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We got the first black woman e get choked up as the vice president of the United States. That's what you should strive for. We can't sit back and wait to somebody do it for us. We gotta do it like Abram did down in Georgia Way got to get out and push. That was black. That was white. That was all of us. To strengthen the future, we must remember our past. For those alive during the 20th century's original civil rights movement, the rise of today's black lives matter movement feels familiar here we highlight three members of the black community who recognize the progress we've made in the hope they have for the future of America. Patricia Brown remembers the night she got toe Welcome. A very special guest into her home, he said. Now make sure you have those greens and the fried chicken and potato salad, you know, and sweet potato pie and lemonade, A special meal for a special guest. There's Dr King having Patricia Brown remembers the night Dr Martin Luther King Jr came to dinner right here. I was by pregnant with my son. We were just just besides ourselves, Dr Martin Luther King. Here in the hall, in our house, Miss Brown says she was honored to welcome a guest for the movement she long been part of. We start marching about different things that weren't right. And so we believed in Dr Martin Luther King. You know, you do things a nonviolent march, you know, and so we were always nonviolent, Brown says. They battled for equal housing, equal rights, even equal access to the local pool. Several of my friends that I know you know, they decided to pick it it go out there and say, Well, how come we can't swim out here? And eventually, uh, that led to them Really draining the swimming pool Didn't have a swimming pool anymore. As frustrating as the discrimination Waas Brown calls the fight organized, peaceful. But then things just starts changing around in this city. We had this young black girl that was shot Vivian Strong, and she was shot down in the front, nail von male projects and shut in the back of her head, you know, And before you knew it, we had a riot on 24th Street, a fiery scene in 1969 that brown says she was reminded off the summer of 2020 tonight, More than 50 years later, I was appalled on 72nd and Dodge. When they did that to Target and some other stories out there that was in, I think it was a crossroads mall, and I said, Oh my goodness, this is history repeating itself. Do you think it's upsetting for you to see that? Oh, yes, definitely. So Because this is my city. Been here all my life. I'm 83 years old and I've been here all my life, you know, and to see them do that, that just bothered me. But there's nothing nothing you could do about it. But wait and see what happens in school. We're taught that a big part of the civil rights movement that sort of moved things along was the televising of people being hosed down in the streets and dogs because it brought it into people's homes, made them see it the first time. This is true in that era at that time. Do you think that that really helped move things along with people saying Oh yes, and the thing is when Martin Luther Dr Martin Luther king walked across the bridge and they had the hose on them, trying to keep them from coming across the bridge and holds him down. And John Lewis he was hit in the head. I mean, you could see that. But the thing is, I'm thinking, like with George Floyd, I'm thinking they're starting to say enough is enough. You know, enough is enough. We've had a lot of people that referred to the death of George Floyd as sort of this turning point for this modern day move. Do you think that's true? Yes, I do believe that's true. And then there were several others of Michael Brown and several others. But the thing is, you didn't actually see you were just going by what you were told. But you saw George Florida. You saw him laying on the ground, gasping for breath, calling for his mama. I mean, it was there in plain sight. So how could you deny that? What do you have to say to young people who are fighting this fight? Now? Just hang in there, but move along, you know, and listen. Listen to your peers or your people. Parents are those older to you listen and find out their experiences and then keep on trudging along to move it along. And hopefully you can do it non violently. I'm just hoping that if any of our young people looked at January the sixth, they'll see that That's not the way that's not the way and look at we got the first black woman. Okay? I get choked up as vice president of the United States. That's what you should strive for, not through violence through here. You know, that's the way it should be. John Nash has seen quite a bit in his lifetime. He grew up in the segregated South on a sharecropping farm, then was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. Now he sees hope for the future. So, Mr Nash, you're from North Carolina. It's a tell him. North Carolina. It was a farm town on what we did back there. My parents was a sharecropper. You know, share crop is I'm not entirely sure If you want to refresh me on that, we raised tobacco. What happened? We didn't own the land. Somebody else on the land and way supplied labor too, you know, to do the tobacco from so most of us. All of us really way got old enough. We moved away and I went to into their army. They draft me. I was drafted in 19. 52 November the fifth. I never forget in 1952. It really wasn't that bad here because he was a lot of soldiers. Yeah, school wasn't segregated here. And we look back into history and you've grown up in the thirties, forties and fifties up until you moved here and you take a look at segregation. You take a look at the racism that I feel still exist here. I know the history, you know, back then. But you lived it. And to me, it doesn't seem that things are very far off from what they are. I still feel that the systemic racism is deeply rooted into that as a black man, as black people. Where do you think we stand now? Well, way just had a vice president elected for the highest office in in the country way Can't sit back and wait. Somebody do it for us. We gotta do it like Abram did down in Georgia. We gotta get out of the push, and I think we wouldn't pushing hard enough because we're getting a little way. Got too comfortable, you get a little ways and we get comfortable. OK, e and I see that a lot when I see all the protests across the country and I see them right here in our seaside backyard. E just knowing that we haven't arrived yet. E. I don't think we have arrived yet to the point where we can say way are the majority and were listened to or even the minority. And we'll listen, Teoh, you gotta fight for it. Shouldn't have thio it should. It's America. You suppose that everybody's supposed to be, You know, the creed that everybody goes. We treated a lot that's not happening. My Luther King did a wonderful job because I have a dream. There was in the sixties for to come 50 years later. Come back like that. It's awful. I feel like again you're just taking step back, not a step forward. I'm gonna tell you now there is not a week or even a month that can pass What? I'm not getting an email about my hair about something else that's discriminating against me. And so I think that when, um you know when I still look at from the past and look it now again, I just don't feel that we're that far off. And I always question myself, Where do we get to the point where we can scrub that prejudice thoughts and get to the point where we can understand people we can love people. I think we've got to be educated, retired for me on And I learned self that that I didn't know what's happening. They had black soldiers training the people that West Point, how did ride and shoot? I didn't know that until us. I don't know when that wasn't in the history book that I read. That's another thing. A lot of stuff was left out when I was going to school to no, the left. After this book, it's still left out. Joseph Robinette Biden junior do solemnly swear. I think I think Biden camel to go through a lot of job. Yeah, way. Need some hope. We need some hope in this country. Well, they need help to they they can't do it alone. Sports may have brought Wayne forward toe Iowa, but his fight for justice. Inequality led to a career in politics. Here. He shares his views on why today's movement feels different. What made you come toe Iowa? Cause you're not from here. We're joined from Washington, D. C. But I was a good football player. So when I was 17 years old, I got a football scholarship to Rochester State, Minnesota Junior College, where they made home in the mail clinic. And that's not wrong, because I was doing drugs robbing Busses, do a lot of bad stuff. Drake University Sports got you here. And then you started to become part of the socio political climate of Iowa. You became a representative. How did that happen? Tom Baker was the state Legislature. Tom Tom Baker, black man, came to me and said, Wayne, I want you to run for office. So I ran. I had no idea. I ran and I won by 65%. What was your perspective of the black community? The refugee community then? Now this is not chocolate city thistles. The mourns our That was the first time I started seeing things. Nolan Gentry was school board president. The legendary Northern gentry has his own law firm here now. He was a school board president and they were fighting desegregation opened up the school's bussing. I said, Wait a minute. So it the more on our really showed me what was going on, but because I was always been pro black because I've always understand my dynamics, I recognized that I could get in and make a difference. 150 legislators, one black legislative. That's me. There are places where people of color are lacking and you're trying to fill those gaps. What's the difference between what you saw then and the evolution of what you see now? Good morning. There's a much better city than it waas when I got here. But it has many challenges ago. School system. Blacks are still not getting the education. Three. University still have a problem getting the college minorities to go here. Theo. Economic situation. We got some of the poorest blacks in America that live in Des Moines. We've got blacks and who don't have bank accounts. Did we change? Did we help something? Are we? Is there a progression between civil rights and asking for accountability? Are we asking for the same thing because we got white people now who recognize you know what? Even if I don't like the black person next door, he or she have deserve the right to live and be a part of the American dream. When George Floyd said Mama, Mama, what person who have walking the face of the earth? What? That's waiting for it, That's you, that's in it. That's not color who think when I die, I'm a call from my mother. Those visions that we all have way got a chance to see a black man being choked to death, asking for his mother. But that was black. That was white. That was all of us in the reason why whites got involved because they saw themselves that was dim crying for their mother. That's universal. If we had the TV camp, if we had the video, we could have changed the dynamics of how white people proceeding blacks. I cannot take away really the power that we have a Z individuals. We have so much power. We hope these stories and wise words encourage some hope for changing you. Thanks for watching