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War when black people were granted the right to vote and white floridians adopted a constitution that disenfranchised anyone with a felony conviction and added to the felony roster a variety of crimes they believed african-americans were more likely to be convicted of. i sat down today with john legend and a couple floridians who are urging -- >> organizers of the amendment 4 campaign. i thought maybe, december monday, if you could dell us how you came to this issue? >> first of all, thank you for having me, chris. back in 2005 i found myself standing in front of the railroad tracks waiting on...

Hearings and all of the sort of sexual trauma that people are dealing with, assaults. you strike me as someone with a very kind of optimistic in your is outlook about things. >> i am. i think i'm naturally optimistic. so my kind of disposition is to be optimistic. >> because i talk to people that are news junkies all the time. you can imagine. people are wound up like that. >> well, i get upset by the things i read. i get upset when i see the president mocking sexual assault survivors. i get upset when i see smfs happening in this country. but my optimistic side takes over when i come to flori...

Likely to be convicted of. i sat down today with john legend and a couple floridians who are urging -- >> organizers of the amendment 4 campaign. i thought maybe, december monday, if you could dell us how you came to this issue? >> first of all, thank you for having me, chris. back in 2005 i found myself standing in front of the railroad tracks waiting on a train to come so i could jump in front of it, homeless, addicted to drugs, recently released from prison. i didn't see any light at the end of the tunnel. i was ready to end my life. the train didn't come that day. i cross it had tracks and...

Never did talk about politics with him. >> right. you've been real focused on criminal justice reform particularly. >> yeah. >> and really in the weeds of it. a really interesting initiative in louisiana, which is one of two states in the nation that you don't need a unanimous verdict. >> correct. >> to convict. that's something you're working on? >> yes. >> and then there's amendment 4, we're going to talk about here in florida, that does seem a place you both have firsthand experience of how mass incarceration affects people and also a place where it does seem to me like the needle is moving...

Went through being convicted? >> you know, going through the process i went through did teach me a whole lot. i think that's one of the things that we see is that every once in a while you find somebody who has a reaction to what we're doing. we've found we've got this 20 minutes and a cup of coffee rule, you can get them to support amendment 4. it's common sense stuff. it helps create saufr communities, helps create job growth in the state and so yeah i do think there was a piece of it that i did learn. you know, we're learning constantly, hopefully all of us are, so my experience with the cr...