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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Minority groups joined forces Monday to form a coalition aimed at mobilizing African-American and Latino communities in the national debate over health care.

The NAACP Voter Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the Campaign for Community Change will kick off an advertising campaign this week. The ads are aimed at pushing minorities to join the debate, specificially by reaching out to fiscally conservative "blue dog" Democrats and urging them to support President Barack Obama's health care plan.

Television, print and radio ads are set to begin on Thursday in Louisiana, Florida, Arkansas and North Carolina, in markets within those states with large minority populations. The ads, revealed Monday at Washington's National Press Club, will appear in both English and Spanish.

"Voices of extremists are loud and clear. Voices of insurance companies are loud and clear. We're here to make sure people of color are heard loud and clear," said Deepak Bhargava, director of the Campaign for Community Change.

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Rep. Gresham Barrett is one of five GOP candidates for governor in South Carolina.

(CNN) – One of South Carolina's Republican candidates for governor is open to talking with the NAACP about ending its boycott of the state for flying the Confederate flag in front of the Statehouse.

But the candidate - congressman Gresham Barrett - doesn't want the flag removed.

During a debate Tuesday between the five GOP candidates for governor, Barrett answered "yes" when asked if he would consider sitting down with the NAACP to revisit the flag issue and come to some sort of resolution about the boycott, which began in 1999. Barrett was the only candidate asked if he would meet with the group.

But later in the debate, the entire GOP field was asked if the flag should be removed from the Statehouse grounds. All of them, including Barrett, said no.

"I think we have dealt with that issue, and I'm not willing to take a look at it right now," Barrett said.

Barrett spokesman B.J. Boling confirmed that his candidate is willing to meet with state NAACP representatives about ending their boycott. But he stressed that Barrett opposes removing the flag from the Statehouse grounds.

"The congressman feels like this issue has been dealt with in a bipartisan fashion, but he remains open to talking to various groups about the issues that are of concern to them," Boling said. "Saying he's willing to talk to somebody but also saying he thinks the issue has been addressed, I don't see how that's contradictory."

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President Obama will address the NAACP at its annual convention Thursday night.

(CNN) - One hundred years after the birth of the NAACP, the civil rights group welcomed the first African-American president.

President Obama spoke before the annual convention Thursday night in New York, the city where the organization was founded.

"What we celebrate tonight is not simply the journey the NAACP has traveled, but the journey that we, as Americans, have traveled over the past 100 years," Obama told the crowd.

The excitement over Obama was in stark contrast to the reception of former President Bush, who had a strained relationship with the NAACP and declined the group's invitations for five years.

Bush spoke before the NAACP in 2000, during his first run for the presidency, but he did not make another appearance until 2006.

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The Obama administration faced tough questions Wednesday from conservative justices at the Supreme Court.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The Obama administration faced tough questions Wednesday from conservative justices at the Supreme Court asking whether a
powerful enforcement tool in the landmark Voting Rights Act is still needed to fight discrimination.

In one of the biggest case this term, a majority of the bench appeared poised to strike down - at least in part - the "preclearance" provision of the 1965 law that provides continuing federal control over election practices in 16 states identified as needing oversight, based on past discrimination against minority voters.

Other states are not covered by the provision even if they, too, discriminate against minority voters. Other enforcement tools, however, may be available.
At issue is whether Congress in 2006 properly extended the law - whose Section 5 mandates that the covered states get advance approval of changes in how their elections are conducted - or whether the country has made enough progress on racial equality to make continued federal oversight essentially unnecessary. A ruling is expected in two months.

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