Sanders touts criminal justice reform plan at black SC college

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Saturday continued his push to try and win over southern black voters for his grassroots presidential campaign, talking forcefully about criminal justice reform, police brutality and the soaring unemployment rate for young black adults.

Speaking at Benedict College, an historically black College in Columbia, S.C., Sanders took the stage following a passionate endorsement from prominent academic Cornel West.

Sanders, West said, “represents the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.”

“In the name of John Coltrane’s ‘Love Supreme,’ you’ve got to get in on the love train,” West implored the audience. “That’s what the Bernie Sanders campaign is.”
Over nearly an hour of remarks, Sanders hit on many of his frequent themes — income inequality, breaking up the banks, campaign finance reform, reducing college tuition, expanding healthcare.

But the presidential hopeful lingered on, and repeatedly returned to, issues of racism and racial inequality.

“When I talk about racism … I am talking about Sandra Bland,” Sanders said, referencing the Chicago woman who was found hanged in a Texas police cell after being arrested for a minor traffic violation.

Sanders ticked off several other names — Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, “and too many others who died at the hands of police officers, or in police custody,” he said as the audience rose to its feet.

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http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/dem-primaries/253479-sanders-takes-prison-reform-plan-to-black-sc-college