(light music) - [Announcer] Tonight on Rhode Island PBS Weekly.

- To have someone sit across from you and tell you that they intentionally walked thousands of miles through some truly harsh conditions and that they did all of this because where they were living seemed hopeless.

- [Crowd] Hang Mike Pence!

Hang Mike Pence!

- [Announcer] Two historical events that look eerily similar.

The insurrection on the Capitol in 2021 and the days leading up to Abraham Lincoln's first inauguration 160 years earlier.

- There were actually crowds trying to get into the Capitol, just like on January 6th.

There were unruly sort of drunken men swearing, trying to get in, but then inside there were politicians giving speeches denouncing the result.

- I don't like the way that musicians and marketing people have represented the Black folk tradition as this like dead thing that exists in the past.

If you don't have traditional Black folk music, you don't get blues, you don't get jazz, you don't get gospel, you don't get rock and roll, you don't get punk, you don't get disco.

(light upbeat music) - Good evening, welcome to Rhode Island PBS Weekly.

I'm Pamela Watts.

- And I'm Michelle San Miguel.

Among the biggest local news stories last year was the sudden arrival of 49 Venezuelan migrants on Martha's Vineyard in mid-September sent there from Texas by state officials in Florida.

- As contributing reporter David Wright found back in January, it was a political gambit.

One of the candidates for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination was, to some observers, essentially taunting what he believes are the northeast liberal elites.

- Martha's Vineyard slows down this time of year, the frenzy of summer a distant memory.

This picturesque island off the coast of Cape Cod is an unlikely landmark in America's immigration battle.

But this past September, the Vineyard was the frontline.

48 Venezuelan migrants.

The youngest only three years old, flown to Martha's Vineyard Wednesday, will spend another night at a local church.

On an ordinary Wednesday in September, wedding season on island, 49 Venezuelan migrants suddenly turned up on Martha's Vineyard, like gate crashing guests.

They were brought here on two private planes and when they got to the Vineyard, there was transportation and a camera crew waiting for them.

They basically brought them over here to the high school and dropped them off.

Lured with promises of help finding jobs, housing, and other assistance, homemade brochures to back up the lies.

- This is not even a flag of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

- [David] The two flights chartered from Texas by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis using funds intended for COVID relief to pay for them.

- We are not a sanctuary state and it's better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction.

And yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pastures.

- They were all exhausted and incredibly confused.

- [David] Lisa Belcastro was one of the first responders on scene.

She runs the island's homeless shelter.

- They didn't even know they were coming to Martha's Vineyard in the first place.

And you know, they wanted to know where were their jobs and where were their houses, because that's what they were told.

And you know, we're looking at them going, there are no jobs and there are no houses.

We used every space available.

- [David] They set up camp in St. Andrew's Episcopal Church in Edgartown, and they set to work.

- We couldn't change obviously their journey to get to the border.

We couldn't change what DeSantis and his people did so cruelly to them.

But we could start from square one on the Vineyard.

- [David] Attorney Rachel Self has an immigration law practice in Boston, but lives year round on the Vineyard.

- I got to the church and immediately started to look over the documentation.

They had been processed by the Department of Homeland Security.

They had their paperwork and they were supposed to report in to various offices throughout the country in very short order.

- [David] She and others helped make sure the Venezuelans didn't miss any crucial immigration appointments because they were stranded on Martha's Vineyard.

- To have someone play with you like a pawn on a chessboard, completely disposable.

I can't imagine that.

- [David] If DeSantis' goal was to test the virtue signaling of America's liberal elite- - And all those people in DC and New York were beating their chest when Trump was president saying they were so proud to be sanctuary jurisdictions, saying how bad it was to have a secure border.

The minute even a small fraction of what those border towns deal with every day is brought to their front door, they all of a sudden go berserk.

- [David] Martha's Vineyard stepped up in a big way.

- We started a GoFundMe through community services.

- $280,000 came in virtually overnight.

- Within, I don't know, 36-40 hours.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

Yep.

People wanted to help.

- [David] But judging from some of the hate messages everyone who helped them received... - [Caller] I hope they impregnate your daughters, and y'all get a bunch of little (beep) grandbabies.

- [David] There are plenty of Americans who applaud Governor DeSantis.

- [Caller] I hope they flood your community.

I hope they flood and bring drugs and crime to your community.

- [David] This whole episode teed up what's bound to be a central issue in the 2024 presidential campaign, the Venezuelans among thousands of others caught in America's broken immigration system.

This experience did bring that problem home to the Vineyard in a stark new way.

- The whole concept of fleeing a country was foreign to me.

Like we hear about it in the news and you see the wars on TV and poverty and everything else, but to have someone sit across from you and tell you that they intentionally walked thousands of miles through some truly harsh conditions and that they did all of this because where they were living seemed hopeless or dangerous.

- [David] Truth be told, the Vineyard has a sizable immigrant population, many of them Brazilian.

Adeel Jr. Barbosa works at the Oak Bluffs Public Library.

He's a new citizen having been sponsored by his wife who was born here.

He told us the Brazilian community was intrigued by all the support the Islanders gave the Venezuelans.

- Of course, everybody's pretty happy that they had somebody to look for them.

That's awesome.

But we have been here for a long time and we don't have the same kind of help.

- So it's not that you begrudge them the help, but that you'd like to see that help yourselves.

- Yes, we didn't have the same help that these people did, but obviously we are all so glad that they have some help and somebody looked for them.

We expected people look to us now too the same way.

- [David] Of the 49 Venezuelans who were brought here to Martha's Vineyard, only half a dozen or so are still on the island.

The rest have scattered to other towns on the mainland.

They all now face a tough road seeking asylum and there are no guarantees.

Jose, not his real name, lives for now in a small town in southern Massachusetts, we've agreed not to say where.

A comfortable spot, food and shelter well met, heat and hot water included.

What would you like to be doing?

(Jose speaks in foreign language) He wants to work, he says, but under US law, he can't even apply for a work permit for six months.

- The biggest question I get asked by all 49 of them, because they all have my cell phone and we stay in very close contact is when can I work?

I really just wanna get to work.

And the problem is that in order to lawfully work in this country, you need to have an employment authorization document issued by the Department of Homeland Security.

- So this is a federal document that gives them authorization to work and they just have to wait for it.

- Yes.

And in the interim, what happens is a lot of people go underground.

- Realistically, she says that probably means a two-year wait getting a work permit, probably 10 years to get a judge to rule on his asylum claim.

And in that 10 years, are they in danger of being deported?

- Not in Massachusetts.

- [David] Jose told us that staying in Venezuela wasn't safe.

He says his family supported the Venezuela opposition and that after the opposition lost the most recent election, thugs started paying his family regular visits.

(Jose speaking in foreign language) - When he was working for his aunt's business, he was assaulted and stabbed one morning.

(Jose speaking in foreign language) - [Interpreter] On December 15th.

(Jose speaking in foreign language) - [Interpreter] Last year.

- They stabbed you.

(Jose speaking in foreign language) - He was called by his name and when he looked up he was stabbed.

- [David] Eventually he says he fled for his life to Peru, but he says Peru wasn't safe either.

So just as soon as he was well enough to travel, he set off on foot for the US border.

(Jose speaking in foreign language) - [Interpreter] Two months and 15 days walking.

- [David] His only treasured possessions, the stuffed animals his son and daughter gave him.

The Venezuelans have filed a class action lawsuit against Governor DeSantis.

- No federal investigation has been launched yet with regard to the fact that they were kidnapped.

I believe they were- - Kidnapped is a very strong word.

- It is, but there is kidnapping by inveiglement, which basically means you lie to somebody to get them.

So picture, if you will, the CBS Afternoon Special of the dangerous man with the ice cream cone or the puppy in the van.

- This was the immigration equivalent of the puppy in the van.

- I believe it was the immigration equivalent of the puppy in the van, yes.

- [David] With help from the San Antonio sheriff, all 49 have been certified as victims of crime unlawful restraint.

- That's a qualifying crime for something called a U visa.

So when you apply for a U visa, the government will certify that you were the victim of a crime.

And the reason this visa exists is so that victims of crime aren't afraid to come forward and assist law enforcement in their investigation of criminal activity.

- And she says ultimately the Florida governor may have done the opposite of what he was hoping to achieve.

So the fact that these 49 people have been certified as victims of a crime puts them in a different category in terms of their immigration.

- It does.

The irony of the actions of the operators in Florida is that they actually provided them a path to green card by victimizing them.

- It's been six months since we first brought you that story.

We checked back with the folks we spoke with to find out what's changed.

The answer is precious little.

The migrants are still waiting for their cases to move forward, which we're told takes as long as it takes, but all 49 of them are still in this country.

And any worries about possible deportation reduced because of the legal help they received on the Vineyard.

Up next, there's arguably no president who's more beloved in our nation's history than Abraham Lincoln.

He guided the nation during the Civil War and issued the Emancipation Proclamation, which led the way to completely abolishing slavery in the United States.

Thousands of books had been written about him, but as we first reported last December, a Rhode Island-based historian came across new information that sheds light on how a divided country came to know Lincoln as the nation was on the verge of a civil war.

- He's moving very fast and if he slows down too much, he becomes vulnerable again because when he's standing still is when someone can get close to him with bad intent.

- [Reporter] That fast moving man was Abraham Lincoln onboard a train headed to his inauguration in Washington DC.

Historian and Rhode Island-based author Ted Widmer spent years combing through newspaper articles and research retracing Lincoln's 13-day journey starting in Illinois.

- I went into a deep vortex, almost like time travel, and I would go anywhere I could find out a shred of information about anything that happened to Abraham Lincoln during these 13 days.

- It was February of 1861, Lincoln was receiving daily death threats over his opposition to slavery.

Seven states had already seceded from the union and the nation was on the cusp of a civil war.

You write a great deal about how there was a lot at stake as Lincoln made his way toward Washington DC.

What was that risk?

- Well, the survival of democracy basically, and a kind of principled democracy that really believed in the worth of every individual.

So if this form of self-government is going to survive, we need a strong United States of America to show people how it's done.

- [Reporter] In "Lincoln on the Verge," Widmer follows the President-elect's 1,900-mile route through the capitals of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, states that had elected him.

- In the north, there is hope that he will come in and be a strong president, but there's a lot of anxiety, there has never been a president from this party.

It's a brand new party called the Republican party.

And the idea that a new kind of a president is coming in and may get rid of slavery or will somehow inhibit the spread of slavery, that's scary to Northerners too, including in Rhode Island because there are northerners with extensive economic interests in the south, but in the south it's much worse than anxiety, it's really hatred.

He has built up in the Southern press as a kind of monster.

- [Reporter] As Lincoln was on route to Washington, his rival Jefferson Davis was rushing toward his own inauguration in Montgomery, Alabama.

Widmer describes it as a race between two competing philosophies.

Widmer says, digging through this chapter of Lincoln's life was a labor of love, and his passion for history is evident and on display in his home on the east side of Providence, from his collection of old maps to this portrait of Lincoln.

- Something about him has always attracted me the way it attracts millions of Americans.

Something in the sadness of the face and the incredible story.

We talk about rags to riches and the American dream, but no one ever came from as obscure a background and achieved as much as as Abraham Lincoln.

And he literally saved our country.

- [Reporter] Many people saw Lincoln for the first time during his inaugural train ride to DC.

He stopped in eight states, ultimately shaking thousands of hands.

But that trip could be viewed as a foreshadowing of what was to come.

- At the very beginning of the trip, there was a device found on the track, even in Illinois near the border with Indiana, on the very first day that someone had put there to cause some mayhem.

It was found by people looking ahead on the route.

And so the danger was removed.

But then in Cincinnati, a couple days later, a bag was placed with an explosive device in Lincoln's cart moments before he got onto the train and it was found and removed.

- There were dangers at every corner, including a plot to kill him in Baltimore.

Still, Lincoln gave about 100 speeches throughout the trip on and off the train.

"To shore up Democracy," writes Widtmer, "Lincoln needed to speak every time that a crowd formed near his train."

- He's walking a tight rope.

He knows he is facing real danger.

He's been informed about this plot and every day they're getting more information about it.

So he's literally heading into the jaws of danger.

I mean, he's heading toward Baltimore.

There's no way he can get to Washington without going through Baltimore.

But he also just has an intuitive sense that he's gotta get out there and talk about America and talk about himself and sell the idea of the Lincoln presidency to a public that still feels a lot of doubt and anxiety before he has even become president.

- As the president-elect was traveling through Ohio, Congress was meeting to certify the results of the 1860 election.

But Widmer says it was a fraught day as Lincoln haters tried to disrupt the count.

- There were actually crowds trying to get into the Capitol just like on January 6th.

There were unruly sort of drunken men swearing, trying to get in, but then inside there were politicians giving speeches denouncing the result just like we saw on January 6th.

- [Reporter] There were fears that Congress might take over the election.

A lot of power lay in the hands of Vice President John C. Breckenridge, a pro southern candidate who also ran against Lincoln.

- He's the winner who's in charge of counting the electoral votes and he refused to cheat.

He's kind of like Mike Pence in this story.

He refused to cheat and he presided over an honest count that declared Lincoln the President-elect.

- [Crowd] Hang Mike Pence!

Hang Mike Pence!

- [Reporter] Widmer's book was published in 2020, nine months before the insurrection on the Capitol.

(crowd chanting) As he watched the attack unfold, Widmer was struck by the similarities between that day and the days leading up to Lincoln's inauguration.

- One of the moving parts of my book was that ordinary people started walking around the Capitol to defend it in the days when they felt that there might be a pro southern takeover of the Capitol before Lincoln even got there.

And people like firemen, blacksmiths, just sort of the working people of Washington DC did not wanna see a coup happen in their city.

I mean it's where they're from and they came out and sort of patrolled around the Capitol to keep an eye on it.

And we need to be the same way in 2022.

- [Reporter] Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney read Widmer's book before the attack on the Capitol, the lifelong Republican lost her congressional seat after sitting on the House January 6th Committee.

- I will not sit back and watch in silence while others lead our party down a path that abandons the rule of law and joins the former president's crusade to undermine our democracy.

- [Reporter] Widmer says Cheney recently called him to talk about the book.

She worried about what might have happened had the Capitol rioters got in their hands on the boxes containing the electoral votes.

- Her political intelligence is so sharp, she knew that was a weak point in our system and that we needed to be really careful on the day of the counting of the electoral votes.

So she said my book gave her some foreknowledge that was very valuable to her that day.

- It's been more than 160 years since Lincoln's inaugural train ride.

But Widmer hopes that what happened back then continues to resonate today.

What's the main thing you want readers to take from your book?

- I want them to look at Lincoln as a flesh and blood human being, not someone we see in a statue or a painting and can't connect to.

He was very brave and stood up for his country when his country needed him.

And from those understandings of Lincoln, I hope we can all for ourselves find some of those same qualities.

January 6th showed how fragile our very strong country actually is.

And so we all need to stand up individually, but also helping each other.

And I think we'll be a better country if we do that.

- Finally tonight in our continuing My Take series, we explore the often forgotten history of Black folk music with the help of providence based musician, Jake Blount.

(light twangy music) - My name is Jake Blount and this is my take on Black folk music.

(light twangy music continues) Black folk music is important because it's the bedrock of every major American musical export.

If you don't have traditional Black folk music, you don't get blues, you don't get jazz, you don't get gospel, you don't get rock and roll, you don't get any of the things that came out of rock and roll, you don't get punk, you don't get disco, you don't get house.

We have a spotty historical record when it comes to Black folk musicians and their/our contribution to the canon and there's a lot of restoration of the historical narrative that we have to do.

♪ I'm a poor old railroad man ♪ - In the early 1900s, we start to see white record executives go down into the south and they began to market white musicians from the south as hillbilly musicians.

They made hillbilly records and that is what we would generally consider early country music, early folk music, stuff in that vein.

And Black musicians were recorded making race records and those tended to be early blues and jazz.

♪ Without a doubt, I have offended ♪ - And that meant that these genres, which had been all together fed into one another for so long, wound up splitting apart because there was a financial incentive for them to do so.

And they split apart, not across sonic lines, but across race lines.

You had to make a certain type of music or else nobody would record you.

Nobody would sell your stuff, you wouldn't be able to play gigs.

There are some prominent white artists from hillbilly records back in the day whose work we know now who learned a lot of what they did from Black musicians.

One example would be The Carter Family.

♪ Oh, I'll twine with my mingles and waving Black hair ♪ - And AP Carter, the father of that family, traveled around collecting songs with a disabled Black man named Lesley Riddle, who taught them a good deal of their repertoire, likely heavily influenced, if not completely taught Maybelle Carter her guitar style, he never got recorded until decades later and is playing some of the same music, but it gets categorized under blues and not country.

(bright violin music) I don't like the way that musicians and marketing people and scholars have represented the Black folk tradition as this like dead thing that exists in the past.

I like to incorporate traditional repertoire in the things that I'm doing now.

(upbeat music) My new album is called "The New Faith."

It's an afrofuturist concept album that explores what Black religious music might sound like in a post-climate crisis world.

So it's set a few hundred years in the future and uses music all the way from a few hundred years into the past.

♪ Once there was no sun ♪ ♪ Once there was no sun ♪ It feels like sitting down with somebody who I don't know and them sharing something that's really personal and there is a unifying feeling in that, that we're sharing something because we know it's important to pass on and we know it's important for the next person to have.

I don't know who I am without this music.

(bright violin music) For Black people, these songs are the oldest texts that we have.

They come out of a time and a place where people were legally not permitted to learn to read and write, much less encouraged to honestly convey their thoughts in a recorded medium.

The songs are the only thing that I have to tell me what my ancestors wanted from me and how I'm supposed to think about the world even as it exceeds the bounds of my influence.

(bright violin music) My name is Jake Blount and this was my take on Black folk music.

- That's our broadcast this evening.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Michelle San Miguel.

- And I'm Pamela Watts.

We'll be back next week with another edition of Rhode Island PBS Weekly.

Good night.

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