Heidi M. Przybyla

USA TODAY

Hillary Clinton, citing a lingering “reality of systemic racism” in America, called for a comprehensive approach to battling racial inequality on Tuesday that goes beyond changes to the criminal justice system.

The Democratic presidential candidate proposed a multi-pronged approach, including new job investments, equal pay for women of color and ending what is, for many young black men, a school-to-prison pipeline.

She began her speech in Harlem by highlighting the water crisis in Flint, Mich., where children and babies have been poisoned by lead-laced water because "their governor wanted to save a little money," Clinton said.

"It was not a coincidence that this was allowed to happen in a largely black," poor community, she said. “There are many Flints across our country," she added, "places where people have been left out and left behind.” She cited schools that are more segregated now than they were in 1968 and the fact that blacks are three times as likely to be denied a mortgage.

Clinton's speech is among the most forceful on race she has given, and she sought to draw a distinction with Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders without mentioning him by name.

Sanders has campaigned primarily on an economic justice platform and denunciations of a "rigged economy." Clinton said the nation's challenges aren't just rooted in economic inequality but are "problems of racial inequality, and we've got to say that loudly and clearly."

"You can't just show up at election time and say the right things," when the cameras are rolling, Clinton said. Her speech comes as the Democratic presidential contest heads to Nevada for caucuses on Feb. 20, then a week later to South Carolina, where Clinton and Sanders are competing for support in a state where African-American voters made up more than half the Democratic primary electorate eight years earlier.

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It’s a critical contest for Clinton, whose team has argued that she lost the last primary battle, in New Hampshire, because the state is overwhelmingly white, a demographic makeup that her campaign says favors Sanders.

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In both her speech and an earlier meeting with African-American civil rights leaders, Clinton said she's worked on issues facing the black community for most of her adult life. It's an argument her surrogates have been trying to make to fortify support in the black community as Sanders begins to pick up endorsements from some black entertainers and activists.

“It’s absolutely critical to me that we look at the full array of issues that do stand in the way, whether it’s student debt or a judiciary that is not as diverse as it needs to be," Clinton said after meeting with Cornell Brooks, head of the NAACP, and Marc Morial, president of the National Urban League, among others.

Key to her plan is a $2 billion proposal to overhaul school-discipline policies that, she says, disadvantages black children. While kids who commit violent offenses must be removed from the classroom, they represent a small fraction of the student body, according to her campaign. She criticized what she described as a rush to push many young people into the criminal justice system instead of college.

Last week, Clinton also announced a $125 billion plan to invest in under-served communities.

As the Democratic primary race moves southward to a bloc of states with large black-voting populations, Clinton is seeking to buffer what her campaign considers a “firewall” of support. A CNN/ORC poll out Tuesday found Clinton holds an 18-point lead over Sanders in South Carolina, boosted by a 37-point advantage with blacks.

For his part, Sanders spent the day trying to cut into Clinton's strong support in the South. He met with faith leaders at a prayer breakfast in Columbia, S.C., and held a town hall before going to Georgia for a rally at Morehouse College in Atlanta as part of a tour of historically black colleges and universities.

The tensions between the two campaigns were palpable as Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond, a Morehouse alum and Clinton ally, in a statement called Sanders’ tour “fairly misleading” because his college affordability plan “doesn’t even mention HBCUs.”

Sanders also met with the daughter of Eric Garner, whose death two years ago helped spur a movement to address police brutality against African Americans. Erica Garner is also campaigning for Sanders and is featured in a new ad.

Meanwhile, President Obama weighed in on the Democratic race at a press conference in Rancho Mirage, Calif. Obama was asked whether Sanders had been disloyal to him, as Clinton has suggested.

The president said in a primary campaign "everybody's trying to differentiate themselves. When, in fact, Bernie and Hillary agree on a lot of stuff."

He said he knows Clinton better than Sanders, due to her tenure in his administration as secretary of State, and that on some issues she likely agreed with him more than Sanders did, while Sanders may be closer to the president's views on others. "I don't know. I haven't studied their positions that closely," the president said.

One one point, though, Obama was unequivocal.

"I am not unhappy that I am not on the ballot," he said.