|
Taking his campaign to the heart of the deep South, John Kerry said Sunday he faces the same "politics of last resort" that confronted marchers seeking equality in the civil rights movement. "We're going to be tested, because they've got a lot of money and a lot of power," the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said at a predominantly black church with veterans of the movement. Kerry told supporters to brace for a wave of criticism from President Bush's well-funded re-election campaign, much as civil rights marchers fought against entrenched opposition.
He spoke on the 39th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" clash in Selma, Ala., when state troopers used tear gas and billy clubs against activists marching over the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Scenes from that episode galvanized the civil rights movement and within five months the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed.
"If they could do that, if they could stand on that bridge, surely we can cross the rest of the bridges in this country that we need to," said Kerry, as he tried to compare the struggles and rally black voters, an important Democratic constituency. Standing beside him was Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who was beaten in the 'Bloody Sunday' march.
"It won't be easy," Kerry said. "You've lived with the attacks, the distortions and the hollowness of a politics of last resort that divides black from white, rich from poor, Massachusetts from Mississippi."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/03/07/politics1458EST0508.DTL |
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
