On Eve of King Holiday, Race Dominates Campaign

On Eve of King Holiday, Race Dominates Campaign
Damon Winter/The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/21/us/politics/21memo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Senator Barack Obama laid a wreath at the King tomb after speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. “We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down,” he said.

By JEFF ZELENY
Published: January 21, 2008

ATLANTA — As he stood at the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church here, addressing worshipers at the former congregation of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Senator Barack Obama was doing something Sunday that he has rarely done in his months of campaigning for the presidency.

He was appearing before a black audience, and he was speaking about race.

For nearly a year, as the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination wound through Iowa and New Hampshire, Mr. Obama has strived to run a race-neutral campaign. Yet this week, as the campaign converges on South Carolina, a new test is at hand for Mr. Obama: Can he draw significant support from African-Americans while maintaining the appeal of a candidate who seeks to transcend race?

On the eve of the national holiday celebrating Dr. King, as Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York was delivering her own appeal to black voters at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, Mr. Obama reprised a call once delivered by the civil rights leader: “Unity is the great need of the hour.” He presented his candidacy as an opportunity to build on the ideals that began four decades ago here in Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn neighborhood.

“The division, 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, injustice and inequality,” said Mr. Obama, of Illinois. “We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down.”

As Democrats headed to South Carolina to campaign in earnest for the primary on Saturday, state party officials estimate that black voters could make up 60 percent of the electorate. Those projections increased an already fierce competition among Mr. Obama, Mrs. Clinton and John Edwards, all of whom will share a stage Monday at a debate that will be focused, in part, on racial issues.

The battle for the Democratic nomination has occasionally been imbued with racial arguments and overtones, leading all candidates last week to call for a truce. But even as Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton attended separate church services on Sunday, race remained a strong undercurrent.

As she collected an endorsement from the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, the influential black New York leader, Mrs. Clinton dismissed suggestions that a rift could be created in the party. She paraphrased Frederick Douglass, the 19th-century black abolitionist, saying: “Right has no sex and truth has no color.”

In his brief remarks outside Abyssinian Baptist, Dr. Butts said Mrs. Clinton has the “experience, ability, respect and character” needed to run the country. Dr. Butts addressed suggestions that he was betraying his race by not supporting Mr. Obama.

This “is not a race-based decision for me, and I hope it’s not a race-based decision for you, either,” he said, his words enveloped by cheers of support for Mrs. Clinton.

The overt discussion of race could complicate an already vexing political terrain among white and black voters in South Carolina, particularly in a three-way contest. Democratic strategists believe that Mr. Edwards, of North Carolina, draws significant support from white voters and could erode some of Mrs. Clinton’s backing, while polls show that Mr. Obama has increased his standing from a wide majority of black voters.

A victory in South Carolina is crucial for Mr. Obama. While polls show that Mr. Obama has an advantage, Mrs. Clinton and former President Bill Clinton are aggressively campaigning across the state this week, with Mr. Clinton focusing heavily on black voters. In an interview on ABC News on Sunday, Mr. Obama suggested that he intended to “directly confront Bill Clinton when he’s making statements that are not factually accurate.”

A spokesman for the Clinton campaign, Phil Singer, called the former president “a huge asset to our campaign” who “will continue talking to the American people to press the case for Senator Clinton.”

Before flying to South Carolina on Sunday, Mr. Obama’s appearance at Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta offered a glimpse into the next phase of the campaign, which almost certainly is shaping up to be a protracted state-by-state fight. Georgia is among the 22 states holding primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5.

Mr. Obama was invited to appear at the historic church by the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, who portrayed Mr. Obama as the candidate to carry on the mantle of Dr. King. “Maybe 40 years after his death, it’s time to claim the promise,” Dr. Warnock told nearly 2,000 people crowded into the church sanctuary, as Mr. Obama sat near the choir and looked on.

When he rose from his seat to address the congregation, Mr. Obama called upon those gathered before him to cast aside their differences and strive for unity to overcome divisions in America. He challenged people to look within themselves to see if they had been following the ideals inspired by Dr. King.

“None of our hands are clean,” Mr. Obama said, speaking over approving “Amens” that resounded throughout the sanctuary. “So let us say that on this day of all days, each of us carries with us the task of changing our hearts and minds. Each of us carries with us the task of changing our hearts and minds.”

For Mr. Obama, the appearance at Ebenezer Baptist marked a rare time that a service at a predominantly black church has been included on his campaign schedule. It was the beginning of a transition in his strategy, as the primary moves to more diverse states, aides say, and he brings to the fore his effort to appeal to black voters while working to reassure some skeptics of his electability.

In doing so, Mr. Obama told his audience a story of a young campaign aide in South Carolina named Ashley Baia. He prefaced the story by pointing out that she is white, and because of her belief in Mr. Obama, black voters are signing on. He highlighted one man who was drawn toward his campaign.

“By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man, that’s not enough to change a country,” Mr. Obama said. “But it is where we begin.”

C. J. Hughes contributed from New York.