Longtime civil rights activist Rev. Harold Middlebrook talks Tuesday about the importance of voting and stumps for Bernie Sanders during a meeting of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association at Mt Moriah Missionary Baptist Church.

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By Linda A. Moore of The Commercial Appeal

A front-line soldier of the civil rights movement was in Memphis on Tuesday promoting the advantages of a Bernie Sanders presidency to members of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association.

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.

However, his support for Sanders deviates from many other civil rights icons like U.S. Rep. John Lewis, who has endorsed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the Democratic presidential primary elections.

A survey released last week by Public Policy Polling showed Clinton with a wide advantage among black voters in Tennessee, with 74 percent saying they supported Clinton to Sanders' 15 percent.

But Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, is seen as the candidate of choice for many of the nation's young people, scoring an endorsement this week from director Spike Lee.

"We need to elect a president who can bring young folk, middle-aged folk and us seasoned folk together to build a great nation again," Middlebrook said.

Still, there were questions Tuesday about how liberal Sanders is and whether his positions on family values issues were in conflict with what is taught in Baptist churches.

"My real concern has to do with family values, the things we try to promote and teach in our congregations, along with economics and education and those things that it takes to be a community," said Pastor Willie S. Williams with Ascension Baptist Church. "There is tension there."

Even though Middlebrook asked the pastors to encourage their members to vote on Super Tuesday and support Sanders, many pastors said they wouldn't tell their parishioners about who to vote for from the pulpit.

"I may tell them who I voted for," said Pastor Stanford Hunt with Salem-Gilfield Baptist Church. "But never ever would I tell a member who to vote for."

Early voting in the presidential primary race ended Tuesday. Tennessee will join 11 other states for the Super Tuesday primary elections on March 1.

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