Democratic hopefuls will join Capitol rally

COLUMBIA --- An annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day rally held in part to criticize the flying of the Confederate flag on Statehouse grounds will provide the backdrop Monday in campaigning for a hotly contested presidential primary that gives black voters their first serious voice in the 2008 elections.

The top three Democratic candidates -- Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards -- are expected to speak at this year's "King Day at the Dome" as their contest turns its sights squarely on the Palmetto State. The Democratic presidential primary is Saturday.

One political analyst said the event will be especially important for Mrs. Clinton, who has faced criticism for remarks that seemed to downplay Dr. King's impact on civil rights.

Mrs. Clinton "has to demonstrate she can be genuine -- that she can speak personally and directly about her commitment to racial justice," said Todd Shaw, an assistant professor of political science and African-American studies at the University of South Carolina.

Mrs. Clinton said recently that it took President Lyndon B. Johnson to finally realize Dr. King's dream of racial equality by signing the Civil Rights Act. Since the comment, and Mr. Obama's ensuing criticism, the candidates have agreed to put the issue behind them.

The rally will be more a show of solidarity among the candidates than a back-and-forth, Mr. Shaw said.

Zac Wright, Mrs. Clinton's spokesman in South Carolina, said the New York senator will stress how personal Dr. King's message was for her.

"She has talked many times how she was very inspired as a young person going with a church group to hear Dr. King," he said. "This is much more of a reverence to him and his work and in taking stock of how far we have to go than it is a political forum."

Obama spokesman Kevin Griffis said Dr. King's message was that people need to unite, which echoes a theme of the Illinois senator's campaign. He said appearing with rivals might pay off.

"We just believe the more times people get to see Sen. Obama, the more they are likely to walk away agreeing with him and the more likely they are to vote for him," he said.

Last week in a telephone interview, Mr. Edwards said he planned to speak about one of his campaign's main messages.

"My plan is to talk about Martin Luther King's legacy and the fight against poverty in America," the former North Carolina senator said.

The yearly rally remains a show of force in South Carolina for blacks, who cast nearly half the votes in the 2004 primary, which Mr. Edwards won.

Lonnie Randolph, the president of the state chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he plans to take aim at another, lesser-known monument on Statehouse grounds at this year's rally. He'll speak in part about a statue of staunch racist "Pitchfork" Ben Tillman. Words on the statue of the one-term South Carolina governor who served in the U.S. Senate from 1885 to 1918 make no reference to his calls to kill any black who dared try to vote or his white supremacist policies that created the Jim Crow-era South.