Hillary Clinton was introduced by Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland, at the Parkway Ballroom.
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Bland’s death in a Waller County jail, days after being pulled over by a state trooper in the town of Prairie View for an illegal lane jail and being arrested amid a tense exchange with a trooper, was ruled a suicide and galvanized the Black Lives Matter movement.
Mrs Clinton comforted Ms Reed-Veal when she teared up talking about her daughter, and praised her as an advocate of police reform. “The African-American vote will come out for her”.
“As Sandra Bland’s mother, I know a little bit about frustration”, said Reed-Veal.
If Hillary Clinton is to win the presidency, she will need a huge turnout of black voters.
With the Nevada caucus set for this coming Saturday and the SC primary for next, Clinton hopes to gain momentum in the race against Sanders for the Democratic nomination. In South Carolina, polls still indicate that Mrs Clinton has a solid lead, especially among black voters.
Missing from the stage, and from Clinton’s remarks, was Mayor Rahm Emanuel who has been struggling to regain support from the black community.
Additional details about Clinton’s trip to Chicago were not immediately available.
“The fact he is not here today I don’t think that’s anything other than he’s so focused on Chicago issues”, Davis said.
Clinton is also planning more campaign appearances with the mothers of Eric Garner and Dontre Hamilton ahead of the SC primary. Clinton is neck-and-neck with Democratic candidate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
In Chicago, she picked up some of the points she made in NY, but she also used her speech to lambast Bruce Rauner, the Republican governor, for his inability to work with the state legislature, which is controlled by the Democrats, on the budget. Police have blamed the most recent surge in violence on gang disputes.
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Hillary Clinton was joined at a Chicago campaign stop by the mother of Sandra Bland, the Naperville woman who died past year in a Texas jail cell after a traffic stop. “They must motivate everyone to take on these issues…and make it as hard as possible for people to get guns that shouldn’t have them in the first place”.
