I am at the Open Society Foundation in Washington, DC for a convening on Black Youth Civic Engagement, which has drawn many of the leading experts and activists on African American young people and politics. The CIRCLE PowerPoint that I presented provides an overview of this issue from our perspective:

African American Youth Civic Engagement

Here is a sample graph from the presentation, showing that African American young people set the all-time record for youth turnout by any racial or ethnic group in 2008:

It’s important to note that the trend was already up in 2004, so the high turnout was not just an Obama effect.