Clinton marks Rosa Parks anniversary

Hillary Clinton says the United States has far to go before it realizes the dream Rosa Parks had for the country when she was arrested for not moving to the back of an Alabama bus 60 years ago Tuesday.

Clinton, speaking at the National Bar Association’s anniversary event in Montgomery, Ala., said there are still “too many ways in which our laws and policies fall short of our ideals.”

{mosads}“There are still injustices perpetrated every day across our country, sometimes in spite of the law, sometimes unfortunately in keeping of it,” the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination said. “There are still too many Americans, especially African-Americans, whose experience at the justice system is not what it should be.”

.@HillaryClinton‘s Twitter avi has been updated re: Rosa Parks today. pic.twitter.com/v8sT5PvduA

— deray mckesson (@deray) December 1, 2015

Clinton reiterated her calls for criminal justice and voting rights reforms as well as tougher gun controls, and noted the resistance that lawyers and judges faced during the civil rights movement for working toward equality. 

“They also knew that sometimes lawmakers get it wrong, and when it happens it’s up to lawyers and judges to make it right,” she said. 

“That’s what many lawyers felt then and that’s what many lawyers feel now. Our work isn’t finished.”

Clinton is trying to lock up black voters, a pivotal demographic within the Democratic electorate with whom she is polling well. Most national polls have her well ahead with non-white voters — the majority of polls don’t break down the electorate further — and that lead is even greater among black likely Democratic primary voters in South Carolina.