SUMTER, S.C. — As rain pelted the rooftop of Mount Zion Missionary Baptist church on Monday afternoon, five mothers — united both in their grief and their purpose — came to share their stories.

The women, from five different cities, had each lost a child to a high-profile case of violence. And each had thrown her support behind Hillary Clinton in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"I got up and turned my mourning into a movement, my sorrow into a strategy," said Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, who was killed by police on Staten Island in July 2014.

In South Carolina, the majority of Democrats casting a ballot in Saturday's primary will be black, and so far, Clinton is holding a sizable lead over rival Bernie Sanders.

Though their faces and voices have been on loop on cable news and their names chanted at protests around the country, the women said they didn't want to be activists, but the deaths of their children had changed them.

"I was Dontre's mother turned activist turned a mother of the movement," said Maria Hamilton, whose son died after he was shot by a former Milwaukee police officer.

Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Travyon Martin, said she and the other four women were "doing what we have to do."

"We're doing what we do as mothers," she said. "We're filling the gap."

Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin, and Maria Hamilton, mother of Dontre Hamilton, speak at a South Carolina church in support of Hillary Clinton on Feb. 22. Image: Mark Makela/Getty Images

Clinton, the women all agreed, had been the only candidate to reach out to them. That fact was stressed again and again in the more than an hour they spent here, speaking to a small group of mostly black voters.

Geneva Reed-Veal — the mother of Sandra Bland, the Illinois woman found hanging in a Texas jail cell last year — described Clinton as the kind of person you can "take your shoes off and have a conversation with."

"You can not fake passion," Reed-Veal said. "You cannot fake concern."

While some of these women have campaigned on Clinton’s behalf prior to today’s roundtable, this is the first time the five have stood shoulder to shoulder in an effort to boost her campaign. Tomorrow, at a different church in Columbia, S.C., they’ll stand beside Clinton herself.

Referring to themselves repeatedly as the "mothers of the movement," the women interspersed stories of losing their children in high-profile acts of violence with their recollections of meeting Clinton, and their belief that she would be the best president for Black America.

"We are challenging, basically, our communities to stand up and to vote, to mobilize and to move and to act. Hillary Clinton can not do this work for herself," said Lucia McBath, mother of Jordan Davis, the 17-year-old high school junior killed in the parking lot of a Florida convenience store during a dispute over loud music.

Their message resonated here in this town of roughly 40,000 people, a town that has struggled with violence. A lone sign outside the church beckoned residents to "stop the violence." Next to it, Mount Zion's own sign declared in black, block letter: "Love Never Fails. Welcome."

A videographer holds an umbrella over a Hillary Clinton staff member outside the Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Sumter, S.C. on Feb. 22, 2016.

"Kids were killing kids, it was horrendous, the things that were happening, Patty Wilson, a local activist, told me.

"Everybody was like, 'Well, it didn't happen on my side of town.' Well, it happened in your town. We're one Sumter."

Gwen Carr, mother of Eric Garner pic.twitter.com/z82hpsErA0 — Juana Summers (@jmsummers) February 22, 2016

At times, the event grew emotional, as the women dabbed their eyes with tissues placed on the box at the front of the room.

"I lean on these mothers here," McBath said. "I know they understand, unequivocally, my pain."

The other women nodded, as some in the audience bobbed their heads, saying "mmmhmm" in agreement.

"We have formed that special bond among us," Carr said. "Our sons were taken away so abruptly, so senselessly, so it's just this horrible poignant pain that we feel over and over again."

One man, who was leaving the event early to pick up his own son, broke down as he began to ask a question. One of the women handed him a tissue.

"It's not right," he said repeatedly. "I hope...that we can do whatever we can do to make it right.

"Vote for Hillary," someone yelled back, as applause and laughter broke out.

While the women were forceful Clinton backers, little time was spent discussing Sanders, who has also been appealing to black voters ahead of South Carolina's Democratic primary. Earlier Monday, Sanders campaigned in the same town with actor Danny Glover by his side.

Carr's granddaughter, Erica Garner, campaigned in South Carolina last week on the Vermont senator's behalf. Asked by a reporter whether she'd tried to persuade Garner to change her mind, Carr said she hadn't "because you know how young people are."

"They believe, you know, sometimes they get fed something and they believe it, you know," Carr said. "Only thing I said, was do your research."

There were few minds to change here though. Attendees said they'd been invited by Clinton's campaign, and most were effusive supporters. Some, like Shirley Blassingame, wife of Mount Zion's pastor, had cast their vote already ahead of Saturday's primary.

"Who did you vote for," one of the women asked her.

"The Big H," Blassingame said proudly, pointing to a circular Hillary Clinton sticker on the lapel of her jacket.