others to write. . i could never be happy if i thought there would be another void, another huge historical silence about the experience of black people. reporter: toni morison, a descendant of share croppers who changed the face of american literature. reheema ellis, nbc news. i want to share a little bit more of the message that came from her family. we have a full screen of it. it says she was an extremely devoted mother, grandmother and aunt who revelled with being with her family and friends. the consummate writer who treasured the written word, whether her own, her students or others, she read voraciously and was most at home when writing. she said she made me understand writing was a fine profession. i grew up wanting to be only her. some of the words coming from someone who loved her, loved her
i ll do everything within my power to turn that around. we cannot have that. the other thing, chris, a lot of people that will be hurt are trump voters. the very people that depended on him and the same people that came to the rallies and same people that stood in lines and cheered him on. he now is turning around and saying, you know what? i m going to make sure the rich is taken care of. for you i m going to take away the very things that allow you to exist. we have got to get away from this concept of collateral damage. no american should be considered collateral damage. you know, chris, you know my story. one son of two former share croppers to go in one generation from share croppers to the united states congress. people have there s a lot of help that came along with that. yup. again, there are people sitting here right now and some
i m the son of two share croppers and yet i sit in the senate today. i had the opportunity to go to college. we ve got to look at things like social security and make sure people have security when they get older. we shouldn t be shrinking it, we should be expanding it. congressman, thanks for your work and thanks for your time. thank you. these programs have been transformed through messaging and dog whistle politics as a way to hold people down. listen to the way right-wing media refers to people living in poverty. true poverty is being driven by personal behavior, not an unfair economic system. in 1963 just 6% of american babies were born out of wedlock and now 41% are, that includes 72% of african-american babies. that s right. blame the victim. and toss in a little racially charged language while you re at
the effect of a 200 years of slavery and 100 years of segregation. now the segregation problem in mississippi was when they stopped the agriculture policy, when they stopped farmers from growing food or fiber, it flooded a lot of people who had had been share croppers into the cities. right. they went up to the cities for jobs. with no education and it broke up the families. that happened about 50 years ago. just about 50 years ago. there doesn t seem that there is any improvement it seems that the culture in the inner cities and the poor precincts not only black by the way is i do kleining. you have a different thing with hispanics and you have a different thing with asian families which came here intact. the my congratulation north migration. haitians do well coming
the effect of a 200 years of slavery and 100 years of segregation. now the segregation problem in mississippi was when they stopped the agriculture policy, when they stopped farmers from growing food or fiber, it flooded a lot of people who had had been share croppers into the cities. right. they went up to the cities for jobs. with no education and it broke up the families. that happened about 50 years ago. just about 50 years ago. there doesn t seem that there is any improvement it seems that the culture in the inner cities and the poor precincts not onlyby the wo kleining. you have a different thing with hispanics and you have a different thing with asian families which came here intact. the my congratulation north migration. haitians do well coming