Town Hall Tracker: Tide turns at Congressional public meetings

It took a couple weeks, but the mood appears to have shifted at Congressional town hall meetings. After a week of stormy protests -- which reminded Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) of the "hate" he saw during the civil rights movement -- the events are reportedly calming down.

The likely reason: Advocates of reform are now turning out bigger numbers and taking a bolder stand, evening the scales.

Just a week ago, advocates faced a much more difficult -- and even dangerous -- situation. Here's a clip from from Rep. G.K. Butterfield's (D-NC) town hall in Rocky Mount, North Carolina on August 8.

Despite being in the heart of the state's "Black Belt," the meeting was dominated by the almost-all-white opposition -- which African-American community leaders confronted with no small amount of courage:


Rocky Mt. Health Care Town Hall Meeting from Ajamu Dillahunt on Vimeo.

From the Raleigh News & Observer, here are more pictures of the event that capture the scene, especially the racial dynamic (for example, see numbers 4 and 5).

For an example outside of the South, Rep. Barney Frank's (D-MA) response to a protester claiming the Democratic health plan is a "Nazi policy" may signal a new boldness among elected officials in confronting the right's more outrageous claims: