Mahakali Overdrive requested someone post this, so here goes: Natalie Jackson, the lawyer for the Trayvon Martin family, has endorsed Bernie Sanders. There’s a good article about this on Fusion. Here are some excerpts:
Another prominent African-American woman is feeling the Bern.
Natalie Jackson, the civil rights attorney who represented the family of Trayvon Martin alongside Benjamin Crump during the George Zimmerman trial, is endorsing presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt).
She joins former Ohio state senator Nina Turner in a small but growing number of black women who are throwing their support behind the senator in hopes they can begin shifting African-American support away from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. (Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, endorsed Clinton earlier this month.) Black women outvoted every other racial and gender demographic in 2008 and 2012, making them one of the most important voting groups in the 2016 election; they overwhelmingly supported President Barack Obama in both elections. Jackson hopes she can help galvanize similar support for Sanders.
Part of her explanation of why she’s supporting Bernie Sanders:
TJS: So, why are you throwing your support behind Sen. Bernie Sanders?
NJ: I’ve been supporting him from the very beginning. I like the fact that he is anti-establishment and pro-economic justice. My initial support of him was around his refrain that “We have to take money out of politics.” Then he came out for us when he hired Symone Sanders [as his national press secretary]. It really reinforced that I made the right decision. After the Black Lives Matter protests in Seattle, a lot of people were upset that they interrupted Bernie Sanders. But I thought that he did what a president should do: Instead of taking the criticism as an insult, he saw it as an opportunity to improve his campaign and that’s what we want our leaders to do.
And I think this part of the interview is especially good and worth sharing:
TJS: You’re good friends with Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, and work with her Trayvon Martin Foundation charity. What do you think of her supporting Hillary?
NJ: I haven’t spoken with Sybrina about that, but Hillary Rodham Clinton is clearly the second-best choice, so I don’t have a problem with it. If I wasn’t voting for Bernie, I would vote for Hillary. And if Bernie doesn’t win the primary, I’m voting for Hillary. So, I think we have to be careful with all of this Hillary-bashing.
The whole article is very good, and well worth reading; I hope people who have time will click the link at the top of the diary and read it.