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Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, aiming to cut into Hillary Clinton’s lead among black voters, met with the heads of nine civil rights organizations Thursday — two days after Mrs. Clinton met with the same group in New York.

The gathering, held at the Washington offices of the National Urban League, centered on how Mr. Sanders’s policies would address the racial components of economic injustice, overhaul the criminal justice system, protect voting rights and address institutional racism.

The black leaders at the meeting included Marc H. Morial, the chief executive of the National Urban League; the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network; Cornell William Brooks, president of the N.A.A.C.P.; Melanie L. Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation; and Benjamin L. Crump, president of the National Bar Association and a supporter of Mrs. Clinton.

The actor Danny Glover, who has endorsed Mr. Sanders, and Mr. Sanders’s wife, Jane, accompanied the senator.

“We understand that since the Wall Street crash of 2007, 2008, millions of people have lost their jobs, their life savings, their homes,” Mr. Sanders said. “I understand that the African-American community has been harder hit than any other community in America. I understand that it is unacceptable that 35 percent of black children in America are living in poverty.”

In recent weeks, Mr. Sanders has pushed to strengthen his support among black voters, particularly in southern states that hold primaries in the next few weeks.

Also sitting down with Mr. Sanders were Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law; Wade Henderson, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund; and Janice Mathis, executive director of the National Council of Negro Women.

At the meeting, the leaders said they wanted to hear how Mr. Sanders would address both economic and racial injustices. The officials also expressed frustration that President Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court, filling a vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia’s death last weekend, might be blocked by the Senate.

Mr. Sanders told the group that the Senate should hold hearings on Mr. Obama’s choice.

“In my mind, it is absolutely incomprehensible that we have Republicans in the United States Senate who refuse to honor the Constitution of the United States,” Mr. Sanders said. “The idea that Republican obstructionism, unprecedented in American history in terms of what we have seen in the last seven years, continues on this important issue, is incomprehensible to me. And, I will do everything I can to support the president’s nominee.”

Mr. Sanders said he would also focus on making sure voting rights are protected especially after blacks fought and died for the right to vote.

“The idea that we have governors and legislators in this country working overtime right now trying to figure out how to suppress the vote, how they can make it harder for people who might vote against them to participate in the Democratic political process is to me vulgar,” Mr. Sanders said. “This to me is something I take personally.”

The senator also touched on his recent visit to Michigan and his meeting with several families from Flint.“To understand what is happening in Flint in the United States of America in the year 2016 is literally hard to believe,” Mr. Sander said. “The suffering that is going on there, talking to mothers who are seeing the intellectual capabilities of their children deteriorate in front of their eyes. Can one imagine that?”

Mr. Sanders was to travel to Las Vegas later on Thursday to take part in a town-hall-style event hosted by MSNBC and Telemundo, and attend a dinner hosted by the Clark County Democratic Party.