The slander that Bernie was not a very early leader for African American civil rights got so outrageous that persons went into the archives of the University of Chicago and changed captions on Danny Lyon’s 1962 photos, claiming it was Bruce Rappaport standing in Bernie’s clothing leading the demonstration in the Ad Building. These newly discovered pictures, including close up photographs of the student activists show us exactly what Bernie was and what he remains.

Here at the University of Chicago, in the winter of 1962, students led by Bernie Sanders and others have occupied the hallway of the Administration Building, spending the night inside. The Chancellor cannot get into or leave his office. Bernie is leading a protest against the discrimination practiced by the University of Chicago against African Americans in it’s extensive housing. This protest for equal rights for African Americans is the first sit-in to be held in the north as part of the great 1960’s civil rights movement. Bernie is the real deal. And voters, all voters know it. Feel the Bern.

At a news conference afterward, Sanders recalled his participation in civil rights demonstrations in the 1960s when he was a student at the University of Chicago. “Institutional racism existed then. Institutional racism exists today. The criminal justice system was broken then. The criminal justice system is broken today,” he said. “I consider reforming our criminal justice system one of the most important things that a president of the United States can do.”

Sanders called it an international embarrassment that the United States has more prisoners than any other country and a disproportionate number of those behind bars are minorities. And reciting shocking statistics, Sanders said one in four black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during their lifetime. He said blacks are imprisoned at six times the rate of whites and that minorities are sentenced to death at significantly higher rates than whites, which is one reason why he would end capital punishment. He also noted that the Department of Justice found that blacks were three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop compared to white motorists. “That is unacceptable,” Sanders said.

Sanders also mentioned the prison death of Sandra Bland who died last July in a Texas jail cell after her arrest and jailing for a routine traffic violation. Bland, 28, had lived in Naperville, Illinois, a Chicago suburb. A grand jury on Monday declined to press charges against personnel in the sheriff’s office jail where she was found dead.

Sanders’ criminal justice reform proposals include eliminating for-profit prisons; ending mandatory minimum sentencing and giving judges the discretion to better tailor sentences to the specific facts of a given case. He also would remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances and let states decide whether possession should be a crime.