WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton agreed to meet with leaders from the Campaign Zero movement Tuesday evening, the latest public victory for the platform to end police violence made up of a collection of activists from the Black Lives Matter movement.
Early Monday, DeRay Mckesson requested a meeting with Clinton before the release of her justice platform.
.@HillaryClinton, we look forward to the details of your criminal justice platform. Will you be available to meet before its release?
Clinton responded to Mckesson's tweet on Tuesday evening. It would be just the second time Clinton has spoken directly with Black Lives Matter activists since she agreed to meet with them weeks ago after a campaign event in New Hampshire.
@deray: Let's meet; we want to hear from anyone ready to address this urgent problem and work toward solutions. Our team will follow up.
At a private roundtable with reporters on Saturday, senior campaign officials said that Clinton would continue to engage with activists, including Mckesson, whom senior campaign official Karen Finney mentioned by name.
Given the anticipated release of her race and criminal justice platform, Mckesson told BuzzFeed News that Campaign Zero won't respond to public statements Clinton's made; instead, the team is looking forward to creating ways to inform Clinton's thinking on the issues.
"It demonstrates a willingness on her part to have a conversation about the issues," Mckesson said in a brief interview with BuzzFeed News. "I'm hopeful that the conversation will be candid, that we will be able to talk about a range of issues, and that the conversation will inform the release of her platform."
Mckesson and other activists also recently met with Bernie Sanders, and discussed, according to a tweet from activist Samuel Sinyangwe, "police violence and militarization, community empowerment, ending the drug war and closing the wealth gap."
That meeting was attended by Mckesson, Brittany Packnett, Johnetta Elzie, Erika Totten, and Samuel Sinyangwe as well as Martinez Sutton, the brother of Rekia Boyd.
"They are different people," Mckesson said, adding that Sanders' already released platform served as a tool to "ground the conversation."