In the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, a once-unbeatable former mayor wants the Democratic congressional primary to be a referendum on race.
Willie Herenton is accusing white two-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of "trying to act black." He tells voters in this majority-black city that they "need to come off that Cohen plantation and get on the Herenton freedom train."
But President Barack Obama has endorsed Cohen, who has an "A" rating from the NAACP and has built support in the black community by supporting civil rights legislation and bringing much-needed federal funding to Memphis schools and hospitals.
"It appears that the former mayor is making race the basis of his campaign, but I don't think voters are going to go for that at all," Cohen said. "President Obama's election proves that voters don't look at race when making a decision in an election."
Herenton is betting they will. Though in interviews he's happy to address issues like improving public schools, creating jobs and bolstering small minority businesses, on the campaign trail he focuses mostly on race and his contention that Tennessee needs "just one" black representative in its all-white congressional delegation.
"I believe that the Constitution includes all of God's children and that we ought not to be segregated or treated differently because of our race, because of our class or because of religion," Herenton told voters during a campaign stop, invoking the language of the civil rights movement. "In this great American democracy, people, people, diverse people ought to have representation."
Read more:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128738881
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
