amy: ari berman, thank you for being with us.is latest book "give us the , ballot: the modern struggle for voting rights in america." when we come back, the oscars. stay with us. ♪ [music break] amy: lady gaga performing "til it happens to you" at last night's oscars, a song from the documentary, "the hunting ground" about sexual assault on college campuses. she was joined on stage by dozens of survivors who had phrases like "not alone" and "not your fault" written on their arms. lady gaga herself is a sexual assault survivor. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. >>hey, well, i'm here at the academy awards. otherwise known as the white people's choice awards. amy: that's how comedian chris rock opened sunday night's oscars ceremony in los angeles. he walked onstage to "fight the power" and hollywood's biggest night had to share the spotlight with protests, boycotts, and the sharp-tongued host, which all brought attention to the lack of diversity and color at the academy awards. rock

we will speak with ari berman, author of "give us the ballot." all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in south carolina, democratic presidential candidate hillary clinton scored a decisive victory over rival bernie sanders in the primary winning , 73.5% of the vote and picking up 39 additional delegates. african-americans in south carolina favored clinton over sanders by more than six to one, while white voters narrowly preferred her as well. in her victory speech, clinton responded to republican presidential frontrunner donald trump's vow to "make america great again." >> despite what you hear, we don't need to make america great again. america has never stopped being great. but we do need to make america whole again. walls, we building need to be tearing down barriers. amy: clinton's victory propels her into this week's critical super tuesday voting where a dozen states go to the polls and about 880 delegates are at stake. meanwhile here in new york, hundreds of supporters of clinton's rival, ver

spreading false information about a rival candidate. [ inaudible ] >> joining me now is ari berman frome ballot" the modern struggle for voting rights in america. thank you for being here. >> good to see you, reverend. >> ari, if conservatives are so fired up about election fraud, will they go after ted cruz the way they went after acorn? >> i don't think that cruz is going to get the full acorn treatment. there's been some denouncing of what he's done. but i think republicans are still principally concerned with trying to prevent democratic leaning constituencies from going to the polls. we haven't heard any of the republican presidential candidates, for example, denounce new voting restrictions. >> right. >> that could prevent thousands from voting in states like north carolina. >> or the lack of fraud -- >> or the lack of fraud. and they unleashed this voter fraud monster. >> right. >> with all of these unproven accusations that democrats were stealing elections. as you mention it's very ironic that republicans are accusing other elections of doing the fraud they've long acued democr

here with me in new york is ari berman, reporter for the nation magazine and author of give us the ballotights in america. joining me from washington, d.c. is msnbc's very own reverend al sharpton, host of politics nation. and reverend al, i want to come to you first to talk with us about in the big picture, what is at stake regarding voting rights in this choice for a replacement for justice scalia and the fact that republicans are saying they won't confirm anyone to replace him? >> well, i think that it is very, very, very crucial where we are in terms of voting rights in front of this court. let's remember, this court had just taken out section 4 of the voting rights act, and now, we're seeing them, as you just outlined, having to consider both the north carolina case, the texas case, the ramifications of those decisions will really gear where we're going in terms of voting rights or where we're not going for the next generation or two. whoever is selected by the president, if confirmed, could tip the supreme court for the next 50 years. you have to remember, joy, we have been under a