There is an element of fear among African-Americans as 95 million voters wait to see who will lead the nation.

        It is like being on the picket line, waiting to see if a demonstration can get another black hired, or in court, waiting to see if a complaint is ruled racial discrimination.

        Millions of African-Americans around the country, most of whom pledge allegiance to the Democratic Party, see the election as a turning point as to whether a centrist image will remain on a national political level.

        President Clinton moved the Democratic Party toward the middle and re-established the image of a party for all people, all races, all ethnic groups.

        For sure, most African-Americans in the Democratic Party don't see any of that middle ground in George W. Bush. But their concerns and fears go beyond that.

        The real fear is having a conservative president at the helm who may have the opportunity to make judicial appointments, either at the Supreme Court or federal District Court levels.

        This is where, they fear, that all the gains made in the courts in civil rights since the middle 1950s and 1960s could be turned around, or at least stalled.

        The real meaning of civil rights has to be decided in the court, where it at least gets the benefit of judicial minds directing its course. Not in street demonstrations.

        But even in the courts, that could be lost, if the right minds are not directing the ship.

        Allen Howard covers Hamilton County's eastern suburbs for the Enquirer.

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