Obama stresses responsibility to civil rights movement

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama received a proud welcome from the annual NAACP convention, but in a stirring speech to the nation’s oldest civil rights organisation, he nonetheless insisted blacks must show greater responsibility for improving their own lives.

Mr Obama, the son of a black father and white mother who could become the first president with African-American ancestry, urged Washington to provide more education and economic assistance.

He called on corporate America to exercise greater social responsibility. But he also received his most lusty applause as he urged blacks to demand more of themselves.

“If we’re serious about reclaiming that dream, we have to do more in our own lives. There’s nothing wrong with saying that,” Mr Obama told a crowd estimated at 3,000 attending the convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.

“But with providing the guidance our children need, turning off the TV set and putting away the video games; attending those parent-teacher conferences, helping our children with their homework, setting a good example. That’s what everybody’s got to do.”

He added: “I know some say I’ve been too tough on folks talking about responsibility. NAACP, I’m here to report, I’m not going to stop talking about it. Because as much I’m out there to fight to make sure that government’s doing its job and the marketplace is doing its job, ... none of it will make a difference – at least not enough of a difference – if we also don’t at the same time seize more responsibility in our own lives.”

Amid building cheers, Mr Obama declared: “When we are taking care of our own stuff, then a lot of other folks are going to be interested in joining up and working with us and taking care of America’s stuff. We can lead by example, as we did in the civil rights movement. Because the problems that plague our community are not unique to us. We just have them a little worse, but they’re not unique to us.”

Mr Obama, who grew up without his father, has spoken and written at length about issues of parental responsibility and fathers participating in their children’s lives.

Yet a similar speech by the Illinois senator on Father’s Day last month prompted an awkward rebuke from the Reverend Jesse Jackson, a Democratic presidential contender in 1984 and 1988, a protege of civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King Jr and a fellow Chicago political activist.

Mr Jackson apologised last week after being caught saying on an open microphone that he wanted to castrate Mr Obama for speaking down to blacks.

Republican candidate John McCain is scheduled to address the NAACP’s 99th meeting tomorrow.

President George Bush was criticized for not speaking at the convention until 2006 – his fifth year in office.

Obama spokeswoman Linda Douglass denied the candidate was trying to boost support among white voters with his own Sister Souljah moment.

Addressing a black audience in 1992, Democrat presidential candidate Bill Clinton accused the hip-hop artist of inciting violence against whites.

Some black leaders, including Mr Jackson, criticised Mr Clinton, but it helped reinforce his image as a politician who refused to pander.

“It’s not just a speech aimed at black audiences. It’s aimed at all parents,” Ms Douglass said. Noting Mr Obama also called for more corporate and government responsibility, she added: “This is a larger theme of responsibility.”