ASHINGTON,
Dec. 16 — For decades, black Republicans have often balanced precariously along
the fault lines of race and party loyalty — called upon by white Republicans to
vouch publicly for the party's inclusiveness, dismissed by black Democrats as
opportunistic sellouts to the race.
They have loyally stood by the party during heated battles like the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings and appearances of presidential candidates at ultraconservative Bob Jones University.
But there was something about Trent Lott's comments at Senator Strom Thurmond's 100th-birthday party, suggesting that the United States would be better off it had stuck with segregationist policies, that many say finally went too far.
"It was like a rifle going off," said Peter N. Kirsanow, the only black Republican on the United States Commission on Civil Rights, who was at home reading a book and watching C-Span when Mr. Lott's comments stopped him cold.
Angry and shaken, Mr. Kirsanow called another Republican on the commission and said plainly, "Something has to be done."
Armstrong Williams, a conservative black columnist who was in the room when Mr. Lott made his comments, had a similar visceral reaction. "It was like being cut with a chain saw," he said.
The next day, Mr. Williams called Mr. Lott's office, expressing his outrage with a terse warning: "There's a storm brewing."
He then called Harold E. Doley Jr., president of Doley Securities, a prominent Republican donor and the only black now with a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, to take his pulse on the Lott situation.
Mr. Doley's response was firm and quick: "Lott has to go."
Senator Lott appeared on Black Entertainment Television tonight in yet another appeal for forgiveness. But his toughest critics may not be out in televisionland. Prominent black Democrats like the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Kweisi Mfume, president of the N.A.A.C.P.; and Representative Harold Ford Jr., a moderate from Tennessee, were among the first public figures to call for Mr. Lott's ouster from the party leadership.
Behind the scenes, however, a fury has been building among black Republicans who believe that Mr. Lott has significantly damaged their standing within the party and among their fellow African-Americans, many of whom already view them with suspicion. Within the Bush administration and around the country, many black Republicans are privately urging the party to dump Mr. Lott from the leadership for its own good.
"They've been fighting the good fight for the party, often enduring tremendous abuse that they are Uncle Toms or traitors," Robert A. George, a conservative black columnist, said of black Republicans. "Lott's statement seems to confirm what Democrats and many blacks have believed about Republicans all along."
Mr. George's outspoken criticism of Mr. Lott over the past week led one of the publications he writes for, The New York Post, a conservative newspaper owned by Rupert Murdoch, to call for Mr. Lott to step aside. A few prominent black Republicans have offered support for Mr. Lott. Outgoing Representative J. C. Watts Jr. of Oklahoma, for many years the sole black Republican in Congress, defended him. So did Rod Paige, the secretary of education.
The early backing — and the fact that similar racially charged comments and actions in the past went largely unchallenged — may have given Mr. Lott a false sense of security, some black Republicans say.
Mr. Williams said that when he first called Mr. Lott's office after the remarks, a staff member dismissed his complaints.
"He said it was just Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson blowing things out of proportion," Mr. Williams said of the staff member. "I told him, `Forget about Jesse Jackson, this is about us,' but I could tell they weren't hearing me."
Mr. Williams and other critics say that whatever sparse backing Mr. Lott may have gotten from black Republicans has been significantly reduced by criticism of him by the White House. The president's criticism of Mr. Lott last Thursday, some of Mr. Lott's opponents said, has some early supporters now scrambling to get on the right side of the controversy.
Inside the Beltway and nationwide, many black Republicans said that they had been engaged in a flurry of phone calls to one another and to party leaders in Washington. The message was this: They expect Mr. Lott to be dealt with.
"I've done the heavy work of the party as a grass-roots organizer, as a mayor, as a statewide representative, and this is flat-out counterproductive to years of outreach," said J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state and a longtime Republican, who worked for Jack F. Kemp and who served as representative to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in the early 1990's. "As a person who has been on the front lines trying to broaden the party for the past 20 years and as one who has been constantly called upon by Republican leaders to lend them credibility, I certainly hope they will do the right thing."
Besides being a slap in the face to the black party faithful, allowing Mr. Lott to be Senate majority leader would taint every policy initiative that Republicans try to advance between now and the 2004 elections, the senator's critics say.
"The manner in which Republicans address this will further reveal and define the character of the party," said Mr. Kirsanow, who urged his Republican colleagues on the civil rights commission to issue a statement condemning Mr. Lott's remarks.
Mr. Doley, 55, a lifelong Republican from New Orleans, who has held a seat on the New York Stock Exchange for 29 years, said, "He'll become the poster boy for racism in the Republican Party."
That is what many black Democrats are hoping for.
Individual members of the Congressional Black Caucus denounced Mr. Lott when the controversy erupted, but the 39 members of the group stopped short of a direct call for him to step down.
The caucus, like many other Democrats, did not want to risk jumping in too boisterously and then being criticized by voters for political gamesmanship.
While Republicans within the administration, the Senate and nationwide continue to try to distance themselves from Mr. Lott, black Democrats say they will work harder than ever this week to bind all Republicans together.
Sensing an advantage, members of the Congressional Black Caucus plan to press several hot issues on a Republican Party that is suddenly on the defensive on racial subjects. They intend to push Mr. Lott on his stated intent to support the nomination of Judge Charles W. Pickering Sr., a conservative, to an appellate court. They also intend to point out that the day after Mr. Lott's comments, new unemployment figures were released showing an 11 percent jobless rate among blacks, the highest in nine years. And they will note that President Bush's religion-based initiative allows churches to discriminate in hiring.
"I'm more interested in what people are doing now than what people said in the past," said Representative Robert C. Scott, Democrat of Virginia. "Rather than playing `gotcha,' it's time to take a real look at the policies that Trent Lott and this administration support."
Some black Democrats have even offered Mr. Lott redemption. Immediately after the senator's half-hour appearance on Black Entertainment Television, Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, issued a statement saying that he accepted Mr. Lott's apology.
"The ability to forgive, to heal and come together for the common good is very much consistent with the philosophy of nonviolence of the civil rights movement," the statement said. "We have to believe that every individual has the ability, capacity and desire to change and grow."