>> our coverage of the assassination of martin luther king jr. continues in about half an hour. we will go live to the national civil rights museum plaza. reverend king was killed their 50 years ago. it will include a wreathlaying and remarks by religious and civil rights leaders. and tonight at 8:00, looking at

the legacy of dr. king and the direction of the civil rights movement today. here is more about the anniversary from washington journal. continues. host: sophia nelson joins us. good morning. guest: good to be back. host: on this 50th anniversary of martin luther king junior, what is the best way to remember him in this day and age? guest: a patriot. he was a true revolutionary. what he said was, i want you to be true to your documents. i want you to own up to what you said on paper and what did thomas jefferson right? we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and endowed with their creator with certain life,, among these, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. martin luther king said there was a promissory note due. he held feet to the fire.

that is what patriots do. they hold us to truth and righteousness and goodness and community and brotherhood and sisterhood. that is who he was to me. o he was to me. where are we a few years later on those fronts? guest: we have made enormous yearess in the whole 1968 was a difficult year for america. we have made progress. but notmade progress, enough. black americans killed on the streets and they are always under suspicious circumstances. there never seems to be justification and i think if dr.

king were here today, he would be on the front line of black lives matter and challenging the government and nation to honor the civil rights that he fought for and his generation die for. host: where can we go politically? guest: we are in a difficult place. of dr.t in the time king, there was a consciousness. tamest jfkf the speech where he talked about the population living on way. -- you cannot have happened population living one way and the other the rest. we are beyond that. we have had a black president, we think we are over racism. it doesn't exist. it is harder in many ways to get through because for many white americans in particular, the

roseanne america, those folks say i am disenfranchised. i am out of work and struggling. why am i worried about the rights of immigrants, women, minorities? not that those things don't matter, but i'm struggling as a white american, i am struggling. there is this great divide, we're not talking to each other. we're talking at each other. host: how much is that fostered by the current administration? guest: greatly. host: how so? guest: just go to twitter. the president of the united states is a sacred trust between the presidency and the people. it has a standard of conduct that no president has violated, save richard nixon, and he had to resign. we had two presidents impeached, andrew johnson in the 1860's and clinton. no president in modern history had the divisive twitter in the way this president has. yes used it in such an ugly way. there is no one safe from his feed. in modern history had the divisive twitter in the way this president has. yes used it in such an ugly way. there is no one safe from his

feed. host: does that filter down to parties themselves? guest: there is minas. correct -- there is meaness. rex tillerson -- what a wrong way to handle another human being. there is a callousness in washington, us versus them. that is the people's house. that belongs to us. they are supposed to represent us, engage in self-governing. that is what our founders saw for us and we're gotten far away. it is now name-calling. i am going to take you out. that is not what our founders envisioned. host: sophia nelson joining us. (202)-748-8001 for republicans, (202)-748-8000 free democrats, independents2 four -- for independents. give us your political background.

guest: i am an attorney. been in this town a long time. as an african-american woman being a republican, jack inspired me. he came to my college campus late in the 1980's. i am dating myself. i was inspired by him, he was a great repuican. i am a moderate, a rhino. we're not too popular these days. this country needs two strong parties, a good republican and democrat party. on air onnalist, msnbc, a contributor at nbc news. i've written a lot of books. lawyer, lobbyist, i have done it in this town. host: from your personal experience what do you see things as? as a womanman of -- of color, we have a long way to go.

fortune 500 tells you everything. there are maybe four or five women ceos. angela burns stepped down after years of service. kathy deloitte. even our white sisters are not doing well. women of color are very far behind. four men of color, imprisonment, how they are being treated by law enforcement -- for men of color, imprisonment, how they're beating treated, there is this malaise. i'm concerned about is going backwards. it feels like we're going backwards instead of going forward. we have the movements of our time but dr. king was a true revolutionary. what that means is, like the founders, he did something. he didn't just talk. people forget this man marched. he was with the sanitation workers in memphis. he was doing things to move the ball. now we like to talk. talk, talk, talk.

we don't do a lot of moving. host: movement comes how? guest: revolution, challenge, change, provocation. -- people living out our motto. e pluribus unum. we don't have to agree. i'm so sick of the notion. that is the beauty of our country. the founders of the colonies agreed on very little. but they agreed on was that king george was a tyrant and he needed to go. what we need to do is finding the things we agree on. we all want better schools, we all want our children safe. we all want better wages and jobs and a better way of life. we all want to be able to worship freely, exercise the bill of rights freely in this country. all of the amendments, not just the second. i am a gun owner, former nra member but it does not mean we cannot be saved about this. the free press, sacrosanct to

who we are. do thee the president things he does against the free press? going against amazon and saying they ownhe "the waington post" when they don't. those things are hurting the market. we need to challenge that instead of going, oh well. host: we have a call. athens, georgia, independent line. caller: good morning. nelson, enjoy you miss all the places i have seen you on, i like your attitude. we do not agree on everything but i think you really come across in such a kind way. in a way that is open to other discussions. the thing i wanted to mention -- to was shot while trying help people get a living wage. we should keep that in mind.

i would like to hear your opinion on the new jim crow, with the imprisonment going on with so many people of color? i thank you. guest: great call. book, "theexander's new jim crow", great book. where in a place african-american women are becoming the next group of population in prison. it is important that we press our elected representatives to make the change. we need criminal justice reform --oss the board for policing we need police to come togethe operation blue shield others in texas are doing that. they are bridging the gap and the divide so that people are talking. so that they are working together and i think that when

our politicians understand that when you have a large segment of a population of african-american men in prisonlike as it devastates not just that population but children do not have fathers. women do not have husbands. there is no economic viability in the tax base. their roles downstream in a negative way. we need reform. it is a serious issue. host: is the mentality changing amongst republicans and outside groups to make those changes? guest: i think you see people like rand paul in others -- more moderate leaning, some conservative, the heritage foundation has been tweeting about those things . she is a true conservative that cares about these issues. you have a shift of a mindset, republicans who should care about this issue, more, because

of the foundations of the republican party, you're starting to see it. both parties have to work and stop fighting because we have large segments of the american community incarcerated and we know the sentencings are not just. the at marissa alexander, woman who shot a gun in the year and got 20 years. george zimmerman who shot trayvon martin got no time. wtre is a disparity from one person does and another person does and how they are dealt with. host: democrats line. caller: good morning. sophia, do you think it is time for a strong, independent third-party in america? if so, would you be our president? [laughter] guest: you're very kind. we are at a tipping point. the american people agree that washington is broken. president trump campaigned on draining the swamp. the swamp is not drained.

i been here a long time. things are more the same than they are not. it seems like people are getting meaner. whether or not there needs to be an independent party, i know adding mcmullen and others have thrown this out there. it is difficult, because the parties are so entrenched. even if you got an independent elected, talk to members of congress like bernie sanders. there is so few of them. it is difficult to raise money, get support. once you get into office, you have a caucus with the democrats and republicans to get something done. i don't think it is viable at the moment. they could become so. i do not want to be president but thank you. host: independent line, baltimore, maryland. caller: how are you doing? guest: how are you? caller: i'm good. you spoke on what i wanted to ask. you mentioned rand paul and the

libertarian party. my question is, do you think we as black people need to look at the libertarian party? because the democrats are not doing anything and the republicans are doing anything either? you mentioned rand paul. i am a huge fan of rand paul. he talks about criminal justice reform. and talked on tv mainlyhe war on drugs, affecting black and brown people. he talks about majority black people have ended up in prison versus white people don't go to prison for drug charges. he is very genuine about the subject even when obama was in office. am always telling my friends and associates, hey, rand paul is the real deal. i actually believe in the libertarian party -- if it was stronger he would break away from the republican party and the all out -- he would become

all out libertarian. i was curious what you think? guest: great question. i think the african american community has to be a better job of making both parties, republicans and democrats, fight for our boat. we do not -- fight for our vote. 90% of african-american women are voting for democrats. i may understand why. an increasing population are single, heads of households and unmarried which is not necessarily by choice. it is by chance. relative to republicans, you know that party has a glorious with the african-american community up until the 1960 election. dixiecrat's,, the flipping personality with the southern strategy. the gop with trump is sustaining

severe damage. the president's rhetoric has been not wha of. itas been divisive, along gender lines, racial lines. it has been out in your face, outrageous. the gop will pay a price. republicanstion of like myself and others will do some party rebuilding and reaching out because the country's demographics have changed such that no president will win an election going forward with just white votes. it is not going to be possible. demographics are shifting. brown and black people will be the majority in a decade or so. that is part of why we see this racial tension and of people. with respect to libertarians, i like to think i'm closer to libertarian then i am republican. i agree with you that rand paul is one of my favorites. he gets it. we are in alignment.

criminal justice reform impacts the black and brown communities severely. even large segments of white america insert in areas, rural areas, crime rates are going up, the opioid crisis. all this fits in. it is becoming a problem for our country. to answer your question, the black vote needs to do a better gayslike hispanics, women, and other groups, say, come get my vote. show me. that is what we don't do. we blindly click for democrats and we hate republicans. there are good republicans. there are republicans who have done amazing things for the africaamerican community. there needs to be more. host: president trump directly reached out to african-americans during the campaign. what you have to lose, you remember that. guest: that kind of outreach is disrespectful. that is not outreaching.

you need to talk people and engage people. host: black unemployment? guest: that is the obama rollover effect, president trump has sustained it. he gets credit. it's not increasing. we know those numbers have a lot behind them. many people stopped looking for jobs, there is underemployment. there are educated african-americans with degrees still facing discrimination. we have a long way to go. host: texas, republican line, this is jim. caller: hello am i on? host: go ahead. caller: i wanted to ask mrs. nelson, what did you think of the elections? the 2018 elections. here, i think of texas as being a purple state. just as many democrats as i run into republicans. all the democrats have got the idea that the republican party

is dead. that they are going to sweep the state in 2018. i would love to hear what you have to say. guest: great question. texas is my second home. i am down there a lot, have a lot of friends there. i love it. i will tell you what. i saw an article where senator cruz's opponent is raising a lot of money. millns of ar host: he has raised $13.2 million in the race so far. guest: that is a lot of money for a challenger to a sitting u.s. senator. if you go back to the dixie era, john f. kennedy and lbj going on that fateful trip to dallas and in '63. it was democrat. my home state of virginia is trending blue. once a reliably red state. the days of george allen -- it was red.

it is no longer. the democrats are going to do very well in the elections. it is an anti-trump vote. we saw that in virginia in 2017. people who had never run for office put their name on the ballot and were able to win, because they didn't like republicans. comstock will be in a fight for her life at home. host: ohio, danny. caller: what do you think of what martin luther king, and the civil liberties union, going across the country, taking every , westernjesus christ civilization -- [inaudible] nativity scenes, taking those down. taking down crosses. they did that. then they told us that, teaching kids in school that, we were never a christian nation.

i destroyed evidence in a court of law -- i guess that would be -- i would be thrown in jail. this is a different sort. also, i notice now how they are goingft arican history. statuere robert e. lee's down, stonewall jackson -- both were opposed to slavery. robert e. lee married george washington's granddaughter. now they are going after william mckinley, thomas jefferson. , youhing about it is, uh -- --uh, it is said to me it is sad -- as a white person, i feel like i'm the one being discriminated against. host: we will leave that there. guest: let me first say i hear you. i spoke to this earlier, a lot of white americans are in a

place where they feel like the country they grew up in and understand is changing. it is. to his point let me say that i agree with you. congress starts every day with a prayer. the senate and house pray everyday. our kids in school cannot do that. what would dr. king think about the aclu? i think dr. king, the aclu in his time was pivotal to helping civil rights. i am in agreement with you that there seems to be over each, i want americans to understand that the religious liberty cause is important, as the free press and the amendments. it is critical to who we are. our founding fathers fled tyrants. they did not want that here. we are a christian nation. we are a judeo-chrisan nation. that does not mean muslims are not welcome, they are of course.

to say it is not founded on principles, i quoted jefferson talking about those unalienable rights granted by god himself. that simply means rights that no man can give and no man can take away. i hear you and understand and i think dr. king would be someone who would be concerned as a pastor, a man of faith on how churches have become enemies in the sense of, if they are not pc, it is a problem. you raise a good point. that is one of those issues we as a nation need to talk about and have respect for one another, that some of us are firmly rooted in our faith. that is critical to us and how we live. others may not see it that way and that is ok as well. nelson, the author, she is a journalist. i want to show you a poll recently taken.

saying that major news outlets report fake news. howdy respond? -- how do you respond? guest: president trump has done a very effective job of saying, fake news, quantifying this term. fox and other by outlets sharing his point of view -- they reach a lot of homes. they -- this issue of sinclair broadcasting, having journalists read from scripps that fake news is dangerous. --horitarian practices taking a free press and telling them they have to read script in order to be employed by a network. if i say, no, i will lose my job. if i'm a young journalist, maybe i am not tom brokaw. maybe i cannot say, i am not doing that. go back to your documents, america. this is not ok.

our founders said, thomas jefferson talked about this a lot. any person that made a speech condemning the free press he said, you are looking at a tyrant. i am paraphrasing. jefferson felt very strongly among atoms in washington and the other founding fathers, madison, that free press was at the center of who we are. the press'job is to keep a watch on the government. to inform the people. the press needs to be left unfettered. host: i will read the sinclair broadcast response to the story. "it is ironic that we would be attacked. specifically asking the public to hold newsrooms accountable. our local stations keep trust by staying focused on fact-based supporting and reporting and commentary." guest: they are deciding what is fact-based.

if you are attacking cnn -- to a --ulist not well informed the local news and rural america, southern america, the midwest -- people do not watch stuff you and i watch. they watch local anchors. it might anchor tells me there is a is up there and there is someone i needo be afrd of, i will be of the -- i will believe it. we are never seen these types of attacks before on the free press by any president. arguably george w. bush took the most heat from the press of any modern president. they did not like him, they were unkind. you never saw him attack the press in that way. host: from orchard park, new york, democrats line, gary. caller: i have a question going back to dr. king on the 50th anniversary of the assassination. wasderstand that dr. king

quite antiwar. was against the amounts of money put every year into the pentagon. i understand that historians and the media tend to ignore that part of his philosophy. would you speak to that plays? -- would you speak to that please? guest: you are right. during the end of his life he was ardently against the vietnam war and passionately so. it made a lot of enemies for him. people did not like that. they could use that as an anti-american stance, which it was not. he like any citizen, has the right to protest peacefully against the war. he saw disproportionate numbers of black and brown men going to that war.

he was a man of peace, like him, i and jesus before they are not men who agreed with or would have been proponents of war. it is pretty basic. host: al is in brooklyn. hello. good morning. how are you? guest: brooklyn is a great by the way. caller: thank you. thank you. here is my concern, harkening said about the media. black working class, white orking class, republicans and democrats, we have more in common than we have differences. what you're saying about the media, i listen to washington journal," i listen -- i , to msnbc, and they

tell you fox new system grossly viewers.ming their our president is grossly constituents.is i'd like to know, is there something we can do, now sinclair is coming out. is there something we can do as flow of to stop the misinformation? guest: it's a great question. again, this is a representative republic, that means the power rests with the people, that is founders set it up. get in group necessary your community, a anis club or member of fraternity, your church, write in groups, say to your representative, this is not country, do th it.thing about write to the president, tell him you are not please when he tweets or attacks.

it affects it. write to the stock market and moral of the public. voices have to be heard. the ballot box, in november, vote for the party of your choice, when you are not pleased with how things that is how americans express that, power of the ballot. host: mrs. valdez. caller: good morning, mrs. nelson. i have a point about your demographic comment. fact, it is going to change, like you said, as far as in a ncerned, growing up mexican family in california, the i saw in the 60s how shift of things that we used to subserve iant part of sxoet controlling it is state, we move east and president trump has been successful at, that somehow ple we're going to take stuff over. he's partially true because things aren't going to be like

they are going to be. nothing has ever been done voluntarily, women's rights, gay rights, has ity always been a struggle. asking, now we're going to start taking or it might be time for payback. you.k guest: well, i certainly don't agree with payback, but thomas have said ould tree of liberty needs toy from time to time. and revolution, again, doesn't have to mean that we're pointing each other or doing violence to each other, revolution is in your mind, it idea, a movement, it's a think that for latino americans and immigrants country, california has certainly been a state. san t to college there in diego and things have changed a lot in 30 years. o i think you're right, there is a shift and it does scare

people and if you listen to the our country, what is our country mean? means. know what that i want somebody to call and explain it to me. i don't like that language, it country and immigrants are a part of this country and have always been. the rule of law? absolutely. we have laws and we ought to i or and respect them, but think on this daca issue and other issues, again, congress is they are just , punting. people, this is not how this is supposed to work. them to do a job up there everyday. they need to do it. not doing it. sir, things are changeing and sisters,no brothers and it is a new day. i want to see more of you in law firms merica, where i see zero or one maybe or change.that needs to we need to work on not just liketic jobs and things, i

to say the latino community, where the black community was more, y 50 years ago or meaning that we were domestics, frican american women and men working sanitation, etcetera. we have moved up. i would like to see that. author of a nelson, "e pluribus one: reclaming our founders >> coming up in a few minutes, a ceremony that includes remarks by religious and civil rights leaders. live coverage here on