Race in the South in the Age of Obama

clipped from www.nytimes.com Race in the South in the Age of Obama Gillian Laub for The New York Times State representatives for Cullman County, Alabama: The Democrat James Fields (center) and the Republican Jeremy Oden (right), with Oden's nephew Jeff. More Photos > By NICHOLAS DAWIDOFF SEVERAL DAYS A WEEK, a tall, broad-shouldered African-American Methodist preacher named James Fields drives his black pickup truck toward the quiet Alabama city of Cullman. An hour into the red-dirt hills above Birmingham, Cullman is the seat of a farming county where the strongest legal drink you can buy at the pool hall is Pepsi; the kegs at the annual Oktoberfest hold only root beer. “Welcome to Mayberry!” strangers are greeted. And then, “We all do have bathrooms and wear shoes!” With its steeples, grain elevators, striped barber poles, fireflies and wisteria, Cullman has the faraway feel of a small Southern town untroubled by time. “Sweet Cullman!” Fields sometimes says when he’s on his way in. “It’s home!”