Obama supporters unite

In 1963, John Lewis was the youngest of 10 speakers at the March on Washington. Today, he is the only one still alive.

As a civil rights activist, he was beaten and jailed, and some who fought with him did not survive.

"Some of my colleagues died for the right to vote," he said Sunday in Las Vegas.

Lewis, now 68 and an 11-term Democratic congressman from Georgia, hoped to remind his audience of supporters of presidential candidate Barack Obama of the importance of this year's election.

"Our forefathers and our foremothers all came to this land on different ships," he told a crowd of about 150 people gathered at the Nevada Partners worker training facility on Lake Mead Boulevard. "But we're in the same boat now."

Sunday's event was billed as a "unity rally" and featured black and Hispanic state legislators and local officials, along with Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., and state Sen. Dina Titus, D-Las Vegas, who is running for Congress.

"The civil rights movement is not over," state Sen. Steven Horsford, D-Las Vegas, told the group. "Social justice is something we fight for to this day."

Sunday's event was purposely scheduled for early afternoon just after church, and many in the predominantly black audience were still in church clothes. Lewis attended services in Las Vegas at Victory Missionary Baptist Church, where a gospel choir sang the national anthem before his speech.

The rally also came at the end of a three-day training camp for Hispanic voter mobilization. Whether Obama can create unity among Hispanic and black voters is a question his campaign faces in the current contest.

Obama and his Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, both have targeted Hispanics in Nevada and elsewhere with Spanish-language advertising.

Lewis said he thought Obama's pitch for unity would be successful.

"We all need to be brought together -- black, white, Hispanic, Asian-American, Native American," he said. "I've been involved for almost 50 years, including the height of the civil rights movement. I have not seen anything like this since the leadership of Dr. (Martin Luther) King. Something is moving in America. The candidacy of Barack Obama has inspired people to believe in themselves again."

Audience member Erick Lopez, 23, said blacks and Hispanics can identify with each other because both are groups that have been "systematically disenfranchised and disempowered" over the years.

"There's always distrust between different communities," Lopez said. "But we are both people of color. We can come together."

Christian McKinney, a 49-year-old casino cashier, has been an Obama supporter for a year and a half, believing early on that "this guy is going to bring everybody together, not just black folks -- everybody."

McKinney said she's never been involved in politics before, but this year she's been giving money to the campaign and volunteering whenever she can. "This is a critical time in our lives, a critical time for the United States, period," she said.

"Can't nobody know what the future's going to hold," she added. "We don't know what's going to happen. But I feel that with him leading the way, we're going to pull through."

Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball @reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919.