Eleanor Holmes Norton, outspoken veteran of the civil rights and feminist movements, is an ardent backer of Democrat Barack Obama for the US presidency who has represented the District of Columbia for 17 years in the House of Representatives.

She shared her thoughts on next Tuesday's vote and what it would mean to African Americans to have Obama become the nation's first black president. The polling puts Obama in the lead, but not by much.

In the interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Thursday, Norton said Obama's ethnicity should mean no more to African Americans than John F Kennedy's did to Irish Catholics or the 1988 candidacy of Democratic candidate Mike Dukakis meant to Greeks.

More importantly, she said Obama, 47, and not Republican John McCain, 72, had the qualities needed to pull the country out of its quagmire.

QUESTION: What would an Obama presidency mean to African Americans?

NORTON: For African Americans, it's perhaps a source of particular pride ... but when you see the shape the country is in? It's hard to see how anybody who lived through the last eight years can still find themselves pulling a Republican column. What we see in Barack is (someone who will) save us from free-fall. Skin colour does not have anything to do with it. His personal qualities do.

Q: What would Obama's election mean for the history of the country?

N: It's not what it means for the history of the country. It's what it means for the people of the country. The racial issues here are so clear they're boring. We know he's black. He knows he's black. That's all that matters to us.

Q: Are there special expectations from the African-American community for an Obama presidency?

N: African American people are not in a position to raise their expectations above what any president who is left with a war and a collapsed economy could produce... I think they will be patient. Obama (would serve) us no more or less than he (would serve) the American people. He understands that, so do we.

Q: What role might race play in the voting booth? Might more people vote for McCain than are telling pollsters they will?

N: Nobody knows what race will mean. America tends to have a number of ethnic groups, so that when a Greek ran - Dukakis - Greeks were visibly for him. When Kennedy ran, the Irish were extraordinarily for him. We are a country of ethnic groups. That doesn't mean the Irish expected John F Kennedy to cater to the Irish or that Dukakis would do something fro the Greeks.