Barack Obama’s victory in Iowa’s Democratic caucuses, and his strong second in the New Hampshire primary suddenly boosts the possibility that the country could elect its first black president. And for some African-Americans who are rooting for him to win, it intensifies their concern for his safety. This country has a tragic legacy of black leaders falling to assassins. While those killings were decades ago, there are those who believe the fear and bigotry is not entirely behind us.

For months, I’ve heard African-American friends and strangers lament the possible danger of Obama’s campaigning. They think he could get killed in the process. It reminds me of a Chris Rock monologue…

ambi: laughter Chris Rock audience

CHRIS ROCK: White people ain’t voting for Colin Powell. Say they are, they are not. They’ll soup his head up, make him run. He’ll get killed trying to run. laughter fades Comedian Rock joked about the country being unprepared for a black man in the White House.

But we all know there’s some truth in humor. It was widely reported that Powell didn’t run for president because his family fretted for his safety.

Rock’s monologue and Powell’s candidacy consideration were back in 1996. Demographics and attitudes are slightly different now. That doesn’t translate into naive euphoria about Obama’s run as a sign of racial progress.

He’s only one of two candidates with Secret Service protection. Hillary Clinton has it because she’s a former First Lady.

Eighty-two-year old Chicago resident Alex Poinsett says it would be a mistake if Obama didn’t have the guys in black suits and sunglasses with him on the campaign trail.

POINSETT: Oh yeah, oh yeah…it’d be a heck of a gamble. No way you could send him out there in a crowd and not expect to run into one bigot who would have the gall to try to kill him.

Obama’s camp didn’t decide whether he received security; a bi-partisan panel in Washington did. The Secret Service won’t say why Obama got protection in May 2007. They won’t give any other details about threats either. However, the agency projects spending $33 million more this year on protecting candidates than it did in the last presidential election.

Obama’s Chicago headquarters says it won’t comment on safety concerns for the candidate, although in a “60 Minutes” interview a year ago, his wife, Michelle, acknowledged the possibility and said she wasn’t going to let it affect they way she lives her life.

In 1988, another African-American from Chicago pursued the White House. Jesse Jackson Sr. says his campaign had the most threats compared to white candidates at the time. He vividly remembers how black police officers in the cities he traveled would volunteer as security. Eventually he got Secret Service.

JACKSON: I remember coming to New York and the crowds were so big on 125th Street. The Secret Service would not allow us to go into the crowds. They blocked us from going into Harlem because there were so many people there. In other instances, the level of threats made them move us very rapidly from place to place.

Sure, that was 20 years ago, but Jackson cautions Obama to be wary.

JACKSON: He must be very, very careful. I’m sure the Secret Service is because he has lots of threats. There’s always the possibility of some enemy lurking in the dark.

If this seems like paranoia, black America has good reason. Assassins killed Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers during the Civil Rights Movement. Although Robert Kennedy was white, he can be added to that list of those who died on the bully pulpit of change 40 years ago.

Chicagoan Alex Poinsett is working on a book about what he calls “civil wrongs” toward black people in America.

POINSETT: I find myself comparing Barack’s situation with regard to his safety and the possibility of assassination …compare that with the kind situation Martin Luther King faced. Not only Martin Luther King, but especially the young ones who participated in mass movements around city halls, freedom rides on the buses. Sitting in restaurants and getting their heads beaten open. If they had had the kind of fear that we’re talking about, we would not have had a movement.

Many people I spoke with in the community say they refuse to lose sleep over the possibility of an Obama assassination. But that doesn’t mean, like community developer Paula Robinson, they haven’t thought about it.

ROBINSON: I was having a conversation because it’s something that resonates in our mind, our soul. It’s historical as well so when we see something that is getting ready to influence the balance of history to breakthrough, we naturally have those fears. And anytime you feel that you’re on the brink of change…that’s when change is really happening when you get that uneasy feeling.

Still it’s Obama’s “audacity” that eases those qualms. For many, the thrill of seeing the first black an in the history of the United States elected president overwhelms any fear that he should quit in the face of potential danger.

I’m Natalie Moore, Chicago Public Radio.