BALTIMORE (AP) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders took his presidential campaign Tuesday to the heart of a Baltimore neighborhood that witnessed riots last spring, calling the level of poverty and rundown housing in parts of the city “stunning.”
The Democratic candidate toured the neighborhood where Freddie Gray died last spring of a spinal injury he suffered while in police custody, triggering riots. The first of six police officers charged in his death is now on trial.
“It is stunning that we are less than an hour from the White House and the United States Congress,” Sanders said while looking at a large mural of Gray. Joined by the Rev. Jamal Bryant of the city’s Empowerment Temple AME Church, Sanders said it was “time to transform our national priorities.”
Sanders has sought to make inroads with black voters against Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton, who has garnered endorsements from black members of Congress and has longstanding ties to the African-America community, helped in part by her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Black voters will play a pivotal role in February’s South Carolina primary and a series of southern states holding contests on March 1.
Surrounded by media, Sanders took a short tour through Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood along with a group of black ministers. The tour took him past abandoned homes with black signs affixed to plywood doors reading: “We must stop killing each other.” As the senator passed through the neighborhood, one man shouted, “Hey man, we need change!”
Along one desolated street, a woman stood on the stoop of a grocery store, chanting, “Freddie Gray.”
Sanders then stopped at a large mural of Gray near the intersection where he was arrested last spring. The mural depicts Gray’s face, flanked by civil rights activists of the past and present.
“It is stunning to understand that we are the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and every year, we are seeing more and more millionaires and more and more billionaires, when in communities like this we are seeing kids dropping out of school, being in bad schools, dilapidated housing,” Sanders said.
Sanders was later joined by two dozen black ministers and activists at the Freddie Gray Empowerment Center, where he discussed ways to address poverty, job opportunities and education for black youth and their families.
During the meeting, some speakers noted the fear that many black residents have of police officers and police brutality. Sanders noted that he was arrested as a young man while demonstrating at the University of Chicago and said “there is a revolution that has to take place” in which police departments become part of the communities they serve.
He also pointed out that residents of many poor neighborhoods are hurt by a lack of grocery stores and banking options and many are preyed upon by payday loans and high interest rates.
Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
(Photo Source: AP)
