Kerry campaigns in Florida with Sharpton, Jackson
/The Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton set aside their
rivalry yesterday and appeared jointly at a church to exhort blacks to
vote for Democrat John Kerry, who cast his own election as a
continuation of the nation's civil rights struggle. With polls showing
blacks support Kerry overwhelmingly, Jackson and Sharpton urged about
300 parishioners at Friendship Missionary Baptist Church to be sure to
vote, warning against efforts to keep blacks from the polls on Nov. 2.
"We are the swing vote," Jackson said, noting how blacks accounted for
the margin of victory in recent key Senate races that Democrats won and
were vital in twice electing Bill Clinton. "On Nov. 2, the power's in
your hands, hands that once picked cotton," added Jackson, who has
toured the country registering voters. The event came as black leaders
and Democrats have raised concern that blacks might be illegally barred
from voting in Florida. In 2000, when George W. Bush won Florida by 537
votes, hundreds of blacks trying to vote found they had been improperly
removed from voting rolls because they were mistakenly identified as
felons. Florida is one of a handful of states that bars felons from
voting. [more 
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