Obama Takes First Campaign Trip South
Democratic Candidate Tailors Message to Reflect a Connection to Civil Rights Struggles

By Michael D. Shear
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 18, 2007

ORANGEBURG, S.C., Feb. 17 -- Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) took his presidential campaign to the heart of the Deep South for the first time this weekend, tailoring his campaign message to associate himself with the civil rights movement.

With a Kenyan father who was not descended from African slaves, Obama is unlike Southern black candidates, steeped in the slavery and civil rights struggles that tore at the region for more than a century. Neither is he like the white politicians, whose skin color automatically disqualifies them from the black experience.

And so, on his maiden presidential visit to South Carolina and Virginia, Obama was greeted with not only enthusiasm but also a bit of curiosity.

"Not only people in the black community, but people in the white community are going to be looking at this man and trying to figure out: Is he one of us? Does he understand what we've come through? What we're still confronting now?" said Vivian A. Glover, an assistant vice president at Claflin University, a historically black school in Orangeburg. "He's not bringing that with him. He's going to need to present it in some form or fashion."

It was Orangeburg where three black college students were gunned down in 1968 as they pressed to integrate the small town's only bowling alley. Speaking Saturday at Claflin to residents of the town and a new generation of students, Obama brought the primarily black crowd of about 2,000 to its feet by evoking that era.

"At every juncture in our history, there's been somebody that's said we can't. There's been somebody's said you can't overcome slavery. There's been somebody who said you can't overcome Jim Crow," Obama told the South Carolina crowd. "If I have your support, if I have your energy and involvement and commitment and ideas, then I'm here to tell you, 'Yes we can in '08.' "

Later Saturday, Obama and his wife, Michelle, traveled to Richmond and accepted the endorsement of Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). Obama told reporters that his presidential campaign is a symbol for improving race relations in America.

"Here we are in the heart of what was the Confederacy," Obama said, looking out over the Virginia statehouse, which housed the Confederate Congress during the Civil War. "For me to be able to stand here as an African American reflects the enormous progress this country has made."

He then continued a busy day by addressing more than 4,000 Democratic activists at the state party's annual Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner.

A Democrat has not won Virginia's electoral votes in decades. But Kaine, in becoming the first sitting governor to make a 2008 endorsement, said that could change with Obama as the party's nominee. He called the Illinois senator "a proud American but also a citizen of the world."

In both states, audiences greeted Obama more like a celebrity than a politician looking for their vote. In Orangeburg, cellphone cameras snapped pictures the moment he entered the gymnasium and did not stop during his speech, which was cut short to a half-hour because of Saturday's Senate vote on a resolution on Iraq.

"I like his message of togetherness," said Frank Loadholt, 56, a social worker from Orangeburg who said he will "absolutely" vote for Obama. "I look at him as the best candidate out there with the best message."

South Carolina state Rep. Gilda Cobb-Hunter (D) said it is "totally ludicrous" to worry about Obama's lack of a history in the civil rights movement. "Look at the man's record," she said. "It shows he has an understanding of issues like that."

But many in the crowd seemed more hesitant and said they were not yet certain they will vote for Obama next year.

"I believe in listening to all of the candidates," said Wilhemina James, 58, from Florence. "This old gut hasn't failed me yet."

South Carolina has one of the nation's first presidential primaries, and African Americans make up about half of the state's Democratic electorate, so black support here is particularly critical.

Obama is vying with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and former North Carolina senator John Edwards for that backing. All three camps are wooing prominent black politicians and courting black religious leaders, with varying degrees of success.

That push seemed reflected not only in Obama's Orangeburg speech but also in one he delivered to a more racially diverse crowd of almost 3,000 in Columbia on Friday.

"When folks were saying we're going to march for our freedom, somebody said, 'You can't do that.' And we did," Obama said Friday, sparking raucous applause. "And somebody said, 'Don't sit at the lunch counter.' . . . We did. When somebody said, 'Women belong in the kitchen, not in the boardroom,' they said we can't do that. Yes we did!"

Carol Singletary, 55, a retired social worker from Columbia, said that part of Obama's speech was important to her.

"I was raised in the civil rights era," said Singletary, who is black. "We came through a lot of ups and downs. South Carolina is one of those places that really did struggle. And still does struggle."

But she said Obama's background should not be a barrier to African Americans like her. "I don't hold that against him," she said after watching his speech. "I thought he was wonderful."

Edwards came to Charleston last week, and Clinton is scheduled to visit South Carolina on Monday.

Staff writer Tim Craig contributed to this report from Richmond.