c. 2004 Religion News Service

CLEVELAND _ The Rev. Marvin McMickle was among prominent black clergy taking notice of which party in a tumultuous campaign week went into the community to seek a dialogue with black leaders.

On July 7, the new Democratic presidential ticket of John Kerry and John Edwards held a big rally downtown here. On July 8, the head of the Republican National Committee visited a black Baptist church in Cleveland’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

“I’m paying attention to the folks who are paying attention to me,” McMickle, pastor of Antioch Baptist Church and a former Democratic congressional candidate, said in an interview. “It is going to be much more of a two-party environment as long as the Republican Party gives us some issues we can consider in good conscience.”

The message from a team of Republican leaders who visited Cleveland _ along with hometown boxing promoter Don King _ was that the GOP is leaving no black vote behind.

At the fourth stop of a six-city national outreach effort, Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie said breaking the Democratic hold in the black community is among his top priorities.

In remarks to about 100 people at an Urban League luncheon earlier in the day, he said increasing black support is vital to re-electing George Bush, increasing Republican majorities in Congress and electing more GOP governors.

The GOP won only about 8 percent of the black vote nationally in 2000. Analysts say even a small increase could be critical in battleground states like Ohio.

But it will not be easy. About 40 demonstrators, many of them union and Democratic activists, were outside Holy Trinity Baptist Church on East 131st Street to protest the meeting with black leaders.

The protesters, some carrying Kerry signs, tried to rally passers-by with slogans like “Kerry, Kerry, he’s our man. Let’s throw Bush in the garbage can.”

Amy Hurd, 48, a protester from Bedford who said she is concerned about the situation in Iraq, education and cutbacks in social programs, said it was “a disgrace” for black leaders to give Republicans a forum. “If they were really thinking about black people, they wouldn’t be going with Bush,” she said.

But several clergy at prominent black churches in Cleveland said in interviews that they are determined that Democrats will not take them for granted, and the informational meeting at Holy Trinity was one sign of a new day in black presidential politics.

“We can’t be bound to any party,” said the Rev. C. Jay Matthews of Mount Sinai Baptist Church, who is president of United Pastors in Mission.

“Dialogue is the beginning of opportunity,” he said later at Holy Trinity.

Several issues resonate with black voters, some clergy say, from Bush’s support of faith-based initiatives that give religious groups money for social services to his opposition to same-sex marriages.

Gillespie said there are signs that more black Americans are open to the GOP. He said studies have shown that 35 percent of blacks ages 18 to 25 identify themselves as independent, and that from 2000 to 2002, the percentage of blacks describing themselves as Democrats dropped 11 points, while the GOP gained six points.

A statewide Cleveland Plain Dealer poll in May found 15 percent of blacks support Bush, 73 percent support Kerry and 3 percent support Ralph Nader. Nine percent of black voters surveyed said they were undecided. Exit polls showed Bush received 9 percent of the black vote in Ohio in 2000.

That wasn’t a particularly good showing, according to John Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. “Typically, Republican presidents get about 12 percent of the black vote,” Green said.

“There is some opening in the black community for the president,” Green said, noting black voters tend to agree with Bush’s opposition to same-sex marriage, and they like that he is so religious.

But Democratic Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones said in a statement that trying to convince blacks they are better off under Bush “is the height of absurdity.”

She said black unemployment rose 18 percent under Bush and that many black children would be booted from Ohio’s Head Start program under the president’s planned 2006 budget.

In his talk at Holy Trinity, Gillespie said, “It’s not in the interests of the United States of America for political parties to be racially polarized.”

The Rev. Darrell Scott of New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights said in an interview that a younger generation of blacks who do not have the same emotional ties with the Kennedy-Johnson era of progress on civil rights no longer will automatically vote Democratic.

“We’re able to make our own decision,” he said. “We’ll go either way.”

Scott said he admires Bush for standing firm on abortion and same-sex marriages, even if it costs him votes. But the pastor emphasized that he is just as wary of Republican political promises as those of Democrats.

“During the last election, a lot of black clergy became persuaded by the Republican Party because there was a great deal of talk about faith-based initiatives. In the four years since, I haven’t seen a great deal of faith-based activity. … Who in Cleveland has received some?” Scott asked.

“Election-speak is one thing. Reality is another,” Scott said. “It’s election time again.”

DEA/MO END RNS