The Barack Obama campaign is devising a massive, grass-roots strategy to mobilize a record number of black voters in November and build on the euphoria among African-Americans who want to elect the nation’s first black president.

Political experts say a high black turnout in the presidential election -- perhaps more than 30 percent -- could favor Obama and would help him win his unprecedented and historic bid for the White House.

But some Democratic strategists told BlackAmericaWeb.com that appealing directly to black voters is a slippery slope because Obama runs the risk of alienating white voters who have embraced his vision for a multi-cultural electorate as Obama continues to remind voters that he also half-white.

"The community needs to realize that this is a chance to capture the most powerful position in the world. It is not the time for Obama to wear his 'blackness' on his sleeve," said Peter C. Groff, a Colorado state senator, publisher of Blackpolicy.org, and the founder and executive director of the University of Denver Center for African-American Policy.

Groff told BlackAmericaWeb.com that Obama must be "very careful" courting black voters.

"He has gotten this far not being the 'black candidate' but the candidate who happens to be black," Groff said. "However, he will need a record turnout of black voters -- his nomination would need to increase black turnout by 30 percent in order to secure a general election win."

"That balancing act is the most difficult any Democratic nominee of the modern era has ever faced because of the potential impact of racism. He must err on the side of caution in courting the black vote and hope the community is politically mature enough to understand," he added.

The massive push to mobilize the black electorate comes as racists in cyberspace are mobilizing against Obama like never before. 

Since Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary and could become America’s first black president, white supremacy organizations, neo-nazis and skinheads are rising in force, increasing their activity on the Internet and stepping up their online denunciations of Obama.

Meanwhile, Candice Tolliver, a spokeswoman for the Obama campaign, said there are countless black voters who have not registered to vote.

"During the primary, we saw African-Americans and voters of all backgrounds join Senator Obama’s campaign with an enthusiasm not seen for generations," Tolliver told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "We witnessed what can be accomplished when ordinary Americans come together around common goals. Yet, there are still hundreds of
thousands of people who are not registered to vote," she said.

"Our campaign believes that in order to bring about the change American deserves, ever voter should be able to fully participate in the political process and cast their ballot on Election Day,” she said.

But Groff said Obama should take a more subtle approach in his outreach.

"Obama should campaign the same amount or slightly less in black communities than previous Democratic nominees," Groff said, "and leave that aggressive outreach to surrogates and the active use of a new political maturity."

On the Republican side, Michelle Bernard, a black conservative and president of the Independent Women’s Voice, said Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will not abandon his effort to court black voters.

"He must employ a hands-on strategy of getting out and meeting with as many African-Americans as possible," Bernard told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

In April, McCain appealed directly to black voters in Selma, Alabama.

"I am aware of the fact that there will be many people who will not vote for me," McCain said, standing near the Edmund Pettus Bridge where white police officers beat black demonstrators who were trying to march to Montgomery in 1965 during the civil rights movement.

"There must be no forgotten places in America, whether they have been ignored for long years by the sins of indifference and injustice, or have been left behind as the world grew smaller and more economically interdependent," McCain said.

Several black Democratic strategists told BlackAmericaWeb.com that McCain may forever be associated with opposing a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. even though McCain apologized in April outside the Lorraine Motel in Memphis where King was assassinated.

"I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona," he said. "We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans."

Democrats dismissed McCain’s rhetoric.

"It’s like an arsonist turning up at the scene of the fire," Paula Begala, a former Clinton White House adviser, told The New York Times.

Last week, several big-name black Republicans such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former U.S. Congressman J.C. Watts and conservative commentator Armstrong Williams said they are considering voting for Obama.

If there was any public indication that high-profile black folks are very excited about the potential for Obama becoming president, it was during last week’s BET Awards in Los Angeles.

"If we all register and vote, we will have the first black president in the history of America," Sean "Diddy" Combs told the crowd at the Shrine Auditorium before chanting "Obama or Die" -- a declarative remix of his neutral "Vote or Die" motto from the 2004 presidential election, when he attempted to boost the youth vote.

Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was just a few blocks away at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for a fundraiser with a Hollywood guest list that included supermodels Heidi Klum and Cindy Crawford, boxing legend
Sugar Ray Leonard and movie stars Samuel L. Jackson and John Malkovich. While Obama didn't make an appearance at the BET Awards -- either live or on tape -- his presence was felt.

As she picked up her award for best female R&B artist, Alicia Keys told the crowd that it's time for black people to erase the word "can't" from their vocabulary.

"Together we can do anything," she said, playing on the Democrat's "Yes We Can" mantra before shouting: "Obama, y'all!"

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Associated Press contributed to this story.