coming up — we will hear about the damning 19605 report that told the us it was fundamentally racist. we spend some time at the dance theatre of harlem. and we hear from the daughter of an american gi who grew up in germany and has spent her life wrestling with her identity. but first, let's go back to one of the darkest days of the civil rights era. on the 15th of september 1963, the baptist church on 16th street in birmingham, alabama, was packed and ready for sunday service. then a bomb went off and four young girls were killed. sarah rudolph collins survived but her sister addie mae didn't. why. why would somebody put a bomb on our church and kill a little girl. this sweet girl. they — all of them were angels. first, it was just addie. she was standing across from me at the couch, and that's when cynthia, denise and carol came in the door, that's when the bomb went off — boom! it was the loudest sound i ever heard and it scared me so bad i called out, "jesus!" i felt a sting — stinging all over my body. glass came and hit my body — it was several pieces went in my eye. now that the little girls are buried in the soil of this sick city, it may be that the last real hope of achieving freedom in the land of the free has been buried with them. but it'sjust a possibility, too, that the bomb has blasted into white birmingham's conscience and that it could mean the end of the worst evils of segregation. they brought peace to a very evil town. their life was sacrificed for peace. when those girls died, they had to look at themselves then, really. why are we so prejudiced? why do they have so much hate? why would they put a bomb in the church? and after they'd seen the killing of these girls, i really believe that they began to see that this was wrong. you don'tjudge us by our colour. god says we're not supposed to judge at all. we're supposed to love. that sad sunday in alabama is a shocking example of what black people faced in the 1960s. four years later, riots were erupting all across the us in the so—called long, hot summer of 1967. black communities were fed up with poor housing, high unemployment and police harassment. the government set up the kerner commission to investigate the causes of the riots. its findings sent shock waves across america. gunfire. the shots are coming fast and heavy here in detroit as the night is again broken by gunfire. sirens wail. horns blare. from city after city in this tragic summer of 1967 has come news of violence across america — rioting, looting, burning, sniping, killing. the riots and disorders were really frightening. there was a lot of needless deaths. most of those who died were black and most of them were innocent of any wrongdoing. there was quite a bit of overreaction by the police and the national guard when they came in. we will not endure violence. it matters not by whom it is done, or under what slogan or banner. and i went into the kitchen and stood almost at attention and i said "yes, sir, mr president?" and he said "fred, i'm going to appoint that commission you've been talking about and i'm going to put you on it". they wouldn't even look at us. one man said, "i can't stand to even look at white people any more." and all of them expressed their feeling that none of you are going to do anything. these people are living in such desperate conditions of poverty. there is such terrible hostility — with justification — against the police that any random spark could set them off. i wanted people to have — and i think they did — a real sense of history here that we betterjust tell the truth and don't try to sugar—coat it any or make it sound better. when we got to the point where we were going to say that white racism had created the black ghettos and it was white racism which sustained them, that unnerved some of our members. no federal agency, no government agency had ever used the word 'racism' and we said, well, that is what it is and i think it is important to say that because for a lot of young black kids in the country, we want to say, "you are not crazy. "this system is sort of rigged against you." the kerner commission made a very exhaustive study, and spent a couple of million dollars, but they recommended that i spend 80 million and i've got no place to get the 80. i can't borrow it, i can't tax it, i can't get a tax bill of any kind. doctor martin luther king junior characterised our report this way. he said "it is a physician's diagnosis and prediction of death with a prescription for life"~ _ well, through inaction — and opposition, too, of course — it seems america, for about 50 years has chosen death rather than life. all: black lives matter! but i think now with these terrible police killings and the — all of the demonstrations and protests that have occurred as a result, there is a change in public opinion and people are opting for life. the kerner commission's findings that america was fundamentally racist would be controversial even today because systemic racism remains a deeply divisive issue here. i am at the martin luther king junior memorial, but what does a civil rights icon have to do with dance? next, the dance theatre of harlem opened its doors to witness history. the company's artistic director virginia johnson tells us about how the nation's first ballet school to prioritise black dancers began. orchestra warms up. it wasn't until i was graduating from the washington school of ballet that the director came to me and she said, "you know, you are going to have a career. "you are a really wonderful dancer but you will never be "a ballerina because of the colour of your skin." it was following the assassination of martin luther king in 1968 that arthur mitchell decided to set up a dance company for black people in harlem. arthur mitchell was a principal dancer with new york city ballet and he was the first african—american to achieve that level in a major american ballet company. he looked around at this neighbourhood and he said, "these kids don't have a future. "education is terrible, the schools are failing, "nobody cares about them. "they don't have a way of breaking this cycle "of poverty, but if i teach them ballet, i'm going to give them "something else to draw from within themselves." we started with 30 children and two dancers, and everybody said i was crazy because i was using a european art form — classical ballet. but i think that is the strongest technical foundation. once you have that technique, you can do anything you want. classical ballet is impossibly difficult and it requires focus, it requires self—discipline and it requires perseverance. in two months, i had 400 kids. in four months, i had 800 kids. so that shows there is a want, a need and a desire for this. i got to new york in the fall of 1968 and somebody told me that arthur mitchell was teaching class up in harlem on saturdays and i could go up and take class and get a little ballet back in my life. and ijoined dance theatre of harlem in the spring of 1969. and right from the start, it was magic. see, it is too soft! you're doing... hit my hand. he was maniacal. ah! it's too nice! if we were going to do ballet, we were going to be the best ballet dancers the world has ever seen. it was extremely difficult and painful, those first years. nothing that we did was right. he was driving us, he was pushing us every minute. to me, ballet is about the elevation of the human spirit. i always say that dancing en pointe is the closest that you can get to flying. so there were black people who did not want us to do the white man's art form, and there were white people who thought you can't understand it and you don't have the talent or the bodies. and we were really fortunate for our first new york performances, the big critic from the new york times, clive barnes, said, "this is the most exciting thing in ballet". and so, he gave us the little nod and people were saying, "oh, ok, let's go see them. "let's see if they are any good." ten years after that, i would see young people walking into the studio with a sense of ownership. "of course i can be a ballet dancer." and that was the most beautiful thing in the world to me that they had no question whereas i had nothing but question. in a sense, dance theatre of harlem was ahead of its time. so now, yes, there is a desire to bring more diversity to ballet. it is notjust about being perfect on balance in a tutu. that's just a sliver of what ballet can say. the wonderful dancers of the dance theatre of harlem, there. and now you see the connection with martin luther king junior, right? just a reminder you can watch witness history every month on the bbc news channel or you can catch up with all our films and more than 1000 radio programmes on our website. just search for bbc witness history. let's now turn to one of the most controversial police shootings of the 19905 and this is because the deaths of george floyd and breonna taylor is still fresh in our mind. amadou diallo was a guinean immigrant living in new york city when the police shot him 41 times. his devastated mother told us about the day that changed her family's life forever. i will never forget that day. i collapsed and my daughter was there with me and she held me and said, "mum, i know something is wrong but take it easy." i knew then my life that i had been living before will never be the same. amadou diallo came to the bronx two years ago in search of the american dream. that dream ended here on his doorstep where he was shot down in a volley of 41 bullets that have left their scars. he was unarmed but the officers involved say they thought he was reaching for a gun. i was devastated. not only because my child was gone but also the way he was killed. all i wanted was to cross the ocean and come to new york and find out why my child would be gunned down like that. amadou was my first born. i had him when i was just 16 years old. he was very shy but he was gentle. anger and disbelief from the community where amadou diallo lived. holding their wallets aloft, they asked how the four officers could possibly have mistaken mr diallo's wallet for a gun. when i arrived in new york i said, you have to take me where my son lived and died. i remember seeing the bullet wounds on the wall. i remember picking up my son's clothes, bringing it to my face just to smell it. when i came to new york and i saw the outcry and the response of all people of all origin, all religion, all colours. people marching, protesting. i was comforted by that support. it was thousands and thousands of people. that energy was so powerful. i was sitting in the courtroom every day when the verdict was given, acquitting all the four officers. i was devastated and i felt betrayed because how can an innocent young man like amadou be killed and be blamed for his own death? because that was the argument in the end. unfortunately, after amadou, so many people fell victim to the same police brutality. my mission was the amadou diallo foundation. the goal of the foundation is education, racial healing and to bring police and community relations awareness. i started the foundation in 2001 and since then we have given scholarship to african students who were also struggling like amadou, so that helped to heal me a little bit. i don't want anyone to ever forget who my child was. i want him to be remembered by the life he lived, not the way he died. amadou diallo's death was almost two decades before black lives matter or george floyd. so much has changed in america since then and so much has remained the same. and for our final film we are heading to post—war germany. ika hugel—marshall was the daughter of a white german mother and an african—american gi. as a mixed—race so—called occupation baby, ika's story shows how the racism she faced growing up led to years spent grappling with her identity. translation: when i was a child people would scratch my face - with a scrubbing brush to show other children that it wasn't chocolate on my face. obviously, as a child, i couldn't figure out why this was happening to me. ijust wanted to be white, to have the feeling of belonging and be like the others. following defeat in 1945, germany found itself once again occupied by allied troops. the americans brought with them black gis who remained stationed in germany for some time after the war. inevitably bonds were formed and in some cases children followed, born into an all—white environment and having no contact at all with black people. my father came to germany because he was an american soldier. he was sent back home early because he became ill. all children born to african—american fathers were identified as occupation babies. when i was 6.5 my mother took me to the children's home. i've never blamed her because i know that she was under a lot of pressure. i felt as if i was worth so much less than the other children there. i was hit, locked up in rooms and when i was ten they tried to drive the devil out of me. i had to kneel down in front of a chair. all the windows were closed and i had to repeat, "jesus is the victor." then the shutters were opened so the devil hiding inside of me could fly out of the window. i was worth so little that if they could get the devil out of me then i would be worth a little bit more. that is how i felt. i never thought about my father when i was growing up but when i was 18 i felt i would like to meet him. i tried to get in contact using an old address my mother had. but the letter came back. i met audre lorde here in germany in the 1980s. she was an african—american writer and she impressed me as an older black woman. she was very important to me. she told us that as afro—germans we should no longer be silenced in this society. it was something really special because it made me realise that others had experienced the same things as me. getting to know him really healed me. suddenly i could feel proud of myself and walk tall. i had arrived where i had always wanted to be and that's how i still feel today. what a great story to end on there about overcoming racism and prejudice. that is all we have time for this month. the witness history team will be back next month with more stories to make you sit up and listen. but for now, thanks forjoining me here in washington, dc. goodbye. hello there. after what was a mostly dry and clear end to wednesday for most of us, the weather steps up a gear through thursday and into the weekend. with spells of rain, some strong winds, some drier, brighter interludes in between, but the culprit — no prizes for guessing — is low pressure. and this frontal system pushing in from the west is going to bring rain for many of us through the day ahead, with some quite brisk winds as well, particularly in western areas. gusts across western scotland for a time in excess of 50mph. through the day, we will see cloud, we will see outbreaks of showery rain on and off with some drier interludes. best chance of any sunshine across northeast scotland and maybe for a time in the far southeast of england. those are the average wind speeds through the afternoon. gusts will be stronger than that. temperatures ranging from 13 degrees in aberdeen to 17 in cardiff and in plymouth. now, through thursday night, we will see more cloud, more showery rain, and then through the early hours of friday, it looks like we'll have a band of really heavy rain and potentially some quite squally winds that will start to work eastwards, but a much milder night in prospect, with temperatures for many places staying in double digits. so this band of heavy rain and strong winds will cross east anglia and the southeast through friday morning. behind that, england and wales will see some sunshine, but scotland and northern ireland seeing further outbreaks of rain, very windy, with gusts in excess of 50mph across parts of scotland particularly, and temperatures between 13 and 17 degrees. and then we get to the weekend and this frontal system running in from the west could spell trouble, could spell disruption for some, bringing some very heavy rain and then potentially spinning into a really deep area of low pressure drifting northwards across the uk, with the risk of gales, perhaps most especially across scotland, and heavy rain affecting most areas at times. so saturday may start off dry for many of us, but it looks like we'll see some really very heavy and persistent rain working in from the southwest, maybe northern scotland staying just about dry. the winds picking up as well. and then through saturday night, that's when we're expecting an area of low pressure to develop. the detail may change between now and then, but we could see a bout of very strong winds drifting across scotland, some rain continuing here into sunday. sunshine and heavy showers further south and top temperatures to end the weekend between 12 and 17 degrees. welcome to bbc news. the headlines: a major victory for britney spears. a los angeles judge suspends the father of britney spears from his 13—years—long role as the controller of the singer's business affairs. it's a great day for britney spears and it's a great day for justice. there is definitely something celebrate. families ofthe something celebrate. families of the beirut _ something celebrate. families of the beirut port _ something celebrate. families of the beirut port blast - of the beirut port blast victims stage of protest at the suspension of an enquiry into the disaster. a policeman who strangled sarah everard after falsely imprisoning and kidnapping her is facing a whole life sentence. the us says 23