Hillary reaches out to black voters at S.C. town hall
Hillary Clinton on Saturday tried to further build a southern stronghold, championing issues important to the black community such as criminal justice and education reform during a South Carolina town hall.
The event, hosted by the Legislative Black Caucus at Claflin University, let Clinton respond to frustrations from African-American voters over an economic recovery that has so far disproportionately passed over poor, minority neighborhoods.
Clinton rattled off a number of policy proposals that encompass what she called the “new New Deal.”
{mosads}She committed to reducing mass incarceration by curtailing mandatory minimum sentences and by treating crack and powder cocaine equally.
“We want to get rid of the non-violent low-level offenses being a way to go into jail or prison,”Clinton said. “We think there’s a lot more diversionary work that can be done about that.”
Clinton said she would “ban the box” that requires rehabilitated criminals to disclose their felonious past on job applications.
The former secretary of State also said she supports moving marijuana off the list of schedule 1 drugs — a designation that bars federally funded research of the drug.
“We haven’t done research. Why? Because it’s considered a schedule 1 drug,” Clinton said.
“I’d like to move it from schedule 1 to schedule 2.”
Education and training programs came to dominate the hour-long meeting at the historically black university.
Clinton said education would be a top priority in her administration, pointing to the education reform she spearheaded when her husband occupied the governor’s mansion in Arkansas.
But she also refused to endorse plans to build more charter schools and expand school choice for parents through voucher programs, despite the overwhelming popularity of such policies among African-American voters.
“I have for many years now, about 30 years, supported the idea of charter schools, but not as a substitute for the public schools, but as a supplement for the public schools,” Clinton said.
She said charter schools can have a “purpose,” but added that “there are good charter schools and there are bad charter schools,” and charter schools often aren’t willing to take the students who pose the biggest problem to educators.
Clinton also discussed a testy exchange she had with Black Lives Matters (BLM) protesters at a rally in Atlanta last week.
She said she understands the group’s “frustration and disappointment,” but encouraged them to listen to her proposals, noting that she met with BLM leaders before she began her criminal justice platform roll-out.
“I’ve met with them. I’ve had some very good, open conversations with representatives in the Black Lives Matter movement,” she said. “I wish they had listened, because a lot of what we talked about together are part of the proposals I’m making.”
The former first lady also defended her husband’s tough-on-crime agenda when asked why many of her reforms would be in direct opposition to those he advocated while in office, such as his omnibus crime bill that included mandatory minimum sentencing.
“Back in the ‘90s, that bill was in response to a horrific decade of crime, and leaders of the communities of color and poor communities were in the forefront saying, ‘You must do something,’ ” she said.
“And it was done, and it did have a lot of positive, but also negative unintended consequences. That’s why we have to take another look.”
Although Clinton’s chief primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), has made inroads in Iowa and New Hampshire, the former secretary of State has built an extensive network that extends from early voting states in the South to Super Tuesday.
Clinton currently leads the South Carolina primary with 61 percent support, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polling, with Sanders in second with 15 percent.
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