Jan 21, 2008 4:58 pm US/Central
Dems Relate To King's Dream On Holiday
(CBS)
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US Democratic presidential candidates Sen.Barack Obama (D-IL), Sen.Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and former Senator John Edwards(D-NC) attend a NAACP rally to mark Martin Luther King Jr. Day, in Columbia, S.C.
EMMANUEL DUNAND/Getty Images
All week, in advance of Saturday's primary, you're going to hear one fact repeated: that 50 percent of the Democratic voters in South Carolina are African-American. That fact, coupled with the King holiday, brought out sentiments of equality and King's dream from the big three Democratic candidates, as CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports.
On Martin Luther King's holiday, the big three Democratic candidates said they embody King's dream and told voters how they hope to make it a reality for others.
Symbolism ran deep as the top Democrats running for the White House gathered on the steps of South Carolina's capitol to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, especially for the man seeking to become America's first black president.
"I've got to be hopeful to be standing here today," said Sen. Barack Obama. "I didn't come form a whole lot of money. I didn't come from power or privilege. I was raised by a single mother. They gave me love. They gave me an education and they gave me a whole lot of hope."
In South Carolina, even the King holiday is colored by the state's Confederate past. The annual NAACP march and rally is aimed at removing the Confederate flag from this memorial to the southern war's dead on the Capitol grounds. South Carolina was the last state in the nation to approve a King holiday.
"We couldn't get a stand-alone bill to honor Dr. King -- we had to get a bill to honor the Confederacy while also honoring Dr. King," said South Carolina NAACP president Dr. Lonnie Randolph.
Seeking to become the first female president, Sen. Hillary Clinton also claimed a part of King's dream.
"That we stand here -- is a measure of Dr. King's lifework and his legacy," Clinton said.
And former Sen. John Edwards, who was born in South Carolina, made a common cause with the two front-runners in the fight to right past wrongs.
"All three of us are on a journey with you, on the march to justice and equality and fairness in the United States of America and we are in this cause together," Edwards said.
In his remarks, Obama also lamented the "divisiveness" that has crept into the campaign, obviously referring to his accusations last week that the Clintons and her supporters have tried to inject race into the campaign.
All three candidates were supposed to march from a prayer service to the rally, but only Obama participated. He was loudly cheered.
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