Race Enters Discussion Now That Edwards Is In S.C.

By: Aaron Lewis
Topics: John Edwards

(CBS)

From CBS News' Aaron Lewis:

ST. HELENA ISLAND, S.C. -- Off the beaten path in this South Carolina community, in a hall where Martin Luther King organized meetings at the height of the civil rights movement, John Edwards told voters that race is still a clear divisive issue in America.

"Race plays an enormous role in the economic conditions of Americans," said Edwards. "We can pretend it's not true but decade after decade of slavery followed by decade after decade of segregation, followed by decade after decade of discrimination has an impact. It has an effect."

As many as 300 voters (about 20 percent of whom were African-American) listened inside the Penn Center - one of the first schools in America for freed black slaves - as Edwards listed off the statistics proving the disadvantages faced by African-Americans in the U.S.

"The average net worth of black families is about $8,000; white families is about $80,000," said Edwards with one of his more sobering statistics. "Let me tell you, we're not moving in the right direction."

Race issues were rare in Edwards's stump speeches in New Hampshire and Iowa. But with such a heavy black population expected to vote in the South Carolina primary this month, it should come as no surprise that Edwards brought up the subject unprompted in tonight's speech and, likely, in many of his speeches to come in the next couple of weeks.

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by teamsterwif1 January 13, 2008 11:06 PM EST: Go Johnny Go!; Reply to this comment


by worrieddem January 13, 2008 3:50 PM EST: Wake Up South Carolinians! John Edwards knows that race and class still matter in this country, he''s the one who went to the Gulf Coast (did either Obama or Clinton roll up their sleeves with young people, to help poor black people in New Orleans?). Southern blacks know that race matters; a black man''s dismissal of race as an issue is an insult to the intelligence of a people who have suffered, and continue to suffer, in a nation obsessed with historical amnesia. Edwards gets this. Edwards is the ONLY Democratic candidate who knows enough is enough, that the widening gulf between the few haves, and the multi-racial have nots, is NOT acceptable, not in a democracy. Thank you, John and Elizabeth Edwards, for putting the economy back on the table, and for linking it to the environment, health care, education, poverty, opportunities (or lack thereof), and ultimately global peace.; Reply to this comment


by kenshin051 January 13, 2008 4:58 AM EST: This was always a part of his platform, it''s just the first time he''s mentioned it in his stump speeches. and he''s right on the money about it too.

i am a mother
i am a member of an ethnic minority
i support john edwards
cuz he supports ALL of us!; Reply to this comment


by singh82 January 12, 2008 2:03 PM EST: If Blacks are asked to vote for a Black
does it not follow that non-blacks should vote for a
non-black,
Every action has opposite and equal reaction; Reply to this comment


by rowdytexan2 January 12, 2008 11:21 AM EST: I wondered how long it would take the idiot Edwards to jump on this racial band wagon.

Wake up America! As long as we keep allowing people to draw a racial line, there will be one! If we can''t join together and get rid of that line politicians will use it to get votes.

Obama has lost total credibility for me if he supports these racial fanatics. I thought he was above it.

The Clintons have always been supporters of civil rights issues. To claim that Mr. Clinton''s statement about Lyndon Johnson helping introduce Dr. King''s civil rights legislation diminishes Dr. King is insane. Dr. King wasn''t a legislator. Somebody had to get the bill on the floor!

Wake up people! Are you going to let evangelical and racial fanatics keep us from being united in choosing the best candidate for president?; Reply to this comment


by cherubimii January 12, 2008 3:14 AM EST: This female black American thanks you.
America needs you, John Edwards.
I will be voting for you in the upcoming California primary.; Reply to this comment