WASHINGTON — President Obama challenged black voters to turn out for November’s congressional elections if they want to see more of the racial progress in society that allowed him to become the nation’s first black president.
In remarks Saturday night at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual conference, Obama ticked off a list of achievements that he said showed the ‘‘enormous progress’’ in the United States, including steady job growth, a decline in the number of people without health insurance, and a falling crime rate.
‘‘But our work’s not done,’’ he said, noting the killing of an unarmed black man in Ferguson, Mo., and the lack of equal access to education and jobs.
Prayers and good intentions aren’t enough, Obama said.
‘‘We have to get back to our schools, our offices, our churches, our beauty shops, our barber shops,’’ he said. ‘‘Make sure people know there is an election coming up. They need to know how to register, and they need to know how and when to vote. We have to tell them to push back against the cynics.’’
Obama’s address underscored a reality Democrats around the country are facing with less than six weeks before the Nov. 4 midterm congressional elections: Voter enthusiasm is a problem.
Turnout from groups crucial to the party’s recent victories — young people, minorities, and women — historically declines in midterm elections.
Seven of the 21 Senate seats being defended by Democrats are in states that Obama lost in the last presidential election. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to gain control of the chamber, and polls show they are in reach of that goal.
Smiling, Obama told the audience that people often wish him well, note that he’s getting gray hair and ‘‘looking tired,’’ and say they’re praying for him.
‘‘But we need more than prayer. We need to vote,’’ Obama said. ‘‘It will not relieve me of my gray hair, but it will help me pass some bills.’’
National Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton, former secretary of state, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, have focused on Republican efforts to change voting laws as a way to increase urgency among the party’s voters.
The changes to state voting laws and rules around the country have drawn the ire of Democrats, who see the measures as a deliberate effort to suppress votes, particularly among minorities.
Republicans counter that laws requiring identification at the polls or cutting down on early voting hours are designed to root out fraud and streamline state and county operations.
Obama spoke two days after announcing the resignation of Eric Holder, the first black US attorney general, who focused on voting rights and reducing mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses that disproportionately imprisoned blacks.
He paid tribute to Holder as someone who has made it his life’s work to ‘‘making sure that equal justice under the law actually means something.’’ He called him ‘‘a great friend of mine, he has been a faithful servant of the American people.’’
Holder spoke to the group a day earlier, saying attending a Congressional Black Caucus dinner with an aunt when he was younger was a ‘‘foundational experience’’ for him.
As the nation’s top Democrat, Obama has a schedule of political fund-raising trips between now and the Nov. 4 elections aimed at helping Democrats retain control of the Senate.
He recently headlined fund-raisers in New York and Washington and this week he is scheduled to travel to Chicago to raise money.