he sent a letter that the justice department have more in the battle and musical legend, lester chambers and his band hit soj in the 1960s became something of an anthem and the song has another relevance today. another hour of "velshi" begins right now. and you are now looking at live pictures from windsor, canada, the north side -- i'm sorry, the south side of the ambassador bridge. when you're in detroit. canada is south of you. that's the south side of the ambassador bridge on the canada side. police are assembled now and this is a very different situation than it was last night. a court order went into effect at 7:00 p.m. eastern ordering the truckers to disperse. they did not disperse overnight and we are seeing police ready to open the most important border between canada and the

u.s. >> i'm ali velshi. 9:00 a.m. in the east, 6:00 a.m. in the west. they ordered to vacate the area and allow traffic flow over the bridge. cal perry has been there all night. this is the biggest police presence. we talked late yesterday evening and one of the points you made that police were given authority by the courts to move in, but they had not done so. this is a very, very different picture behind you now. >> absolutely. they gave a couple of warnings. 7:00 p.m. and midnight. i'll move out of the way and show you, there are two lines of police. this is going to look similar to what we see in the u.s. when we talk about breaking up some of these demonstrations, but there are a variety of differences here. number one, police have been communicating with the police here since the early morning hours and they've been letting some of the folks who left their

vehicles here leave and drive away. we've seen a number of people making that choice. knowing the police were coming. it was obvious they were staging and you can see the busses they've brought in. there are tow trucks that obviously tow these commercial trucks so it was obvious this was happening. the moves were very deliberate. they were very slow, methodical, and again, communicating with the protesters here and letting some of them go. there is clearly a want now to get this roadway open. this is a hundreds of millions a day problem for both canada and the united states. as we talked yesterday the pressure ratcheted up. joe biden calling the prime minister here and saying that he would do whatever it takes to get open. the prime minister saying that it would happen imminently and it seems to be happening this morning, ali. oh, one more thing as we learned canadian geography together with ali velshi. the police are london police. this is a provincial effort. they're coming from 200

kilometers away to the northeast of here. it was the slow buildup that may have explained why last night at 7:00 p.m., we didn't see anything until this morning, they were bringing police from around the province. before i leave you, can you spin around, bill? lots of lights, lots of flashing and there's this hard core group in this intersection that remains. this is the last of the protesters and you have to do some protest math, about half of those folks are livestreaming or media. so there is probably a dozen or so folks left here. the question that remains now, really is whether or not we'll see some of that symbolic arresting where police come and folks want to get arrested in front of the camera. >> we did hear that this will end. the department of homeland security and the united states has offered help to the canadian government and the very conservative government of ontario. the premier has warned this will

end. i have just now seen a tweet from the wind sor police. those are london ontario police and they seem to be helping in the effort. windsor police and its policing partners have commenced enforcement at and near the ambassador bridge. we urge all demonstrators to act lawfully and peacefully. commuters are being asked to avoid the areas affected by the demonstrations at this time. so the police have tweeted that the enforcement actions have begun. one of the things that were different is that police were standing by. they had the authority to do it. they were distributing pamphlets to indicate. this is what they look like. they are center cities across from each other, across the bridge. canada is on the south side and detroit is on the north side. straight from the police the enforcement actions have begun and just to be lear and police are saying that they have begun

clearing it out. you are not seeing anything that looks like arrests or confrontations between police and the truckers. >> no, and a deliberate effort to avoid confrontation on the part of the police. these have been peaceful protests in large part because of where they are. this is a busy intersection of the highway and there's nothing to force a confrontation. police are moving methodically through and the sun will be difficult on this one, bill. i apologize ahead of time. that is a windsor police car. they have been enforcing the perimeter then you have the provincial police. the ontario provincial police, this line of police, they've been securing the iner perimeter. you have the london police have been called in, a city from two hours from here have been called

in to methodically clear this area which has aren't needed to happen because what the police wanted and what they were able to achieve is a conversation with some of these truckers and with some of the folks with the pickup trucks that did exist behind me. you still have these two big rigs here, but a number of folks chose to get their vehicles and leave. is this your vehicle here? is this your vehicle here? i don't know if they cited that person and we've heard these escalating, serious language from the premier, and it could be a $100,000, and you could lose your trucker's license. the big question, ali, is what happens when they get to the big rigs. i don't know what's inside them or if there are people sleeping inside them. >> global news is reporting there's an armored personnel carrier brought up and there are snipers that have taken positions above the customs

building. what do you have there, bill? >> yeah. i didn't mean to interrupt, ali. armored personnel, there it is. >> right. okay, and that's -- right. that's the actual border crossing that we're looking at. we're seeing another assemblage, and you point out the premier of ontario. it is a very, very conservative government and it's very typical of what you see in eastern canada. it is a very conservative government. these truckerses are 90% vaccinated and far larger than the canadian population which is 80% vaccinated and by comparison, truckers in the united states are 50% vaccinated. these are the fringe of the canadian society and the trucking industry. the unions in canada do not support this, the teamsters union, the main trucking in the united states do not support

this. they are on the fringe. >> the majority of these truckers are in huron, in a five-mile line, they had to drive 65 miles more because of what's been happening here. the majority of truckers do not stand with what's happening here. >> if anything happens, wave into the camera. cal per oat canadian side and the clearing enforcement action has begun and it does appear to be entirely peaceful. now to the fight for voters' rights. house minority whip jim clyburn and other members of the black caucus sent a letter to merrick garland asking the justice department to act with more urgency to protect voting rights for people of color. let me take a quote from it. these unabashedly racist and partisan attacks on our nation's democratic pruns pells must be forcefully condemned and expeditiously reversed.

congress looks to you, the attorney general of the united states, to enforce the constitution and our voting rights laws with unmitigated vigor and tenacity. joining me now is the aforementioned congressman, jim clyburn of south carolina and he is the majority whip in the house of representatives. representative clyburn, good to see you. thank you for being with us this morning. that is one strong letter and it is not vague about what you want done and who you want to do it. tell me about the thinking that you and your colleagues are saying we're writing right to the attorney general and saying do something about this. >> first, thank you very much for having me, ali. you know, this issue gets to the core of what it is to be african-american in america. we know what the history is. this is black history month and we have to reflect on the history of the country and we have been in pursuit of a more perfect union for a long, long

time and it seems to be stalling out and we think that congress can do a lot of things, but we have to depend upon the justice department to enforce the law, and so no matter what we may have passed, we just saw what happened in alabama when the supreme court did not support what the judges did when they said, they found it to be unfair and they said well, it may be unfair, but you can go ahead and have the elections anyway. this is an attack on section 2 of the voting rights act. we've already had section 4, the preclearance thrown out in the case and section 2 was there, and i remember senator romney talking about section 2 being still there in spite of section

4. what happened last week is an attack on section 2. we think the attorney general needs to step in, and let it be known that the justice department is not going to be quiet when this is going on. we can't wait until the elections are over and litigate the cases and you look around and you've got people in office and they're there against the constitutions of the united states. >> i want to read to you from the letter again, this year elections will be held in every district across the country and black voters are concerned about the veracity of results compared to voters. the rule of law are threatened considering people trying to overturn or change elections as a major threat. confidence in elections is vital to maintaining a healthy democracy. this is a really important point because these nonsensical fake

audits that are going on across the country, they're deteriorating faith in elections amongst republican voters and all of this talk about state control and voter restrictions is deteriorating faith in elections amongst black and minority voters. so the net result of all of this big lie is that everybody in america is concerned about the safety of an otherwise safe election system. >> absolutely. when all of the investigations and the legal determinations that we've had, that the most fair and most accurate we've had and we've seen it time and time again and it's having an impact on people and it may be intentional, but people will soon say what's the use? that is not good for this country. that's not good for any democracy and we certainly need all hands on deck.

congress needs to do what it can do, and we need to be passing the for the people act and we need to be passing the john lewis advancement act. these things need to be in place so that people can maintain faith and confidence in the electoral process in this great country. >> i want to ask you about a room in the united states capitol. when i have you on i always like to talk history. it's been designated the joseph h. rainie room. he was the first black person to serve at the house of representatives at the dedication ceremony, speaker nancy pelosi called you a relentless champion of joseph rainy's life and leadership. why does joseph rainie matter? >> he had gone into slavery and his father was a barber and earned enough money to earn his family's freedom and of course, after the civil war broke out he

escaped to bermuda, and stayed there throughout the end of the war because they were trying to enlist him in the confederate army and he didn't want to serve in the confederate army and he came back after the war and having been born in georgetown and got elected to congress and was sworn in on december 12, 1870. 150 years this past december 12th and thanks to nancy pelosi we were able to dedicate a room to him in the united states capitol. most of us did not realize it at the time and it was room 150 and it happens to be the room that he served in when he was on the committee of indiana, fares. and the room is now occupied by member scalise and he came to

the ceremony and we really enjoyed a really good day with about eight members of his family. his great-granddaughter there was, and i've been in communication ever since. >> sometimes history does bring us together and sometimes it's not divisive and the thing everyone worries about. we love that you're a student and historian of history. thanks for being with us this morning. house majority whip jim clyburn of south carolina. we showed you a letter that he and his colleagues wrote to merrick garland, it was to the attorney general. the graphic we showed you didn't quite indicate that. so we apologize for that. >> a week ago we said that the archives from the trump administration were ripped up and taped together. there were a pile of documents that they didn't bother to make hole and since then there was

information that trump mishandled. the national archives recently arranged the retrieval of 15 boxes of documents that trump improperly brought with him to mar-a-lago. among them were beautiful love letters, trump's words, not mine, that he received from kim jong-un. also was the hurricane dorian map, you'll remember the famous map that trump dread with a black sharpie over on the left side, true pettiness that deserves a spot in the museum of modern b.s. "the washington post" confirms there were top secret and classified documents in those boxes. while was unclear how many classified documents were among those received by the national archives and records administration, some bore markings that the information was extremely sensitive and would be limited to a small of officials with authority to view

such highly classified information, the two people familiar with the matter said, end quote, and because of this there may be two new investigations on the horizon to look further into donald trump's conduct. the national archives has asked the justice department to investigate how the trump white house handle would its record it is. in addition to that, the house oversight committee said it would launch probe to how those boxes ended up in mar-a-lago without anyone's knowledge for more than a year and then the white house's clogged toilet. according to the book "confidence men" by pulitzer prize-winning reporter maggie haberman. residence staff periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet and they believe the president had flushed pieces of paper. presidential records, by the way, belong to the public. shortly after the watergate scandal the presidential records act was passed and made that explicit because the president, after all, is a public servant,

but trump repeatedly flouted those rules throughout his presidency despite multiple warnings from people in his administration. his attempted coup in the january 6th insurrection have only cast further suspicions on his conduct as president and his document handling. according to new reporting this week, there are gaps in the white house call logs that were turned over to the january 6th committee from the afternoon of the capitol attack. two impeachments and one insurrection later there's little reason to give donald trump the benefit of a doubt. he's such a massive and prolific liar that multiple organizations created databases to track and fact check his lies while he was president. per "the washington post's" own count, trump told 30,573 false or misleading claims just in the four years of his presidency, not before and not after. that's why trump's presidential records in particular are, in fact, so important. the truth eludes donald trump.

he can't take anything he says at face value, but as we're learning now some of the documents that could help us more accurately understand his conduct might have been torn up or might have been stuck somewhere in the white house's plumbing system. here with me now is a congressional correspondent for "the washington post." you are one of the reporters who broke the story and you've been on the story particularly about the 15 boxes of presidential records that trump somehow got to mar-a-lago. here's my question. the president has the authority to declassify documents and information, but the -- from what i understand, and you might know better than do i, the documents that were discovered were not actively declassified. if you have a document that is classified and declassified they put another stamp on it and determined to be declassified and not sure at that point he could take it with him to mar-a-lago, but tell me what this classified stuff is. >> this is a live debate that

legal experts and our sources are currently having that basically the former president has the control over classified document in executive order that whatever he decides to do with a classified document ultimately makes it so, but for all of the legal hand wringing, our sources who dealing with it up close and the fact that he is the former president and these documents have not been properly declassified through the channels that they normally -- and the processes that they're normally supposed to go to, then this is a bigger legal problem than his family would like to think. the department of justs has internal conversations that they'll take up this referral. we also got a comment from the inspector general which was a separate channel from the initial referral to the doj and

they said yesterday on whether they would comment on the department of justice and this is setting off a lot of alarms for a number of different people across the archives. >> let me ask you about the call logs. we actually know through media reporting and people who talk freely to reporters that donald trump was having conversations during a time when call logs are now missing. it's not that the president was radio silent. what do we know and not know about this missing period of call logs on the morning of january 6th? >> yeah. i feel like having this call log story break at the time when we are doing so much reporting about the missing records from the national archives is a really illustrative and important example of why document keeping and the presidential records act is so important and why following these processes that are very

meticulous and require a huge staff in the white house. the white house office of records management to maintain all of these documents in order to be able to accurately look back in history and have a call log, but we know that this president was notorious for making calls off of other people's phones and making calls off of his cell phone and not going through the mainstream channels enabled by the staffers around him to essentially, one word, that someone raised would be to subvert the normal processes or a very clear failure to use them. >> jackie, thanks for your great reporting all week and we appreciate how much light you are shedding on this. the congressional department. moments ago, the press secretary john kirby said the defense secretary lloyd austin has ordered the temporary repositioning of the 160 florida national guard members who were deployed to ukraine in late

november. they are now being sent elsewhere in europe. these troops have been advising and mentoring ukrainian forces as part of the multinational training team. the move comes hours after the u.s. state department has ordered the evacuation of non-emergency personnel in the u.s. embassy in did i of. it looks to be coming before the russian invasion that could be coming in a few days. the new ruling will weigh heavily on black votes are in the state of alabama and they're not the only state that's bearing the brunt of this court. bearing the brunt of this court. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. cut. liberty m... am i allowed to riff? what if i come out of the water? liberty biberty... cut. we'll dub it. liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need.

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only one -- that's the map on the right, where the majority of the people who live there are black even though black people make up more than a quarter of the state's population. i think it's about 28%. so the lower court following the voting rights act ordered the state legislature to create a second district and that's the map on the left, the light blue district so black voters would have a fair say in their elections. the state of alabama didn't like that. they appealed the ruling to the supreme court. in a 5 to 4 ruling the highest court in the map, reinstated, and it could be months before the case is heard and in the meantime the 2022 elections are almost certain to be conducted using the map that continues to disenfranchise black voters in alabama. in a true sign of how radical this decision is the conservative chief justice of the supreme court john roberts sided with the three liberals and dissented on the case. this is the same john roberts

who wrote the decision in 2012 that essentially gutted the voting rights act, even he finds this alabama decision to be a step too far. in a separate dissent justice elana kagan said they've had their power diminished in violation of a law this court once knew to buttress all of american democracy, end quote. and it is into this context, into a world created by an activist right-wing supreme court bent on ignoring the precedent of what was left of the protections of the voting rights act. there aren't many left, that we need to understand the oncoming assault on voting rights from the states. according to the brennan center for justice, as of january 19th, 96 bills were filed that would make it harder to vote in 12 states. that's just in 2022. that's not including bills carried over from 2021.

i think the number is 240 when you count them all. almost all target mail-in voting. senior counsel for the naacp legal defense and education fund which is a participant in this case. mr. ross, thank you for joining us this morning. what's your sense of how this is going to play out? >> yeah. so thank you for having me. i appreciate it. i think that we're concerned, obviously with the supreme court sort of stepping in after a lower court decision had unanimously, three judges had said in a 2 hun-page opinion that alabama's congressional violates the act and it's nearly 40 years old that when certain benchmarks are met, the voting rights act needs to be changed in a way that allows black voters to have representation to assert with the 27% or so

population in alabama. >> let me ask you about justice brett kavanaugh who wrote the decision -- like i said, he backed up his opinion with the purcel principle. the federal court should not change rules so close to the election of the 2022 midterms. what do you make of that argument? >> justice kavanaugh and justice alito and their opinion essentially said that it's too close to the election for us to get any sort of relief for our clients in this case, but here we have an instance in which the election is not until the primary is not until may 24th and the general election is not until november. it was past november and almost immediately there after, we sued trying to get the court to institute new maps and it took the court only two months for them to rule which is astounding speed that courts don't usually

move at and when we're ten months out from the general election, justice alito and justice kavanaugh said it is simply too late. this flies in the face of instances in the last five years and the supreme court has aloud allowed to be instituted in the part of the last year and we were frankly, surprised that the court had taken this route, and i think it's unfortunate. >> at some point the court's going to hear this. do you have confidence that in the course of actual arguments before the course that some justices might change their mind on this? >> we'll see. i mean -- i think, as i said, this is precedent that's at least 40 years old in terms of what states are required to do, but obviously we've seen the supreme court in the last decade or so take positions that are not meant to protect the rights of african-american voters and even what justice kavanaugh said

in his opinion that plaintiffs are just as likely as defendants to win this case and we take the courts at their word that they're willing to hear us out and to hear really take a close look at the deciding that the three-judge court unanimously issued below. >> it's one of those things where it might not be fixed in time, but it might be fixed over time. deuel ross, thank you for joining us. he is counsel at the naacp legal defense fund. coming up, he and his brothers went from mississippi, and the anthems they played in the '60s are just as powerful and timely today. lester chambers from the chambers brothers joins us toward the end of the show. one more reminder to email your questions and comments to ali velshi.com before tomorrow. velshi.com before tomorrow

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in just a few minutes i'll be joined by the legendary musician lester chambers of the chamber brothers to talk about how the band's music inspired millions of americans. one of their most famous gigs was in harlem in 1969 at a concert dubbed the black woodstock and that historic performance can be seen in the documentary "summer of soul" which is now available on hulu. my friend tiffany cross also has some rhythm and soul lined up for "the cross connection" this

morning. tiffany, i believe you have the director of "summer of soul" on the show today. >> you are right, indeed, ali. good morning. always good to see you, my friend. i do have rhythm and soul lined up and that is with the one and only questlove. i am so excited for him. he is now an academy award nominee for "the summer and soul." it will be a great conversation. also, ali, we have to dive into the ongoing right-wing disinformation campaign. you've been seeing this story all week. this time the gop is essentially claiming that the new federal grant program will fund crack pipes. obviously, you and i are rational people, we know that's not true, but we'll be joined by someone who can confirm for our viewers because sandra federique. and never the same outreach for things like narcan and things that impact opioid users and always a disparity there.

the second thing i'm excited about, a record number of black women are running for elected offices across the country including black women in six states running for governor and several in the race for u.s. senate and it's a different thing running statewide. it will be another jam-packed show, ali and i wish we were on set together, my friend and i enjoy seeing you on the screen. >> we're getting closer on that. >> it's going to happen. the crack pipe story is -- is this wild thing about the speed of deliberate disinformation. it was never correct. there was no point at which it was even sort of or kind of a correct thing and right-wing media ran with the idea that the government is giving out free crack pipes to people. >> these people are right-wing extremists and sometimes there's an attention to put disconnect between these media outlets and the folks who storm the capitol and when you conflate the two they're all standing on the same side of this divide and it is

unfortunate that so many people believe this kind of ridiculouslessness, ali. >> tiffany cross, stay tuned, the cross connection, is at 10:00 a.m. eastern. georgia has the souls to the polls voting drive. it's not a direct ripoff, they've added the word patriotic. what do you think that means? what do you think that means hey google. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ at intra-cellular therapies, we're inspired by our circle. a circle that includes our researchers,

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as the saying goes, imitation is the highest form of flattery, but the latest republican-led effort to expand voting in georgia is far from flattering. a group of republican lawmakers are now advocating for early voting to be held on sundays. they're holding a voting drive called patriotic souls to the polls, and asking rural county governments to offer early voting on sundays and coordinate group voting after church

services. now, if you're scratching your head like i am because you're probably old enough to remember when republicans in georgia were trying to effectively eliminate souls to the polls which were efforts led by black churches following the 2020 election when the historically red state went blue for joe biden. republicans tried to stifle access to the vote by proposing legislation that would have required, quote all counties to hold early voting from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. monday through friday for three weeks before the election. it would have prohibited counties from holding early voting on any other days including sunday voting which is a popular thing to do in large metro counties because it's a high turnout day for black voters as part of souls to the polls event. get it? souls at church -- >> you get it, right? the legislation didn't make it into georgia's final slate of implemented voter restrictions and a modified rule allows

counties to decide whether or not to hold voting on sundays. so why the sudden change of heart, the patriotic souls to the polls movement is an effort to enfranchise rural christian voters. subtext, white voters and the history of the real souls to the polls movement runs deeper than the election cycles and it kicked off in florida in the 1990s and by the early 2000s, the naacp, black denominations had transformed it into a national movement of black churches helping their congregations get to voting sites after sunday services. souls to the polls is an effort to make those easier who have been historically disenfranchised. although georgia republicans will seemingly stop at nothing to make the state red once again, they recognize the error of the suppression ways, because it was suppressing rural white votes. joining me now, eddie galot is

from african-american studies at princeton university and the former president of the academy academy of religion and an msnbc political analyst. professor, good to see you. i must start by reading something from the at atlanta journal constitution. this really is about giving everyone access said state ruptive matt dubnik, we have people working five, six, serve days a week that have families and during work day hours and what a remarkable statement that matt dubnik has made because black people have been saying that for 30 years now? >> absolutely. it is so great to see you, ali. >> i can't wait until tomorrow and to have the discussion.

you are right and what is revealed in that quotation is that everyone, folks who are working hard, for that particular state representative, it is white rural voters. it suggests that only white voters matter because more than likely that same representative, i suspect, and i may be wrong here participated in the efforts to in some ways rid the state or disenfranchise and suppress the voters of black voters who are working, five, six, seven days a week, and it's pfrnts important for us to understand that only white voters matter and they've been fighting again that particular presupposition. >> churches around the world have had overlaps with democracy in a lot of places. in quebec it was a big thing and very politicized and in poland during the solidarity movement, people were politicized in their

churches. if the goal is to get everybody to vote, then we should be cool souls to the polls. souls to the polls never meant you had to go and vote democratic. and you'd be energized and you'd be at church and you'd go and cast a ballot. >> ali, you have to place this within the backdrop of the context of the ongoing effort to, in some ways, make black folks second-class citizens. remember, we've only been a multiracial democracy in part since the voting rights act of 1965 and part of that -- and since 1965 there have been yn going efforts to limit and constrain the burdens and benefits of citizenship among certain populations in the country. black churches have been at the forefront of struggling for full citizenship rights in the united states. it is the site of black civil society and the place where vocabularies of freedom emerged

and there were establishmentarian countries, and black churches have always played a central role in our politics and our imagining of freedom itself. >> it's not actually a church thing. are you at all intrigued that they're renaming it and dubbing it for these other churches patriotic souls for the polls? i kind of feel like they're sullying the word patriotic here. >> there's always the underlying assumption that true patriots are white and there's always a suspicion that black folk that because of the history of our country that we're potential traitors and this is an irony, ali, that is we have seen since the civil rights movement of the mid-20th century. efforts on the part of white evangelical christians to assume identity politics and they have engaged in some of the strategies and tactics of the civil rights movement.

so we have an instance and a clear example of a form of identity politics that presumes that certain people are patriots and that certain people ought to have access to the polls while their processes and deny other people access to the polls. >> two weeks ago, you were part of an important discussion on the show that led us to start the velshi banned book club, all boys aren't blue because george talks about the intersection of being black and queer and it's something you write about a lot with james baldwin who suffered the same stresses. i had you in mind when we made this first choice. >> am so excited, ali. i think you're doing an extraordinary service. it is so critical to the vibrancy of american democracy and since we are in crisis it matters that people like you are doing this kind of work, urging americans to think deeply and see the complexity of our

fellows and i think this is just wonderful in every way. i can't wait to join you tomorrow. >> with your support and encouragement, i thank you. eddie glaud, princeton of african-american studies chair and author of "beginagain" and "uncommon faith." you are going to want to turn up the volume on our tv next. he is known for his anti-war anthems that became the soundtrack for the '60s. lester chambers, there he is, sounding by, of the chambers brothers, joins us right after the break. e chambers e chambers brothers what is this nightmare? it's how some people describe... shingles. a painful, blistering rash that could interrupt your life for weeks. the break. ways. if you've had chickenpox, the virus that causes shingles is already inside of you.

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music has played an important role in civil rights movements in the past and present, black psych dellic bands used that music to break

down barriers. one of those is the chambers brothers. they had been highly acclaimed since the '60s, you likely know their sound, especially 1967 hit son "time has come today." that songs spent months as one of the billboard's top 100 songs. it's considered a landmark song. something you may not know is the bands like the chambers brothers was -- "new york times" notes, quote, although they are rarely given credit for doing

so, black psych dellic artists pioneered the rock band, jimmi hendrix, all had black and white members. the supreme court had only just legalized interracial marriage in 1967, so the sight of integrated rock bands continued to help bridge the racial divide, and a display of a unique form of unity. the former lead singer, lester chambers is bringing his voice back to the stage with the bay area music collective moon alice, just as the country faces renewed racial tensions. lester chambers joins me now. good morning to you, great to see you. thank you for being with us. you heard my previous conversation about how churches were a big force of getting people riled up around the civil rights movement, but psych

dellic music was, too. >> right. >> tell me the pressures you felt back then as you were doing it? >> the pressures were danger and fear of your life. it was just total chaos. people did not respect our color at all, so it was not easy to feel comfortable while you're driving from state to state or across country. >> you actually talked about being warned by various groups and agencies not to get into politics, not to have politics play an overt role in your performances, and yet you do talk about the fact it was inherently political. >> yes, it was very political, and still is. it's still a very, very political thing. music is the key to all kinds of

doors. >> you survived in an era of protest music. it was anti-war, it was civil rights. there were things like that going on. people did bring music together for those causes. when you look at what's happening today, the renewed civil rights movement compared to what you saw in the '60s, what do you make of it? >> well, i'm saddened to say and see this all over, and after all those years have passed, it's a sad thing to see. i think once again we need to open up the air waves to music. music brings the world together and people's minds together. giving them time to think about great things, if you're listening to great music, you

can't think about bad things, because the music is great. >> the words, the lyrics to "time has come today" and a number of other songs you wrote back then, it's interesting, because if you read them in a vacuum you wouldn't now ear talking about the '60s. it could be relevant to 2022 america. it is as relevant than as it is today, and today is very, very important that people get the message, time has come, and people are tired of, you know, what we're going through and what we're having to live with, and how we're having to live with it i think music as rhythm, sound, harmony is the key. >> harmony. >> you need to put the world in harmony. music can do that. i think music can save a city or

a town. >> lester chambers, good to have you back here on the scene performing again. it feels good to you? >> it feels great to me. i love it. moonalice is the greatest thing in the world today. it is the greatest. moonalice, we're bringing it back. roger mcnamee, that's what he does, talking about the internet and important things like that. moonalice is his main gig. great to see you, lester. congratulations. we look forward to hearing more from you. that does it for me. could much me back here tomorrow morning from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. "the cross connection with tiffany cross" begins right now.

♪♪ good saturday morning. 2022 is shaping up ton an historic year for so many black welcome. nbc news is reporting that president biden is focusing on three top contenders. they are -- honestly, the supreme court could just be the beginning, and of course the gop is quite shook. thank the republican attacks on biden even before, or the attacks on dr. lisa cook, who biden wants to make the first black woman on the federal reserve board and republicans want to basically call unqualif