welcome back. i m melissa harris-perry. july marked 25 years since the passage of the americans with disabilities act. the law was created to protect people from discrimination and employment. transportation, governmental activities and public accommodation like public schools. and yet this week a video of an 8-year-old, a student, being handcuffed as punishment is calling no question how the ada has upheld or not upheld for children in our schools. according to a federal lawsuit filed monday by the american civil liberties union, a school resource officer handcuffed two small children both with disabilities as a means of punishment in covington, kentucky. as part of its case against the kenton county sheriff s office, the aclu released a video of sumner handcuffing one of the children last year. now the video was recorded by a school staffer and later obtained by the aclu. we ll show you part of the video
in spite of all the changes, in spite of all the progress, there s a deliberate systemic effort to make it harder and more difficult for minorities, for people of color, for low-income people, for students, for seniors to participate. so here is what i kept thinking, as i m standing in the room looking, there s congressman john lewis. there s president barack obama. there s attorney general loretta lynch. how in the world is it that we re literally, what is the path that gets us to that level of political leadership being that diverse and a fight about voter rights happening at the same time that feels dissident? we do have all these people in the highest echelons of office who represent the voting rights act. barack obama is the ultimate culmination of the voting rights act. john lewis is the ultimate
issue, he s not a real republican. he just ends up in the republican party because it s too far-flung but he s in a whole different category. isn t it beautiful that all of these men had fathers in their lives that made this kind of mark that evoked this kind of attention? i look at this i mean, it propelled all of them to run for the highest office in the land. we started the show talking about do black lives matter, i think dads matter and these guys are all testament of how important it is to have a father in your life and especially when we know the number one predictor of poverty is not having an active father in your life. i m sorry. that s not quite what the predictor of poverty is. it s dual income households. i just want to clarify that the data is different. i think part of what s important and i think this is part of what you were emphasizing initially because i want to point out poor