A coalition of civil rights groups has launched a television ad in four states, including North Carolina, meant to drum up support for Democratic health care proposals.

The organizations — the NAACP National Voter Fund, the National Council of La Raza, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the Campaign for Community Change, the United States Student Association and PowerPAC.org — are initially targeting states with large African American and Latino populations. The ad is also available in Spanish.

The ad is rich with Civil Rights imagery. The English version features an older African American man walking as people board a bus in the background. He begins by saying when he was born, health care reform failed. The description is clearly meant to evoke unfair and discriminatory busing practices of the Civil Rights era. Later in the ad, a Hispanic woman tries to board the bus, but the door closes on her.

The ad is also set to run in Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas.