geoff: good evening. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on the “newshour” tonight, an appeals court weighs arguments over access to the widely used abortion pill, mifepristone. geoff: a deal allowing war-torn ukraine to export grain is extended, alleviating fears of worsening food shortages, at least for now. amna: and judy woodruff visits her birthplace of tulsa, oklahoma, where a reckoning over historical racism echoes similar discussions nationwide. >> we've tried to, over the last i'd say 20 years as a community, to start having those conversations around race in our city that should have been happening for a century. ♪

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amna: good evening and welcome to the "newshour." president biden and congressional republicans are giving fresh signals tonight that the deadlock over the debt ceiling may be easing. geoff: both sides voiced optimism today on striking a deal to avoid a national default, perhaps by this weekend. president biden said he's confident that negotiators can agree to raise the current limit of $31 trillion before a june 1 deadline. pres. biden: we're going to come together because there's no alternative to do the right thing for the country. we have to move on. and to be clear, this negotiation is about the outlines of what the budget will look like, not about whether or not we're going to, in fact, pay our debts. the leaders all agreed, we will not default. geoff: the president said he'll have more to say at a news conference sunday, after attending the g7 summit in japan. in turn, house speaker kevin

mccarthy, backed by fellow republicans, said a deal is doable by sunday. but he also suggested the president should stay home. rep. mccarthy: he's the president of the united states. he's a grown man. he can make a decision where he wants to go. he can travel any place he wants. he wants the only thing i know, if you thought for the last 97 days, you were never going to negotiate. what are your priorities? i think america wants us to solve american problems first. geoff: republicans are pressing for spending caps and work requirements for federal benefits in exchange for lifting the debt ceiling. amna: the president has now left for that overseas trip to japan. he departed from joint base andrews, outside washington, late this morning. he'll join leaders of other major economies for the three-day summit in hiroshima. the president canceled stops in australia and papua new guinea so he can return to d.c. early for the debt limit negotiations. the u.s. supreme court is letting illinois ban the sale of some semi-automatic guns and large-capacity magazines, for now. the justices refused today to block the law, pending a legal challenge.

it bars sales of assault-style weapons like the ar-15. those who already own such guns have to register them with police. in pakistan, police have surrounded the home of former prime minister imran khan, raising new fears of unrest. he'd been arrested last week on corruption charges, then released amid violent protests. in lahore tonight, police set up barricades outside khan's home. they said he's sheltering supporters blamed for the violence, a charge he said is ridiculous. mr. khan: if 40 terrorists are hiding at my residence, then it's a threat to my life, too. please come, but not like this, to attack my house -- come like a civilized society with a search warrant. we will show you the whole house and you'll see where these terrorists are. amna: pakistani officials said police will raid khan's home unless he hands over the suspects within 24 hours. back in this country, democrats in pennsylvania still control the state house after winning a special election on tuesday.

the outcome has major implications for abortion and gun rights legislation. and in kentucky, republican attorney general daniel cameron will challenge democratic governor andy beshear in the fall. cameron was endorsed by former president trump. on wall street, stocks rallied on hopes of a debt ceiling deal in washington. major indices were up more than 1%. the dow jones industrial average gained 408 points to close at 33,420. the nasdaq rose 157 points. the s&p 500 added nearly 49. and plebes at the u.s. naval academy in annapolis, maryland celebrated an annual rite of passage today -- ending their first year. they worked together to scale the 21-foot herndon monument, slathered with grease for the occasion. when they finally reached the top, they replaced a freshman's cap with an upperclassman's. the slippery feat took just over 2.5 hours. still to come on the "newshour,"

new data shows a massive disparity in excess deaths among black americans compared to their white counterparts. tulsa, oklahoma struggles to reconcile its troubling past with urban renewal. comedian leanne morgan discusses her unusual road to success ahead of her new special. plus, much more. >> this is the "pbs newshour" from weta studios in washington and in the west from the walter cronkite school of journalism at arizona state university. geoff: access to medication abortion faced a critical test today in the conservative 5th circuit court of appeals. a three-judge panel of republican appointees heard arguments about whether the abortion pill mifepristone, first approved by the fda more than 20 years ago, should stay on the market. it's the latest legal battle

since the supreme court overturned roe v. wade last year. joining us with reporting and analysis, sarah varney, a correspondent for kff health news who has been reporting for the "newshour" about abortion access since the overturning of roe. and steve vladeck, professor at the university of texas school of law and an expert on federal courts. his new book on the supreme court is "the shadow docket." thank you both for being with us. remind us why this case is so significant, said to be the most consequential since the overturning of roe. sarah: in the last number of years the number of women who rely on medication abortion pills has grown. to more than 50%. . so access to this regimen is incredibly important for women around the country. when the judge issued his decision in texas, it essentially said mifepristone would have to come off the market. that would affect of course women who want to access abortion medication to terminate a pregnancy. it is also used a lot in early miscarriage management treatment.

that is something that physicians around the country regularly turn to. geoff: the new orleans-based fifth circuit is consided one of the most conservative appellate courts in the country. they have routinely ruled against the dighton doj. what lines of inquiry did the judges explore today and what can you glean from it? steve: there was a lot of talk about standen, this technical legal doctrine which is asking are these the right plaintiffs to be challenging the fda's 2000 and subsequent approval of mifepristone? it will be heard from all three republican appointed judges on the panel. real efforts to support judge kaczmarek's analysis of why these doctors could challenge the fda's actions. even now in almost all of these contacts -- contexts, doctors claim injury of something that may or may not happen in the future which is patients who have taken mifepristone will

need some kind of emergency or urgent care. that is not usually enough under the supreme court precedents. that kind of hostility standen has been a staple of conservative for the last 50 years. geoff: this will likely had back to the supreme court. the fact the court preserved access to mifepristone while this appeal was making his way through the system, what does that suggest? steve: it is tricky because he supreme court's ruling from april had no analysis with it so we don't know why a majority of the justice voted to keep kaczmarek's ruling on hold. we don't even know how many voted. we just know it was five or more. but i think it is a pretty good sign that at least five of the justices are likely to reverse, to be unsympathetic to judge kaczmarek weather because they don't think the plaintiffs have standing or they are willing to side with the biden administration on the merits. what is so important for now is that nothing the fifth circuit decides will affect the status quo. the stay the supreme court

issued preserving nationwide access will remain in place until the supreme court acts, regardless of what the court of appeals does. geoff: you have talked to abortion providers, women health experts and advocates. how do they see this moment? sarah: i think they are very relieved that mifepristone will remain on the market while this case lays out which could take months if not years to reach the supreme court. as we were discussing, this is just about the stay of judge kaczmarek's order. there is a whole other trial that can happen to discuss the merits of this case. one of the things we heard from one of the judges today was can we basically get the file from the fda, the full file going back to 2000, and the justice department has not been able to produce that yet. partially because it is a quarter century old and they have to go back into deep storage to pull out the entire file about mifepristone. so, this case could take many months if not years to resolve itself. geoff: on the specific question

of safety, we know that mifepristone sends fewer people to the er than tylenol and viagra. so if this case is successful, if the court effectively bans access to mifepristone, what does this mean for the fda's regulatory authority over other drugs? steve: that means it is open season. we'll see challenges, where from the left or right, from the anti-science part of the community, to a wide range of fda approvals, old ones and new ones. from all medicines, to vaccines -- from over the counter medicines, to vaccines. it will be the wild west. that is why we saw the u.s. supreme court step in. not because the conservative justices are sympathetic to the availability of mifepristone, but at least some of them can see the writing on the wall in a world in which 23 years after the fda approves a medication, anyone can walk into a

hand-picked federal courthouse and get a federal judge to second-guess that decision. geoff: when you say hand-picked federal courthouse, you mean the fact that this case was filed specifically in texas because they knew it would end up before this specific appellate court? steve: yes. by filing an the amarillo division of the northern district of texas, the alliance for hippocratic medicine had a 100% chance of having the case be assigned to this judge, judge matthew has merrick, who was very well known as an antiabortion advocate. when anyone can take advantage of that kind of manipulation of the trial court system, that is part of why this has such potentially cataclysmic implications for the entire universe of medication and drug safety approval. now you are going to see copycat lawsuits that have nothing to do with abortion, where it is just everything the fda has done becomes open to challenge.

geoff: sarah, what are you watching for as this case unfolds? sarah: i think this question of standing is very interesting. i agree that it sounds like the justices at the court today were really trying to allow the antiabortion groups to gain credibility in their standing question. the other thing i found interesting today was a trump appointed judge kept saying several times it seems your argument is that the fda can do no wrong. he recited several other drugs that had been removed from the marketplace but the justice department attorney came back and said that was because the fda went through a review process and removed the drug. there did seem to be some hostility from the judge about this idea that we should leave these decisions up to scientific and medical experts at the fda. the other thing i thought was interesting was this question about doctors practicing medicine. you saw several judges ask, should judges have to use an

ultrasound, shouldn't they have to see a patient in person? the justice department would come back and say we asked doctors to practice medicine, you can ask a woman a lot of questions to determine whether or not she has a pregnancy, if there's pain in her shoulder for instance, and these things are very predictive. when was your last period, that can give us a real sense of how far along into a pregnancy is somebody. i thought you heard from the judges ts real interest in not believing doctors, not really trusting doctors to suss that out for themselves. so that is what i will be looking for. geoff: you were shaking your head in agreement about the question about not trusting doctors. steve: at the end of the day the question is who'd we think is in a better position to weigh the scientific evidence? the folks at the fda who are appointed by the president, who are giv those positions because they have those qualifications, or federal judges? no one is arguing that the government's actions are totally

unreviewable. but when you have a system where a federal judge anywhere in the country is in a position to just brush to the side 23 years of scientific, medical evidence, that the agency, congress has created to answer those questions has compiled, i think you see why this has potentially such enormous ramifications far beyond even the enormous mifepristone specific ramifications of this one case. geoff: thank you both for your analysis and your reporting. appreciate it. ♪ amna: a pair of new studies from the journal of the american medical association find that the toll of racial disparities in health for black americans is even starker than we knew. that's true both in lives lost, and an enormous economic cost as well. from 1999 to 2020, black

americans experienced 1.63 million excess deaths compared to white americans. this resulted in 80 million fe espially among infants and older adults. in terms of economic cost, the jama study found that in 2018, racial health inequities cost the u.s. an estimated $421 billion. around two-thirds of that cost came from premature deaths. to explain the significance of this data, i'm joined dr. lisa cooper, director of the johns hopkins center for health equity and the bloomberg distinguished professor at johns hopkins university school of medicine. welcome and thank you for joining us. these numbers are absolutely staggering when laid out this way. you have long studied these issues. were you surprised by these guwhrefiouens s y taw unfortuns not surprised, although i have to say i was disappointed.

because i was hoping that we would have seen some improvement over what we saw in the last century. it seems like that trends are looking pretty much the same. amna: it is now well documented that systemic racism that exists specifically in our health care system in america, how much of these numbers is attributable to that? dr. cooper: it is important for us to note that structural racism is something that impacts all of our institutions. so i think racism and health care contributes substantially to these statistics but i think racism throughout all of our institutions and throughout all of our policies is contributing to these disparities because really, those are the policies and practices that determine where people live, whether or not they have gainful employment, whether or not they uld get a good education, whether they have access to healthy food, and access to health care. all of these things shape people's opportunities to live

healthy lives and determine whether or not they die prematurely. amna: these numbers are staggering when you look at them, but you still see a number of patients in your clinic. how do these numbers show up dated day in these patients? dr. cooper: they show up in the young people i see. i see people as young as 30, 35, or 40 who already have hypertension, who already are obese, who already have had a stroke. i see people who are in middle age who have diabetes and have suffered amputations and can no longer work. a lot of these people are from communities that have low income , or they are african-americans, people who are hispanics. i see people at very young ages with diseases that normally you would see in older people. so you know, it is painful and it is hard to see. there are few people who

actually beat the odds, but the odds are definitely not stacked in their favor. amna: there is an economic bent to this study as well. the hundreds of billions of dollars in cost of those racial health inequities. why do you think that is an important part of this argument? dr. cooper: it is an important part because in lots of ways, our economy and our businesses, they respond to things like this. i think people do not realize the interconnection between health and productivity. oftentimes they see them as separate things. can see that our health is connected to everything we do. we cannot work, we cannot innovate, we cannot compete successfully with other countries if we have poor health. and if we have poor health in certain groups of people in our country, that actually puts our entire country at a disadvantage.

it is important for people to understand the scope of the problem. that it is human suffering and it impacts society in so many different ways. but economically it is something that a lot of people really understand. amna: dr. cooper, what does it take to turn these numbers around? dr. cooper: it is going to take a lot of work. but one thing we need to do is to understand that we actually have science to inform a lot of these solutions, and what we need to do is to use what we know. as we generate more information and more science, we need to use what we know already. we know that early childhood education improves health later in life. support policies and practices that do that. higher living wage, higher income, or minimum wage will improve economic opportunities and the health of people in their adulthood. we know that changing the life circumstances, living conditions in neighborhoods, housing quality, access to food, we know

all those things work to shape health. we know that providing universal access to health care improves health care outcomes. especially for those who can't afford it based on who they work for. we just know a lot we are not implementing because we need to generate stronger political will. and doing that means engaging with people in communities that are impacted by health disparities and making sure that they are cynically engaged, and that they have the know-how and the involvement and the input at the decision-making tables. and in so doing, we will achieve the goal, but it's something that everyone needs to understand that it impacts us all. amna: that is dr. lisa cooper joining us tonight. thank you. dr. cooper: thank you for having me. ♪

geoff: today, russia agreed to extend a deal that allows ukraine to export grain to the rest of the world. the agreement between russia, ukraine, turkey, and the u.s. is a lifeline at a moment of global food insecurity. nick schifrin is following this and joins me now. how did this deal extension come about? by the way, i said it involved the u.s., i should have said the u.n. nick: turkish president erdogan decided unilaterally to extend the deal. they have been trying to negotiate furiously ahead of tomorrow's deadline to get pressure to do a longer extension. moscow has been asking for concessions, claiming this deal does not allow it to sell its own grain and fertilizer to the rest of the world, something the u.s. denies. even only at 60 days, this deal is so vital. ukraine has historically been a breadbasket for the world, especially when it comes to corn and grain.

some 345 million people around the world are food insecure, and access to this ukrainian grain can really help event hunger, even famine, especially in the horn of africa. geoff: this green deal is a rare agreement as the war continues. russia in recent days have stepped up their missile attacks. how is ukraine confronting that? nick: it is an incredible stepping up by russia because of how they are trying to attack kyiv. they have been using one of its most advanced weapons, a hypersonic weapon. it was unveiled about five years ago by russian president vladimir putin in great fanfare. he said that it could fly mach 10, which means 10 times the speed of sound. it be launched by russian jets, this is russian defense ministry video. putin called that weapon, quote, invincible. the assumption was it could avoid air defense. but it turns out it is very vulnerable to an air defense system called the u.s. patriot,

which the u.s. has only recently delivered to ukraine. a defense official confirms to me that one of them did do some light damage to a patriot missile, by the patriots were able to shoot down about half a dozen hypersonics. i asked david wright of m.i.t. who explained the reason the patriot was able to shoot it down is less about the patriot, and more about the other one. >> what people tend to forget is the high-speed mach 10 is really the maximum, the top speed that they reach. they slow down as they reenter the atmosphere. so as they dive towards their target, they hit very thick atmosphere, and the drag tends to slow them down and by the time they get to low altitudes, they are going slow enough that i had actually printed that it patriot might be able to shoot them down. it appears that ukraine has showed that. nick: the reason this is important for ukraine, it has

proven that russia, even with its most advanced missiles, cannot be guaranteed to hit kyiv's key info structure. that is incredibly important for the country but also ahead of this counteroffensive we expect. u.s. officials tell me about shipping operations, mostly attacks inside occupied territory, including with the long-range british mitchell storm shadow that is just been delivered. we expect barrages of artillery to begin and head of a ground offensive. geoff: president biden left today for the g7 gathering in japan. but because of the debt ceiling negotiation, he canceled visits to australia, and what would have been the first ever visit by a sitting president to papa new guinea. what is going on there? nick: the australian prime minister said he understood why he had to counsel. last night it was described to me that the room responded with understanding. but remember why the visit,

especially to papa new guinea, was going to be so important. the u.s. has been trying to expand its footprint in the pacific beyond its two huge faces to a handful of locations. you see the location of papa new guinea off the coast of australian. in order to complicate chinese were planning, really across the region. during the visit, president biden was expected to sign with papa new guinea's prime minister a defense cooperation agreement that would have eventually gotten u.s. troops stationed in papa new guinea and around papa new guinea. white house and regional officials say that that agreement is not in peril. but as you know, remember what the white house argues. that democracies can deliver. the u.s. can deliver despite domestic political disruption. what china will argues that no, u.s. to mystic politics can interfere with the u.s. commitment to the region. according to zach cooper of the american enterprise institute. >> what leaders in asia are looking for is for the u.s. to

be a reliable partner, and that means showing up sometimes, even when we have domestic challenges. they will be a lot of questions about, look, the debt ceiling, we knew roughly when it was going to be a problem, so why did we schedule a whole series of meetings when we knew these negotiations were going to go to the last minute? alternatively, if, as the president said today, they have agreed they will not default, then why can't the president stay in asia? nick: u.s. officials are trying to get secretary of state antony blinken there, but bottom line, the u.s. and china will continue their competition for the region. geoff: starting this week we should acknowledge you are taking time off or paternity leave. you will be dearly missed, but we wish you and camilla and your growing family all the best. nick: appreciate it. ♪

amna: over the past few years, as the country has been reckoning with questions of race, justice, and equality, many state legislatures have passed laws restricting how american history, particularly institutional racism and its legacy today, can be taught in public schools. tonight, judy woodruff visits her native tulsa, oklahoma, to try to understand how that city, amid its own reckoning, is navigating this moment. it's her latest itallment of america at a crossroads. >> this is where the dreamland theater was located. and my great aunt janie, when she was 17 years old, she went on a date. who would have known that during this date, the massacre happened? judy: community activist kristi williams is a descendant of janie edwards, who was just a teenager in tulsa more than 100 years ago when she snuck out one saturday night for a date, and found herself fleeing for her life.

>> she remembered that there were gunshots flying everywhere. there was fire everywhere. and she said they dropped bombs and you could smell the fire and the smoke from miles and miles away. judy: the day before, a young black man working as a shoe shiner was arrested for allegedly assaulting a white woman on an elevator. a confrontation at the courthouse followed, and on the morning of june 1, 1921, a mob of white men chased a group of black men into greenwood, a 35-block district of black-owned businesses and homes known as black wall street, killing an untold number of residents and burning their community to the ground. yet the stories of what happened in tulsa that weekend were for a long time buried in fear, intimidation, and shame. >> they didn't want to repeat it because they always feared that

if they talked about it around the people who did it, who were looting the homes and burning the homes and killing people, so you didn't want that to happen again, so you kept quiet about it. judy: for decades, other stories about tulsa have been told, a place once known as the oil capital of the world, but more recently, home to new residents drawn by an affordable cost of living and a transforming downtown, rich in music, history and culture, including greenwood. in fact, my own story began here. i was born and spent the early years of my life in this, the second largest city in oklahoma. i only lived in tulsa for five years, but i came back often to visit family, especially my grandmother, who lived in this house in north tulsa. i never remember hearing anything about greenwood until news reports began to circulate a few years ago.

>> we're sitting right sort of at the epicenter of the 1921 tulsa race massacre, arguably the worst incident of urban racial violence in american history, and it was not discussed openly for nearly 75, 80 years. so, this represents the evolution of tulsa's really racial history. judy: tulsa's mayor, g.t. bynum, comes from a long line of tulsans, as well as former city mayors on both sides of his family. >> and the goal of course at the top is reconciliation for us as a community. judy: in 2021, he apologized for the city's failure to protect black tulsans 100 years earlier, and from decades of discrimination after. >> i think the greatest change i've seen in my lifetime, and especially just in the last five to seven years, is the openness with which racial disparities are discussed in our city.

and we've tried to, over the last i'd say 20 years as a community, to start having those conversations around race in our city that should have been happening for a century. but we have tried to contact all of that into the last 20 years, and really in earnest in the last decade. judy: historians estimate that 300 people may have been killed in the massacre. in 2018, mayor bynum announced an effort to find out more, using ground penetrating radar, coring, and excavation to explore four sites where victims of the massacre may have been buried. just recently, a team announced that they had sequenced dna from six sets of human remains exhumed from oaklawn cemetery, and are now seeking the public's help in identifying them. >> it's an opportunity for us to make tulsa the kind of city that i think this generation of tulsans wants it to be. we want to be a city where, when horrible things happen to

people, we as a city rally around them and do our best to find out what happened and be there for their families and their descendants. at the same time, there's a human challenge. there's a great lack of trust towards the city because the city didn't do enough for so long. >> the qstion that i have, and the question that so many north tulsans have is, what are you going to actually do about it? these are abandoned homes. and you see this throughout my district. judy: city councilor vanessa hall harper, who represents tulsa's first district, in the north, recently gave me a tour of her district, where many black tulsans live today. >> you have a lot of vacant houses and vacant lots. judy: following the carnage of the massacre, many greenwood buildings and businesses were rebuilt. but in the decades that followed, developers built a highway through the heart of greenwood, which, combined with housing discrimination in the form of race restrictive covenants and redlining, drove

many residents north. >> this was the only part of town that black people could live. judy: today, hall-harper says her district suffers from poor housing, health care, nutrition, and employment. and a 2015 tulsa health department report found a greater than 10-year difference in the lifespan of those living in a zip code in the north versus just a few miles away in south tulsa. >> the community living in north tulsa is largely african american, black, brown and poor. people in south tulsa is largely white, affluent. and so, that's a problem. and that's not only a problem for north tulsans, that's a problem for the city. judy: she campaigned on a promise to address the food deserts in her community, and in 2021, with support from mayor bynum, she helped deliver fresh fruits, vegetables, and dairy in the oasis fresh market. but she says a lot more needs to be done to make this community whole.

>> i grew up when i had to apologize, i had to do more than just say i'm sorry, i had to do all that i could do to make right what i had done. judy: she's currently helping to lead a series of community conversations called beyond apology, to try to engage residents over what more the city should do, including on the question of reparations. when you speak of reparations, what do you mean exactly by that? >> i think we are in the process right now having those conversations, but if you're asking me, vanessa hall harper, reparations to me is land and cash. judy: to whom? >> to everyone that was involved. to not only to the victims, but to their descendants. but not only were individuals destroyed, community was destroyed. this entire space, this entire area was impacted. and so, what does that form of reparations look like? i think those are conversations

that we must have. judy: mayor g.t. bynum. >> we need to do right by tulsans who were murdered in 1921. that's why we're doing the search for the graves. we've allocated over $1,000,000 in city funds that has been unanimously supported by the city council and overwhelmingly supported by the public. the public has overwhelmingly supported our work around economic development. one could view all of that work as reparations. there are others who say, we've got to settle this lawsuit and levy a property tax on everyone who lives in tulsa and issue cash payments. that, to me, is a much more challenging question because you're financially penalizing everyone who lives in tulsa today for something that criminals did 100 years ago. but we're going through a dialogue. and i think the way you address it is to keep the dialogue going. judy: and yet, republican state lawmakers have arguably made that harder. >> more fallout from the house bill 1775 in oklahoma.

judy: in 2021, despite opposition from school boards and public universities across the state, governor kevin stitt signed house bill 1775, legislation restricting how history can be taught in public schools. >> as governor, i firmly believe that not one cent of taxpayer money should be used to define and divide young oklahomans about their race or sex. judy: on its face, 1775 is about preventing discrimination on the basis of race or sex. but it includes a provision that says no individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex, which some worry is so broad and subjective that it's having a chilling effect on the teaching of difficult subjects, like the 1921 massacre. >> i think it is ridiculous. i think it's totally ridiculous that you don't teach history of

what actually happened just for fear of making someone feel guilty. teach them also, in order for this not to happen, these are the things that we must do. >> tulsa public schools is the first school to violate the law. judy: the law is already having real-world consequences. last summer, the accreditation ratings of two oklahoma school districts, tulsa and mustang, were downgraded, in tulsa because teachers took part in an implicit bias training. >> house bill 1775 was created to create accountability and transparency. judy: tulsa-area resident janice danforth spoke in favor of the downgrading at the july state board meeting in oklahoma city. >> i ask you today to follow through and let tps be the example throughout oklahoma that breaking the law is not only an optimal, it is illegal. judy: a mother of two boys, one

in public school, one in private, in 2021 danforth founded the tulsa chapter of moms for liberty, a nonprofit parents rights group started in florida during the pandemic that has now spread across the country. the group is officially non-partisan, but aligns itself with conservative causes. danforth says tulsa public schools, which for years have struggled with low funding and test scores, need to focus on academics. >> and that should really be the only thing they're focusing on and not diversity, equity, and inclusion. judy: are you saying that it's wrong for teachers to be conscious of diversity? >> not at all. judy: then what is the argument, then? >> well, critical race theory, or if you want to look at diversity, equity, inclusion, we don't -- equity is making everyone equal. that's not the case, right? we can't all have the same thing. that is marxism, literally.

we want equitable, not equity. where everyone has the same opportunity. judy: i asked danforth how teachers are supposed to manage how a student feels about a historical event, like the 1921 massacre, without worrying about hurting their district's accreditation or jeopardizing their teaching licenses. how do you carefully make that separation? >> i think you can show that there were some people in that time frame that were not good people. the ku klux klan was a terrible organization that did terrible things to black people. and i think kids can learn about it without having to have that concept put on them like it's their fault. judy: and you think teachers are able to make that distinction, should be able to make that? >> absolutely. i think if you're worried about how you're teaching it, then you're probably teaching it wrong. >> i would not want any student in tulsa taught that they are lesser than someone else because of their race.

at the same time, there are legititeav difficult conversations and that we learn about difficult judy: for his part, mayor bynum, a republican, says if, in fact, the new state law is preventing the teaching of history like the events of 1921, legislators should amend it. >> we're home to the consequences of not talking about difficult history for three quarters of a century right here in tulsa, where the city fathers, after 1921, decided we're not going to talk about this race massacre because it's such an embarrassment. and so now it's left to this generation of tulsans to try and catch up on all that and investigate it 100 years after the fact, which is really challenging. >> also want to keep educating ourselves on our own. that is really important. judy: community activist kristi williams isn't waiting for the legislature to act. she recently started her own program, black history saturdays, for young people,

their parents, and local teachers to meet once a month to learn in an environment free from the fear of saying the wrong thing. >> you know, history and learning, it is uncomfortable. but if you understand someone's history, then you will not treat them like they are an outcast. if you were taught that all i was a slave, my people were just slaves, you don't see that much in me. so it's a benefit for all people to learn black history. judy: a community that remains divided over its past, and how to move forward, but still trying to engage. for the "pbs newshour," i'm judy woodruff in tulsa, oklahoma. amna: and take a look online, where judy shares her personal reflections on reporting on tulsa. that's at pbs.org/newshour. geoff: leanne morgan finds comedy in the chaos of marriage and motherhood.

she's a storyteller, who draws from her experiences growing up in rural tennessee, being married for over 30 years, raising three kids, and becoming a grandmother for the first time. >> when my boy and his wife found out about this precious baby, they would say, "their baby." and we would say "our baby," and then they started using words like "boundaries." geoff: now at 57 years old, leanne morgan's stand-up career is taking off, and she's just released her first netflix stand-up special. >> they are going to have this precious baby and be up all night and that's going to go into weeks and months. and then my little daughter-in-law is going to start hallucinating, and then she's going to wake up in the night and she will be breast-feeding a lamp. and we'll see who's got boundaries. geoff: i sat down with her in new york city to talk about her unconventional comedy career.

most comedians get their starts in comedy clubs or in writers rooms. you found your way to professional standup by selling jewelry, is that right? leanne: yes, my darling. ok, so, my husband and i met at the university of tennessee, and when we graduated, he bought a used mobile home business where he refurbished mobile homes and sold them. and he moved me to tennessee in the foothills of the appalachian mountains. and i started selling jewelry. geoff: and you're going house to house doing this? leanne: i'm going house to house at night. my husband took care of the baby. and then i was supposed to be talking about jewelry and i would schlep this big jewelry case around. and i didn't talk about jewelry. i talked about breast feeding and hemorrhoids, and i developed a shtick, really, and act. and women thought i was funny and started booking me about a year in advance. geoff: wow. leanne: and that gave me the confidence. people would say, you need to be a stand up. geoff: is that what you wanted for yourself? did you want to be a stand-up?

leanne: i wanted to be in show business and i thought i was funny. and i always loved comedy, but i didn't know how that would end up. but stand up, i knew i could tell a story. geoff: after two decades on stage, leanne's first special on youtube has more than 50 million views. her new netflix special reached the top 10. leanne: but my husband and i met and i was so cute. and i was little, i had on little britches. any my thyroid was functioning. and now, i truly believe he would not pull me out of a burning vehicle. geoff: your family provides fodder for so much of your act. how do they feel about that? >> they feel fine about it, now. when they were in middle school, my children said, do not speak my name. and they also said, don't come up to the school with yoga pants on. so that was a dry time for me. and my husband only one time has said to me, don't say that again.

i said something about, i wanted something, but it was a bad a mobile home year. and he said, i've always provided for you. do not say that again. and it hurt me for him. and i've never said anything like that again. but he doesn't care about anything else. and in my twisted mind i think, oh, i can lose 40 pounds in four weeks. geoff: leanne's act is relatable, and a reflection of her life, comedy with a common touch. leanne: i've done every diet in the world. my momma and my sister and i took dexatrim. do ya'll remember dexatrim? yeah. it was speed. we took speed. as a family. they sold it on the shelves everywhere and we were all taking dope. and that's funny how things resonate with people because i've had more comments of people saying, oh my gosh, my mom and i took dexatrim together. my mom gave it to us, and i was

this big around, you know, and i was raised by farming people and we knew where our beef was coming from. i was tiny and then taking diet pills on top of it. i would now but i think my heart would flutter. i'm out here on the porch, and i'm looking rough. geoff: when covid hit, leanne was about to start a 100 city tour, and like many others, leaned into social media, and cooking. leanne: you just mix that all together and you chill it and it's really good. i started talking about my recipes and taking care of my little mom and daddy, they needed me. what i was feeding them and my family. and it grew bigger and more than i ever thought it would. so that was a helpful thing. as horrible as all that was, i think it helped grow audience because people at home -- geoff: it gave them a point of connection. leanne: yeah. and people start making all this jell-o all over the united states. and i know jell-o is very divisive. geoff: it's controversial. leanne: it's very controversial.

but where i'm from in the you know, in middle, tennessee, we love a good gelatin salad, you know, with a little pineapple pecan, little cottage cheese or cream cheese, little cool whip. geoff: wow. yeah. that's way beyond. leanne: yeah, to us, that's something, you know. nice to take to a church supper. geoff: the thing i really loved about your act is that there's no underlying political or social message. it really is just about the laughs. it's about finding the funny moments in family and growing older. leanne: and i understand how people want to do that and, you know, do comedy that way. but i've just never written that way or ever thought that way. plus, i thought, nobody cares what i think. and i don't -- i want it to be fun, i don't want anybody to feel uncomfortable. but yeah, that's how -- i don't write that way. you know, i probably don't read enough, geoff, to know what's going on. geoff: leanne says this run of success couldn't have happened at a better time. she just signed on to star in a

will ferrell and reese witherspoon comedy. and she is back on the road on a national stand-up tour this summer. the tour is called just getting started. is that how it feels? leanne: yes. geoff, ok, when you're from the country like i am, you know, we're me-ma's. we like to start cooking pinto beans and and wearing house dresses. right? and i thought, i'm just going to bail out of this thing. and then this happened. when i look back on it, because i've had television deals for sitcoms, i've had four deals and they would not make it. my children were little, and i would devastated. and i look back on it now and i think, oh, my gosh, that was not the right time. i got to raise these children in knoxville, tennessee, and then now they don't need me like they used to. they still need me. then this happened to me at this time in my life. and i'm having a ball. i'm having a ball. and it's bigger and more wonderful and more special than anything i ever dreamed of. amna: i love that she says your

name with two syllables. weren't you just laughing the whole time? geoff: isn't she the best. as part of four tour, -- of her tour, she sold out the grand ole opry. she is something else. and that interview was part of our arts and culture series, canvas. meantime, may is asian american and pacific island heritage month, and our student reporting labs is exploring how food is tied to culture and identity. amna: in hillsboro, oregon, student reporter sandeep brijesh pillai of the beaverton academy of science and engineering has this story of a cambodian refugee whose restaurant helps him heal from a tragic family history and provides a space to share his culture. sandeep: i dreamt about it. and now i'm living it. it's easy for me because this is what i wanted. my name is saron kuht.

i was born in cambodia in 1970 and i came to the united states when i was 10 years old in 1981. when the communist rebels took over cambodia in 1975, anything with knowledge and intellectual stuff, they don't want it any more. they want to reset the country back to the year zero. my father was a well-known person in our community, in our town. he was a teacher when the khmer rouge took over in 1975. he couldn't hide his identity, and so they took him away one night in the middle of the night, and they took him outside of town and they beat him to death. when we were there, we were moved from town to town. my mother were put to work in work camps and my sister and i were orphaned for several months. i was the one that had to look for ways to feed my sisters and

myself and my grandmother. we were suffering a lot, but fortunately we made it. my wife and i, we wanted a venue where we can host a lot of people for events and stuff like that. and so, we built this together with our own hands, pretty much. i feel really good about what we do here, and my goal was to get closer to my community, to be more connected, to have a better networking system. you know, we serve foods, but it is also more than just food here in mekong. we build relationships. we create good memories. i want to do more to help bring light to what happened in cambodia. and also, i want people to not forget about the genocide.

cambodia has been under-represented. cambodia is more than just the killing fields. cambodia is a country full of rich culture, arts, food, and entertainment, and everything else. and so, i wanted to at least shed some light on cambodia, and the cambodian culture. geoff: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. amna: and i'm amna nawaz. on behalf of the entire "newshour" team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the "pbs newshour" has been provided by. >> for 25 years, consumer cellular's goal has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our u.s.-based customer service team can help find one that fits you. to learn more, visit consumercellular.tv. >> and with the ongoing support of these individuals and institutions. and friends of the "newshour."

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christiane: hello, everyone, and welcome to "amanpour and company ." the leader of russia's mercenary company claims in american has died in the bloody fight, leaving -- and what comes next. and then ben has a special report on the palestinian man who died working in israel after being hit by an attack launched by islamic jihad in gaza. >> the federal immigration process is broken and needs to be fixed. christiane: as officials remain on high alert, the mayor of el paso, texas, gives walter issacson the details from america's southern border. also ahead -- >>