Bernie has also done much better among Northern Blacks than Southern Blacks for reasons I don't understand.
A greater share of Northern Blacks actually made it into the middle class in recent decades. That's not to say that a majority of Southern Blacks are poor; in fact, large majorities are working-class and up regardless of the region.
However, economic success for Blacks in the North (and in particular, the Rust Belt) in the 20th century was more widespread and they have been impacted more substantially by the forces that Sanders rails against (outsourcing, NAFTA, manufacturing losses). The Black middle class in many of these Northern and Midwestern states was made possible by manufacturing and the like. Therefore, his message - rooted much more in economics than Clinton's - resonates better in these areas because these communities have fallen farther economically, relative to where they were some decades ago.
