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Alabama Super Tuesday preview, Candlelight vigil for Harper Lee

Presidential hopefuls flooded the state of Alabama this weekend. APR student reporter Parker Branton has more…

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke at Miles College in Birmingham while Florida Senator Marco Rubio made two stops at Samford University and the Huntsville Space and Rocket Center. Businessman Donald Trump also made an appearance in Huntsville.

Secretary Clinton praised Mayor William Bell of Birmingham for his work to raise the minimum working wage.

“I believe in building ladders of opportunity for people… knocking down the barriers that stand in the way. And that begins with economic barriers so I want to thank the mayor for doing what he tried to do to try to change to raise the minimum wage in Birmingham.”

More visits are still possible today as Dr. Ben Carson makes his way to Montgomery to help sure up votes for Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Republican Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley is harshly criticizing GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.  He says Trump has shown disrespect for women, minorities and the disabled.

Bentley responded to a question today about the presidential race, condemned Trump's initial refusal to renounce support from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Bentley has endorsed Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

Trump is expected to perform well in the Republican primary contest in Alabama on Super Tuesday.

If he wins the GOP nomination, Bentley says he would support the Republican nominee but added that Trump was not the best nominee.

Fans of the writer of To Kill A Mockingbird gathered in Monroeville for a candlelight vigil over the weekend. Readers of Harper Lee’s classic came from as far as Maryland and Arkansas to the Old Curiosities and Book Shoppe for the event.

Local residents who knew Harper Lee were there as well, including Lee Anne Walker-Parmer. She says To Kill a Mockingbird helped to open a lot of eyes on racism in the south…

“Seeing the difference in the way people treated each other, and the racism which is not right. Because if people think they’re Christian, they’re not being a Christian, you know what I’m saying—they’re not.”

Harper Lee used her hometown of Monroeville as the model for the setting of To Kill A Mockingbird. The Pulitzer Prize winner died in her sleep at the age of eighty nine.

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