Black Americans must stop 'crying'

President Barack Obama has told black Americans to stop crying and complaining and put on their "marching shoes" and follow him into the battle for jobs.

Though he did not ask explicitly, he also sought their support for a second term.

Obama's speech to the annual awards dinner of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation on Saturday was his answer to increasingly vocal griping by black leaders who say that he has been giving away too much in talks with Republicans - and not doing enough to fight black unemployment, which is nearly double the national average, at 16.7%.

"It gets folks discouraged, I know," Obama told an audience of about 3000 in Washington.

But, he said, blacks had to have faith in the future and understand that the fight would not be won if they did not rally to his side.

"I need your help," Obama said.

The president will need black turnout to match his historic 2008 voter support if he wants a shot at winning a second term.

He acknowledged that blacks had suffered much because of the recession and were frustrated that the downturn was taking so long to reverse.

"So many people are still hurting. So many people are barely hanging on," he said, then added: "And so many people in this city are fighting us every step of the way."

But Obama said blacks knew all too well from the civil rights struggle that the fight for what is right was never easy.

"Take off your bedroom slippers; put on your marching shoes," he said, as cheers mounted. "Shake it off. Stop complaining. Stop grumbling. Stop crying. We are going to press on. We have work to do."

Topping the to-do list, he said, was getting Congress to pass the jobs bill he sent it two weeks ago. He said the package of payroll tax cuts, business tax breaks and infrastructure spending would benefit 100000 black-owned businesses and 20million black workers.