The countless violation of African-American voting rights in Florida was the swift kick in the butt that some lethargic civil rights leaders needed. In the wake of wholesale Black voter disenfranchisement in the Sunshine State, there is a massive effort underway to shift the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday observances this year from memorial celebrations to action-oriented activities aimed at increasing Black political clout.

Ironically, this increased political activity comes at a time when George W. Bush is trying to bypass legitimate African-American leaders and decide for himself, in the words of the classic Robert Penn Warren book, “Who Speaks for the Negro?” A front-page article in The Washington Post last month headlined, “Bush to Host Black Ministers,” carried the sub-head, “Faith-Based Initiatives May Circumvent Civil Rights Leaders.”

Can George W. Bush really be that dumb? African-Americans voters rejected him in November by a margin of 9-to-1, the worst Republican rebuff since Right-winger Barry Goldwater went down in flames in 1964.

Even in Bush’s own state of Texas, where party hacks had boasted about his ability to attract Black voters, only 5 percent of African-Americans gave him their support. African-Americans understand, as U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D) of Texas points out, that Bush is not a compassionate conservative, but a person who shows compassion toward conservatives.

After such a resounding national repudiation, one would think that Bush would try to mend fences with the Black community. To the contrary, his response has been to insult the intelligence of African-Americans by attempting to undermine their leaders.

Said a Washington Post Dec. 19 article: “Bush is calculating that by reaching out to African-American clergymen, he can find common ground with the Black community on such issues as charity tax credits, lighter regulations for ‘faith-based’ social service providers and school vouchers for disadvantaged students. The effort is also something of an end run around the traditional civil rights groups and their leaders, who strongly backed Vice President Al Gore in the election, and are still angry about what they see as the disenfranchisement of Black voters in Florida.”

In case anyone missed the point, the article noted that some Black Republicans, including Robert Woodson Sr. of Washington, D.C., are openly advocating this flawed strategy. The outspoken Woodson said: “The mistake Republicans have made in the past is assuming they’ve got to always to through the civil rights door to go to the Black community, and standing at that door are the gatekeepers, Jesse Jackson, Kweisi Mfume, Al Sharpton. What Bush has go to do is not be trapped by these gatekeepers and go directly to the voters.”

If Bush truly wants to connect with Black voters, the first thing he needs to understand is that Jesse Jackson, Louis Farrakhan, Kweisi Mfume, Hugh Price, Coretta Scott King, Wade Henderson, Elaine Jones, Al Sharpton and Dorothy Height are among the respected leaders in the African-American community. By contrast, Woodson and his cronies are a minority within a minority and are clearly out of touch with the 90 percent of African-Americans who did not fall for Bush’s “compassionate conservative” line.

It is clear that the Florida debacle will not quietly fade into the background with the swearing in of a new president. Jesse Jackson Sr. - one of those genuine civil rights leaders scorned by Bob Woodson - is helping lead the charge. In an online chat with The New York Times (nytimes.com), Jackson said: “Jan. 15th is Dr. King’s birthday. We intend to make the entire week of Dr. King’s birthday a week of moral outrage and count-the-vote rallies and register voters all over America.”

In addition, the public spotlight will again shine on the Sunshine State on Jan. 11 and 12 when the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, chaired by Mary Frances Berry, holds hearings in Tallahassee on voting irregularities during the last election.

As the Civil Rights Commission seeks to document what went wrong in Florida and the civil rights community mobilizes Black political clout, we must make sure that this renewed activity does not fizzle.

Florida is only a reflection of a larger issue, the ability of a concerted and well-financed movement on the Right to reduce Black political clout, abolish affirmative action and highjack our judicial system so that they can halt African-American political, economic and social progress.

In Emerge magazine’s 10th anniversary issue in October 1999, I said that it was time for our civil rights leaders to become more aggressive. In my Editor’s Note, I wrote: “It’s time for those who claim to be leaders in our community to lead. The heads of our organizations should hold an emergency meeting to begin creating an infrastructure on the Left (think tanks, business support, research groups and a public relations apparatus) to counter the inordinate power the Right-wing exercises, not only to distort debate over affirmative action, but to attack civil rights laws in general.”

That emergency meeting still needs to take place. The best way to let George W. Bush know who the real leaders are in our community is to take on his Right-wing allies. If that is effectively done, even Bush will know who speaks for Black America.