As Democrats descend on Detroit for presidential debate, black voters offer a warning: Don't take us for granted

INKSTER, Mich. - Sitting on the crumbling porch of a small, boarded-up house where Malcolm X once lived, community activist Aaron Sims recalls Inkster as the place where African American workers on Henry Ford's assembly line settled because they weren't welcome in the nearby factory town of Dearborn.

Sims describes several years of fighting to save the dilapidated home where the civil rights leader lived during part of his formative years, shares his hopes of turning the modest property into a museum for his small, struggling suburb and talks proudly of twice casting his ballot for Barack Obama, the nation's first black president.

But when the topic turns to the 2016 election, the 41-year-old lawn care company owner says he has a secret of sorts: He voted for Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton.

"With Hillary, it was like they were coming with the same old, same old politics from back in the day," Sims said. "Trump says what he says, but I knew it was something different. I decided I'd rather take my gamble that way."

As 20 presidential contenders descend upon Detroit for the second round of Democratic debates Tuesday and Wednesday, party officials and African American political leaders point to Clinton's loss to Trump in Michigan as a cautionary tale of what can happen when a Democrat takes black voters for granted.

Trump won thanks in large part to the collapse of the so-called blue wall in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. While Clinton faltered among white working-class