I'm Jonathan K. Parton, welcome to K-PART.

Since I started covering him as a cub editorial writer at the New York Daily News, the

Revenue Al Sharpton has been at the center of just about every political and national

story I've written about.

The civil rights and social justice leader is the consummate inside outside player who

brings the voice of the powerless to the cardors of power, which makes him the perfect person

to talk to right now about the battle over voting rights, once an issue that enjoyed

unparalleled bipartisan support.

In 2006, you can pull it up.

I was in the Rose Garden when they signed the Voting Rights Act reauthorization on the

front row, invited by President George Bush, Carl Rove, Carl and invited me.

That's how much it was bipartisan.

In this conversation, first recorded on January 13th for Washington Post Live, Sharpton

talks about his conversations with the president, and about some of the unsung heroes of the

civil rights movement featured in his new book, Righteous Troublemakers, Untold Stories

of the Social Justice Movement in America.

Joining me now is the Reverend Al Sharpton.

Good to be with you, Jonathan.

All right, before we talk about your book, we have to talk about the current fight over

voting rights.

Last month, you were among a number of black leaders who told the Biden administration

it is past time for it to put its full weight behind voting rights legislation.

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