Bernie Sanders courts minority vote, meets with Rev. Al Sharpton

Both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have turned their attention to the minority vote as they head to South Carolina later this month, where approximately 60 percent of registered Democrats are black. Sanders courted the African-American vote in a big way on Wednesday, meeting civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton for breakfast in Harlem.

"My concern is that in January of next year for the first time in American history a black family will be moving out of the White House. I do not want black concerns to be moved out with them. We must be front and center and not marginalized. And Senator Sanders coming here this morning further makes it clear that we will not be ignored,” Sharpton told reporters after the meeting, Reuters reports.

Catherine Robinson, 16, skipped class to see Sanders and Sharpton meet. "[Sanders] cares about African-Americans and any other race because he sees people as people while Hillary is actively trying to get minority votes … I feel it's not genuine. She just wants the job," Robinson told The New York Post.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Sharpton met in the same restaurant with Barack Obama in 2008.

Wednesday also saw Sanders earn an endorsement from Ta-Nehisi Coates, the celebrated writer of "The Case for Reparations" and Between the World and Me, The Hill reports.

Still, Clinton remains a strong favorite with African-American voters. "It will be very difficult, if not impossible, for a Democrat to win the nomination without strong levels of support among African American and Hispanic voters," Clinton's campaign manager Robby Mook wrote in a memo obtained by Politico Tuesday night.