At King’s Church, Obama Speaks of Unity
By Jeff Zeleny
Senator Barack Obama, with Coretta Scott King, laid a wreath at the tomb of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.Senator Barack Obama, with Coretta Scott King, laid a wreath at the tomb of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after speaking at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Photo: Damon Winter/The New York Times)
ATLANTA – Speaking from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Senator Barack Obama paid tribute here today to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and reprised his call from four decades ago, “Unity is the great need of the hour.”
“It’s the great need of this hour as well,” Mr. Obama said, addressing hundreds of worshipers during an overflowing service. “Not because it sounds pleasant or because it makes us feel good, but because it’s the only way we can overcome the essential deficit that exists in this country.”
The deficit, he said, is one of morality and of empathy.
On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Mr. Obama was on his way to South Carolina to spend a week campaigning for the state’s Democratic presidential primary on Saturday. He was invited to speak at Ebenezer, the historic church where Dr. King once preached before leading the civil rights movement across the South.
In his 30-minute address, which came near the end of a service that drew a capacity crowd with congregants spilling outside the church in unusually frigid weather here, Mr. Obama presented his candidacy as an opportunity to extend the racial unity Dr. King spoke about.
“None of our hands are clean,” Mr. Obama said. “Each of us carries with us the task of changing our hearts and minds.”
“The division, the stereotypes, the scape-goating, the ease with which we blame the plight of ourselves on others -– all of that distracts us from the common challenges we face, war and poverty; injustice and inequality,” he added, drawing applause from the crowd. “We can no longer afford to build ourselves up by tearing each other down. We can no longer afford to traffic in lies or fear or hate. It is the poison that we must purge from our politics; the wall that we must tear down before the hour grows too late.”
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