Bernie Sanders is taking his upstart candidacy to South Carolina, an important stop on the road to the Democratic presidential nomination because it is an early primary state with a large number of African American voters, the most loyal bloc in the party’s base.

This will be the first visit to the state for the Vermont senator, who canceled plans to campaign in South Carolina in June after the slayings of nine black worshipers during bible study in a historic church in Charleston.

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The test for Sanders in South Carolina will be not only the size of the crowds he’s able to attract but the racial diversity of those crowds. The big turnouts that have buoyed Sanders’ candidacy in other states have been overwhelmingly white and he has twice while campaigning he has been confronted by young activists from the Black Lives Matter movement.

If Sanders is to continue to gain ground on frontrunner Hillary Rodham Clinton, he will have to be more competitive with black voters. No one was prepared to predict whether Sanders will draw a sizable number of black voters to his events in South Carolina, but he is scheduled to meet privately with a group of African American leaders between events in Greenville and Columbia on Friday. Black Lives Matter activists in Charleston have planned a Friday night forum to talk with Sanders supporters about their common interests in reforming the criminal justice system. An activist with the group declined to say whether they would try to disrupt Sanders’ Saturday rally.

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Muhiyidin d'Baha, a Black Lives Matter organizer in Charleston, called Sanders’ platform “a good effort.” He said that activists were holding a Friday night forum for Sanders supporters to discuss their shared goals and ideas for reforming the criminal justice system.

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WaPo