The Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, has endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for president. The church is the oldest black church in New York and one of the oldest in the nation, having been founded some 200 years ago by Ethopian sea traders.
According to reports, [1, 2] Rev. Butts received phone calls regarding his endorsement. At a press conference after Sunday’s service, in which he stood with Clinton and announced his support, he said that his decision had nothing to do with race.
“I would like to make one thing very clear,” Butts said. “This was not and is not and will not become a race-based decision for me. And I hope that it has not and will not become a race-based decision for you, either. I respect Senator Obama. I applaud him, and I love him as my brother. But a vote for Hillary is not a vote against Barack Obama or any community, be it African-American, Latino and others for that matter.”[1]
[…]
Instead, he said, it is a vote for the candidate “who has the vision and experience to make things happen.”[2]
The actual endorsement can be found here.
And in case you missed it, Hillary picked up a couple of Virginia endorsements a couple of weeks ago. Dels. Adam Ebbin and Jennifer McClellan have endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. The official press release is here. Great additions to the earlier announcement.
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VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Vivian, I’m with you on supporting Hillary, and thanks for sharing this good news.
Fantastic, for all the endorsements.
Unfortunately, several VA political blogs have turned into “take her down anyway you can”. I hope that you can give us supporters of Senator Clintona a friendly venue for our candidate by writing diaries that we can respond to positively.
She is strong, very intelligent, hard-working, and has done her job well for the country and for NYers. Look at all she’s changed!
Rick and Sleepless – glad to have you on board. I’ll keep writing here and on The Women’s Post about Hillary. I got an email a bit ago asking if I could go to SC to work the primary. Too bad I’ve got so much work to do 😦 I would have loved to have gone.
Vivian, why do you think Hillary would be the better nominee.
Gee, Glen, better than whom? None of them have any experience — at least Clinton got to watch.
NGC – check out this post.