Obama's rise stuns observers of U.S. race relations

By Matthew Bigg -Analysis

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Barack Obama's sudden ascendancy to front-runner status among Democrats vying for the White House has opened what could be a new chapter in race relations in America.

Observers of the U.S. debate over race say that however fleeting this may be, Obama's victory in last week's Iowa caucuses shatters an assumption about black Americans in national politics. Iowa is largely white and rural.

The Illinois senator would be the first black president and several commentators and voters said the excitement over his candidacy has led them to imagine a softening of their long-held skepticism about black-white relations in the United States.

"Obama has stepped up out of the script and we are in uncharted waters," said William Jelani Cobb, history professor at Atlanta's Spelman College and the author of a recent book of essays on contemporary black culture.

Obama, 46, leads Sen. Hillary Clinton, 60, in opinion polls in New Hampshire, which votes on Tuesday in the state-by-state process of choosing Republican and Democratic candidates for November's election to succeed President George W. Bush.

Cobb said Obama's win in Iowa was striking because historically the first blacks to break into fields traditionally dominated by whites succeeded by offering continuity rather than reform.

Obama's campaign has stood for change.

RACIAL GAP