Obama to black critics: We have work to do

WASHINGTON -- In a fiery summons to an important voting bloc, President Barack Obama told black critics to quit crying and complaining, and "put on your marching shoes" to follow him into battle for jobs and opportunity.

Obama's speech to the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus late Saturday was his answer to increasingly vocal griping from black leaders. Many say he's not been doing enough to fight black unemployment, which at 16.7 percent is nearly double the national average.

Sunday, Obama took his newly combative message to the West Coast, aiming to re-energize increasingly disenchanted Democratic voters.

The three-day trip, starting in Seattle and continuing to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego before ending Tuesday in Denver, comes as Obama has shifted from seeking compromise in Congress to calling out Republican leaders by name.

Saturday, speaking about unemployment, Obama told an audience of some 3,000 in a Washington convention center, "It gets folks discouraged. I know."

But he said black people need to have faith -- and understand that the fight won't be won if they don't rally to his side.

"I need your help," he said.

The president will need black voter turnout to match historic 2008 levels if he's to have a shot at winning a second term, and his speech was a chance to speak directly to inner-city concerns.

Obama said blacks know all too well from the civil rights struggle that the fight for what is right is never easy. "Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes," he said, his voice rising as the crowd cheered. "Shake it off. Stop complaining. Stop grumbling. Stop crying. We are going to press on. We have work to do."

Doug Mayers, head of the Freeport-Roosevelt NAACP and an early Obama supporter, said frustration that members of the black community have toward the president is misplaced.

"It's the Republicans that are blocking the president's programs that would benefit not only black people, but white Americans, Latinos and everyone else," Mayers said Sunday. "He has done a hell of a lot that in time the black community is going to be benefit from."

Still, he acknowledged that unemployment remains a concern. "I can't blame Barack Obama because we got 16, 17 percent unemployment," he said.

Obama said No. 1 on his list is getting Congress to pass the jobs bill. He said the package of payroll tax cuts, business tax breaks and infrastructure spending will benefit 100,000 black-owned businesses and 20 million black workers.

With Paul LaRocco