Little seen simple in race and politics in south

By Matthew Bigg

MACON, Georgia (Reuters) - With its painful history of slavery and segregation, it is easy to presume how Southern white voters will respond to Barack Obama, who would be the country's first black president, but observers say simple assumptions about politics in the region would be wrong.

Obama won only 25 percent of the white vote in the Democratic primary in South Carolina on January 26 and the figure was seen as evidence of unspoken racial divisions and reticence on the part of white voters to vote for a black candidate.

In advance of Tuesday's primary vote, Obama leads Sen. Hillary Clinton in Georgia by 20 points fueled in part by strong backing from black voters who represent around 27 percent of the electorate, according to a Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby International poll on Sunday.

Southern states Tennessee and Alabama will also vote on Tuesday to choose the Democratic nominee who would contest in November's election to succeed President George W. Bush.

But pastors and leaders of predominantly or exclusively white churches in the South as well as pollsters said that issues of race for Democratic and Republican voters are complex, subject to a subtle interplay of forces that defy easy analysis.

The South is the most conservative part of the country and many white churchgoers are concerned that voting choices based on ideological beliefs are often falsely portrayed as having a racial origin.

"Southern white Democrats are enormously proud of the gains in race relations and ashamed of their history," said John Green of the Pew Forum on Religion in Public Life, who said it was notoriously difficult to fathom the role of race in voting choices.

"Southern evangelicals say things like: 'I have doubts about social welfare programs.' But people don't want to talk about it for fear of being perceived as racist," he said. Blacks are often perceived as disproportionate recipients of government welfare programs.

"SEGREGATED HOUR"

One cliche about church-going in the United States is that 11 a.m. on a Sunday morning is the week's most segregated hour.

Half a century after the civil rights movement helped end legally enforced segregation in the South, many churches in the region are essentially all-black or all-white.

Pastors and church leaders warned that it was an over-simplification to say this situation represents a rejection of the other race or racial solidarity and much of it is historical or social.

Many churches want to figure out ways to move the situation forward and become more diverse, said several leaders of these churches.

"Obama is a wonderful person and he would make a great president," said one pastor of an all-white church in Louisiana, who preferred to remain anonymous. An Obama presidency could help promote reconciliation, he said.

Another leader of an Atlanta church with almost no blacks said they would, in theory, be welcome but few members saw a need to go to out of their way to make them welcome.