In Iowa and New Hampshire, black voters make up a tiny part of the voting population. South Carolina is about 30 percent black, though, and political experts say black voters historically vote about 90 percent Democratic in elections.

Both the Rock Hill and Western York County chapters of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plan to meet this week to set strategy for getting voters to the polls. The NAACP does not endorse candidates, and Western York County branch President Steve Love said he hasn't heard of any one candidate gaining any real foothold among local black voters.

"We always encourage and promote voter registration and participation," Love said. "But people vote as individuals. They vote by their own conscience."

The candidates who have been to South Carolina have campaigned in heavily black areas and at many black churches across the state, because black voters are overwhelmingly Democratic, said Scott Huffmon, a political science professor at Winthrop University.

Democrats expect up to half of the 250,000 or so expected voters Feb. 3 to be black.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., the highest ranking black person in Congress and South Carolina's first black Congressman since Reconstruction, has not endorsed any of the candidates since his first choice, Missouri Rep. Dick Gephardt, dropped out last week. Political scientists like Huffmon and York Technical College professor Rick Whisonant say Clyburn's endorsement is crucial because he has statewide recognition and respect in the black community.

Clyburn, though, said this week his role is to make the Democratic Party palatable to more South Carolinians, both black and white.

"One of the things we have to do is break beyond race," Clyburn said. "I will be working hard to not only get people to vote in the Democratic Primary, but to be a part of the Democratic Party."

Clyburn said this week he was going home to his district covering the Pee Dee region and the northern coast to hear what his constituents are saying about the primary in churches, barber shops and beauty salons. Candidates have flocked to Clyburn's district -- which is about half black -- but none have been to York, Chester or Lancaster counties since Thanksgiving, despite a more than 20 percent black population in York County and more in Chester and Lancaster counties.

Jimmy Gaston, who runs a barber shop and teaches at a barber college in Rock Hill, said the lack of candidates showing up locally has hurt interest.

"People aren't talking about the election, and that is strange," Gaston said. "I would think people would get interested if these candidates actually came here and spoke to them about what matters to them."

Candidates not stumping locally puzzles Love, who said York County has a large, politically aware black population that wants answers.

"It is hard to know who is serious about addressing the concerns of the African-American community when people here don't get a chance to hear or see for themselves," Love said.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, the lone black candidate, has made a good impression in the state, Clyburn said. Sharpton has said during several campaign stops and debates that he is in the race to win, but also to energize black voters and make sure black people use their vote to demand attention and results from the Democratic Party.

"There is no doubt that Rev. Sharpton has support in the black community," said Chester Mayor Wanda Stringfellow.

While politicians court black voters in South Carolina, the Rev. Anthony Johnson of the Rock Hill NAACP, York City Councilman Charles Johnson and Stringfellow said it is clear there is no single-candidate clamor among blacks, nor even what could be considered a "black vote."

Churches seem undecided

Churches were the keys to the civil rights movement and remain important cogs in black social life, Clyburn said. However, Charles Johnson said he's heard little about the candidates from the pulpit.

"There is no consensus," Charles Johnson said.

Both Sharpton and retired Gen. Wesley Clark campaigned in South Carolina on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday last Monday. Clark, a white Southerner from Arkansas, called for the removal of the Confederate Flag from the Statehouse grounds. While Clark's position could be politically damaging among hard-core conservative voters, those voters rarely vote in Democratic primaries, Whisonant said.

Other candidates are making direct appeals to the black voters, too. North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, a South Carolina native who many are considering the favorite in the Feb. 3 primary, uses a message of "Haves versus have nots," that should resonate with black voters, Whisonant said. However, Sharpton, who has run at about 12 percent in most polls, could take a substantial chunk of what could be Edwards voters in the black community, Whisonant said.

Nine names will be on the ballot Feb. 3, including Carol Moseley Braun and Gephardt, who have dropped out. In addition to Clark, Edwards and Sharpton, other candidates are Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, winner of the Iowa caucuses and front-runner in New Hampshire's primary; former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean; Sen. Joe Lieberman and Dennis Kucinich.

Contact Andrew Dys at 329-4065 or adys@heraldonline.com.