Black Community Is Increasingly Protective of Obama

Barbara Reynolds at the National Press Club with the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr. Both have drawn fire for his appearance, which she arranged. "I won't shut up," she says. (By Chip Somodevilla -- Getty Images)

Few of those who commented took issue with the substance of what Wright said. Rather, it was the timing of his presentation and the unapologetic showboating of a man who was already a radioactive presence for Obama that riled black people.

A few supporters called Wright a man of conscience who preached the truth. They were shouted down by others.

The backlash is not limited to the well known. Christopher Chambers, a Georgetown University professor and Obama supporter, said a woman tracked down his cellphone number, dialed it and called him a race traitor after he said Wright's performance would doom the senator's presidential run if he did not act decisively. Obama denounced Wright's appearance later that day.

Barbara Reynolds, a black columnist who brokered Wright's appearance at the press club, was also under assault. She rejected a wave of rumors that cast her as a Hillary Clinton supporter who set up Wright to damage Obama.

Although Reynolds has strongly criticized Obama, she said she is torn over which candidate to support. However, she said, she is unbowed by her critics: "They can label me, but I'm not going to shut up."

Paradoxically, African Americans wondered early on if Obama cared sufficiently about their concerns. But that was before he won the Iowa caucuses. Standing in the path of Obama's campaign has been dangerous ever since.

"Yes, I wish Wright had sat down and decided to be quiet," said Venetria Patton, director of the African American Studies and Research Center at Purdue University.

Of Bill Clinton and his wife, she said: "The more he opened his mouth, the more I was against her."