Hillary Clinton referred to gun violence as a “national emergency” while speaking in Alabama on Tuesday.
Her comments came while she commemorated the 60th anniversary of Rosa Parks and the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama. In addition to ending gun violence, Clinton told the local community that there was much work left to be done in the struggle for racial justice and that she would work as their advocate.
“It is easy now in retrospect that assume that the results were foreordained that the time to end racism and oppression before the law was coming to a close. But I don’t think we should ever assume that. It took the courage of so many,” Clinton said from the pulpit at the Dexter Avenue Memorial Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King was a pastor and organized the boycott.
Prior to her address, various civil rights activists spoke such as Rep. Terri A. Sewell, D-Ala., Rosa Park’s attorney Fred David Gray and Trayvon Martin family attorney Ben Crump.
It was a friendly crowd. Gray received a standing ovation when he referred to Clinton as the “next president of the United States.”
Clinton also emphasized the need to reform the criminal justice system, arguing that the United States unnecessarily detains far too many non-violent offenders. She also expressed concern about police violence against African Americans.
“We must keep in the legacy of those who have gone before and look at what we have yet to do,” Clinton told the crowd before joining hands with the civil rights leaders to sing “We Shall Overcome.”
