Obama calls for unity at King's church

January 20, 2008

The AP reports…

"Obama calls for unity at King’s church"

Speaking at the church where Martin Luther King Jr. launched the civil rights movement, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Sunday called for unity to overcome America’s "moral deficit."

In a visit steeped in symbolism – coming a day before the King holiday – Obama evoked the civil rights leader’s legacy to a packed house of 2,000 mostly black worshippers.

"Before there was King the icon and his ‘magnificent dream,’ there was King the young preacher and a a people who found themselves suffering under the yolk of oppression," Obama said.

Obama also used the pulpit at the Ebenezer Baptist Church to take blacks to task for failing to embrace gays, immigrants and Jews.

"None of our hands are clean," Obama said.

"Each of us carries the task of changing our hearts and minds," he continued to scattered applause. "We can no longer build ourselves up by tearing others down."

But the congregation rose to its feet as Obama harkened back to the civil rights struggle that he said had made his campaign possible.

The Illinois senator offered what has become a familiar campaign message centering on hope. And he drew raucous applause as he referred to his own modest upbringing and struggles as a teenager with drugs.

"Unity is the great need of the hour that’s what Dr. King said," Obama said. "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."

TIME’s Joe Klein calls it "a great speech."