Black Voters Fret Over Obama

Close Election Spurs
Nervousness, Anger;
A Boon to Turnout?

By GARY FIELDS and JONATHAN KAUFMAN
September 12, 2008; Page A8

An anxious murmur is rising among black voters as the presidential race tightens: What if Barack Obama loses?

Black talk-show hosts and black-themed Web sites are being flooded with callers and bloggers reflecting a nervousness -- and anger -- over the campaign. Bev Smith, a nationally syndicated radio talk-show host, devoted her entire three-hour show Monday night to the question: "If Obama doesn't win, what will you think?"

"My audience is upset," she said in an interview. "Some people said they would be so angry it would be reminiscent of the [1960s] riots -- that is how despondent they would be."

Warren Ballentine, another nationally syndicated talk-show host, said: "Once Sarah Palin was picked and African-Americans saw the Republicans ignited again, they got worried. We are scared now."

The worries aren't universal. New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, acknowledged the concerns about race. "I am hearing those jitters," he said. But he said many Democratic candidates have lost the presidential race in recent decades and "they were white candidates. African-Americans need to remember that."

Black nervousness could help Sen. Obama, the first African-American to head a major-party ticket, by boosting black turnout in November. One caller to Ms. Smith's show Monday said she was so worried that she planned to go to her church to begin working on a voter-registration drive.

If Sen. Obama loses, "African-Americans could be disappointed to the point of not engaging in the process anymore," or consider forming a third political party, said Richard McIntire, communications director for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

Initially skeptical of Sen. Obama's bid, a majority of blacks supported Sen. Hillary Clinton before the primaries began. They began to flock to Sen. Obama's camp following his win in Iowa. The latest Wall Street Journal poll shows 88% of blacks backing Sens. Obama and Joe Biden. Black voter registration has surged.

"There is so much about this campaign that people are taking very personally," said Lynette Clemetson, managing editor of Theroot.com, a Web site that she said attracts African-American professionals in their 30s and 40s. "A large part of this hope surrounding Obama is generational -- that he can crack through what some have long considered basic barriers. If he wins, it's the 'Hallelujah Chorus.'"

But the racial undertone of the campaign has some blacks -- and some whites -- unable to envision the Illinois senator losing the election without racism playing a role.

"If he loses, it will shake the very ground that we stand on mentally as far as what we need to be to succeed," said Robert Gordon, a 48-year-old engineering surveyor from Dallas. "From day one, we've been told to be a certain way, to be neat, intellectual, speak clearly. He is the symbol of what we were told to be by our parents and by society as a whole. If this doesn't work, what does that do to our psyche? What do I tell my sons?"

Twyla Griffin, who works for a health-care company outside Detroit, said she was feeling optimistic about the country's racial progress as she watched Sen. Obama's nomination-acceptance speech on television two weeks ago. But with excitement surging over Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice-presidential nominee and polls showing the race to be close, she said she now finds herself asking: "Can people bring themselves to go into a voting booth and pull the lever for a black man?"

Melvin Thomas, a professor at North Carolina State University and past president of the Association of Black Sociologists, said black response to the election likely will depend on "how African-Americans will see a vote against Mr. Obama. What does the racial distribution of that vote look like? If the answer for African-Americans to the question of why Obama lost is race, an Obama loss will have the potential to deepen the racial cut."

Don Moses, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, said while he supports Sen. Obama, attributing a loss to race would be an oversimplification and unfair to voters who have legitimate concerns about the candidate. Those concerns include his age and shorter resume, as well as his alienation of "some strong members of the old guard in the Democratic Party," Mr. Moses said. Concluding that the election may be decided by race also would ignore the reasons some might have to support Sen. John McCain, including his military history, he said.

"I would hope if Obama is not elected, black America will not lose sight of the lessons learned and move forward," he said.

Write to Gary Fields at gary.fields@wsj.com and Jonathan Kaufman at jonathan.kaufman@wsj.com

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