Gore Tells Black Caucus It Is a Time for Healing

In an emotional appeal to African American lawmakers still steaming over the election results, Vice President Al Gore on Wednesday called on the Congressional Black Caucus to help “heal our nation’s divisions and move this country forward.”

In his first public remarks since his concession speech three weeks ago, Gore urged the lawmakers to set aside their anger and support President-elect George W. Bush where they can--even as some of them move forward with plans to protest and boycott the Jan. 20 inauguration ceremony.

“I believe very deeply that we all must respect and, wherever possible, help President-elect Bush, because from the moment he takes his solemn oath, a great responsibility will rest in his hands,” Gore said at a special swearing-in ceremony for African American lawmakers before the 107th Congress officially convened.

Gore won 90% of the black vote on Nov. 7--a better showing than President Clinton in the 1992 and 1996 elections--and he was received at the ceremony with warm and generous applause.

But his call for unity appears unlikely to quell the rage of black leaders who believe that large numbers of African American voters were disenfranchised in the disputed Florida election by a string of “dirty tricks,” as Rep. Donald M. Payne (D-N.J.) recently put it. Some have compared the alleged disenfranchisement to the “Jim Crow” days of systematic segregation in the South.

And remarks by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who attended Wednesday’s caucus meeting, underscored the ill feeling toward the incoming Bush administration among many African American leaders.

“We want healing, but there is glass in the wound,” he told the caucus. “There’s an infection. A Band-Aid will not do. . . . When the loser wins, democracy is turned topsy-turvy. Silence is betrayal.”

Largely because of this lingering anger, some black lawmakers, including Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), have said they won’t attend the inauguration.

Also, a wave of protests and rallies initiated by Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH coalition and other groups is planned to begin Jan. 15 in honor of Martin Luther King Day, culminating in demonstrations at federal buildings across the country on the day of the inauguration. A so-called shadow inauguration at the U.S. Supreme Court--where the legal decision was rendered that effectively awarded the election to Bush--is being prepared to coincide with his swearing in as the nation’s 43rd president.

“The votes of Supreme Court justices should not be more important than the votes of ordinary Americans,” Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), head of the black caucus, told the group.

With 17 days left as vice president, Gore made clear that his call is for healing, not capitulation, urging black lawmakers to “honor those who fought and marched and died to have their voices heard and to secure the right to vote.”

“When you are the conscience of the Congress, you, of course, have to do your best to reach across party lines. But you also have to know when to draw the line,” Gore said. “You have to work to build majorities, but you also have to fight for human dignity. . . . You have to seek consensus, but you also have to seek justice and fundamental fairness.”

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Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this story.