Obama Banking on Black Voters Registering Across the South

COREY DADE and STEPHANIE CHEN write:

With the Super Tuesday primaries looming, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama is banking on a wave of new voter registrations among African-Americans in the South to help him surge into a pivotal stand the following week, when Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia go to the polls.

Mr. Obama benefited immensely in his win in South Carolina last month from an upward spike in black registrations and a huge turnout of black voters. In recent weeks, African-Americans have registered at unprecedented rates across the South, where they make up a large portion, although not a majority, of the population in many states.

Black voting participation has steadily increased in the South over the past decade.