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SELMA, Alabama Black activists turned their backs on him in church. African American leaders said they dont trust him. Others in the crowd just plain didnt know him.

A choppy Southern swing for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg over the weekend doesnt bode well for his Super Tuesday showing with African American voters, a crucial voting bloc in states where Bloomberg will have to do well to justify his continued existence in the hunt for the 2020 presidential nomination.

As voters go to the polls in Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Arkansas, the question is whether Bloomberg has made enough inroads with Southern black voters to mount a serious challenge to former Vice President Joe Biden.

Martin Luther King III praised Bloombergs work on climate and gun violence prevention, an issue that theyve worked on together. But King also said he hasnt done enough to gain the trust of black voters still angry over his stop-and-frisk policing policy during his mayoral tenure, which disproportionately hit the black community. He did make a statement apologizing for it, but not until February.

There's anger and hostility, King told VICE News. Stop and frisk is going to come up, and he's going to have to find an answer for that or else he's not he's not gonna be able to get much support from the black community.

I think its just an insult for him to come here.

The hostile and sometimes awkward reception was on display during a pre-march church service at the historic Brown Chapel AME Church in Selma on Sunday. Rev. Leodis Strong, the churchs pastor, welcomed Bloomberg onto the stage by telling the crowd the former mayor was initially too busy to accept his invitation to attend the service. Nevertheless, Strong asked the crowd to hear Bloomberg out and noted that his very presence showed a capacity to change.

During the speech, a handful of attendees stood up from the pews, turned their backs, and remained that way until Bloomberg left the stage.

Lisa Brown, one of the protesters who'd traveled from her home in Los Angeles, said she wanted the former mayor to know that she resents his attempt to swoop into the race late and buy the presidency.

I think its just an insult for him to come here, Brown told VICE News. He doesn't have enough respect to take the time and campaign the way that he should, and he's only there because he can afford to be there.

Bloomberg spokesman Michael Frazier responded that there are few who have done more for the black community than Mike, and touted his record as mayor and as a philanthropist.

"The great thing about this country is that you have the right to speak your mind, or in this case, silently protest, he said. Voters have a chance to have their voices heard today, and we feel good about the case Mike has made for rebuilding this country."

Bloomberg has been pitching his Greenwood Initiative to create generational wealth in the African-American community. Its named after the neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, that was destroyed in a devastating 1921 race terrorism attack on its well-to-do black residents. Historians estimate the violence resulted in potentially hundreds of murdered African Americans, making it one of the worst racial attacks in U.S. history.

That riot is seared into the consciousness of black activists. A vendor at the Selma march was selling posters commemorating the attack on Black Wall Street, as the neighborhood was called. But at a breakfast before the march, Bloomberg told attendees he had only learned about the attack four or five months ago.

That kind of blind spot to the indignities African Americans have historically faced, the indignities Bloombergs policies have subjected them to in New York City, and the late promises to help are the exact reasons his run for office is being met with so much skepticism. At least according to Rev. Al Sharpton, who marched alongside all the candidates in Selma, even as he said he has protested them all before.

That puts Bloomberg in sharp contrast to Biden, who, although he has his own checkered policy past the crime bill, Anita Hill has come to earn the trust of many in the community.

I lead the marches on Bloomberg, and on Joe Biden about the crime bill, Sharpton told VICE News. I think that what has happened is that a lot of people in the black community saw eight years of Joe Biden being the partner to Barack Obama and fighting for him since he did the crime bill, and I think the problem with a lot of the other candidates is there's no body of work since the things that they have done that we disagreed with.

On Tuesday, huge pockets of African Americans will also vote in California, Texas, and Virginia, and Bloomberg will need those votes to be a factor in those states. The demographic is, of course, not monolithic, and signs are popping up that even as the activist class turns its back on Bloomberg, his candidacy polls better among average black voters.

But Biden won across age and gender lines in South Carolina, and if that trend holds on Super Tuesday and beyond, it may be difficult for Bloomberg to make up ground. He currently polls third behind first place Sen. Bernie Sanders and Biden in second nationally, and Biden and Sanders have been jostling for first place among black voters in national polls.

Bloombergs run will fail if he flops with black voters, especially if other black voters around the country take cues from the African-Americans in early states when it comes their turn to cast a ballot.

As Bloomberg entered the church in Selma, Raymond Wynn, a 66-year-old welder from Cincinnati, was holding a digital camcorder to get a shot of his entrance among a crowd near the door. Hes an undecided voter, he said, but what happens on Super Tuesday will factor heavily into who he picks in Ohios March 17 primary.

I'm just waiting after Super Tuesday and I'll see what it all comes down to, he said. I'm more likely to just go with the favorite Democrat that's ahead.

Cover: People turn their backs on Democratic presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg as he speaks at Brown Chapel AME church, Sunday, March 1, 2020, in Selma , Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill)

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Black Activists Literally Turned Their Backs on Mike Bloomberg. Will Black Voters Do the Same? - VICE

Democratic presidential hopefulMike Bloomberg is slated to do an interview with civil rights icon the Rev. Al Sharpton on Sunday amid scrutiny of the former New York City mayor'spast support for "stop and frisk."

Bloomberg's interviewwill air at 5 p.m. Sunday on Sharptons Politics Nation program on MSNBC.

The former mayorhas faced a wave of criticism recently after resurfaced comments showed him defending the stop-and-frisk police practice, which studies have shown was ineffective in reducing crime and overwhelmingly targeted men of color.

"The way you should get the guns out of the kids' hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them," Bloomberg said in unearthedaudio from 2015.

Ninety-five percent of your murders murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take the description, Xerox it and pass it out to all the cops," he added. "They are male, minorities, 16 to 25. Thats true in New York, its true in virtually every city."

The unsurfaced comments led to a spike in criticism from activists and calls from other 2020 Democrats that Bloombergexplain the remarks.

Bloomberghasapologized for his past support for the law enforcement practice andrepeated his mea culpa earlier this month.

By the time I left office, I cut it back by 95%, but I should've done it faster and sooner," he said in a statement. "I regret that and I have apologized and I have taken responsibility for taking too long to understand the impact it had on Black and Latino communities."

Several presidential rivals went after Bloombergduring the latest Democratic debate in Las Vegas this week, with former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenButtigieg campaign claims 'irregularities' in Nevada caucuses Poll: Sanders leads 2020 Democratic field with 28 percent, followed by Warren and Biden More than 6 in 10 expect Trump to be reelected: poll MORE ripping the stop-and-friskprogram as "abhorrent" and Sen. Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenPoll: Sanders leads 2020 Democratic field with 28 percent, followed by Warren and Biden More than 6 in 10 expect Trump to be reelected: poll Sanders has wide leads in two of three battleground states: survey MORE (D-Mass.) callingBloomberg's apology inadequate.

Ive sat, Ive apologized, Ive asked for forgiveness, but the bottom line is that we stopped too many people and we got to make sure we do something about criminal justice in thiscountry,the former mayor saidduring the debate Wednesday.

Sharpton has criticized Bloomberg in the past over the practice and said this week he would have to repair the damage caused by stop and frisk, while noting that other candidates have baggage as well.

I also dont want to see him as a leaf that the other candidates dump some of their racial baggage, he said on MSNBC earlier this week. I want to know what Bernies gonna say about the vote he did for the [1994] crime bill, where people went to jail.

"No matter his reason for voting for it, it was a law that incarcerated people. Joe Biden wrote it," Bloomberg added before noting that Sen. Amy KlobucharAmy Jean KlobucharPoll: Sanders leads 2020 Democratic field with 28 percent, followed by Warren and Biden Sanders has wide leads in two of three battleground states: survey Democrats: It's Trump's world, and we're just living in it MORE (D-Minn.) is facing scrutiny over her past as a prosecutor. All of them have racial baggage.

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Bloomberg to do interview with Al Sharpton | TheHill - The Hill

WILMINGTON, Del., Feb. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --On Monday, February 24th at 6pm, civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton and Reverend Christopher Bullock will be hosting a free dinner for Delaware residents in honor of Black History Month, emceed by local Pastor Dale Dennis II of Hoyt Memorial CME. The event is sponsored by CPBD.

The pastors will be leading a discussion on the lack of diversity on Delaware's courts and its adverse effects on all of the state's residents. The discussion, at the Kingswood Community Center in Wilmington, will also focus on what can be done to "repair the institutional neglect of people of color in the Delaware," as Reverend Sharpton stated in his first advocacy visit to the state in October.

The dinner comes following the Delaware State Senate's denial of Reverend Al Sharpton the opportunity to testifyon the issue of diversity in the state's judicial system at a Chancery Court Chancellor's nomination hearing. In the past several months, Reverend Sharpton has visited Delaware calling for progress on the issue and even penned a letter to leading law firm Skadden Arps calling for elite firms to do their part in advancing people of color in the legal industry. While people of color make up over 60% of Delaware's prison population, only four justices who serve on the three highest courts in Delaware are people of color.

Said Reverend Sharpton, "to say I was disappointed the Delaware State Senate would not even agree to hear testimony from myself on the matter of judicial diversity would be an understatement. But our voices cannot be silenced and I am excited to be joining my colleagues and fellow civil rights champions in the First State to celebrate Black History Month and rally around our cause: Delaware needs more black and brown judges and we need them now."

On Monday, February 24th at 6pm, civil rights activist Reverend Al Sharpton and Reverend Christopher Bullock will be hosting a free dinner for Delaware residents in honor of Black History Month, emceed by local Pastor Dale Dennis II of Hoyt Memorial CME.

Contact: Mary Urban, mu@adeoadvocacy.com

SOURCE Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware

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Civil Rights Leader Reverend Al Sharpton and Delaware Pastors to Host Black History Month Celebration and Dinner in Support of Diversifying Delaware's...

Former Vice President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama at the White House in Washington, D.C., March 30, 2016(Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Its axiomatic among progressives and the mainstream media that the country is awash in racism and white supremacy.

The entertainment industry is obsessed with racism/white supremacy. So too is the educational establishment. More than a half century after passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, racism and white supremacy apparently permeate every corner of the country. Indeed, according to the New York Times 1619 Project, racism is in the very DNA of America.

So virulent and widespread is racism and white supremacy today that Democratic presidential candidates call for rooting out the plague every chance they get. Speaking at a recent event hosted by Al Sharpton, former Vice President Joe Biden said: We have a lot to root out, but most of all the systemic racism that most of us whites dont like to acknowledge even exists. Theres something we have to admit not you, me, white America has to admit theres still a systemic racism. Biden wasnt asked why he seemingly hadnt made a dent in rooting out systemic racism in his 36 years as a senator or eight years as Barack Obamas VP. After all, he has been a member in good standing of The System for a long time.

Elizabeth Warren also wants to root out systemic racism: We must recognize the systemic discrimination that infects our country, and we must work actively and deliberately to root it out and set us on a better path. Racism is everywhere, affects everything. Warren maintains that race has totally permeated our justice system and our crisis of environmental injustice is the result of decades of discrimination and environmental racism. Given that racism permeates nearly every facet of society, even the environment, its impressive that Warren willingly subjected herself to the scourge by claiming shes Native American.

Pete Buttigieg maintains that We are by no means even half way done dealing with systemic racism in this country. He asserts that systemic racism and white supremacy in particularis the force that is most likely to destroy America. His website proposes a comprehensive and intentional dismantling of racist structures and systems.

What, specifically, are these racist structures and systems? How about a few concrete examples supported by evidence? No one in the media seems the least bit interested in asking. Its simply taken as given that whole institutions, structures, and systems in this country are racist and white supremacist. Asking for examples is, itself, racist. Or, at the very least, an embarrassing demonstration of terminal unwokeness. Racial disparities are presumptively equated with disparate treatment.

Racism and white supremacy became particularly acute, of course, after November 2016. Nearly every racial malady since then has been attributed to Donald Trump and his hordes of white supremacist minions. Its curious, however, that there hasnt been the expected spike in the data related to racism. Just the opposite. For example, the number of race discrimination charges filed with the EEOC reached a 25-year high of 35,890 in 2010 during the Obama administration, compared with 23,976 filed (merely filed, not even determined to have probable cause) in 2019. Similarly, the FBI reports that 7,120 hate crimes were committed in 2018, fewer than even a decade ago, when the U.S. population was millions smaller and far fewer agencies were reporting hate crimes.

These data points dont necessarily disprove Democratic/media assertions that racism and white supremacy abound. But its a far easier lift than proving racism and white supremacy are ubiquitous.

Not to worry. Theres at least one clear and unequivocal example of systemic racism in America today, but youll never hear Democratic candidates utter a word about it: the staggering racial preferences awarded by colleges to black and Hispanic applicants over white and Asian applicants. Systemic racism is OK, provided its approved by progressives, and theyre running the system.

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Rooting Out Systemic Racism and White Supremacy - National Review

Last month, at a Martin Luther King Day event in Harlem hosted by the Reverend Al Sharpton, Congressman Adriano Espaillat, representing New Yorks 13th district, had something to say about bike infrastructure: Affordability and gentrification are ripping our neighborhood apart, he said. And you see the stress of high rent. Now you got Starbucks. And bike lanes. And sushi. Wheres my rice and beans?!

The next day, on January 21,rideshare company Lyft hosted an event at the Harlem YMCA to announce its new LyftUp program, which will provide free one-year Citi Bike memberships to 16 to 20-year-olds in the YMCA network. Lyft, whichoperates New York Citys bike share program as well as those in other major U.S. cities, is partnering with NBA great LeBron James, who showed up to the event to surprise 50 local teens who would be receiving free access to Citi Bikes.I was at thepress conference, along with my nine year-old son (whos really lucky to have such a cool dad). The kids receiving the memberships were absolutely electrified when LeBron James entered the room. So was I, and I dont even follow basketball.My hand shook as I recorded his short speech.

While he didnt address the devastating effects of Starbucks or sushi, James did have a very different take on bikes and bike lanes. Once the screaming died down, he spoke to the kids about the role bikes played in his own childhood. I was a kid, growing up in the inner city of Akron, Ohio, riding bikes, he said. What a bike did for me was to be able to travel across the city with my friends, get from my home to school or get to basketball practices or football practices and be able just to travel, breathe the fresh air, be able to clear your mind at times...a segue to be able to do so many things that can also carry you for the rest of your life.

Furthermore, James addressed the safety and the importance of bike lanes, which in lower-income neighborhoods can be a lot harder to come by.Safety is always first, and for the city to understand that bike lanes are very important for the kids safety, he said. For adults that want to ride, too. So this is very important.

When the kids all gathered for a group photo, James came sliding across the wood floor into the shotthe very antithesis of Espaillats pompous podium posturing. Sure, the cynic in me registered that all of this was essentially a photo op put together by a tech company with a $14 billion market cap, but so what? Bikes need more of this. When was the last time you saw anyone even remotely excitinglet alone one of the most talented and successful athletes on the planetstand in front of a bunch of kids and articulate the sheer sense of freedom and exhilaration that comes from riding a bike? (Im talking about America by the way, not Belgium or the Netherlands. And sorry, David Byrne doesnt count.) Here in New York City, when it comes to young people and bikes, the approach by local government seems to alternate between making corny entreaties to kids (think helmet giveaways), and confiscating their bikes as soon as they start actually having fun with them. So an introduction from pro BMX and YouTube sensation Nigel Sylvester, followed by a video of kids getting rad on bikes, and finally a surprise appearance by King James himself, was all rather invigorating.

Lyft partners with LeBron James and UNINTERRUPTED to announce the new LyftUp initiative expanding transportation access for communities in need. (Photo: Craig Barritt/Getty Images Lyft)

James exuded sincerity, and whats more, his bike bona-fides are quite sound. He grew up riding. He famously commuted by bike while playing in Miami, even joining Critical Mass. Hes given away hundreds of bikes to kids in need. He even owned a stake in Cannondale for a while, which says more about his love of bikes than anything else, because only someone completely besotted with cycling would be crazy enough to invest in a bike company.

Far more important, James is not just promoting bicycling, but the bicycles potential to serve as an inflection point in a young persons life. His words resonate with anybody who grew up riding. Our bikes were our first taste of freedom, and exploring our neighborhoods was in part how we learned to chart a course through life. But as our roads become increasingly hostile and ridership among children continues to decline, fewer kids get to experience this sense of independence and agency. We owe it to our kids to return that joy and freedom to them.

Teens I spoke to at the event said that theyll use their memberships to ride to school, practices, and the Y. One 16-year-old told me he hasnt had a bike in two years, and that this would finally allow him to start riding again. Granted, we needmoreprograms like this, times a million, but at least its a start.

Odds are LeBron James was unaware of Espaillats comments the day before, but either way James certainly dunked on him. The idea that bikesarguably the healthiest, least expensive, and most accessible mode of transport on the planetare somehow classist and elitist doesnt hold up under any kind of scrutiny. Who better to send up this absurd notion than LeBron James? Bikes and bike lanes dont hold people and neighborhoods back, they help move them forward. Give kids better access to both and theres no telling what theyll accomplish.

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LeBron James Is the New Hero of Bike Shares - Outside