YORK, Pa. -- Carl Anderson loves his hometown, this 45,000-person city in the south-central part of the state. The quality of life, he said, is good and a big reason why he moved back three years ago.

But for more than three decades Mr. Anderson kept his distance, because, he says, he is black and he is a lawyer, and those two things still don't really mix in York.

Mr. Anderson was in high school in 1969, when York's simmering racial tensions exploded, leaving one white police officer and one black woman dead. He graduated from York High School two years later and left for college. When he earned a law degree from Boston College in 1981, he decided to practice in Ohio and not in his home state.

"I viewed this area as being very hostile to an African-American professional who would want to come here and practice law," said Mr. Anderson, who specializes in corporate law at Barley Snyder LLC, a firm with 65 lawyers in six central Pennsylvania offices.

"Even now, in 2008, I'm probably the only African-American lawyer in a major firm in York."

Because of the controversial sermons of Sen. Barack Obama's pastor and Mr. Obama's response in Philadelphia last week, race has come to the forefront of the Democratic presidential campaign in recent weeks.

In York and Adams counties -- which fill out a congressional district on Pennsylvania's southern border -- the big issue in the presidential race is the economy, but race is a lingering, if seldom-discussed subtext. An affluent, nearly all-white county surrounds the poorer, almost half minority York city -- a potent example of the inequalities and anger Mr. Obama addressed in his speech.

"I do think race is a major issue people are grappling with in York County," said Mike Johnson, chair of the county Democratic party, who is white.

"People are going to be very interested in what the candidates have to say related to equal opportunity, related to jobs, and, certainly, related to education. I think a lot of people recognize that the education of kids in York County is not equal."

The statistics show a sharp divide: About 80 percent of children in York city schools receive free or reduced-price lunches; none of the county's 15 other school districts has a figure higher than 32 percent. For the 2006-07 school year, only 37 percent of city students were proficient in reading and 42 percent in math.

Local groups have worked to distribute resources and children differently among county and city schools to reduce the gap, but change has been slow.

The resistance from county residents to work with the city extends beyond schools, in Mr. Anderson's view, to policies such as bringing pricey residential development downtown but not addressing the crumbling African-American neighborhoods.

"There hasn't been a lot done by the county government or the local government to promote what I'd call equity in terms of employment, as well as contracting opportunities for minority business," he said. "This area is still perceived as being very hostile to those kinds of policies."

Adams County, York's more rural neighbor to the west, held a much older conflict with racial implications -- the battle of Gettysburg. The symbolic effect of a visit by another lanky statesman from Illinois talking about bridging a divide would be powerful in a town where nearly everything has Abraham Lincoln's name or face on it.

"Honestly, there's still a lot of the history that's going through people here," said Marty Qually, owner of Ragged Edge Coffee House in downtown Gettysburg.

"You do listen to that unity message a lot more because this is where a lot of American unity was formed. I think it's just in our blood."

But those thoughts are less likely to be debated publicly.

"You see people shying away from discussions of race," said Gettysburg College political science professor Dr. Kathleen Iannello. "Locally, it's not being discussed. People want to stay away from the issue."

With a burgeoning housing crisis and soaring gas prices, no one is shying away from talking about the economy.

Unlike most of the state, this area is growing. York County's population grew an estimated 9.1 percent from 2000 to 2006, to more than 416,000 residents; Adams County grew 10.7 percent in the same period, topping 101,000 people.

Many of the new residents are Marylanders crossing the border to take advantage of lower housing prices and better school districts, while toughing out the commute to Baltimore -- only 45 minutes from York -- or Frederick, about the same distance from Gettysburg. Developments in the northern parts of the counties serve people who work in Harrisburg.

But it's not all commuters. York County's manufacturing base is strong, with a major Harley-Davidson motorcycle plant, Snyder's of Hanover snack foods and several defense contractors, including BAE Systems, which announced an expansion this month that is expected to bring 600 jobs building mine-resistant military vehicles. The number of homes sold in York County declined in 2007, but the average sale price rose by more than $15,000.

"We haven't been hit as hard [by the economic troubles]," said Thomas Donley, president of the York County chamber of commerce.

A few blocks away from the heart of downtown sits Sparky and Clark's coffee shop, where 24-year-old Jennifer Thomas, perhaps the youngest small business owner in York, has seen foot traffic grow.

"I would say it's a very budding community," Ms. Thomas said. "We're on the edge of having a Renaissance."

But that's not to say the economy hasn't taken a bite here. A couple blocks down is Pawn Plus, where sales associate Andrew Casper, 37, can see palpable effects of the hard times.

"I see a lot of people bringing in stuff they wouldn't normally bring in just because they need that extra meal on the table, need that extra mile to get to work," Mr. Casper said.

In Adams County, new housing developments remain vacant and gas prices threaten to constrict tourism.

"Someone's not going to drive 100 miles to come to Gettysburg if it's going to cost them a fortune," said Mr. Qually, the coffee shop owner.

The farm economy also is struggling with an issue that has not been as high profile in Pennsylvania as it was in some earlier primary states -- illegal immigration. Adams County, home to orchards stocked with apples, pears and peaches, has been hit with raids by the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service because many of its fruit-pickers are undocumented immigrants.

"Locally, Republican or Democrat, a lot of the orchard owners are saying we need a realistic immigration policy, because we need people who will work the farms," said Mr. Qually, who was faced with immigration questions while running for county commissioner as a Democrat last fall.

Democrats are the clear minority in a region with a Republican congressman -- Todd Platts, who has been in office since 2000 -- and that voted for President Bush twice by greater than a 60-40 margin. But their numbers are growing thanks to the influx of progressive Marylanders, a growing dissatisfaction with the party in the White House and a primary race that has created enormous excitement.

Interviews with a variety of area voters showed that many self-described conservatives are willing to take a look at Mr. Obama or his opponent, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Retired York city schools administrator John Hoffman compared Mr. Obama to former President Ronald Reagan, whom he voted for twice.

"I felt that Reagan was selling hope at a time when the country felt hopeless," said Mr. Hoffman, a Democrat. "Obama is doing the same thing."

The split here is much like it is in the rest of the country, party officials said. African-Americans, upper-class voters and college students were leaning toward Mr. Obama, while working-class Democrats largely were in Mrs. Clinton's favor.

Those divisions mirror the split on racial issues, a divide still fresh considering the York riots only recently were put to rest in a legal sense.

In 2003, Ezra T. Slick pled no contest to attempted murder and conspiracy in the killing of Lillie Belle Allen, 27, a black woman who had driven into a white part of town with her family while visiting from South Carolina. Mr. Slick was the last of 10 white men charged in the crime, two of which were convicted of murder and one of which -- a former mayor of York -- was acquitted. The others took plea deals. Two black men were convicted of the murder of white police officer Henry Schaad.

In 2005, the family of Ms. Allen won a $2 million settlement and an apology from the city for the police department's role in the riots.

Now, several area groups are working to heal the decades-old wounds and quell inequalities.

MetroYork, which seeks to pool county and city resources in police departments, schools and other services, and the York County Community Against Racism, are among the groups that have worked on initiatives with local governments.

"I hope to demonstrate that we're beyond that," Democratic county commissioner Doug Hoke, who is white, said of the riots. "I know I am. I just hope the community is."

Poised to become the first black law partner in the city's history, Mr. Anderson acknowledged York has progressed during the more than 30 years he spent away from it. He has worked on bridging the gaps through his involvement in various civic groups as well as promoting clerkships and internships for minority law students, but getting people to move "beyond that" can be a monumental task

"We are still a very segregated city, still a very segregated community in terms of activities," Mr. Anderson said.

"You talk to native Yorkers, it's still as if it's 'them and us' and not much has changed. But if you're out there and you're engaged and involved in the community, you see a lot has changed. And you wish people would see that."