Photos: Barack Obama speaks in front of historic Clarendon County Courthouse in Manning, S.C.

November 2, 2007, 11:09 pm
Obama, Civil Rights and South Carolina

By Katharine Q. Seelye

GREENVILLE, S.C. — Barack Obama spent the day giving formal speeches about the civil rights struggle and said that civil rights pioneers had overcome fears to achieve big dreams — and he asked his listeners to overcome their own fears and support him for president.

The Caucus caught up with him here, where he spoke to about 1,000 in an exhibition hall in the Carolina First Center.

He had begun his day in Manning, at the Clarendon County Courthouse, which was the scene 60 years ago of one of the lawsuits that became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case. He drew about 1,200 people there, which his aides said was about a quarter of the population.

Tonight he attended two dinners, both for the NAACP. The first was in Sumter, where he drew about 800 people, and then he flew here.

He said that while things are better than they were, the dreams of civil rights activists remain unfulfilled in places like South Carolina’s Corridor of Shame, where dilapidated schools still attest to an unequal education for blacks. Things are better, he said, but “better is not good enough.” America, he said, “is still blind to the poverty in our midst,” and “we still tolerate Jena justice for some and Scooter Libby justice for others.”

<>He went on to talk about concerns he had heard expressed in the state’s barber shops and beauty salons, which are big meeting places for African-Americans, who make up half the vote in this state’s primary. One concern, he said, is that people say, “I’m not sure the country is ready — you all know you’ve heard that — I’m not sure if the country is ready for him,” meaning a black man.

“Let me tell you something,” he said. “I would not have begun this campaign if I was not confident that I could win it.” The audience, which had been somewhat sedate, started applauding, louder and louder, and many people rose to their feet to give him a standing ovation. “I’m not running to be vice president,” he declared as the ovation continued. “I’m not running to get my name in the paper.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/02/obama-civil-rights-and-south-carolina/index.html?hp