There are just four weeks to go now before America decides whether to return Barack Obama to the White House or put Mitt Romney there. In these final weeks of campaigning it's the economy, the Middle East and health care that are shaping the Obama Romney battle. But there is one highly emotive issue at play in the key swing state of North Carolina - President Obama's recent declaration of support for gay marriage. It's said that widespread opposition to gay marriage helped George W Bush into office. So how is this divisive issue likely to affect Obama's black support base? Aaron Thomas went to find out.
REPORTER: Aaron Thomas
CROWD: Four more years! Say it again. Four more years.
The campus of North Carolina's central university is humming with anticipation.
WOMAN: I got here at 6.30 this morning.
REPORTER: You're a bit excited?
WOMAN: Very excited, very excited. I just want to be a part of history basically.
For the students of this historically black university, America's first public Liberal arts college for African Americans, there is one policy they want to hear about most from any visiting politician.
MAN: Anything that keeps my tuition down and keeps me in school I'm all for it.
But for the most part people are just after a glimpse of the Obama magic.
WOMAN 2: Excited about hearing the First lady Obama to speak to us and get us pumped up for the election.
This state has one of the largest African American populations in the country. More than one in five North Carolinians are black, making them a key constituency.
SPEAKER: Let's welcome back to North Carolina the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama.
The people of North Carolina aren't used to receiving this much political attention during campaign season. But at the last election the state went Democrat for the first time in 32 years and it's now a clear battle ground for the Romney camp if it's going to win the White House and roll back President Obama's agenda.
MICHELLE OBAMA: All our progress, all that is all on the line this November. It's all at stake. And as my husband has said, this election will be even closer than the last one. Think back to what happened in this state in 2008. Back then we won North Carolina by 14,000 votes. Alright, now that is just 5 votes per precinct. Do you hear me? Five!
The first lady has been called the President's secret weapon and she expertly arms the crowd with arguments to convince undecided voters.
MICHELLE OBAMA: Tell them about the millions of jobs Barack has created, tell them about the health reform he passed and tell them about all of those kids who can finally attend college, tell them how Barack ended the war in Iraq. Tell them how we….absolutely. Are you fired up? Are you ready to go? Alright, let's get to work. Thank you. God bless.
Afterwards the rock star welcome continues. There is no doubting the Obama's popularity with this crowd. But in the 30 minute speech there was one policy position the President took a few months ago that didn't get a mention.
ABC NEWS REPORT: This is an ABC News special report. There is big breaking news from the White House. This is an historic political and cultural moment in this country.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: At a certain point I have just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.
BISHOP TONYIA RAWLS, UNITY FELLOWSHIP CHURCH: I actually if I'm honest had a moment saying oh my God, I think he just lost the presidency.
This congregation in suburban Charlotte is mostly lesbian, gay and transsexual. Some parishioners drive a couple of hours to be here at a church where they feel accepted. But in this conservative state not all of them are out to their communities and their identity needs to be protected. Bishop Tonyia Rawls says the mainstream church's stance has caused enormous damage.
BISHOP TONYIA RAWLS: The wreckage of not embracing the gay and lesbian child of God within the black church has done something that has never happened actually in our history as black people in America, and that was to dare present something tied to personage that says God cannot accept you and does not love you as you are.
Because even a black slave, their skin colour, yes, was black, but their soul was free in God. And we stood on that - it was our faith that got us through slavery, that got us through Jim Crow, got us through the oppression of the civil rights era, right? We marched on our faith. We sang faith songs. But what happens if someone suggests to me that I no longer have a right to those songs?
The President's support for gay marriage came the day after a controversial referendum here.
BISHOP TONYIA RAWLS: It came right on the heels of a pretty big landslide win with the state saying we don't want anything that even resembles gay marriage in the state of North Carolina and to have a sitting President say, "Well, actually, I support it" was huge.
Bishop Rawls believes the President's announcement has created a space for people of faith to talk about homosexuality.
BISHOP TONYIA RAWLS: In one on one conversations - what I find is that in those discussions many of my black colleagues are much less hard line. I am finding an increasing number of clergy, black and white, who are willing to do the journey and to say, "I don't get it all, but this is worth exploration" and it is also worth exploration with those whose views differ from mine.
REV. WILLIAM OWENS: I want to thank all of you for coming out for this news conference today. My name is William Owens - I'm the founder and the president of the coalition of black American pastors.
Not all black clergy are interested in exploring. CAAP created headlines for accusing Barack Obama of selling out.
REV. WILLIAM OWENS: They have chosen something to cater to the homosexual community and to cater to Hollywood and to cater to the big money people, they have chosen that course and just ignored the people who put the President where he is. The President is in the White House because of the civil rights movement and I was a leader in that movement and I didn't march one inch, one foot, one yard for a man to marry a man and a woman to marry a woman. He has not done a smart thing and it might cost him the election.
REPORTER: Had you heard of them before?
TUAN N’GAI, OPERATION REBIRTH: I had never heard of them before and I thought it was weird that no-one had ever heard of this organisation before. For them to be getting so much press and it was in the newspaper. It was on the internet. It was on TV and I'm just like wait a minute, who are these people?
Tuan N'Gai is a gay rights activist. In the wake of CAAP's press conference he tried to set up a meeting with Reverend Owens to discuss the issues. He says that when Owen failed to respond to his calls he started a petition and made plans to fly to Memphis to deliver it to his church.
TUAN N’GAI: The week of the delivery date I found out that metropolitan institutional church does not exist. The address that they had listed was a residence. I also found out that the 3800 plus pastors and churches that he said was part of his coalition was actually about 20 people.
That wasn't the only part of Reverend Owens' story Tuan N'Gai had trouble with.
TUAN N’GAI: There is no record of him participating in any type of civil rights demonstrations which he said he did in Nashville from 1958 to 1961. There is no record of him anywhere. No pictures. The organisers don't know who he is.
Finally CAAP's claim to be a non-political organisation was also called into question when it was discovered thank Right Wing lobby group, the National Organisation for Marriage had channelled $20,000 to CAAP via Owens' wife.
TUAN N’GAI: It makes me wonder how many other black pastors have been paid to do this and it makes me wonder, if money wasn't a part of the deal would you be doing this. We're standing for holiness and blah blah blah. No, they are being paid to do this. It makes me question their integrity.
REPORTER: What is your opinion of CAAP now?
TUAN N’GAI: Fraud.
REPORTER: Is CAAP a fraud?
BISHOP DAVID HALL, TEMPLE CHURCH OF GOD IN CHRIST: CAAP is not a fraud. CAAP is not a fraud. CAAP is a struggling institution, a struggling organisation. CAAP is small but CAAP has a big and wide constituency. It's called those who read and believe the Bible.
Bishop Hall is a friend of Reverend Owens.
BISHOP DAVID HALL: If you can buy someone for $20,000 he is in pitiful shape. I think that's laughable and so I would say this, that if he has some political leanings towards the right, they are his and he can express them. I have my political feelings. I voted for President Obama. I am probably going to vote for him again.
Bishop Hall insists Owens did have a church in Memphis before he moved away and that he was at least a foot soldier in the civil rights movement. But the number of pastors CAAP truly represents is less certain.
BISHOP DAVID HALL: That's hard to say. Officially we have talked about getting together and starting membership drives. Everywhere we go we have good crowds but we have not really formalised a well defined and structured membership.
On a rainy Saturday, Memphis's gay pride rally has drawn a small but enthusiastic crowd. Ironically enough it's being held in Church Park. During segregation, this was the only park coloured people were allowed to use. But Bishop Hall sees no equivalents between the civil rights movement and gay rights.
BISHOP DAVID HALL: Rights for what? The right to be married? The right for a woman to marry a man, yeah. But a right for a man to marry a man? I can't even phantom that. It doesn't make sense. There is nothing conceivable that a man and a man can do to create a family.
Maurice McKinnon likes to think of his barbers shop as an African American country club, a place for people to talk and relax. Here at Goodfellas, Obama's same sex marriage support doesn't seem to have created much of a fuss.
MAN: I can't knock him for trying to get the votes but I don't really believe in it.
REPORTER: Is it going to stop you from turning out?
MAN: No, it’s not gonna stop me from voting.
REPORTER: Do you know who you will vote for?
BARBER: Of course. I'm gonna vote for Obama, yeah.
For Maurice, the biggest issue affecting his vote is something far more mundane than gay rights.
MAURICE MCKINNON: For me personally, I have been a private business owner, being self-employed and having employees that I think insurance - that's one of the main reasons I am kind of trying to stand behind the health care reform because I think everyone needs some kind of health care.
MARY CURTIS, JOURNALIST: I think it's more nuanced than many people immediately said – oh my gosh that means African Americans won’t vote for him – there are so many other things involved.
Mary Curtis is a political journalist who has lived in North Carolina for 17 years. She says the idea that blacks are single issue voters is insulting.
MARY CURTIS: But that's the mistake many people make about African American voters, when they try to lump them as one monolith. They voted for Obama because he is black or they won't like it because of same-sex marriage, and I think that's a mistake. African Americans are individuals who think thoughtfully about every issue and make decisions based on the issues and I can't see that many voting for Romney because they disagree with him on so many other issues.
SPEAKER: The President of the United States of America, Mitt Romney.
Mitt Romney is a few points ahead of President Obama in the polling in North Carolina. But despite high profile black figures like Condoleezza Rice, the Republicans are still struggling to connect with black Americans - at a grassroots level. A phenomenon Mary Curtis experiences first hand.
MARY CURTIS: Whenever I go to Republican conventions or meetings or some of the events with Mitt Romney I always am asked to give a comment about the candidate. I have to say, well, I'm not here for the rally, I'm a journalist. The journalist! oh darn, I wanted to get a black person. You can literally can count the black people.
Polling among African Americans has Obama leading 94% to zero over Mitt Romney. But the issue for the Democrats is turnout.
SARAH CHAMBERS: I want you to sign everything in the yellow. Are you excited about Obama being put back in the White House?
VOTER: Yes.
SARAH CHAMBERS: You are Get yourself on the camera, girl.
VOTER: I came from work.
Getting African Americans to cast a ballot has long been a problem. But now an army of volunteers like Sarah Chambers are out helping register new voters.
SARAH CHAMBERS: The Obama campaign has black women in particular are out there for him. You see them coming out more and more as it gets closer to the campaign. When you see any of the voter registration tables you will see a lot of African American women.
Ultimately Obama's gay marriage support won't alter the outcome of the election on its own. But it's just one of a raft of progressive stances that have at times divided his base.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: When everybody has got a chance to get ahead - that's what we do well.
Inspiring his base to support him once again is now Obama's biggest battle.
Reporter/Camera
AARON THOMAS
Producer
VICTORIA STROBL
Editors
AARON LEWIS
AARON THOMAS
Original music composed by
VICKI HANSEN