This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Hillary Clinton on Saturday said she would champion voting rights from the White House, telling African American Alabama Democrats Republican state policies were “a blast from the Jim Crow past”.

Alabama license office closures alarms voting rights advocates ahead of 2016 Read more

Clinton said Republicans were dismantling the progress made by the civil rights movement, and blasted Alabama governor Robert Bentley for closing driver’s license offices in 31 counties where most residents are African American. Alabama requires photo identification to vote.

Clinton also mocked the Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush for their opposition to restoring Voting Rights Act provisions which the US supreme court struck down.

About 700 people attended a luncheon for the state’s largest black Democratic party caucus. African Americans are crucial to Clinton’s campaign. They will likely make up a majority of the Democratic primary electorate in several southern states.