DeRay Mckesson was an active participant in major protests in Baltimore, Baton Rouge and Ferguson. | AP Photo Black Lives Matter activist Mckesson endorses Clinton

Black Lives Matter civil rights activist and former Baltimore mayoral candidate DeRay Mckesson plans to vote for Hillary Clinton, writing that the Democratic presidential nominee's “platform signals both deep understanding of the challenges and a plan to move us forward.”

Writing Wednesday in The Washington Post, Mckesson said he has met at least twice with Clinton, once in October 2015 and once last week. And while his first meeting with the former secretary of state left him unimpressed with her positions on the issues of racial inequality and social justice on which he advocates, Mckesson said Clinton has since developed a strong grasp on them.


Mckesson was an active participant in major protests in Baltimore; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Ferguson, Missouri. He was part of a group of activists who met with President Barack Obama, law enforcement officials and politicians at the White House earlier this summer to discuss the relationship between police and the African-American community.

Specifically, Mckesson wrote that Clinton’s racial justice platform is strong because “it is informed by the policy failings of the past and is a vision for where we need to go.” He praised her proposals on policing practices and criminal justice reform, as well as her economic package, which he said is “akin to a New Deal.”

“When I met with her last week, it was clear that she now understands these issues well at a policy level and that she has researched the implications of the positions that she has proposed,” Mckesson wrote. “In this meeting, she spoke both about the context of change and the concrete actions necessary to open new pathways of equity and justice.”

Mckesson was clear that he does not agree with Clinton on everything and called on the Democratic nominee to call for the abolition of a federal program that allows for the seizure of money and property from individuals who have not been convicted of a crime. He also urged her to oppose the death penalty and fight for its elimination.

“But elections do have consequences,” Mckesson wrote, which is why he said he will be voting for Clinton. He said the “Make America Great Again” slogan that GOP nominee Donald Trump has used on the campaign trail harkens back to a time of racial and religious prejudice in the U.S., when Jim Crow laws “masqueraded as the will of the people.”

“I often hear some of my peers say that they may not vote, that a Donald Trump presidency would bring about a productive apocalypse — that the system would grind to a halt and force us to confront everything that is wrong with the system,” he wrote. “But we know that the system will not come to a grinding halt; it never has. In a Trump administration, the system would surely grind us, black and brown folks, even more than it already does.”

“Trump is the first major-party candidate in recent memory who campaigns expressly on moving backward from today. It’s the only way he wins,” he added. “Clinton has the plan to move American forward. I believe in moving forward.”