At King's church, Obama reaches out to black voters

Calls for unity, responsibility

Barack Obama joined church officials in singing "We Shall Overcome" at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)

ATLANTA - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, looking to galvanize his rising support among African-Americans, delivered a stirring call yesterday for unity and personal responsibility in the same church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. helped give birth to the civil rights movement.

Obama's campaign thus far has largely ignored race to focus on a message of unity. Speaking before an overwhelmingly black audience from what many consider the "bully pulpit" of black America, Obama drew on Scriptures, King's writing, and his own life to relate his campaign to issues central to black voters.

Obama's appearance, made just days after his competition for black voters with Hillary Clinton dissolved into a nasty, racially tinged skirmish, also was intended to deliver that message to South Carolina voters before Saturday's Democratic primary there.

Nearly half of the registered voters in South Carolina are African-American, and the state is expected to be the first primary contest where black voters could influence the outcome.

In a 45-minute address, Obama told an overflow crowd at Ebenezer Baptist Church that too many leaders believe the national unity and racial reconciliation he seeks "can be purchased on the cheap."

Real progress - the fulfillment of King's legacy - can come only through sacrifice and admitting that "none of our hands are clean."

"For most of this country's history, we in the African-American community have been on the receiving end of man's inhumanity to man. And all of us understand intimately the insidious role that race still sometimes plays - on the job, in the schools, in our healthcare system, and in our criminal justice system," Obama said.

And yet, he said, African-Americans have been guilty of anti-Semitism and hostility toward immigrants, and have "scorned our gay brothers and sisters instead of embracing them."

"If we're honest with ourselves, we'll acknowledge that our own community has not always been true to King's vision of a beloved community.

"The divisions, the stereotypes, the scapegoating, the ease with which we blame the plight of ourselves on others, all of that distracts us from the common challenges we face: war and poverty; inequality and injustice," Obama said.

"We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late."

When he became the first African-American senator in nearly two decades, his profile soared, yet when he announced his bid for the presidency - a campaign based on unity and uplift - some notable African-Americans were skeptical.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who launched his own bid for the Democratic nomination in 2004, voiced what many black voters wondered privately: whether whites would vote for Obama, and whether his optimistic message of inclusion was dismissive of the frustrations of most African-Americans.

Sharpton, who has a large following among African-Americans, also questioned whether Obama's nontraditional upbringing as the son of a Kenyan father and white mother raised in Hawaii and his presidential aspirations made him too reluctant to speak out forcefully on racial issues; the two have met privately since then.

Still, Obama's support among African-Americans didn't blossom until after he defeated Clinton in the Iowa caucuses, a victory that solidified his credentials as a viable presidential contender.

Though Clinton defeated Obama in New Hampshire two weeks ago and in Nevada on Saturday - despite carrying 85 percent of the black electorate - political analysts suggest that if Obama wins in South Carolina it would set up a high-stakes showdown on Feb. 5, on which Democratic contests are scheduled in 22 states.

In his introduction to Obama, the Rev. Dr. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer, said he invited Obama because he is the living embodiment of "the American dream" and knows there is much work to be done fulfilling King's legacy. "We do not give over this pulpit lightly," the reverend said, because "giants" of black American history, like King, have stood behind it.

Nevertheless, "All of America should be proud" of Obama's candidacy, Warnock said.

When Obama rose from his seat on the altar, the congregants - packed shoulder-to-shoulder in the spacious church - erupted in a welcome of applause and cheers.

Emphasizing hope over fear and unity over division, Obama's 45-minute message echoed the remarks he made before the Democratic National Convention in 2004, his political star turn, which combined a message of personal responsibility and calls for creating "one America" out of bitterly divided red and blue states. Yet the speech also seemed designed to bridge any lingering doubts about him among African-Americans.

His wide-ranging speech touched on inequalities in housing and education, the record number of African-American men in prison, and lingering racism in society.

He said that the inequalities were exemplified by the difference between "Scooter Libby justice and Jena Six justice," a reference to the former aide to Vice President Cheney whose prison term for perjury was commuted, and to six African-American students who were harshly punished after a racially tinged confrontation in Louisiana.

But the segment of Obama's speech that stirred the crowd was an impromptu call-and-response portion touching on his childhood and incorporating his central message of hope.

"I wasn't born into money or great wealth, but I had hope!" he declared, bringing the congregation to its feet, cheering and clapping. "I needed some hope to get here. My daddy left me when I was little, but I had hope! I was raised by a single mother, but I had hope! I was given love, an education, and some hope!"

After the speech, many in the crowd were impressed.

Rasheeda Miller, 26, stood for more than two hours outdoors, then watched Obama's speech on the outdoor monitor.

"I think he made a great comparison" of King's unfinished legacy to his own agenda as president. Miller, who lives in Atlanta and said she's an undecided voter, was impressed. "I'm now leaning toward him."