Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders received a hearty introduction from civil rights activist and scholar Dr. Cornel West before he addressed a crowd at Benedict College, a historically black school in Columbia, South Carolina, on Saturday.

Dr. West praised the Independent senator from Vermont as a man of integrity, who is committed to fighting for working class and marginalized Americans.

"What I love about Brother Bernie is he's a brother of integrity and honesty and decency," declared Dr. West before a racially mixed crowd of about 1,000 people, reports RealClearPolitics. "Dear brother Bernie Sanders, he is not just on the move, he is going to win."

While speaking to the crowd, Sanders denounced "institutional racism" and called for an overhaul in the criminal justice system. He also mentioned the names of unarmed African-Americans who have died while in police custody, including Sandra Bland, Walter Scott and Eric Garner.

"Racism remains alive today, and our goal together must be to end all forms of institutional racism and make major reforms in our criminal justice system," he said.

The self-declared "Democratic Socialist," who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, also highlighted his proposals to eliminate for-profit prisons, and shift money and resources toward job creation and education.

"We need to end the absurdity of private corporations making profits by running and building prisons," he said. "Companies should not be profiting from the incarceration of fellow Americans."

Although polls show that Sanders is closing in on Hillary Clinton and has taken lead in key states like New Hampshire and Iowa, he still struggles to retain black voters, as only 3 percent of his supporters identified as African-American. He has also been publicly interrupted and criticized by members of the Black Lives Movement, who claim he has not put enough emphasis on racial inequality during his campaign.

"Once people are exposed to who he really is, and see his genuine commitment to racial justice, economic justice and gender justice, we won't have too many worries about those kinds of disruptions," said West, referring to the two times that his events were disrupted by Black Lives Matter protesters, reports USA Today.

Watch a clip of Cornel West's speech below.