Friday marked the second day that Democratic presidential candidates made their pitches before the National Urban League's annual conference in Indianapolis.

Several hundred people heard from South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, conservative filmmaker Ami Horowitz, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and California Sen. Kamala Harris. New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was scheduled to speak but did not appear.

As with the appearance of five candidates Thursday, many of the candidates Friday held similar positions. For instance, all pledged to fight Russian interference in the 2020 election and to include the Urban League for job training, youth development, housing and entrepreneurship programs. All but Horowitz pledged to increase access to voting. More on him later.

Here are the takeaways:

Pete Buttigieg calls Donald Trump racist

Buttigieg took on President Donald Trump soon after taking the stage.

“My generation saw this country elect its first black president and then turn around and elect a racist to the White House — and we ought to call that what it is,” Buttigieg said to applause.

He also touted his Douglass Plan, named after 18th-century black abolitionist and statesman Frederick Douglass, which seeks to overturn what he calls systemic, institutional racism in criminal justice, voting, education and housing. He said systems built on racism can’t simply be washed away if they’re replaced with neutral systems.

He said the experiences that black Americans face effectively place them in a different country. He said they’re less likely to be believed if they go to the hospital and say they’re in pain, less likely to get a call for a job interview, are more likely to be arrested for committing the same crimes as white people and are being pushed out of some areas by gentrification.

“I think for too long we have believed that we were on a path where systemic racism was going to take care of itself in this country,” he said. “I’m going to be speaking about these issues not only with mostly black audiences, but with mostly white audiences.”

He said when black people are oppressed everyone is hurt.

“Suppressing the black vote made my life worse, because I have to live under this president,” he said jokingly to laughs from the audience.

There also was some levity at the beginning.

Marc Morial, president and chief executive of the National Urban League, joked he’d been practicing Buttigeig’s name to introduce him. It’s “Boot-edge-edge” he sounded out.

Buttigieg took the stage and said back home in South Bend, most people gave up on pronouncing his last name. “They just call me Mayor Pete,” he said. “Feel free to call me whatever you like.”

Kamala Harris unveils $60B education plan

The U.S. senator from California, who has been gaining in the polls in the past month or so, discussed a $60 billion education plan her campaign unveiled Friday morning for science, technology, engineering and math education in historically black colleges and other intuitions that serve minorities. She also proposed a $12 billion grant program for minority entrepreneurs.

Like Booker on Thursday, she said the foundation laid by civil rights advocates such as the National Urban League has helped her career. She noted that she’s the second-ever black woman elected to the U.S. Senate. She said her parents, while she was growing up in Oakland, marched for civil rights.

“The fight for equality is more important today than it has been for a long time, because right now we have a supposed leader in the White House who doesn’t want to stand for progress, but in fact stands in the way of progress,” she said. "And he wants to take us back. Donald Trump says he wants to make American great again. Well, what does again mean? Back before the Civil Rights Act? Back before the Voting Rights Act? Back before Roe v. Wade?... Because we are not going back.”

She also referenced his recent tweets attacking four first-term congresswoman of color.

“He tells them to go back to where they came from,” she said to heavy applause. “What do we say? We’re not going back. We’re not going back, and in fact, I’ll tell you where we’re going. We’re going to the White House. That’s where we’re going.”

She talked about making home ownership more affordable, legalizing marijuana, reducing the wealth gap, enacting programs to fight racial profiling.

Morial asked her a pressing question many advocates of communities of color have asked her. What about her time as a prosecutor?

She said she was tough on crime, but she also helped connect people with services to counsel them for reentry into society.

“Why do we only have to be on the outside on bended knee or trying to break down the door?” she asked. “Shouldn’t we also be on the inside, where the decisions are being made?"

Gillibrand says she’ll fight for people of color

Gillibrand said she will take on the battles of people of color like they are her own.

“The truth is,” Gillibrand said, “I have enormous opportunity and access and privilege as a white woman, but also as a United States senator, as someone who is running for president, who has this presidential platform to talk about real injustices in society.”

She said her recently released infrastructure plan would spend more money in communities of color, ensuring they have access to the places they need to go. She proposes to allow banking at post offices to ensure that predominantly minority communities have access to capital. She proposes job training programs at community and state colleges and universal pre-kindergarten.

She said people need access to quality education no matter where they live.

She supports federal marijuana legalization and would make sure black-owned businesses share in the opportunity. She also would expunge records for anyone convicted of marijuana use offenses, saying she believes police overly target black and brown offenders.

Gillibrand also touted her yearslong fight to continue to secure funding for the first responders to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, including her willingness to reach out to conservatives.

Ami Horowitz offers a different way forward

Horowitz is a self-described conservative filmmaker from Los Angeles who has said he’s running for office because Democrats are going too far to the left.

The only candidate appearing Friday who hasn't qualified for a debate took the stage with some jokes, perhaps knowing it might be a tough crowd.

“Like most of you, I assumed my invitation here to speak was mistaken,” he said. "When I asked Marc about it, and he assured me I actually was one of the chosen ones, and not only because I'm a Jew. And here I am. Thank you."

He followed that up soon with: “There is good news and bad news. The bad news, and I’ve got to be honest, is that I’m running at zero in the polls. The good news is that I’m in a dead heat with de Blasio.”

He said he believes the path forward for equality has to do with getting the government out of the way. He said given the opportunity in a free market, every American has the ability to realize their full potential, regardless of color, religion or sexual orientation.

But he said he thinks Democratic policies have failed and will continue to fail to deliver equality. And he said Democrats take black voters for granted.

He also was the only candidate to decline to pledge to enact a new Voting Rights Act, saying he thinks the era of Jim Crow is over.

When asked by Morial why he’s not running in the Republican Party, Horowitz said he votes a split ticket. He said he admires Democrats like John F. Kennedy and Scoop Jackson, a former U.S. senator from Washington state. He also thanked the crowd for listening to him, saying it was an opportunity he would never forget.

He praised the Urban League and its conference, saying it was an impressive organization that does good work.

Urban League invited every Democrat, Republican running for president

On Thursday, about 500 people heard from former Vice President Joe Biden, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney.

The Urban League invited every Democrat and Republican running for president to speak.

Call IndyStar reporter Chris Sikich at (317) 444-6036. Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisSikich.

This story will be updated