After several long and withering attacks on the Bush administration and a consistent message from speakers that  America was becoming increasingly divided along race and income lines, Senator John Kerry's quest for the White House became official Wednesday night in Boston.

In a ritual that finished close to midnight, delegates from one state after another offered their symbolic support of his candidacy, ending with the crucial swing state of Ohio.

The night featured speeches from several prominent black leaders and closed with vice presidential nominee John Edwards, who presented himself as the son of a millworker who had achieved the American dream.

Edwards talks tough on terror

 "The heart of this campaign – your campaign, our campaign – is to make sure all Americans have exactly the same kind opportunities that I had, no matter where you live, no matter who your family is, no matter what the color of your skin is," he said.

 He also returned to his theme of 'two Americas,' one for the affluent and one for everyone else, and mentioned the need to remove tax cuts for companies that outsource jobs.

Senator Kerry's arrival in Boston was prominently played out, with the candidate coasting along the river with his Band of Brothers in a scene reminiscent of his service in Vietnam.

After Tuesday's proceedings, in which three former candidates for the Democratic nomination offered their support for John Kerry's run, another one-time opponent, the Reverend Al Sharpton, suggested that the current administration was not interested in advancing the interests of minorities.

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 "It is frightening to think that the gains of the civil and women's rights movements of the last century could be reversed if this administration sits in the White House for four more years," he said, pointing to close Supreme Court votes this year.

 He went further, in comments that were largely unprepared, by maintaining that the Florida election controversy of 2000 fit into a historical pattern of disenfranchisement and violence that had affected members of the black community.

 "This vote can't be bargained away," he said, referring to recent efforts by President Bush to court blacks. "This vote can't be given away. Mr. President, in all due respect, Mr. President, read my lips: Our vote is not for sale."

Slide show: The Boston Tea Party

 Another black leader, the Revered Jesse Jackson, also pointed to the black votes in Florida that were not counted and highlighted the Bush administration's tax cuts for the wealthy and simultaneous failure to pay for children's education initiatives.

But he also called for troops to be brought home from Iraq, a statement that may not sit well with many Democratic leaders or voters. And while condemning President Bush as being born too wealthy to understand the problems of the common man, he conspicuously avoided noting that Kerry himself came from such an upbringing.

 "The Bible speaks of the difficulties of rich young rulers getting into the Kingdom," he said. "It's because they are intoxicated by the rarefied air of privilege. John Edwards understands using wallpaper for a windbreaker. Peanut butter sandwiches and Kool-aid. The fear of winter without heat. He grew up on the edge but now stands at the middle of reconciling the breach in our nation."

 Other speakers included Representative Dennis Kucinich, who criticized the war in Iraq and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, and Senator Bob Graham, who said that America under the current administration had become weakened due to its war on terror.

The convention ends Thursday with the formal acceptance of the nomination by Senator Kerry.