Obama: Blacks must vote to affect social change
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama challenged black voters to turn out for November’s congressional elections if they want to see more of the racial progress in society that allowed him to become the nation’s first black president.
In remarks Saturday night at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual conference, Obama ticked off a list of achievements that he said showed the “enormous progress” in the U.S., including steady job growth, a decline in the number of people without health insurance and a falling crime rate.
“But our work’s not done,” he said. He spoke of the killing of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo., and said he hoped that one day children, black and white, won’t be scared by discrimination everyone will have at least a chance for an education and a job.
The widespread mistrust of law enforcement that was exposed by the fatal police shooting in Ferguson exists in too many other communities and is having a corrosive effect on the nation, particularly on its children, Obama said. He blamed the feeling of wariness on persistent racial disparities in the administration of justice.
“It makes folks who are victimized by crime and need strong policing reluctant to go to the police because they may not trust them,” he said.
“... That is not the society we want. It’s not the society that our children deserve.”
Prayers and good intentions aren’t enough to get out the vote, he said.
“We have to get back to our schools, our offices, our churches, our beauty shops, our barbershops,” he said. “Make sure people know there is an election coming up. They need to know how to register, and they need to know how and when to vote. We have to tell them to push back against the cynics.”
Obama’s address underscored a reality that Democrats around the country are facing less than six weeks before the Nov. 4 mid-term congressional elections: Voter enthusiasm is a problem. Voter turnout among groups crucial to the party’s recent victories — young people, minorities and women — historically declines in midterm elections.
Seven of the 21 Senate seats being defended by Democrats are in states that Obama lost in the last presidential election. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to gain control of the chamber, and polls show that’s a possibility.
The changes in state voting laws and rules around the country have angered Democrats who see the measures as a deliberate effort to suppress votes, particularly among minority voters.
Republicans counter that laws requiring identification at the polls or cutting down on early voting hours are designed to root out fraud and streamline state and county operations.
Obama spoke two days after announcing the resignation of Eric Holder, the first black U.S. attorney general, who focused on voting rights and reducing mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses that disproportionately imprisoned blacks.
Obama paid tribute to Holder as someone who has devoted his life’s work to “making sure that equal justice under the law actually means something.”
Information from the Associated Press was included in this story.