With us on the Independence Day weekend professor what is july 4th mean to you . [laughter] it means Frederick Douglassw. You could have the general celebration we have a different perspective from the africanamerican aameri community is a long history to understand the distinction in terms of the celebration for one community and a lack of the observance on the other part and what does it mean to those who have a history of bondage of segregation and jim crow to you have to understand the sensitivity from one community to another. Obviously Start Talking about the history of this country and the roles of africanamericans to provide that celebration is a whole other question. The f we have been at the forefront of the battle of freedom for justice and liberty for erfurt fr update number one so in terms of the boston massacre since that moment across the years the matter what type of internet or turmoil or conflict order world war the people were involved didnt you find a contribution o
D damon harris died a couple of weeks ago. Im brooke baldwin. Lets take you to washington now. The situation room with wolf blitzer starts right now. Happening now, they are just about to ring a bell on a roller coaster day, almost history making day on wall street. Stay right there. Were going to see how close the dow industrials come to their alltime high. Also, whats wrong with this picture up on capitol hill, lawmakers are getting out of town instead of working to help the forced spending cuts that hit tomorrow. Plus, look at this. Dennis rodman, yes, believe it or not. Dennis rodman scoring a diplomatic triumph. There he is. He is sitting right next to the leader of north korea, kim jongun, courtside at a basketball game in pyongyang. Im wolf blitzer. Youre in the situation room. All eyes are on wall street. The New York Stock Exchange closing on a day that saw the Dow Jones Industrial average making a run at breaking its alltime high. Our chief Business Correspondent ali velshi i
Meeting one by one with the cardinals who will choose his successor and he might be facetoface with the next pope in just a few minutes on this last day on the throne of st. Peter. Good morning. Welcome to this special edition of early start. Im john berman. And im zoraida sambolin. Wed like to welcome our viewers from around the world on cnn international. Its the top of the hour, thursday, february 28th. We are witnessing history in the making. No one alive has ever seen a sitting pope step down. It is all unfolding right now and by 2 00 p. M. Eastern, Pope Benedict xvi becomes pope emeritus. But there is still a lot to do before then. The meeting at this hour with the cardinals who will ultimately choose his replacement. Over 100 of them plan to be on hand. The pontiff will spended i ed a or two with each of them. And then Cardinal Sodano will speak. The departure of this pope after what really has been a turbulent eightyear reign leaves the Catholic Church in unchartered waters rig