By Kimberly Truong From Mashable

Politicians across the political spectrum have a way of running into trouble over their statements about the Black Lives Matter movement, but the senior senator from Massachusetts is not one of them.

Speaking at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston on Sunday, Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, voiced full-throated support for the movement, which formed after the police killings of Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray and more over the last year.

Warren delivered an impassioned speech in which she called for widespread reform in regards to police brutality, economic inequality and voting rights, and drew parallels between Black Lives Matter and the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

The senator spoke of laws put in place as a response to the civil rights movement, laws that “came together to protect black people from violence, to ensure access to the ballot box, and to build economic opportunity.” She also spoke of the subsequent dismantling of those laws.

“To say it another way, these laws made three powerful declarations: Black lives matter. Black citizens matter. Black families matter.”

Warren affirms that assertion twice more in her speech, in reference to the protests that have emerged of late against police brutality, and again to emphasize that although the civil rights movement paved a way forward, the nation stills have a long way to go.

“Policing must become a truly community endeavor,” she says, calling for body cameras to increase police accountability.

“Body cameras can help us know what happens when someone is hurt. [..] This is America, not a war zone — and policing practices in all cities — not just some — need to reflect that.”

In terms of voting rights, she declares, “It’s time to call out the recent flurry of new state law restrictions for what they are: an all-out campaign by Republicans to take away the right to vote from poor and black and Latino American citizens who probably won’t vote for them.” The line drew chuckles from the audience, but Warren made it clear that she wasn’t joking.

“I speak today with the full knowledge that I have not personally experienced and can never truly understand the fear, the oppression, and the pain that confronts African Americans every day,” she acknowledged.

“But none of us can ignore what is happening in this country. Not when our black friends, family, neighbors literally fear dying in the streets.”

Her speech coincides with fellow Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders struggling to establish a relationship with the Black Lives Matter movement. It has also been a tricky subject for Republican presidential candidates.

The speech was well received by Black Lives Matter activists and journalists who write about racial justice.

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