In Selma: Obama’s First Visit

[Ethelk2044]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/in-selma-clinton-obama-3-blocks-apart/



March 4, 2007, 12:22 pm
In Selma: Obama’s First Visit
By Patrick Healy


People waited in line to hear Senator Barack Obama speak in Selma, Ala. (Photo: Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times)SELMA, Ala. – Over the years, Barack Obama had visited Montgomery, Ala., to celebrate the legacy of the bus boycott, and Birmingham to see its civil rights museum and bear witness to the struggle for racial equality there.
But he had never been to Selma until this morning, he said in a breakfast speech to more than 500 people here. Still, he said, today’s visit felt like “a homecoming for me.”
“I stand on the shoulders of giants,” Mr. Obama said. “I literally would not be here if not for the work that was done.”
The Democratic senator from Illinois spoke at George C. Wallace State Community College, itself a vivid legacy of the era of segregation. Governor Wallace built dozens of colleges and satellite campuses across Alabama during the 1960’s and 1970’s so black and white students could go to different campuses, even in the same small towns, stretching the state budget incredibly thin.
Mr. Obama sprinkled his remarks with Alabama references, even noting that he is sometimes called “Alabama” by people who have trouble with his name. Invoking Iraq, he said billions of dollars spent