House Democratic Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest ranking Black member of Congress, is warning on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. that perceived unfairness toward U. S. Sen. Barack Obama in the electoral process could cause a relapse back to voter apathy.

“If we were to fail to nominate Barack at the end of this process and he’s still leading in delegates, then we’ve got a serious problem that will affect the participation of Black people in a big way for the next 40 years,” says Clyburn, who has staunchly declined to publicly endorse either Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton in order to avoid conflicts in his whip job to unite Democrats behind legislation.

In an interview with the NNPA News Service, Clyburn illustrated as an example the mood of the country in 1968 when King and Sen. Bobby Kennedy were assassinated only months apart and five years after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Nov. 22, 1963. “You have to ask yourself what was going on in the country at the same time as the King assassination. King was assassinated around the same time as Bobby Kennedy and just [five] years after John F. Kennedy, he said. “Those three assassinations launched and thrust us into a real [state of apathy] that we, all of a sudden, seem to be coming out of, at this point in time. If something was to short-circuit that and people think it was unfair, we could collapse right back into that.”

Americans around the nation this week are commemorating the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. amidst the contentious Democratic Primary that has inspired a groundswell of activism not seen since before King’s death on April 4, 1968. The Nobel Peace Prize winner was a champion for voting rights and civil rights.

Clyburn’s concerns appear to reflect those of the Democratic Party leadership overall as some voters have threatened not to go to the polls or to vote for Republican John McCain if unfairness is perceived in the Democratic process.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said his greatest concern is that the party is united before the August convention in Denver.

“I hope that the super delegates will make their views publicly known some time between now and the first of July because we don’t want to take this convention into Denver divided because if we go in divided, we’ll come out divided,” he says.

Super delegates, including Clyburn, are party leaders who can vote any way that they perceive is best. Technically, they could throw their vote to Clinton even if Obama has won the most pledged delegates based on primaries and caucuses. He leads by 157 pledged delegates.

The next primary is April 22 in Pennsylvania, where 158 delegates are up for grabs. North Carolina, which votes May 6, offers 115 delegates. The final contests are in Montana and South Dakota on June 3. But, it is mathematically impossible for either candidate to win the 2,024 pledged delegates before the August 25-28 convention.

Meanwhile, normally apathetic constituents have attended debate parties, hastened to watch post-primary “election-bowl” reports, and attended rallies from city to city. Political observers and issue advocates are now wrestling with ways to maintain the record enthusiasm, voter registration and overwhelming turnouts with hopes to impact local and state elections as well as issues beyond the November 4 election.

“You’ve got people registering to vote without even encouragement. You’ve got people going on their own registering to vote. People want to participate. So, you’ve got an upsurge in registration and upsurge in turnout,” says Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation. “I don’t have a crystal ball or the historical perspective to say I know exactly what’s going to happen in the fall because we’ve never seen anything like this; especially for African-Americans, who’ve only had unfettered access to the ballot for a little more than 40 years.”

The mission of Campbell’s Coalition is to keep the Black electorate engaged, particularly at the grassroots level. The bottom line is that the battle among Democratic contenders Sens. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Republican John McCain has sensitized people to issues that they know realistically impact them, she says.

Political scientists speculate that the number of youth voters make up the largest turn out at the polls.

“Something has happened that more people are attuned and seeing this thing as something viable and impactful for their lives,” says Campbell. “In Alabama, we’ve got 200 young people who’ve asked, ‘How do I stay involved?’ So, what we’re doing is going back into Alabama and trying to get people involved in Black Youth Vote,” the youth activism arm of the coalition.

Campbell says the Coalition is building a data base of young Black activists who want to be involved in civic engagement.

“It allows for us to communicate with people beyond just the election cycle to get them involved. Where ever we have an affiliate, we’re sharing this with our membership. Young people are blogging and utilizing the technology. We also encourage people to volunteer for other organizations.”

Fueling the interest is the possibility of Clinton, the first woman, or Obama, becoming the first African-American to receive the Democratic nomination for president. But, issues such as health care, education, the war in Iraq and the economy are also causing people of all ages to be anxious about the future.

Gary Flowers, executive director of the Black Leadership Forum says civics must be reincorporated into mandatory school curricula in order to maintain educated engagement from elementary school to college.

“In other words, we must make civic education cool again. And the candidates this year have given us a good head start on that journey,” Flowers says. “If we are to continue the excitement around election 2008, we must do so with an informed citizenry.”

Ron Daniels, president of the Institute of the Black World – 21st Century, a New York-based organization, says the real challenge will be maintaining the momentum of excitement through the election. Daniels echoed Clyburn's sentiments.

“If in fact somehow there’s a sense that Barack Obama has been treated unfairly by these super delegates, then there’s going to be a lot of these young people who are going to be discouraged and they’re just going to drop out,” says Daniels. “But, beyond the election, we don’t have many structures in place to capture that excitement into order to maintain the pressure. My view is that no matter who is elected, we can’t just sort of relax. We have to say, there is still an agenda here and a progressive agenda that we need to continue to push forward.”

Clyburn concludes that maintaining the groundswell of voters will be contingent upon much more than just enthusiasm.

“It all depends on the degree of success that we have between now and November,” he says. “I would hate to say what the strategy should be at this point because we just don’t know what the results are going to be.”

(NNPA)