Free Republic

Hillary Clinton will meet with Black Lives Matter activists in Cleveland on Friday, including DeRay Mckesson and Brittany Packnett. An aide told The Associated Press that Clinton and the activists will discuss how to "advance equity and opportunity in the African-American community." Clinton sat with Black Lives Matter protesters around this same time last year for a conversation that Mckesson described as "tough," but "in the end I felt heard." Clinton has been met with suspicion by critics of former President Bill Clinton's 1994 crime bill, which contributed to high incarceration rates of black people for nonviolent crimes. —Jeva Lange

Prominent Black Lives Matter activist DeRay Mckesson said Wednesday he is attending a meeting with President Obama designed to help mend frayed ties between law enforcement and the communities they serve. “We are at the @WhiteHouse right now for a 3-hour convening w/ President Obama re: the recent events in #BatonRouge & across the country,” Mckesson tweeted Wednesday. Mckesson wrote he will be joined by fellow activist Brittany Packnett and Minneapolis-based Black Lives Matter leader Mica Grimm. The president is sitting down with nearly three-dozen law enforcement officials, civil rights leaders, educators and local politicians at the White House in...

#BlackLivesMatter leader DeRay Mckesson may claim to be leading a grassroots revolution for racial and economic justice, but he has close connections with the privileged and elite. Mckesson lives in a home owned by philanthropists James and Robin Wood in Baltimore, Maryland. It’s the same address he used when declaring his residency on his campaign committee registration form for his failed mayoral run in the city’s Democratic primary earlier this year. The Woods have owned the home since 1996 and are wealthy donors to the Baltimore chapter of George Soros’ Open Society Institute.