FACTBOX - Race as a factor in the U.S. election

(Reuters) - The issue of race has been at the centre of a series of disputes during this year's U.S. presidential election because Democratic candidate Barack Obama is black and would be the first African American president.

-- Obama told an audience in July his rival, Republican candidate John McCain, was trying to scare voters by pointing out he had "a funny name and he doesn't look like all the presidents on the dollar bills and the five-dollar bills."

McCain said that by falsely presenting him as racist, Obama was shamelessly employing an underhand tactic to appeal for votes. McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said Obama had "played the race card."

-- A July cover of the New Yorker magazine showed a cartoon of Obama wearing a turban and his wife, Michelle, holding a gun. Obama said the cover could encourage misconceptions about him. The magazine said the cover was intended as satire.

-- Then-Democratic contender Hillary Clinton referred in May to Bobby Kennedy's assassination in June 1968 as an example of how Democratic nomination campaigns sometimes stretch into June. Critics said she was implying Obama might be assassinated, an interpretation that Clinton rejected.

-- In May, Clinton cited a poll she said showed her appeal among white voters would be crucial to defeating the Republican Party in November's election. She said Obama's support was weakening "among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans." She denied the remark was divisive.

-- Sermons by Obama's former pastor Jeremiah Wright in which he said "God damn America" and castigated the country for its racial policies rocked Obama's campaign when they were repeatedly played on television in March.

Many voters said Obama's long association with Wright put his judgment and trustworthiness in doubt. Obama gave a wide-ranging speech on race in a bid to dispel concerns.

-- Former President Bill Clinton compared Obama's win in South Carolina's primary in January to the victories of black civil rights leader Jesse Jackson in the state in 1984 and 1988. Critics said Clinton was playing down Obama's victory and belittling black voters. Clinton said that interpretation was unfair.

-- Hillary Clinton said in January that the civil rights movement would not have had the successes it had if Lyndon Johnson, president from 1963 to 1969, had not pushed crucial legislation. Prominent blacks said the remark was dismissive of Rev. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.

-- Prominent businessman Robert Johnson, a Clinton supporter, made an apparent reference to Obama using drugs as a youth. Obama has said he used drugs but Johnson was criticized for highlighting a divisive issue.

-- In February 2007, then-Democratic hopeful Joseph Biden described Obama as "articulate and bright and clean." Critics said his words were patronizing and suggested he was surprised a black man could be articulate and clean. Biden apologized.

(Writing by Matthew Bigg; editing by Michael Christie)