MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Standing in the pulpit where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. led the historic Montgomery bus boycott, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reached out to black voters Tuesday saying the U.S. is still plagued by injustices such as mass incarceration and attempts to roll back voting rights— and she urged Americans to rebuild their bonds with one another.
“We must be honest about the larger and deeper inequalities that continue to exist across our country,” Clinton told a majority black crowd at the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church at an event commemorating the boycott.
In a speech on the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks’ Dec. 1, 1955, arrest for refusing to give her bus seat to a white passenger, Clinton praised the heroes of the civil rights movement but said much remains to be done.
“Our work isn’t finished. We must pay it forward. There are still injustices perpetuated every day in our country, sometimes in spite of the law, sometimes, unfortunately, in keeping with it,” Clinton said. King’s daughter, Bernice King, gave the benediction after Clinton’s speech.
