and mississippi. we we get, and there's a lot of. i was happy to see the secretary-general put the -- sometimes it's based on nothing at all but these myths have become so pervasive and do so much damage. last week we had a 24-year-old e.r. nurse from lafayette die from covid. we had a 30-year-old clergy member from the town of eunice do i and those families are suffering and at the end of the day prefer very ventable. that's the real kick in the gut. >> those two you are saying, i'm sure you're saying they were not vaccinated is the point you were making? >> yeah. i can't talk about their cases more than that, but 97% to 99% of both the cases and the deaths that eve seen. breakthrough cases do happen. people who get vaccinated do sometimes still get covid. these vaccines provide great protection but not 167 hundred%. >> 95%, 94% f-cassy is a grand slam for vaccines. few vaccines come that close. when we usually see cases they are mild or aestimate being. >> doctor, let's talk about the misinformation

in mississippi, only about one-third of the state is vaccinated. seven children in the state now in the icu, with two on ventilators. a poll last night by abc news and "the washington post" found that only 6% of democrats say they aren't likely to get vaccinated. whereas, 47% of republicans fall into that camp. of course, the virus doesn't stay contained by political boundaries and the ferocious delta variant which now accounts for an estimated 57% of all cases. poses a risk to not only those who choose not to get vaccinated but also kids are and those for medical reasons can't get vaccinated. so how do we reach the vaccine hesitant? can anyone persuade them? what about the person on whose watch the vaccine was developed in record time, former president donald trump? you would think that donald trump would be eager to remind that the vaccines were formed on his watch and relative to warp speed. relative to the times he spends complaining about the 2020 election results he hardly mentions it. last week, he send out a missive saying that his administ

moses worked to dismantle segregation as the mississippi field director of the student non-violent coordinating committee during the civil rights movement and was central to the 1964 freedom summer. moses later dedicated his life to help poor students succeed in math by founding the algebra project, and of course, shared many of his experiences as a guest on this show, his last time on june of 2014. rest in peace, robert parish moses, as we march august 28th, we'll be thinking of you. that does it for me. thanks for watching. i'll see you back here next week -- next weekend, 5:00 p.m. eastern. my colleague, alicia menendez picks up our news coverage right now. >> thank you so much, reverend sharpton. i'm alicia menendez. welcome to "american voices." two major domestic challenges facing the biden administration, both have the power to define his presidency and determine whether democrats maintain power in the mid terms. infrastructure. bipartisan talks stalled wednesday when republicans blocked further debate on the bill saying too much of the package remained unresolved. negotiations carried o

. >> reporter: now, along with alabama, mississippi is the only other state to have fully vaccinated less than 35% of its population. and alabama has also seen an additional roughly 500 people hospitalized with covid over the past week, up 60% from last week. that's according to the latest community profile report published by the white house covid-19 response team. pamela? >> athena jones, thank you so much. joining us now is dr. william schaffner. he is a professor at vanderbilt university medical center. dr. schaffner, you just heard alabama's governor. should we blame unvaccinated people for the rise in hospitalizations and breakthrough cases right now? >> well, i don't know about blaming, but it's certainly a fact. the hospitalizations out there right now, the people who are coming in are unvaccinated, 98% of them. the vaccines are keeping vaccinated people out of the hospital. and, yes, this delta variant is spreading principally among vaccinated people. you know, some of the people in my -- >> wait, i just want to make sure, you said they're spreading principally among vaccina

all the states with the lowest levels of vaccination, mississippi, alabama, arkansas, wyoming and louisiana voted heavily for donald trump. barely half of republican house members report being vaccinated. now, anti-vax sentiment is not just an american problem. in many places around the world, there are segments of the population, often rural, often less educated, who are vaccine-hesitant. but there are fewer equivalence anywhere around the world as the united states, in which misinformation has been spread on a wide scale about a deadly disease. in fact, american misinformation has now gone global, legitimizing and encouraging anti-vaxers around the world. like the u.s., france has had high level of anti-vaxer sentiment, but political leadership seems to be changing things there. their president recently announced that employees would be required to be vaccinated, and the unvaccinated would not be able to enter cinemas, restaurants or take trains or planes. this has drawn negative sentiment, but millions have signed up for the vaccine since macron imposed these rules. though heavy handed,

we know the filibuster was being used by segregationists from mississippi for many years to impede progress. we shouldn't have that discussion. the only discussion i want to have is get it done, the rights of votership be protected at all costs. we cannot surely live up to the mandates of our constitution if we're not willing to ensure the protection of our votes. >> derek johnson, president of the naacp, i'm honored to have you join us tonight. really appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> and coming up, another texan crusading for voting rights, beto o'rourke will join us next. , beto o'rourke will join us next. washed your hands a lot today? probably like 40 times. hands feel dry? like sandpaper. introducing new dove handwash, with 5 x moisturizer blend. removes germs in seconds, moisturizes for hours. soft, smooth. new dove handwash. limu emu... and doug. so then i said to him, you oughta customize your car insurance with liberty mutual, so you only pay for what you need. oh um, doug can we talk about something other than work, it's the weekend. yeah, yeah. [ squawk ] hot dog or... chicken? [

and people like -- the naacp fields secretary and mississippi who s shot and killed in his own home in 1963. and people like john lewis who led a group marching on the bridge in some alabama 1965 and was brutally beaten two inches of his life by state troopers. i mean, you're gonna be on the side of those who -- unless, unless you're john roberts. the conservative and elected a supreme court. he has a lifetime appointment. in 2013 roberts invented a new constitutional principle to got a key section of the voting rights act, known as preclearance. roberts could do that without any political consequences, and in fact he came up with this tortured ruling, the formula congress came up to figure out who got preclearance was indefensible. it offended the sovereign dignity of the state and they gave -- because he then said congress, you fix it. congress fix it. and he knew he was doing, he was smart, he knew republicans would not doing anything to revive the law, he just dumped the body on their doorstep. what did we see, predictably of wave of voter suppression that otherwise would have been

these business leaders aren't mississippiing word mincing words when it comes to getting the vaccine. but the biden administration has gone out of its way to make sure they're not recounting on vacci mandates. >> what you want see is a requirement from the federal government to have people get vaccinated. >> you don't want to mandate and try to force anyone to take a vaccine. >> well, everyone who i just showed, though, has said and knows in order to end the pandemic, the answer is vaccines. >> we need more people to get vaccinated to stop this pandemic. >> the vaccinations remain the bedrock of ending this pandemic. >> the end game of this all, george, is going to get people vaccinated. >> well, they couldn't be any more clear on that. the u.s. has a long way to go on vaccinations. experts say 85% or more americans need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity with variants like delta and, like i said, only 49% of americans have been fully vaccinated. many of the unvaccinated are republicans. most polling shoes 50% to 60% are veited compared to 80% of democrats. according to the last

in 1960 he left his job as a high school teacher in new york city for mississippi where he organized poor, illiterate, and rural black residents. at one point during a voter registration drive, a sheriff's cousin bashed bob moses' head with a knife handle. he kept bleeding staggering up the house steps to register a couple of black farmers. he earned a masters in philosophy from harvard in 1957. in the late 1980s he started a national organization called the algebra probably. bob moses was 86 years old. >>> and still ahead, house speaker nancy pelosi taps republican congressman adam kinzinger with the taf okay f investigating the january 6th capitol riot. we're going to talk about what that move means for the ongoing divisions within the gop. >>> but before we go to break, we want to know. what are you doing up? why are you awake? email your reasons to msnbc.com. tweet me @jacobsoboroff at "way too early." we'll read your answers coming up later in the show. we'll read your answers coming up later in the show (burke) nothing. (customer) nothing? (burke) nothing. (customer) hmm, that

. >> mike: even though mississippi the middle of summer critical race theory in the classroom. let's play this clip. >> randi weingarten is talking about critical race theory as if it's fact. it is not fact. it is a theory. >> culture warriors are labeling any discussion of race, racism, or discrimination as crt to try to make it toxic. we teach history, not hate. >> being taught specifically that white people are bad. the way you constantly hit our kids in the head with white people did this. white people did this black people did this. black people did that. hispanic people did this. hispanic people did that. they tend to foment those thoughts of hate. >> mike: randi weingarten calling it honest history. byron, lead us off. >> well, i think the teachers unions are continuing their effort to become the most unpopular group in america after a year showing that they did not want to be in classrooms teaching children, now they are taking this side on the crt debate. and, besides, randi weingarten says the union has a large war chest to file suit against state legislators and loca

missouri, mississippi with kids in the intensive care units, arkansas. it is only a matter of time before that takes over here as well. and, you know, it's like a bad disaster movie. the scientists are warning the politicians and the people that there's bad things coming and it's just falling on deaf ears. >> yeah, dr. fiscus, i appreciate what you've done in your career and speaking out now. >>> president biden traveled to capitol hill to meet with democratic senators amid a whole host of pressing issues. coming up i'll talk with one of those senators who sat in on the meeting. >>> just before the news broke with that new information about the traumatic final days of the trump presidency, an upbeat president biden sat down with democratic senators today on capitol hill. this as they grapple with concern over voting rights and a massive spending bill totaling around $3.5 trillion the party leaders say they want to pass. among those senators virginia's senator tim cain. he joins me now. thanks for being with us. first i do want to ask you to begin about j