ATLANTA — Bernie Sanders has tried and tried and tried, but winning the loyalty of black Democrats is slow work. In the two days before filling the famed Fox Theatre here in Atlanta – packing it, 5,000 people, floor and balcony – the senator from Vermont had, in a southern swing designed to reach African-American voters, done the following:

1) Made a pilgrimage to Atlanta's Martin Luther King Jr. Center for a meeting with King's daughter Bernice.

2) Hit the Busy Bee, a popular soul food spot on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, with his new best black friend in Atlanta, a rapper who goes by the name Killer Mike.

3) Met with black pastors and spoke at two black churches in North Charleston, S.C.

4) Spoke at Allen University, a historically black college in Columbia, S.C.

5) Met with African-American elected officials in South Carolina.

"We're making some progress," Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs said as he waited for Sanders to appear onstage at the Fox. "Bernie's from a state that's 95 percent white, as everybody keeps noting -- fairly. He needs to figure out how to reach out to all these folks that he's not had that much experience with in the past, and he's doing that. Working at it hard."

And yet, as the crowd filed in, two hours before Sanders was scheduled to speak in a city sometimes called the Capital of Black America, it's fair to say the group was overwhelmingly white. More people of color arrived as the rally's beginning neared, but at its most mixed, the audience wasn't all that mixed.

Killer Mike, whose real name is Michael Render, was a real get for Sanders. Bernie did not seek Killer Mike's support, but he took note last June when Mike tweeted -- out of the blue, as far as the Sanders campaign was concerned -- "It's official I support @SenSanders! His call 4 the restoration of the voters rights act sealed the deal for me." It was a nice gift for a campaign struggling to reach black voters.

But Killer Mike, who was given the honor of introducing Sanders at the Fox, could be something of a conundrum for the campaign. On the one hand, there is the work that made him famous, which is definitely NSFW:



Thought shit was changing with this black president shit

My bitch got me fucked up, goin' to get tested

Cause while I was locked up, she was livin' reckless

Just another ordeal a real nigger gotta deal with

If you on the bottom right you gotta feel this

I know that you're frustrated and you want to kill shit

Stockpile your weapons cause that day just might come real quick

Burn this motherfucker down

On the other hand, Mike, rumored to be considering a run for office, is an accomplished political performer. Filled with Atlanta pride, he brought up Martin Luther King in the first 30 seconds of his speech — but not in the way his audience might have expected. "I know this is the part where usually it's a black minister in front of you, and usually you get all warm and cozy inside, and usually you hear about 'I have a dream' and end up holding hands and going for ice cream," Mike said. "That's not why I'm here." Instead, Mike invoked the later King — economically radical, opposed to the Vietnam War — and linked that King to the Bernie Sanders of today.

So the stage was set for Sanders to deliver his appeal to black voters, even if the audience in the room was mostly white. After heaping effusive praise on Killer Mike — "He's trying to talk truth throughout this country, and in fact throughout the world, trying to bring people together" — Sanders began with a full ten minutes on King, praising, of course, the Voting Rights Act and other breakthroughs, but also, just as Mike did, pulling King into the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign.

"He was a great leader because he understood that justice in America was even more than civil rights," Sanders said of King. "It was economic rights as well, and what he said was that of course we have to end segregation at lunch counters and at hotels and at universities and schools. But then he also said what difference does it make if a family can't afford to send their kid to those schools or eat at that restaurant? … Because he understood that to be free in America meant that you have to have economic rights, you have to earn a living wage."

The Bernie-Killer Mike routine suggested contrasting uses of King's legacy in appealing to black voters. Hillary is invoking a happy I-have-a-dream-we-shall-overcome King memory, while Bernie is invoking a more assertive economic-equality-now-stop-the-war King.

Sanders, who as a young man actually attended the 1963 March on Washington, spent the first ten minutes of his speech talking about King. Maybe that was a little obvious: I'm here trying to appeal to black voters, and so I am going to talk a lot about Martin Luther King. It was also, perhaps, unnecessary, at least judging by conversations with several of the black Bernie fans who came to the Fox. When I asked why they supported Sanders over Clinton, their answers were virtually identical to the answers white voters in Iowa gave when I asked the same question a couple of months ago. Black voters who like Bernie like Bernie for the same reasons white voters like Bernie — without any specific race-based appeals.

"I believe that Bernie represents the people, the common working person," said Justin Jones, of Atlanta. "Hillary Clinton is more backed by Wall Street execs, banks, things like that. She's a political heiress."

"He's not with Wall Street, like Hillary is," said Keith Bussey, of Austell, Ga. "Even though Hillary is still saying she's going to break them up, like Bernie says — how are you going to break something up when you collect the money from them? They're going to want a favor once she's in office." Bussey also likes Sanders' stand on universal health care, free college, and legalizing marijuana.

"Bernie hits the points right on the head when he talks about going after the top one percent and Wall Street," said Darren Brooks, of Loganville, Ga. "He is the first person that I can ever recall who addresses going at Wall Street and then backs it up by his example, by not accepting any Super PACs. He talks it, he walks it."

"He's sincere and he's consistent," said Raina Mitchell, of Atlanta. "Hillary is playing the politician game very well. She's a politician … When Bernie speaks, he approaches every single topic that everyday middle class people can relate to. So he's there with us. I don't feel like he's on a high horse."

"Bernie has been talking about the same issues and has been having the same stance for 30 years, versus Hillary Clinton, who will adopt stances one debate to another," said Bilal Alaji, a U.S. legal permanent resident originally from Ethiopia who, unfortunately for Bernie, is not yet a citizen. (He plans to become one, and he has convinced his U.S. citizen wife to support Sanders.) "Bernie has the backing of labor unions. Hillary is sponsored by Citigroup and all these others big corporations."

I asked another question: You can't win the Democratic nomination without black support. Sanders is struggling in that area. Why?

"We were just talking about that," said Brooks, who was in an animated conversation with Mitchell and Alaji when I walked up. "It's because of Bill. It has nothing to do with Hillary. It's just the history."

"Black people love Bill Clinton," said Mitchell. "I don't know what it is."

Does that transfer to Hillary? I asked.

"Yes it does," said Brooks.

"It's weird, it does," said Mitchell. "I'm trying to convince my mother. Every Hillary supporter, I can't get an answer out of them for why they support Hillary. I cannot get a legit answer. They're brainwashed."

Keith Bussey's wife originally supported Clinton. For months he had a Bernie sign alongside a Hillary sign in his front yard. But now, Bussey's work appears to be paying off. "After watching the debates, listening to Hillary, listening to Bernie, she's in here now feeling the Bern," Bussey, who was wearing a blue "Feel the Bern" t-shirt, told me.

"I feel black people are going to come to him," Bussey continued. "It's going to take some time. It will be before February -- I feel more and more black people are going to come to Bernie." As we parted, he said one more time, "You'll see — black voters are going to Bernie!"