Bernie Sanders has scheduled a Wednesday meeting with Rev. Al Sharpton, according to The Daily Beast.
The Democratic presidential candidate is having breakfast with the civil rights icon in Harlem, the morning after New Hampshire’s primary.
{mosads}They will meet at Sylvia’s Restaurant — where Sharpton met with then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) during the 2008 presidential election.
Sharpton said he believes the Democratic presidential field has decided to reach out to the whole of the black community.
“You cannot appoint our leadership for us,” he said. “We are not monolithic. They have to talk to us trans-generationally.”
Sharpton is also meeting with Sanders’ rival Hillary Clinton on Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported. Clinton is taping an interview that is airing on MSNBC next weekend.
“I am black radio five days a week,” Sharpton said. “I am not guessing about what’s on the ground. I am on the ground.”
Sharpton said he is not soon making an endorsement. He said he remains primarily concerned with addressing the frayed relationship between law enforcement officials and minorities.
“I may not be the establishment’s choice, but I was the choice for those families,” Sharpton said, referencing Eric Garner and Tamir Rice, African-Americans who died during police encounters. “I led those fights at the request of those families.”
Sanders and Clinton are courting the black voting bloc ahead of South Carolina’s primary vote later this month.
Clinton has a nearly 30-point edge in the Palmetto State, which has a more racially diverse electorate than other early battlegrounds like Iowa and New Hampshire.