Obama and Race: Bridging the Divide?

Jan. 11, 2008— -- Adding to the high expectations for Barack Obama across a range of issues, nearly six in 10 Americans think his presidency will improve race relations in this country, a view that's grown substantially given his election as the 44th president.

Fifty-eight percent in this ABC News poll think Obama's presidency will help improve relations among racial groups -- sharply higher than the 42 percent who said the same of his candidacy last summer.

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African-Americans, moreover, now say by a 12-point margin that they think of themselves as Americans first rather than as blacks first -- a slight shift from a September poll in which they divided evenly on that question.

Obama's inauguration as the first African-American president will be laden with symbolism. He'll be sworn in the day after Martin Luther King Jr. Day, on the same Bible on which Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office March 4, 1861.

IMPROVE -- The sense that Obama will improve race relations has grown equally among whites and blacks alike, although it remains higher overall among blacks. Republicans remain more skeptical than others -- but also show the biggest increase in this view, a very large 25-point jump compared with last June's level.

Similarly, two-thirds of Americans -- including blacks and whites equally -- say Obama's election represents progress for all blacks in America, not just a single case of individual accomplishment. This view, however, has ebbed slightly since September, particularly so among African-Americans. Then 79 percent saw Obama's nomination as a sign of progress for blacks more generally; today 64 percent see his election that way.