Leading black clergy group backing Obama

U.S. SEN. Barack Obama is expected to get the endorsement of the leading organization of local African-American ministers tomorrow, when the United Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity meets to consider a presidential endorsement.

The organization's president, the Rev. Ellis Washington of the St. Matthew AME Church in West Philadelphia, declined to predict an outcome, but several members of the organization and other observers have said that Obama will prevail.

The excitement for Obama apparently trumps a history of affection and support among Philadelphia African-Americans for President Bill Clinton, whose wife, Hillary, is Obama's rival for the Democratic nomination.

"The sentiment for Obama is overwhelming," said John F. White Jr., former state welfare secretary and 1999 mayoral candidate. "I've heard it in church and in conversations with members of the clergy."

Retired minister Rev. Anthony Floyd said that his organization, the Philadelphia Council of Clergy, is endorsing Hillary Clinton, though he acknowledged he won't get all of its affiliated ministers to support her.

"I admit this is going to be tough," Floyd said yesterday. "The trend in the African-American community is that they like Obama."

White said that the Black Clergy organization's endorsement carries some prestige but that what really matters is individual ministers' inspiring turnout.

"They're not going to put workers on the street for you," White said. "What you will have is an urging from the pulpit of the black ministers for their congregations to get registered and go to the polls and vote, and that's extremely valuable."

Washington said that the United Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Vicinity represents about 200 ministers.

Floyd claims his Council of Philadelphia Clergy is larger, representing more than 400 ministers, though he says the membership list is confidential.

Floyd noted that he's long supported Gov. Rendell and Mayor Nutter, who have endorsed Clinton. Floyd said that he met Clinton when she was in Philadelphia last year and sent her a letter of support on the Council's behalf.

He said he got his executive board's concurrence in phone conversations, but realizes that ministers will make their own decisions about whether they go with Clinton.

Jerry Mondesire, Philadelphia Sunday Sun publisher and Philadelphia NAACP president, said yesterday, "I doubt you'll see [black ministers] carrying water for her in their pews.

"Their membership would be mortified if they didn't support Obama," said Mondesire, who's running as a Clinton delegate in the April primary. "This is an emotional tsunami."

White said it also matters that Obama is "of the black church," a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's South Side.

White said that Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the pastor of Obama's church, is the son of a former pastor of the Grace Baptist Church in Germantown. *