Obama and Clinton fight for black vote

Looking up at the bridge that leads out of Selma, the Reverend F.D. Reese recalled a defining moment in the civil rights struggle in the Deep South.

"I saw blood flowing that day," said the Baptist pastor, his voice quivering with emotion. "The state trooper with their billy clubs clutched in each hand charged us, toppling us over like pins in a bowling alley.

"Pandemonium broke out in the crowd and there was a sense of disbelief that this could happen in these United States of America. Then they got out their gas canisters...they pushed us back across the bridge to the church, beating us on the heads and shoulders."

On Sunday, in the pulpit of that same Brown African Methodist Episcopal church, on what has since been renamed Martin Luther King Avenue, Barack Obama, the man who could next year become the first black president of those same United States, will address the congregation.

It was 42 years ago that the civil rights marchers were attacked on "Bloody Sunday" in a display of brutality that shocked America, as well as much of the rest of the world, and led to President Lyndon Johnson outlawing voter literacy tests that excluded blacks.

Now, Mr Reese, 77, a civil rights leader in Selma who marched alongside Mr King, is contemplating another historic breakthrough. "Even then, I was hoping," he said. "We looked forward to the time when in our country a president could be elected based on his ability and not the colour of his skin."

Mr Obama, who has closed the gap on Hillary Clinton in the stakes for the Democratic nomination and is experiencing a surge in black support, was not even four years old that day.

The son of a white mother from Kansas and a Kenyan who met while they were studying in Hawaii, he has no family connection to the civil rights movement. Neither were his ancestors slaves, such as those who were brought by the Scots-Irish settlers of Selma to toil on the cotton plantations.

But the people of Selma are ready to embrace Mr Obama as one of their own, dismissing contemptuously the notion that he "isn't black enough" because of his biracial heritage and his lack of direct connection to central aspects of the African-American experience.

"I think he's black enough and we've got to get away from colour being the badge of support," said Mr Reese.

It will be Mr Obama's first visit to Selma, though he travelled to Birmingham, Alabama - which also has iconic status in civil rights history - three years ago. Also, making a first visit as a politician will be Mrs Clinton, who only announced her trip this week after Mr Obama's plans were publicised.

"The timing speaks for itself," said Representative Artur (CORR) Davis, the local congressman and a prominent Obama supporter. "Senator Clinton had been extended the invitation a number of months ago and had not responded."

She will speak at the First Baptist Church, also on Martine Luther King Avenue and just a few yards away from where Mr Obama will be.

Mrs Clinton's husband Bill was so popular among African-Americans that in 1998 the singer Toni Morrison described him as "our first black president". The former First Lady's presence in Selma underscores her determination to secure the same overwhelming black support.

"Bill Clinton had that little touch that blacks could identify with," said the Rev James E. Jackson, 62, minister at Brown church. "Hillary will probably try to capitalise on his success with blacks and use that to her advantage. Whether she can remains to be seen. Certainly, she doesn't have any inside track."

Selma is now majority black but it remains in practical terms a segregated town. In the plushest restaurant one evening this week, there was not a single black face to be seen. On the wall hung a newspaper tribute to Joe Smitherman, the segregationist mayor in 1965 who was not voted out until 2000.

Mr Jackson said Mr Obama's candidacy had created a stir in Selma but his race still presented obstacles. "It will be crazy busy on Sunday. A lot of women have been calling. I guess it's his charisma and his appeal.

"Quite a few white women have called and want to come along and be a part. He exudes a lot of power and there's something about powerful men that attracts women."

But Alabama is still divided. "I don't think the whites in the south are ready," he said. "A few years ago I wouldn't have said it was because he is black. Now I don't think so but in terms of their politics middle class whites have bought into the Republican philosophical ideology."

Mr Davis, however, said that race will not be a central issue in the 2008, largely because Mr Obama was able to appeal across traditional lines. "He has an enormous intelligence and the ability to convey complex ideas to people in an understandable way. It's the same combination that Bill Clinton had."

Whether Mrs Clinton can use family loyalty to win black support or whether Mr Obama can capture the voters who backed her husband in 1992 and 1996 are just two of the pivotal questions in the 2008 White House race.

But for the time being, Selma is proud that the eyes of the world will be on it once again as it plays a part in electing what could be either the first black president or the first woman to occupy the Oval Office.

James E. Jackson, a maintenance man at Brown church who skipped school as a 14 year old to attend the march, said that the spirit of Mr King would be with Mr Obama on Sunday. "If he was alive, he'd be right there beside him. There's no doubt in my mind."

It was 42 years ago that the civil rights marchers were attacked on "Bloody Sunday" in a display of brutality that shocked America

Sad to realize that it was in my lifetime that Democrats were still attempting to beat the black people into submission and restrict their rights as a people.

Eventually the stranglehold the Southern Democrats had on the South was broken and conservatives ascended to power. Now we see far greater propserity than we've seen for all people in the South. Many Southern states are now "destination states" for tax refugees from the North, were the Democrats have spent years tainting those areas with their putrid brand of "liberalism". Still, times change and the rats are hungry for power after being deprived of it for so long. We must be wary if we mean to avoid repeating the past. Not for just blacks, but all Americans.

What is most disheartening is the fact that most blacks have nothing but disdain for Dr. Rice's accomplishments.

Oh, she's black enough, but not far left enough to get any respect at all.

I think of the ugly ugly cartoons and articles about Janice Rogers' Brown......

It's clear that blacks are their own worst enemy.

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