>> THE FOLLOWING PROGRAM IS A PBS WISCONSIN ORIGINAL PRODUCTION.

>> ABOUT-FACE DECISIONS WAIVER OVER WHETHER TO IMPEACH THE STATE SUPREME COURT'S NEWEST JUSTICE, AND HEATED DEBATE AT THE CAPITOL ENSUES OVER BILLS THAT WILL IMPACT PEOPLE WHO ARE TRANSGENDER.

I'M FREDERICA FREYBERG, TONIGHT ON "HERE & NOW," SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, ZAC SCHULTZ, HAS THE LATEST ON THREATS TO IMPEACH JUSTICE JANET PROTASIEWICZ.

THEN A LOOK AT GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE FROM A MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW.

SCHOLARS FROM A FEDERAL PROGRAM CHALLENGE CALLS TO DE-FUND DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION PROGRAMS, AND THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF WISCONSIN IN BLACK AND WHITE, THE RACIAL WEALTH GAP.

IT'S "HERE & NOW" FOR OCTOBER 13.

>> FUNDING FOR "HERE & NOW" IS PROVIDED BY THE FOCUS FUND FOR JOURNALISM AND FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN.

♪ >> WE BEGIN TONIGHT WITH MAJOR MOVEMENT IN AN IMPORTANT CASE AFFECTING VOTERS ACROSS THE STATE.

THE LAWSUIT OVER WISCONSIN'S CURRENT LEGISLATIVE BOUNDARY MAPS IS NOW BEING FAST-TRACKED IN THE WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT WITH ORAL ARGUMENTS SET FOR NOVEMBER.

>> THAT'S AFTER LIBERAL JUSTICE JANET PROTASIEWICZ DECLINED TO RECUSE OR STEP ASIDE FROM THE CASE AND THE LIBERAL MAJORITY ON THE COURT RULED TO TAKE UP THE REDISTRICTING LAWSUIT.

REPUBLICAN ASSEMBLY SPEAKER ROBIN VOS HAD MOVED TO PURSUE IMPEACHING HER OVER STATEMENTS SHE MADE DURING HER CAMPAIGN THAT THE LEGISLATIVE MAPS ARE RIGGED AND UNFAIR.

IN HER DECISION TO REJECT RECUSING, JANET PROTASIEWICZ WROTE, "NO OTHER JUSTICE HAS DECIDED THAT THEY MUST RECUSE, EVEN THOUGH THEIR PRIOR WRITINGS, INCLUDING FROM JUST LAST YEAR, MIGHT INDICATE FIRM PRECONCEPTIONS OF CERTAIN ISSUES IN THIS ACTION, AND IF PREJUDGMENT IS THE CONCERN," SHE WROTE, "THEIR WRITINGS ARE JUST AS RELEVANT AT MY CAMPAIGN REMARKS."

VOS ASKED WHETHER IMPEACHING PROTASIEWICZ WAS POSSIBLE.

ONE OF THEM, DAVID PROSSER, TOLD THE SPEAKER NOT TO TRY SAYING, QUOTE, IMPEACHMENT IS SO SYRIAIOUS, SEVERE AND RARE, THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED UNLESS THE SUBJECT HAS COMMITTED A CRIME OR THE SUBJECT HAS COMMITTED INDISPUTABLE CORRUPT CONDUCT WHILE IN OFFICE.

IN TURN, ROBIN VOS RELEASED A STATEMENT ON THE MATTER SAYING, "JUSTICE PROTASIEWICZ SHOULD HAVE RECUSED HERSELF.

WE THINK THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT PRECEDENT COMPELS HER RECUSAL AND THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT WILL HAVE THE LAST WORD HERE."

CONSERVATIVE JUSTICE REBECCA BRADLEY ALSO HAS HER EYE ON THE PERSUASION OF THE NATION'S HIGH COURT.

IN HER DISSENT OVER THE WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT TAKING UP THE REDISTRICTING LAWSUIT, BRADLEY WROTE, "PROTASIEWICZ'S FAILURE TO RECUSE FROM THIS CASE DESPITE BLATANT BIAS SHOULD BE REVIEWED BY THE UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT BEFORE WISCONSIN TAXPAYERS ARE FORCED TO FOOT THE BILL FOR A REDISTRICTING DO-OVER."

SPEAKER VOS SAYS MOVING TO IMPEACH JUSTICE PROTASIEWICZ IS NOT OFF THE TABLE.

HERE TO TALK MORE ABOUT THIS, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, ZAC SCHULTZ, AT THE CAPITOL.

HI, ZAC.

>> Reporter: HEY, FRED.

>> SO NOW VOS IS TYING POSSIBLE IMPEACHMENT TO HOW SHE RULES ON THE CASE, THAT SHE DID NOT RECUSE HERSELF FROM, AND SAYING THAT THE U.S. SUPREME COURT COULD BE THE DECIDER OVER ALL OF THIS.

AS WE HEARD FROM JUSTICE REBECCA BRADLEY, HE'S NOT ALONE IN WANTING THIS TO GO ALL THE WAY UP.

>> Reporter: WELL, AT THIS POINT, THAT'S THE ONLY PLACE THEY CAN GO BECAUSE THE WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT IS CONTROLLED BY LIBERALS WHO WOULD OBVIOUSLY NOT RULE IN FAVOR AND WOULD SUPPORT JANET PROTASIEWICZ IN HER RECUSAL DECISION.

SO THEY HAVE TO GO TO THE U.S. SUPREME COURT, EITHER TO OVERRULE HER DECISION NOT TO RECUSE OR TO OVERRULE ANY DECISION THAT WOULD COME DOWN FROM THE MAJORITY IN THE SUPREME COURT IN WISCONSIN ABOUT CREATING NEW REDISTRICTING MAPS.

AFTER ALL, IT WAS THE U.S. SUPREME COURT LAST TIME WHO KICKED THE ORIGINAL CASE BACK TO THE WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT, WHICH THEN PUT IN PLACE THOSE CONSERVATIVE MAPS THAT WE ARE UNDER.

REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME AROUND, THE SUPREME COURT WITH JUSTICE HAGEDORN, SIDED WITH GOVERNOR EVERS AND CHOSE DEMOCRATIC MAPS UNTIL THE U.S. SUPREME COURT SAID NO.

>> HOW SURPRISING WAS IT THAT FORMER JUSTICE PROSSER AND ANOTHER CONSERVATIVE, FORMER JUSTICE TOLD VOS THAT THERE SHOULD BE NO EFFORT TO IMPEACH PROTASIEWICZ?

>> Reporter: WELL, THESE ARE CONSERVATIVES FROM THE SUPREME COURT, BUT THEY'RE STILL FORMER MEMBERS OF THE SUPREME COURT.

SO IT'S NOT SURPRISING THEY WOULD TRY AND READ THE LAW IN ITS PLAIN LANGUAGE AND IT CLEARLY TALKS ABOUT CONTEMPT CONDUCT AND CORRUPT CONDUCT IN OFFICE.

ALL THESE CAME ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL BEFORE JANET WAS JUSTICE PROTASIEWICZ, SO IT'S PRETTY CLEAR THAT THAT'S HOW IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN READ.

IF YOU WERE ACIDIC, ALWAYS ARGUE YOU CAN FIND ANY JUSTICE SOMEWHERE TO TRY AND SAY WHAT YOU WANT IT TO SAY, SO I THINK YOU COULD ALSO READ INTO THAT THAT SPEAKER VOS SIMPLY DOESN'T HAVE THE VOTES RIGHT NOW IN THE ASSEMBLY TO IMPEACH, IF HE WANTED TO, AND THAT HE WOULD NEED SUPPORT FROM OUTSIDE PLACES LIKE FORMER JUSTICES TO SAY, YES, YOU SHOULD DO THIS, IN ORDER TO BRING THE REST OF THIS CAUCUS ALONG.

>> THERE WAS ALSO THE ARGUMENT THAT PROTASIEWICZ SHOULD STEP ASIDE BECAUSE SHE GOT CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM DEMOCRATIC PARTY OF WISCONSIN BUT THE PARTY ISN'T A PARTY IN THE CASE.

DOES THAT HOLD UP IN TERMS OF IMPEACHMENT?

>> Reporter: IN TERMS OF IMPEACHMENT, THAT'S UNCLEAR.

THAT WAS PART OF THE CAMPAIGN.

THAT WASN'T PART OF HER TIME IN OFFICE, SO IT SHOULDN'T AFFECT IMPEACHMENT, BUT IT WAS SOMETHING THAT SHE SPOKE TO IN HER RECUSAL, IN HER DECISION NOT TO RECUSE FROM THESE CASES, WHERE SHE SAID THAT THE AMOUNT OF MONEY THAT WAS CONTRIBUTED BY A NONPARTY THAT WASN'T BEFORE HER AT THE TIME THE MONEY WAS CONTRIBUTED SHOULD HAVE NO IMPACT ON HER AGENT TO GYMNASIUM THIS -- ABILITY TO DECIDE THIS CASE.

SHE POINTED TO OTHER JUDGES WHO RECEIVED FUNDING FROM CONSERVATIVE OR LIBERAL INTEREST GROUPS AND SAYING THAT THEY'VE ALL ABOUT INFLUENCED BY THIS AND THEY DIDN'T RECUSE SO SHE SHOULDN'T HAVE TO EITHER.

>> WHAT WAS PROTASIEWICZ SAYING IT MIGHT CONFIRM PRECONCEPTIONS ON THE REDISTRICTING ISSUE?

>> Reporter: WELL, REMEMBER, REDISTRICTING WAS JUST BEFORE THIS COURT IN THE LAST SESSION AND EVERYONE WROTE ON THIS.

THEY WROTE THEIR OWN DISSENTS, THEY WROTE THEIR MAJORITY OPINIONS, SO EVERYONE IS ON THE RECORD IN TERMS OF HOW THEY DID DECIDE THIS CASE.

NOW, THESE APPEALS ARE BASED ON SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT ISSUES THAT THEY SAY WEREN'T ADDRESSED AT THIS TIME.

THE CONSERVATIVES SAY, WELL, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT WE DON'T NEED TO TAKE.

WE JUST DECIDED THAT THIS IS THE PRECEDENT THAT WE SHOULD BE GOING ON UNTIL 10 YEARS FROM NOW AND THE LIBERALS ON THE COURT ARE SAYING, NO, THIS IS SOMETHING WE CAN LOOK AT.

IT'S A NEW ANGLE.

OF COURSE IT HELPS WHEN AT THE TIME MAJORITY SO THEY CAN SAY THAT -- WHEN AT THE THEY HAVE THE MAJORITY.

THAT COULD BE THE BASIS OF PRECONCEPTIONS, BUT THAT'S ALSO WHY THE SUPREME COURT TYPICALLY DOESN'T DECIDE THE SAME CASE MULTIPLE SESSIONS IN A ROW ONCE THEY DECIDE IT STANDS UNLESS THERE'S A NEW ANGLE, WHICH IS WHAT THEY SAY GROUPS ARE SAYING IS THE REASON WHY THE COURTS SHOULD TAKE THIS ISSUE UP NOW.

>> BACK TO THIS ISSUE OF RECUSAL WITH JUST ABOUT A HALF A MINUTE LEFT, WHAT HAPPENS IF JANET PROTASIEWICZ WAS COMPELLED IN THE END BY THE HIGH COURT TO RECUSE?

>> Reporter: WELL, IF SHE'S NOT ON IT, THEN THERE'S ONLY SIX JUSTICES LEFT.

THEY'RE SPLIT 3-3.

JUSTICE HAGEDORN WOULD BE A SWING VOTE, BUT WE SAW FROM HIS DISSENT IN THE DECISION TO TAKE THE CASE THAT HE DOESN'T THINK THE COURT NEEDS TO REVISIT THIS ISSUE, SO MONTH MORE LIKELY THAN NOT, IT WOULD BE DEADLOCKED AND NOTHING WOULD HAPPEN.

>> ZAC SCHULTZ, THANKS A LOT.

>> THANK YOU, FRED.

>> IMPASSIONED TESTIMONY AT THE CAPITOL CULMINATED IN HEATED DEBATE OVER LEGISLATION TARGETING TRANSGENDER CHILDREN.

ONE OF THE BILLS FORM OF HORMONE TREATMENTS OR SURGERY.

THE REPUBLICAN AUTHORED LEGISLATION SPARKED THESE WORDS FROM ASSEMBLY SPEAKER ROBIN VOS.

>> SO JUST BECAUSE SOME PEOPLE IN SCIENCE TODAY SAY THAT THIS IS SETTLED THAT WE ARE GOING TO MUTILATE CHILDREN BEFORE WE ALLOW THEM TO GET A TATTOO, BEFORE THEY DECIDE ON MANY THINGS THAT WE SAY AS A SOCIETY THEY CANNOT DECIDE, AND FOR ALL OF YOU W.H.O.

WHO HAVE SPONSORED THE BILL TO SAY WE HAVE TO HAVE 17-YEAR-OLDS TREATED AS PRISON BECAUSE THEY CAN'T BE ADMITTED TO ADULT COURT BECAUSE THEIR BRAINS AREN'T FORMULATED, GIVE ME A BREAK!

SO YOU SAY THAT KIDS AREN'T OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW RIGHT AND WRONG WHEN THEY COMMIT AID CRIME, BUT SOMEHOW PERMANENT BODILY CHANGES, THAT, WHEN YOU'RE 3 YEARS OLD, YOU'VE GOT IT ALL FIGURED OUT.

THIS IS BALONEY!

>> TO HEAR FROM A MEDICAL POINT OF VIEW, WE SPEAK WITH BILL KEETON, CHIEF ADVOCACY OFFER AT SURVIVENT HEALTH, A CLINIC THAT FOCUSES ON SERVICING LGBTQ CLIENTS.

AS TO THE SPEAKER'S COMMENT THAT CHILDREN AS YOUNG AS THREE ARE UNDERGOING PERMANENT BODILY CHANGES, IS THAT ACCURATE?

>> TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE, I'VE NOT HEARD OF ANY INSTANCES WHERE SOMEONE THAT YOUNG HAS BEEN IN A POSITION WHERE THEY'VE HAD, WHETHER IT'S GENDER REASSIGNMENT SURGERY OR TAKING THINGS LIKE HORMONES OR PUBERTY BLOCKERS TO TREAT GENDER DYSPHORIA LIKE WHAT'S BEING DISCUSSED TODAY.

>> WHAT DOES MEDICALLY RECOGNIZED GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE INVOLVE FOR CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 18?

>> IT INVOLVES A LOT OF DIFFERENT COMPONENTS.

PROBABLY FIRST AND FOREMOST IS THE REALLY INTENTIONAL ENGAGEMENT OF THAT INDIVIDUAL'S PARENTS WITH A TEAM OF PROVIDERS WHO ARE REALLY LOOKING AT WHAT IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE HEALTH AND WELL-BEING OF THAT CHILD.

THAT'S GOING TO INCLUDE THINGS LIKE TALK THERAPY AND TRADITIONAL MENTAL HEALTH.

IT MIGHT INCLUDE THINGS LIKE PSYCHIATRY.

AND IF THE TEAM COMES TOGETHER, THE PARENT OR PARENTS IN THIS CASE COME TOGETHER WITH THE TEAM OF PROVIDERS AND THEIR CHILD TO DETERMINE THAT SOMETHING LIKE GENDER REASSIGNMENT SURGERY IS NECESSARY, THEN THAT'S THE COURSE OF TREATMENT THAT'S GOING TO BE FOUND AND SOUGHT OUT.

THERE'S GOING TO BE A LOT OF CONSULTATION, A LOT OF DISCUSSION, A LOT OF EDUCATION OF THE PARENT AND THE CHILD OF WHAT THIS IS GOING TO MEAN FOR THAT INDIVIDUAL FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES AND IT'S NOT THE STANDARD COURSE.

I SHOULDN'T SAY IT'S NOT THE STANDARD COURSE.

IT'S NOT THE ONLY COURSE.

THERE ARE A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO HELPING SUPPORT FOLKS WHO ARE LIVING WITH NOT FEELING LIKE THEIR PHYSICAL BODY MATCHES HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT THEMSELVES.

>> BUT IN TERMS OF THAT GENDER REASSIGNMENT SURGERY, IS THAT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS, YOU KNOW, IN YOUNG TEENAGERS?

OR EVEN OLDER ONES?

OR IS IT GENERALLY SOMETHING THAT WOULD BE WHEN THEY ARE ADULTS?

>> THE RESEARCH AND LITERATURE I'VE SEEN ON THIS LENDS ITSELF TO UNDERSTAND THAT THIS IS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS LATER ON IN AN INDIVIDUAL'S LIFE.

THE MEDICAL COMMUNITY REALLY RECOGNIZED THAT THEY ARE GOING THROUGH A SIGNIFICANT STEP WITH THIS PATIENT AND THEY WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY'RE IN A POSITION TO MAKE THAT DECISION FULLY FROM A WELL-INFORMED POSITION.

>> BUT THIS KIND OF CARE WOULD INCLUDE PUBERTY-BLOCKING DRUGS OR HORMONES, AND IF SO, AT WHAT AGE AND UNDER, AGAIN, WHAT CONDITIONS WOULD THESE BE AFFORDED?

>> THERE'S A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT APPROACHES.

IT'S INDIVIDUALIZED FOR EACH ONE OF THE PATIENTS.

THERE'S NO STANDARD ON THIS DAY, AFTER THIS MANY ROUNDS OF TREATMENT, WE'RE GOING TO START TREATMENT "X," "Y," OR "Z."

SO IS IT THE SAME IN EVERY CASE?

THE ANSWER IS NO.

THIS SORT OF CARE IS VERY NATURALLY TAILORED AND INDIVIDUALIZED FOR THE INDIVIDUAL WHO IS SEEKING IT.

>> BECAUSE WHAT KIND OF CARE AND CAUTION DO HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS ENTER INTO WITH CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS AS THEY GO THROUGH THIS COURSE OF TREATMENT?

>> THERE ARE A LOT OF CONVERSATIONS THAT NEED TO HAPPEN, MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS ABOUT WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR THE PATIENT.

THE INITIATION OF THINGS LIKE PUBERTY BLOCKERS OR HORMONE THERAPY, THOSE ARE IS NOT NOT NECESSARILY PERMANENT APPROACHES.

THEY WILL CHANGE THE INDIVIDUAL'S PHYSIOLOGY IN SOME WAYS SO THAT IT MORE CLOSELY REPRESENTS HOW THAT INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES THEIR GENDER, WHICH IS AN INTERNAL, ALMOST PSYCHOLOGICAL SORT OF THING.

AND IF THAT CHANGES THE ABILITY TO WITHDRAW OR STOP RECEIVING THAT, WILL HAVE THE IMPACT OF BRINGING THAT PERSON'S GENDER EXPRESSION BACK TOWARDS THEIR PHYSIOLOGICAL.

>> AND SO IN OTHER WORDS, THOSE KINDS OF DRUGS ARE REVERSIBLE.

>> CORRECT.

>> WHY DOES YOUR HEALTHCARE PRACTICE IT AND OTHERS BELIEVE THAT IT IS INJURE RUSS TO PROHIBIT GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE FOR CHILDREN AND FOR THEM TO WAIT UNTIL THEY'RE 18 TO GET THAT KIND OF CARE?

>> WELL, I THINK IF WE LOOK AT SOMETHING LIKE GENDER DYSPHORIA AND THE FOLKS WHO ARE SEEKING THIS OUT, IT'S NOT A COSMETIC OR ESTHETIC APPROACH.

IT'S NOT A TATTOO.

THIS IS RECOGNIZED TREATMENT, DEVELOPED WITH PROTOCOLS, DEVELOPED BY LEADING PROVIDERS IN THIS SPACE, THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION, THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, AND OTHERS, AND THE IDEA THAT SOMEONE IS EXPERIENCING A CONDITION THAT HAS TREATMENTS AVAILABLE FOR IT THAT HAVE BEEN RIGOROUSLY STUDIED AND PROVEN TO BE EFFECTIVE AND SAFE FOR THAT INDIVIDUAL, TO WITHHOLD THAT BECAUSE OF SOMEONE'S AGE SEEMS TO BE CRUEL TO ME IN SOME WAYS.

THAT'S WHERE THE JURY INJURY COMES IN.

WE STIGMA STIGMATIZE FOLKS FOURTH TO THE FRINGES OF SOCIETY.

>> THANK YOU FOR BEING WITH US.

>> THANK YOU.

>> GOVERNOR TONY EVERS WILL VETO THIS BILL AND TWO OTHERS RELATED TO TRANSGENDER SPORTS RESTRICTIONS.

ALSO AT THE CAPITOL, REPUBLICANS COULD WITHHOLD PAY RAISES FOR STATE EMPLOYEES OVER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION POSITIONS AT THE UNIVERSITIES OF WISCONSIN, BUT FEDERAL DOLLARS CONTINUE TO FUND A PROGRAM OFFERED AT SEVEN OF THE UNIVERSITIES THAT HELPS UNDERREPRESENTED STUDENTS NAVIGATE HIGHER ADDICTION.

ADITI DEBNATH HAS MORE ON THAT PROGRAM'S IMPACT ON THE UW-OSHKOSH CAMPUS.

>> ORIGINALLY WHEN I WENT INTO McNAIR, I WANTED TO BE A MEDICAL ILLUSTRATOR.

I WANTED TO DRAW PICTURES FOR TEXTBOOKS, THOSE POSTERS YOU SEE IN DOCTORS' OFFICES BECAUSE I REALLY LIKE TO DRAW, BUT NOW I'M NOT TRYING TO DO THAT AT ALL.

NOW I'M TRYING TO GET A Ph.D.

IN BIOTECHNOLOGY.

>> Reporter: DOMINIC IS A UW-OSHKOSH McNAIR SCHOLAR.

HE JUST COMPLETED THE PROGRAM SUMMER RESEARCH WHICH CULMINATES IN A PUBLIC PRESENTATION OF HIS FINDINGS.

>> McNAIR IS REALLY A ONE-STOP SHOP FOR FIRST GENERATION UNDERREPRESENTED AND LOW INCOME STUDENTS.

>> Reporter: THIS FEDERALLY FUNDED SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM IS DEEMED A SUCCESS BY THOSE IN IT.

EVEN AS REPUBLICANS IN THE LEGISLATURE WANT TO PROHIBIT STATE FUNDED PROGRAMS AIMED AT DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION.

THE McNAIR PROGRAM GRANTS ITS SCHOLARS $4,000 TO CONDUCT THEIR OWN RESEARCH AND RECEIVE ONE-ON-ONE MENTORSHIP FROM A FACULTY MEMBER.

>> RESEARCH I'LL BE PROTECT TODAY IS ON BACTERIA AND LAKE WINNEBAGO.

>> BRITNEY DUPREE BE ALSO DIDN'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT IT BEFORE BECOMING A McNAIR SCHOLAR.

>> I WAS LOOKING AT PRAIRIE RESTORATION AROUND CENTRAL WISCONSIN.

>> Reporter: THE PROGRAM'S DIRECTOR, CORDELIA, SAYS McNAIR IS PART OF A PIPELINE OF PROGRAMS THAT HELPS STUDENTS FROM DISADVANTAGED PROGRAMS BE SUCCESSFUL IN COLLEGE.

>> IT HAS A LONG TRACK RECORD OF HUGE SUCCESS, IT HAS BIPARTISAN SUPPORT IN WASHINGTON.

>> Reporter: BOWLUS IS REFERRING TO FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING DESIGNATED TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION IN EDUCATION.

>> OF THE APPROXIMATELY 200 STUDENTS THAT HAVE GONE THROUGH OUR PROGRAM IN THE LAST 16 YEARS, 60 PEST OF THEM ARE EITHER -- 60% OF THEM ARE EITHER IN GRADUATE SCHOOLS OR HAVE CAREERS.

>> Reporter: THIS YEAR, UW-OSHKOSH WILL RECEIVE $260,000 FROM McNAIR AND IS ONE OF SEVEN UNIVERSITIES IN WISCONSIN THAT OFFERS THE PROGRAM.

>> THEY'RE IMPORTANT BECAUSE THEY ENRICH THE UNIVERSITY.

>> Reporter: PROGRAM COORDINATOR AT UW-OSHKOSH, DR. BELYNDA PINKSTON, ADVISES McNAIR SCHOLARS THROUGH EACH STEP OF THE PROGRAM.

>> WE MAKE A CONCERTED EFFORT TO FOCUS ON PROVIDING RESOURCES FOR OUR SCHOLARS AND PROVIDING AN ENVIRONMENT IN WHICH THEY FEEL SUPPORTED AND WHICH THEY FEEL SEEN AND HEARD.

>> Reporter: BEYOND THAT, PROGRAMS LIKE McNAIR GIVE STUDENTS THE SPACE TO CONNECT WITH PEERS THAT HAVE SIMILAR EXPERIENCES AND INSPIRE THE NEXT GENERATION.

>> I THINK WE DO A GOOD JOB KIND OF OF REPRESENTING WHAT EDUCATION CAN DO FOR PEOPLE AND WHERE IT CAN LEAD.

>> Reporter: HIS MOTHER, BLANCA JUAREZ, TRAVELED TO OSHKOSH TO SEE HIS PRESENTATION.

>> I'M A REALLY, REALLY PROUD MAMA BECAUSE I KNOW HE'S DOING WHAT'S IN HIS HEART.

HE REALLY WANTS TO DO IT, HE WANTS TO CLEAN THE LAKE, AND HOPEFULLY OLDER STUDENTS CONTINUE WITH THIS PROGRAM AND WITH THIS PROGRAM THAT THEY CHOSE THIS SUMMER.

>> DR. PINKSTON, WHO ONCE WAS A FIRST GENERATION COLLEGE STUDENT, SAYS PROMOTING DIVERSITY AND HIGHER EDUCATION IS JUST AS BENEFICIAL TO A COMMUNITY AS IT IS TO EACH STUDENT.

>> AND SO IT'S NOT JUST INTRINSIC, WHAT AM I GOING TO GET OUT OF THIS.

IT'S ABOUT HOW CAN I GIVE BACK, AND WE HELP CULTIVATE THAT DESIRE IN THEM TO GIVE BACK.

>> Reporter: FOR BRITNEY DUPREE AND HER MOTHER, McNAIR REALLY IS ABOUT ENABLING THE NEXT GENERATION.

>> I AM A PERSON ABOUT SCHOOL.

I WOULD SUPPORT HER IN ANY WAY.

I AM SO PROUD OF HER AND WHAT SHE'S ACHIEVED SO FAR.

>> Reporter: FOR "HERE & NOW," I'M ADITI DEBNATH.

[blues music] - Milwaukee Resident: People here are suffering now.

What do you wanna do about it now?

What are you gonna do about it now?

How many homes do you have available now for us?

- Nathan Denzin: Bulldozers rolled into Milwaukee in the 1960s, leveling Black neighborhoods in the name of urban renewal.

[bulldozers roaring] The projects often razed successful Black neighborhoods like Bronzeville in downtown Milwaukee.

- Well, you had homes with families and with kids, and we were all just playing around.

- Nathan: Theresa Garrison has lived in the Bronzeville community for 70 years.

- Theresa: So I'd say it was family-oriented and everybody knew everybody.

- Nathan: Bronzeville enjoyed a flourishing business district in the early 1960s, from banks to movie theaters to grocery stores.

- Theresa: It was just a booming shopping center.

- Nathan: But in the mid 1960s, the federal government started giving grants for cities to update infrastructure.

The goal of urban renewal was to construct new housing and modern interstates.

Those projects often destroyed Black neighborhoods in the process.

- Narrator: Fred Durra and his family have lived in this house for eight years, but they live in the K3 urban renewal area and they have to move now.

There are 13 of them, and they are Black and poor, so they won't be able to find a decent home on their own.

- As far as urban renewal, I'll just say it was urban tragedies.

- Nathan: In just eight years between 1960 and 1968, more than 7,500 homes and businesses were demolished in Milwaukee.

Interstate 43 was the largest and most visible urban renewal project in Milwaukee and was built directly through Bronzeville.

- The addition of I-43 decimated the neighborhood.

- Friendships that were very close to having a family connection were disrupted and destroyed, and a lot of families never recovered.

- Nathan: Elmer Moore, Jr. and Ranell Washington play critical roles in the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority.

- What does that do to everyone else's sense of security?

I wouldn't be able to sleep that night, thinking, "What are they gonna do to my home next?"

- Ranell: Everybody deserves to have a house.

- Theresa: When they start tearing a community apart, there was nothing to do.

You didn't have anything.

- Nathan: The Black community was now facing three forms of discrimination at once.

Restrictive covenants prohibited them from living in certain areas, redlining prevented them from getting mortgages, and urban renewal destroyed their neighborhoods.

- Black households that were displaced by highways and urban renewal had limited housing options in the city because of discrimination and exclusionary zoning in the suburbs.

- Nathan: Kurt Paulsen is a historian of urban planning at UW-Madison, who says decades of discrimination built to massive protest.

- No surprise that you get significant political pushback and rebellion amongst African Americans in disinvested neighborhoods.

- We tend to think about the civil rights movement, like the institution of slavery, as something that is uniquely southern, and it was not.

- Nathan: Dr. Christy Clark-Pujara, a UW-Madison history professor, also works with the Madison organization Nehemiah.

She's an instructor in its "Justified Anger: Black History for a New Day" course.

The nine-week course teaches the community about race, history, and justice.

- You can just look at the civil rights struggle for open housing, for instance, in Milwaukee.

- Nathan: The pushback in Milwaukee started in the 1960s when Vel Phillips was elected to the city council.

Phillips was both the first woman and the first Black person elected to a city office.

She led the charge to desegregate Milwaukee's housing.

- These cats are just too dumb, just too dumb to know when they have something going for 'em.

It's bad enough... - Kurt: And they argued in favor of reinvestment in Black neighborhoods, but also what we today would call fair housing or open housing.

- Nathan: Fair housing is the idea that discrimination of any kind in the sale or rental of housing should be prohibited.

When Phillips first introduced her fair housing ordinance in 1962, the rest of the council overwhelmingly rejected it.

- It was one of the first proposed in the country and it went down to defeat 18 to 1.

Only Vel Phillips voted for it.

- Y'all have done this #### for over 200 years, telling us what felt good for us.

- Nathan: Over the next four years, the ordinance was shot down four more times, each time by the 18 to 1 margin.

By the summer of 1967, Milwaukee reached its boiling point.

A group of young Black activists decided to rally their community around a common goal.

Their mindset: - We are going to march and demand that the local government, the city of Milwaukee, passes a fair housing ordinance that has some teeth to it.

- Nathan: Reggie Jackson is a community leader in Milwaukee.

- Reggie: So they marched for 200 consecutive days.

The first two days they marched, they were met crossing this bridge in Milwaukee called the 16th Street Viaduct, which separates the north side from the south side.

They were met by an angry crowd of thousands of white people, throwing bricks and bottles and bags of feces.

- Nathan: Despite the angry white crowds, protestors kept up the pressure.

- Anybody that knows anything about the weather in Milwaukee, marching in December, January, February when it's bitterly cold, snow, blizzards, all that stuff, ice storms, they continued to march.

- Nathan: Protests continued until March 1968.

Less than a month later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis.

As unrest grew after the murder of Dr. King, the federal government felt pressure to pass an open housing law.

- The federal government finally passed the Federal Fair Housing Act a week after Dr. King's assassination.

- But that's after 40 years of segregation.

And a law prohibiting discrimination does not address the deep structure of segregation that was already built into the urban landscape.

- Nathan: As an expert on the deep and lasting scars of discrimination and forced segregation, Clark-Pujara says understanding that past is critical to working towards a better future.

- So now we're in a situation where things are very lopsided, but we can address them as a society if we choose to.

- Nathan: For Here & Now, I'm Nathan Denzin.

>> THIS REPORTING LAUNCHED WITH A ONE-HOUR WISCONSIN IN BLACK AND WHITE PRIME TIME SPECIAL FROM SPECIAL PROJECTS JOURNALIST MURV SEYMORE.

TO SEE THAT SPECIAL AND ADDITIONAL CONTENT, GO TO OUR WEB PAGE AT PBS WISCONSIN DOT-ORG AND THEN CLICK ON THE NEWS PAGE.

THAT'S OUR PROGRAM FOR TONIGHT.

I'M FREDERICA FREYBERG.

HAVE A GOOD WEEKEND.

>> FUNDING FOR "HERE & NOW" IS PROVIDED BY THE FOCUS FUND FOR JOURNALISM AND FRIENDS OF PBS WISCONSIN.