Maria Hamilton, Sybrina Fulton, Lucy McBath, Geneva Reed-Veal and Gwen Carr appear at a forum supporting Hillary Clinton in Sumter, S.C., on Monday. (Photo: Mark Makela/Getty Images)



The mothers of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Sandra Bland are expected to join Hillary Clinton at a campaign event in South Carolina on Tuesday as the Democratic frontrunner looks to maintain her advantage over Bernie Sanders among black voters in the Palmetto State.

Sybrina Fulton (the mother of Martin), Gwen Carr (the mother of Garner), and Geneva Reed-Veal (the mother of Bland) will appear alongside the former secretary of state at a town hall in Columbia.

The death of their children sparked protests around the country. Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager, was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, in Sanford, Fla., in 2012. Eric Garner, 43, died after being placed in a police chokehold on Staten Island in 2014. Bland, 28, was found dead in her jail cell in Waller County, Texas, in July three days after she was arrested for allegedly failing to use her turn signal. Officials said she hung herself.

The mothers of Dontre Hamilton — a 31-year-old black man who died after being shot 14 times by a white police officer in Milwaukee in 2014 — and Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old African-American who was fatally shot by a white man in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2012 — are also expected to appear with Clinton at the event.

Both Democratic candidates have made the treatment of minorities by law enforcement part of their campaign platforms.

In December, after a Texas grand jury decided not to indict anyone in Bland’s death, Sanders blamed what he called America’s “very broken criminal justice system.”

“There’s no doubt in my mind that she, like too many African-Americans who die in police custody, would be alive today if she were a white woman,” the Vermont senator said.

While Garner’s mother is endorsing Clinton, his eldest daughter, Erica, has endorsed Sanders and is campaigning on his behalf in South Carolina.

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Earlier this month, the Sanders campaign released a four-minute ad featuring Garner’s daughter.

“I believe that Bernie Sanders is a protester,” Erica Garner says in the ad, which has been airing in South Carolina this month. “He’s not scared to go up against the criminal justice system. He’s not scared.”

The ad was released the same day Georgia Rep. John Lewis endorsed Clinton while casting doubt on Sanders’ involvement in the civil rights movement.

“I never saw him. I never met him,” Lewis said. “I was involved in the sit-ins, the Freedom Rides, the March on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery, and directed a voter education project for six years. But I met Hillary Clinton. I met President Clinton.”

Sanders did land one high-profile black endorsement on Tuesday: filmmaker Spike Lee, who endorsed the Brooklyn-born Vermont senator in a radio ad produced for the campaign.

“Wake up, South Carolina!” Lee says in the minute-long ad. “And I know that you know the system is rigged!”

“Let’s go to the tale of the tape,” he continues. “Marched with Dr. King. Arrested in Chicago for protesting segregation in Chicago’s public schools. Fought for wealth and education equality throughout his entire career. Consistency people. No flip-flop.”

“That’s why I am officially endorsing my brother Bernie Sanders,” Lee adds. “Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. Which means he don’t owe nobody nothing. When he gets into the White House, he will do the right thing.”

According to a Monmouth University poll released last week, Clinton holds a decisive lead among black voters in South Carolina. The survey found that 60 percent of African-Americans under 50 support Clinton, compared with 26 percent who support Sanders. Among black voters over 50, Clinton’s lead over Sanders (69 percent to 12 percent) is even larger.

In a recent interview with BET, Sanders suggested that the former secretary is pandering to African-American voters by highlighting her support of President Obama.

“Hillary Clinton now is trying to embrace the president as closely as she possibly can,” Sanders said. “Everything the president does is wonderful. She loves the president, he loves her and all that stuff. … And we know what that’s about. That’s trying to win support from the African-American community, where the president is enormously popular.”

On a conference call Tuesday, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn fired back.

“When she came to work in South Carolina in the 1970s, was she pandering?” Clyburn said.