Clinton apologises for 1996 ‘super-predators’ remark after encounter with black activist

Black voters are the linchpin of Hillary Clinton’s strategy for winning Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic presidential primary, and as a result, her campaign has put racial justice issues at the forefront of her agenda.

But at an event on Wednesday night, Clinton was vocally confronted by an activist questioning her past support for policies that had a disproportionately

negative effect on African Americans.

Ashley Williams, a 23-year-old “black lives matter” activist from Charlotte, interrupted Clinton during a private fundraiser in Charleston on Wednesday night. Williams stood and demanded an apology from Clinton for the high incarceration rate for black Americans, and confronted her with the words of a speech Clinton delivered 20 years ago voicing support for the now-debunked theory of “super-predators”.

“They are often the kinds of kids that are called ‘super-predators,’ ” Clinton said in 1996, at the height of anxiety during her husband’s administration about high rates of crime and violence. “No conscience, no empathy, we can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.”

The last part of the quote was written on a large, hand-lettered sign that Williams held up as Clinton spoke to her donors and supporters.