Obama to NAACP: 'Seize Responsibility'

Barack Obama stood firm on his message to blacks of personal responsibility in his speech to the NAACP convention yesterday, reports the Chicago Tribune. The candidate, accused by Jesse Jackson last week of "talking down to black people," revisited his theme of personal accountability while stressing that responsibility also must be demanded from Washington and Wall Street.

Obama told his audience that the gains of the civil rights movement were being jeopardized by urban violence and economic inequality. "It doesn't matter if you have the right to sit at the lunch counter if you can't afford the lunch," he said. To a standing ovation, Obama vowed to appear at the convention again next year, as president of the United States. (More NAACP stories.)