Americans Not Confident Race Relations Have Improved Since Obama was Elected

Nearly nine out of 10 Americans believe race relations have remained the same or gotten worse since Barack Obama was elected in 2008, according to a new poll.

According to the poll, Americans largely believe that race relations are better than they were 50 years ago. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said they felt race relations were better than they were half a century ago, while only 13 percent said they were worse. Only 15 percent said race relations in the U.S. were worse than they were 50 years ago.

Americans also generally have a favorable opinion of Martin Luther King Jr. -- 84 percent said they had a somewhat favorable or very favorable opinion of the civil rights activist.

When it comes to race relations since Obama was elected, however, most Americans seem to believe they are either worse or the same. Forty-three percent said they believed race relations were worse, while nearly the same number -- 44 percent -- said race relations were about the same. Only 10 percent of likely voters said race relations have gotten better since Obama was elected.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Aug. 27-28. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.