Hillary Clinton will issue a challenge to the Black Lives Matter movement at the Democratic National Convention next week by spotlighting the mothers of several African Americans who have been recently killed by police or gun violence.
The Mothers of the Movement organization will be featured Tuesday at the convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia,
The Hill reports. The group first met with Clinton in November.
The seven mothers include those of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teen killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in 2012; Eric Garner, a New York man killed in 2014 by a police chokehold; Sandra Bland, a woman who died in a Texas jail after a traffic arrest last year; and Michael Brown, whose police killing — also in 2014 — in Ferguson, Mo., created a national movement amid the current campaign season.
The mothers will say that "look, this is a difficult issue and we ignore the shootings that are going on to our peril," Missouri Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver told the Hill.
Cleaver is a former chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus.
"They are going to say that, in a time of trouble, we need someone who has a high level of sensitivity and who’s not going to stoke the fire with inappropriate comments," he said.
Many mothers in the group have campaigned with Clinton since their first meeting, particularly before the South Carolina primary in February.
Clinton’s website also features interviews with many of the mothers, the Hill reports.
"It was empowering, because during that meeting, Secretary Clinton told us, 'I need you, the mothers, to mobilize and move forward in this movement,'" said Lucia McBath, whose son, Jordan Davis, 17, was killed by Michael Dunn in a Florida parking-lot dispute over loud music in 2012.
"But to have someone of the stature of Secretary Clinton back us up, and support us, and ask us to help champion as well, and to know that she’s championing for us and our communities, that was huge," she said. "It was monumental to me."
Jamal Simmons, a Democratic consultant in Washington, told the Hill that the Mothers of the Movement could speak directly to women and African Americans, two key groups Clinton is trying to reach for November.
Black voters played a critical role in helping Barack Obama win the White House in 2008 and 2012.
The program also is targeting the young voters who sided with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whom Clinton will need to turn out to help her on Election Day, the Hill reports.
"I think that they are very effective with a part of the electorate that the Clinton campaign needs to be excited and motivated to turn out for her: younger voters — black and white — and liberals," Simmons said. "I think that that’s incredibly important."
Clinton's plan for Tuesday will differ greatly from the speeches that attacked the Black Lives Matter effort at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this week.
Two African American speakers at the Quicken Loans Arena, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke and South Carolina Pastor Mark Burns, slammed the organization as divisive and incendiary.
Donald Trump accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday touting himself as the "law-and-order candidate," vowing that "the crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end.
"Beginning on Jan. 20th 2017, safety will be restored," he said.
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