The Commercial Appeal Memphis
Knoxville minister Rev. Harold Middlebrook, a Memphis native and former lieutenant of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., told the gathering of more than 50 black preachers at Greater Mt. Moriah Baptist Church in South Memphis that Sanders represented everything he had struggled for over the last 50 years, detailing the Vermont senator's plans to offer free college, reform the criminal justice system, raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and provide universal health care for all Americans.
"We've got to be concerned not just about popularity and names, but we've got to look at the issues and see who is going to really speak on our behalf," Middlebrook said. "And if we make a solid impression in Memphis, if Memphis wants to, Memphis can carry any election in this state."
Middlebrook, a Booker T. Washington High School graduate, is the retired pastor of Canaan Baptist Church in Knoxville and has spent his life involved in the fight for civil rights.
Locally, he helped organize marches and the Black Monday school boycotts in the 1960s. He was at the Lorraine Motel when King was killed in 1968.
An impressive, solid endorsement. Go Bernie!