Poll: Obama raises optimism about race relations

A poll released today suggests that African Americans -- inspired by Barack Obama about to become the nation's first black president -- are generally more optimistic about race relations than whites.

In the CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey, 44 percent of blacks and 25 percent of whites said that Obama's election heralds a "new era" in race relations. Among blacks, 69 percent said the US has fulfilled the vision outlined by Martin Luther King Jr. in his "I Have A Dream" speech, while only 46 percent of whites said so. And 61 percent of blacks and 48 percent of whites said the quality of life for African Americans will improve over the next four years.

But 52 percent of blacks and 41 percent of whites also said they believe race relations will always be a problem.

The poll was conducted Jan. 12-15 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5.5 percentage points among black respondents and 3.5 percentage points among non-Hispanic whites.