Top Dems to march on S.C. Capitol

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Taking a brief intermission from their sparring, the top three Democratic presidential contenders plan to join thousands of others here Monday morning for a symbolically charged commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Edwards and Barack Obama will all appear at an NAACP-sponsored march to the state Capitol, where the Confederate flag still flies on the grounds. The event highlights the importance of the black vote in Saturday's Democratic primary in South Carolina, where African-Americans make up close to half of the Democratic electorate here.

On the eve of the King holiday, the leading Democrats made appearances at historic black churches. Clinton, who beat Obama in Saturday's Nevada caucuses, attended services at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. Obama spoke from King's old pulpit: Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist. Edwards attended an evening service at the Zion Baptist Church here.

In this state, the civil rights struggle King helped lead before his assassination in 1968 looms as unfinished business. Politically, South Carolina is "one of the most racially polarized states in the country," said David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington think tank that studies black voting patterns.

In the last presidential election, 78% of South Carolina whites voted for Republican George W. Bush; 85% of the state's blacks voted for Democrat John Kerry. More than one of every four South Carolinians is African-American, but voters here have never elected a black politician to a statewide office.

House Democratic Whip James Clyburn, who played a major role in convincing the Democratic Party to hold an early primary in his state, hopes the contest will mark a turning point in South Carolina's political history.

"Part of my mission in life is to try to get our country, and certainly my state, beyond these things that divide us," said Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress.

Tonight, the Congressional Black Caucus hosts a Democratic presidential debate in Myrtle Beach, a golf resort community the NAACP once slapped with a civil rights lawsuit. This is the first year that the city of Myrtle Beach is honoring the federal King holiday.

Clyburn remains neutral in the political contest that has divided his community.

Though South Carolina's black voters and politicians say they want to be color-blind in the decision they make this week, most admit race is part of their calculation. "I supported Jesse Jackson twice. I supported Shirley Chisholm," said state Sen. John Matthews, referring to two earlier black presidential candidates.

He backs Clinton as the candidate most likely to win in November. "We have never been able to get the white community to vote for an African-American candidate," he said. "I just don't believe our brethren will do the right thing in November."

Obama's victory in overwhelmingly white Iowa proves that no longer holds true, said Kay Patterson, a state senator who backs Obama. "Barack appeals to people across the board," he said.

Rep. Leon Howard of Columbia, chairman of the state's legislative black caucus, said he is frustrated that Edwards is overshadowed by the historic nature of the Clinton and Obama candidacies and their star power. Edwards, a native South Carolinian, has a populist message that resonates in many of this state's poor rural communities, Howard said.

"I consistently remind the African-American community to take the face away, take away gender and look at the message," he said. Edwards finished a distant third in Nevada.

There's no denying the excitement generated by Obama's candidacy. At the Brookland Baptist Church, a black mega-church that drew 1,500 to its 8:15 a.m. service Sunday, Pastor Charles Jackson's acknowledgement of Ertharin Cousin and Orlan Johnson, two Obama campaign workers, elicited an outburst of applause. The reaction was polite silence when Jackson pointed two better-known African-Americans on hand to support Clinton, lawyer Vernon Jordan and Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee.

Still, over bacon and grits in the church hall afterward, some church members said they're torn between Obama and Clinton. "I feel like Bill Clinton was a great president. She's the wife of Bill. I feel they will team up," said truck driver Timothy Coleman, 33.

Yvonne Robinson, 62, said she supported Clinton for Senate in New York, where Robinson worked for Citibank before retiring here two years ago. But Obama's presidential candidacy has inspired her to volunteer in a campaign for the first time in her life. "We need someone who's not of the White House," she said.

In the end, Robinson said, she'll be satisfied with her new favorite or her former senator. "Either one of them wins, and it's going to be history."

Contributing: Fredreka Schouten