Bush Honors Dr. King, Attacks Bigotry : Civil rights: President is well received in appeal for black votes, but endures sharp rebuke from slain leader’s daughter.

Singing and swaying to the civil rights anthem “We Shall Overcome,” President Bush locked arms Friday with the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in an appeal for black votes and a bid to ease the racial strains associated with some of his civil rights policies.

But at a ceremony in honor of the federal holiday commemorating King’s birth, Bush ran into sharp reminders of dissatisfaction with what still remains undone.

In an angry benediction, the Rev. Bernice King, the slain civil rights leader’s daughter, demanded “How dare we celebrate?” and alluded to the tens of millions of Americans who are functionally illiterate or do not have health care.

“How dare we celebrate?” she repeated again and again, “when the ugly face of racism still peeks out at us . . . (and) in the midst of recession when nobody is even sure whether their job is secure.”

The younger King’s remarks, at the conclusion of the ceremony at the Martin Luther King Center here, did not name Bush. But as she spoke of tasks to be tackled “after we have finished politicking,” there seemed little doubt as to her intended target.

Bush listened impassively as the young preacher delivered her remarks and did not appear to join in the murmured chorus of “amen” that followed.

The President angered some black leaders last year with his steadfast opposition to civil rights legislation that he labeled a “quota bill.” But he ultimately signed a version of the legislation, has reached out to black voters and was generally well-received before an audience of 200 and in laying a wreath at King’s grave.

“Yes, too much prejudice, racism and anti-Semitism and blind hatred still exist in our land,” Bush said. “Martin preached something different, but they still exist in our land. And as President I’m trying, and all of us must pledge to root out bigotry where ever we find it,”

He also sought to cast his Administration’s own policies on education and the family as the heirs to a tradition established by King, and won praise in turn from King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, for his support of the federal holiday honoring her late husband.

And as he linked arms and sang with Mrs. King on one side and Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan on the other, he offered a visual testimonial to the civil rights movement--and a telegenic image of a Republican President at ease in a sea of black faces.

But even as he arrived in what in recent years has been a solid Republican South, there were indications that he faced bitterness, not just among black voters, but within his political base.

A poll published in Friday’s editions of the Atlanta Constitution reported a 20-point drop in Bush’s approval rating across 12 Southern states in the last four months. It also found a near-doubling in the number of those who believe the country was on the wrong track.

While Bush’s 55% approval rating in the South remains higher than the national average, the sharp decline raises the possibility that a Democratic challenger, particularly Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, could prove a tough opponent.

The Atlanta newspaper minced no words in the news article detailing the results. “Welcome South, Mr. President,” it said. “You’ve got problems here, too.”

Bush also used his one-day trip here to announce proposals for a revamping of the government’s job-training programs to transfer most authority from federal agencies to local industry councils.

The plan involves no increase in federal spending, but Administration officials said the reform would streamline the now-cumbersome $18-billion-a-year U.S. government effort to pair young people with lasting jobs.

A leading urban policy expert, Isabel Sawhill of the centrist Urban Institute, praised the proposals as the product of “a lot of innovative thinking.” But she warned that without new spending “you can have solid and innovative attempts to stretch the training dollar, but you can only stretch that so far.”

Times staff writer James Gerstenzang contributed to this story.