The longtime leader of a prominent antipoverty agency yesterday called on Republican Mitt Romney to explain his Mormon religion's views on blacks and women.
Action for Boston Community Development President Robert Coard charged that the Mormon Church has faced complaints of discrimination in the past.
"A lot of folks have questions about the church in regard to blacks and women," Coard said. "(Romney) needs to prove what has he done with regard to people of color."
Specifically, Coard challenged Romney to detail what he has done for minorities in his far-flung business endeavors, and what role minorities would play in his administration if he were elected.
Coard added that he's "not impressed" with Romney's heavily choreographed "work days" in inner cities, which have aimed to portray Romney as an average Joe.
"We should not give Romney a pass, because the question about people of color could be raised even more with him than with (Democratiic gubernatorial nominee) Shannon (O'Brien,)" Coard said.
Coard's remarks came after he and other ABCD leaders escorted O'Brien on a tour of the 40-year-old antipoverty organization - on a day when both candidates were scrambling to make inroads with minority voters.
Yesterday afternoon, Romney met privately with 30 minority business leaders at Roxbury Community College, laying out his agenda for improving economic opportunities and promoting diversity within state government and the governor's senior staff.
After the meeting, Romney refused to address questions about his faith or Coard's charge that he has more to prove than O'Brien - saying that religion shouldn't be injected into the campaign "at all."
"I'm certainly not going to have a campaign about religious issues," Romney said. "I'm going to focus on opportunities for people of all backgrounds." Romney aides pointed to an aggressive outreach program Romney launched as head of the Olympics, which drew minorities into senior positions and sent major contracts to minority-owned businesses.
Similar charges arose during Romney's his 1994 campaign against US Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, when US Rep. Joseph Kennedy charged that Mormons treat blacks and women as "second-class citizens."
In 1994, Romney waded into the fray with a strong denial of discrimination, sending surrogates to call Kennedy an "ignorant religious bigot" and demanding that Sen. Kennedy repudiate his nephew.
Former Suffolk County District Attorney Ralph Martin - a Romney backer who appeared with Romney during yesterday's event - acknowledged that Coard had tapped a genuine minority sentiment, which Martin said could create a "steeper hill for (Romney) to climb."
Martin vigorously defended Romney, noting that his father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, campaigned alongside former US Sen. Ed Brooke and both father and son walked out of the 1964 GOP national convention after a civil rights plank was blocked.
"I can understand why someone would have that sort of knee-jerk response," Martin said. "To the extent that anyone might have that initial reaction, it goes away pretty quickly."
O'Brien, meanwhile, scrambled to distance herself from the potentially explosive issue. Spokesman Adrian Durbin said Romney's religion "shouldn't have anything to do" with the campaign.
"Shannon believes in religious tolerance," Durbin said. "She believes in separation of church and state."
