On you . A memoir. Glad you joined us. Those conversations coming up right now. And by characteristics to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Just over a year ago, the u. S. Supreme court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights act of 1965, opening the day for states to implement restrictive measures about who can and cannot vote including new voter i. D. Laws. A bill to address the Supreme Court striking down those laws is pending in the state and is blocked in the house. It would require that all changes to the vogting laws be reviewed by the department of justice. Joining us, the author of the bill, senator Patrick Leahy, democrat of vermont. He is, of course, chair of the Senate Judiciary committee. Senator leahy, good to have you back on the program, sir. Its good to be with you. I understand you have a bit of laryngitis. Thank you for honoring the commitment to come on anyway. I promise to make this painless. Let me start by asking listen, when i when somebody makes a commitment to you, tavis, they should be there. Im proud to be on your show. Im honored to have you back on the program. Im not naive in asking this question, but what to your mind is behind these attacks on the Voting Rights act . In my mind, it is nothing but a concentrated effort of voter suppression. You know, when we wrote the Voting Rights act, we had a bipartisan majority bipartisan coalition, passed overwhelmingly in the senate and house. I remember when george w. Bush signed it, again with a bipartisan group. Yet, five republican appointees on the Supreme Court knocked out the most important part of the Voting Rights act. It guaranteed that the elderly and student and lower income are going to be disenfranchised. Look what happened as soon as they did this. In georgia, they moved quickly to suppress votes predominantly africanamerican. In North Carolina, tom till is led an effort to suppress voters. Texas has done the same. Its almost like the Supreme Court said, hey, guys, you want to cut off a lot of the voters in your state, here the way to do it. With regard to texas senator leahy, i read a piece the other day, as you are well aware, that harsh provision in texas was upheld by the court. What do we make of the fact that its not just states that are doing this but, apparently, there are courts around the country that will uphold these restrictive efforts on voting restrictive laws on voting . I think that theyve taken their signal from five members in the u. S. Supreme court. It is a mistake. You know, we ive been in country where people have fought revolutions for the right to vote. In my state of vermont, you just assume everybody, old, young, everybody, poor, rich, you all have the right to vote. And its time for us to understand how a state like North Carolina or georgia or texas or these kinds of states could go and actually work at suppressing the vote. It all goes back to we wrote a Voting Rights act which protected peoples right to vote. The Supreme Court knocked that out. I was amazed when Justice Scalia said that the Voting Rights act, this part of it, amounted to a racial entitlement. He spoke as though theres no racial preblg prej racial prejudice in america. Baloney. Go out in america, youll find plenty of example of racial pre prejudice. Im hoping everybody will vote this fall and help us reverse who is a terrible mistake. How do we go about reversing what is a terrible mistake . It seem to me that what the Supreme Court careful basically said i should say on this and other legislation, what i see the Supreme Court saying repeatedly is that if Congress Wants to fix this, let them fix it. Heres how we interpret it. This could be addressed by the house and the senate, as i intimated earlier at the start of this conversation. How would we go about fixing whats already been done . I think there are many member of congress who dont want to fix this. Theyre very happy with what the Supreme Court did because they feel its going to help their own political base. But if we see that people will fight even under this to get out and vote, turn out heavily at the polls, say we do not stand for this. Were not going to elect those who are in favor of this suppression like tom tillis in North Carolina. Well put in office, people will change it. We can. If that doesnt happen, there are those who oppose having a priority for people to vote. And theyll keep doing that. So the evidence, as ive done the research, is pretty clear. Its not just that we have states now getting tougher on citizens exercising their right to vote. It is that the data indicates that these restrictive Voting Rights measures do have an impact. Im thinking specifically now of kansas and tennessee in 2012 after they put these tough i. D. Laws on the books. Voting went down in kansas by 2 . It went down in tennessee by 3. 2 . How much more evidence do we need to that this depresses the vote in the country for us to take the issue more seriously . No, youre absolutely right. It does suppress it. We this country, if it stand for anything, it should stand for the right for everybody to be able to vote. Not just a Privileged Group of people, but everybody. And when legislatures and gerrymandering or in voting laws that suppress votes, there should be no place for that in america. Its obviously done for one reason to determine how the vote will come out. Its like in the old days, they used to have the poll tax. That was done to keep people from voting. We know we remember the jim crow laws. We remember some of those laws, the laws we would ask some esoteric question about the constitution. Uhhuh. Before you could before you could vote. Of course, those questions are only asked of africanamericans. Thats not what this country stands for. This country should be doing Everything Possible to get everybody out to vote. Plus the fact that a lot of these laws are based on a false premise. They say weve got to stop voter fraud. Then they point to millions and millions and millions of voters, and they cant find one case of voter fraud. No, its voter suppression. Is it your sense or your belief that this is a suppressed strategy being implemented specifically by republicans across the country . Is this part of their strategy . Where weve seen the suppression the most have been in those states with a republicancontrolled legislature, republican governor. And theyve done i use North Carolina with tom tillis as an example. We see it in georgia. We see it in texas. We see it elsewhere. You mentioned kansas. You know, in vermont again, i go back to my own state of vermont we do Everything Possible to get people to come out and vote. And the idea that you would have a state that would systematically work at stopping people from voting is hard to understand. It should not be allowed anywhere. Is it that difficult to understand that every person in this country pushing to suppress the right to vote when theres so Many Americans who do not exercise their right to vote . Put another way, if theyre a group of folk who realize that other folk arent exercising the right to vote and by further suppressing their right to vote, they might win elective office. Its not that much of a surprise when it comes to strategy if people arent going to use their right to vote anyway. And you make a good point. But thats why im hoping with this going on, people say, wait a minute, maybe i wouldnt have voted before. Maybe id find other things to do. But this is just going to get worse and worse. And my right to vote can be taken away, what other rights might be taken away . Ive got to vote. Ive got to do whatevers necessary to vote. Ive got to back it possible for the next got to make it possible for the next generation to vote. Ive got to make sure the next generation comes out to vote. Look at during the civil rights era. You had people like john lewis who could have died on that bridge when he was struck in the head out protesting, asking for the right to vote. Look at the number of people who did die. They fought for the right to vote. What all of us have to is those came before us fought to make it possible for us to vote. Dont we at least owe it to them to go out and vote . No matter who you vote for . My wife and i, we did an ad one year. People were surprised that in vermont we said, whether you vote for me or somebody else, go out and vote. Increased the voter turnout. I still won im glad i won. But the point is if we dont vote, if everybody doesnt get out and vote and say we wont stand for this, i guarantee you the Legislature Next year will be even worse, and well have no chance of getting some improvements to the u. S. Congress. There are those pushing for these tough i. D. Laws. There are those who are fighting to suppress the right to vote in part because including the Supreme Court, might add, whose argument seems to be in the era of the first africanamerican president these voter i. D. Laws, these laws in the Voting Rights act specifically, are no longer necessary. We do, after all, have after africanamerican president. How then does one make the argument that we still have to have these laws that carve out special privileges and special protections of africanamericans when theyve done enough to elect a black president . I was and am a strong supporter of barack obama. Hes one of 44 president s, 43 white. We have to do more than that. I also know that its not just the president. Its the legislatures, members of congress. There are those who want to never have another africanamerican president. That would be a very, very bad thing for this country. A woman props . Or a woman. I mean, all of us. I want every one of my grandchildren to be able to run for whatever they want and not be discriminated against either because of their gender or because of their race. And two are mixed race. The chair of the Senate Judiciary committee, senator Patrick Leahy of vermont. Senator, thank you for your work as always. An honor to have you back on this program. Thanks, tavis. Coming up, george clinton, the father of funk. Stay with us. George clintons one of the great hitmakers of all time, working first in r b before creating a sound known as funk providing the dna for hiphop to thrive. He has been the leader and force behind two mega bands of course, parliament and funkadelic. Make me funk you must have there. Anyway. His strong musical roots go back to high school where he formed a barber shop quintet and cut his teeth on doowop. Youll love this. Brothers be yo, like george. Aint that funking kind of hard . Its easy if you do like brothers be yo like george. Aint that funking kind of hard on you . I said it was hard when i started. Ill be hard when i get through. [ laughter ] you got it right. Good to have you back, man. Good to you. When i got into this, as a matter of fact i write this down. Let me get this quote just right i kept the funk alive, but record labels kept all the money. I kept the funk alive, but record labels kept all the money. Do you remember i came on your show before . I was out of my mind then. I came without of the paperwork, all of the lawyers, all of the copyright material. His to clean up my act i had to clean up my act so i could come on your show clear and say, were moving all the way to the Supreme Court now. Were getting ready to go to the Supreme Court. Uhhuh. All the samples of all that music. Not the artists now. Im tight with every one of those hiphop artists. The Record Company took the money from them, never gave it to us. Any time i say some being it, they make it like im attacking the artist. I really want to tell dre, sthosnap, puffy, jayz, im not the one who sued them. As a matter of fact, im asking them to come forward. To just im going to the Supreme Court with this. And like, i dont want to talk about just that. On page 379, thats the key. You can find out why i really wrote the book. I dont feel like my story aint over. I wouldnt have been trying to write the book if i didnt want to tell whats happening in the copyright issues. They took the money from me. I was misbehaving. They got me. But now theyre trying to take from my heirs, from my grandskids and band grandkids and band members heirs and grandkid. If you took from me when i wasnt paying attention, thats my fault. Now theyre going after the copyright which is eternal t. And the mother ship is going to the smithsonian. I saw that. It music itself should not be disrespected like that. Ive got my own lawyers suing me for 1. 5 million, protecting the other Record Companies that stole all the money. Then my lawyers, you know come after you. Come after me. All of thats starting on page 379. The rest of it is funkadelic, you know, parliament, bootsy what is it about your upbringing, about your being a child, a young adult that people should know if they really want to appreciate where all this comes from . What is it about your story as a child that they ought to know . Oh, thats a good question. I mean i started out, i wanted to be like anybody else known for something, to do something. I started a baseball group. I couldnt play. They put me off my own team. You know . I tried everything. You know, bought the gloves and the catchers i mean, i tried i was about 13. I couldnt do that, so i started parliament at about 14, 15 years old. Uhhuh. Grade school, newark, new jersey. From then on, i wanted to be Frankie Lyman and the teenagers, the spaniels, the flamingos. Them and motown came along. I used to write letters to smokey, to the publishing people. I got a job. They didnt kboep what it was. I know what it was. They just thought i was cute. Now the songs are getting popular after all these yooers. I tried these years. I tried so hard to start. When we finally got to detroit and did a record called i just want to testify. It became a hit. From then on, i wanted to be like motown. The parliament, funkadelic, bootsy, parliament. Its just a family and im still doing that to this day. Thats the way i keep going. Sour found of i love berry gordy. My dear friend of here in this chair not long ago. Your sound is a little funkier than motown. I took everybodys thing and milked it together. Bootsy brought his brother we had james brown in our band. We had motown in our band. Jimi hendrix, we were in newark together as kids. All of us in the village and stuff. We had that history. Eddie hazel playing maggot brain. I just mixed everything together like a motown. Instead of keeping them separate, i mixed it together so youve got some p. Funk, pure funk, uncut, aint been stepped on, the bomb. Do you know what im saying . Yeah. Every bit of that, i think we know the communication there. That was street language. And everybody related to that. It became the background for our generation. Uhhuh. After that, our kids picked up on it which is the dres and snoops, and the tupacs, you know, all of the next generation picked up on their mothers and fathers music. Called it go to the crates and leave my records alone stop scratching them dont touch my lords of the dna for hiphop. We were looking to be part of that generation. Our generation. Now the new generation is dance music. Yeah. If youve got a butt, youre going to shake it. As a matter of fact, we tell them to bring two booties because one aint enough. Weve got as a matter of fact, the new album that goes with this book, got 33 songs on it. Nobody does that, george. No. I had to nobody does 33 records no, i had to make a statement, im not going anywhere. Im not going anywhere. Since i know theyre going to Pay Attention to the book, and my main mission is to bring attention to the copyright stuff going on. Right. They dont intend to let the music be ours. You know what im saying . Its going to the smithsonian, but they want it to be one nation of all song that weve done is when my own lawyers trying to take from me. Knee deep. Those two are like the holy grail. Not only are the Record Companies trying to take it, i paid them 1. 5 million to protect it. Hes working for them. I thought we were onetration under groove. I thought so, too. One nation under 1 thats what he had. And its a conspiracy between because theres so many records with samples. Theyre afraid im getting ready to do what this guy did sued 7 had hundr 700, 800 people in nashville. I might have to do it over again. Its fascinating to me that you have one group of folk in the country disrespecting and trying to take whats rightfully yours. On the other hand, the smithsonian which is the quintessential, you know, governmental agency, putting the mother ship this the museum. Right. And at the same time, these other people are going to the Copyright Office itself. Going and change our name. And you can do that. Theres no they dont have any protection against weve been to the senators, the congress people. Theyre backing us. Bobby rush, john conyers, sheilah jacksonlee, theyve been helping me for the last five years. We couldnt even get in there to look at the stuff. They were going in changing our name. Yeah. As a matter of fact, theyre getting ready to give me an award, too. I guess ive been such a headache, pain in the somebody writes them all the time, getting all about whats going on. Whats sad about this story is that it happened to so many artists. Thats whats sad. With me, im 73 years old. I wouldnt have nothing told do anyway. I got rid of my habits. Really got nothing do. This is my give it to the junk man. I got a lawyer habit now. Yeah. Yeah. I wasnt buying nothing. Yeah. You know what im saying . I got over that just so i can pay more attention to the copyright issue. Yeah. You know, im really thankful for them doing. That i probably wouldnt have paid no attention to the copyright issue if it hadnt of been that theyd taken it from my heirs, my kids. Do you wish that you had figured this out, wised up sooner . Four, you know, you just not that much. Im glad i can do it now. At 73, you aint got much to do. You go fishing and get that for real. Im still on the road. I have fun on the road. Just give me something i can be passionate about. I was able to write a lot of songs. Yeah. You know, this day and time to be able to do 33 songs for the album. Got another parliament album coming out in about four more months. Yeah. So im busy in like i said, brothers be yo like george. Aint that funking kind of hard on you . I was hard when i started. Im going to be hard when i get through. There you have it. New book is out now. Brothers be yo, like george aint that funking kind of hard on you . You come up with the greatest titles, man. I had to fight them for the title when you read it, just like we had to fight for the title of the records. Yeah. I mean, i make it my business to try to make it the title itself make a statement. Yeah. Before you go, can i tell you that i have been its in rotation in my car. This track that you and kim burrell did. Lord i gave it to yall first. I remember this. The kim burrell thing now sly stone is on it. On this album, sly stone is singing the same song. We did it, myself, kim burrell, and sly stone. Ive got to go. Youve got george clinton, kim burrell, and sly stone on the same track . The same thing. This album is the statement. I love you, george clinton. Thank you. I love you. Good to have you back. My man. Thats our show. Thanks for watching. As always, keep the faith. For more information on todays show, visit tavis smiley at pbs. Org. Hi, im tavis smiley. Join me next time for the first of two nights with annie lenox whose the Great American songbook, next time. See you then. And by characteristics to your peanut butt by contributions to your pbs station by viewers like you. Thank you. A kqed television production. Like old fishermans wharf. Reminds me of old san francisco. Like jean val jean. Theeries and cholesterol and calories and cholesterol and heart attack. Like an adventure. It remind me of oatmeal with a touch of wet dog. I did inhale it