Obama: Fixing schools would make reparations for slavery

(CNN) – Sen. Barack Obama said fixing public schools would be reparations to African-Americans for generations of slavery, a position that won wide applause in the CNN/YouTube debate in South Carolina.

The Illinois senator - the lone black candidate in the 2008 race for the White House - was one of three Democrats to address the issue of reparations, a question posed by a viewer in Boston. Obama told of visiting public schools in Florence,South Carolina, where dropout rates are high and some buildings date back to Reconstruction.

"If we make the investments and understand that those are our children, that's the kind of reparations that are really going to make a difference in America right now," he said.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said he did not support reparations for slavery, "but I think there are other things we can do to create equality that doesn't exist in this country today." But Rep. Dennis Kucinich, of Ohio, said he supported reparations, arguing that slavery left an "inequality of opportunity" not just for blacks, but for poor whites as well.

"The Bible says we shall be and must be repairers of the breach," Kucinich said. "A breach has occurred, and we have to acknowledge that."

– CNN News Editor Matt Smith