By skipping the presidential debate at Morgan State University, the Republican front-runners appear as if they don’t care about the African-American community, said students and professors at the historically black college.

“It’s disappointing,” said Brenda Lorick, an English professor.

“They feel it’s not lucrative to come to Maryland, a Democratic state, and to Baltimore, a Democratic city, but they are not being as responsive as they could be,” she said.

The top contenders — former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson — said scheduling conflicts prevent them from attending Thursday’s “All-American Presidential Forum,” which will be televised on PBS and hosted by talk show host Tavis Smiley, said Neal Kendall, the debate’s executive producer. Colorado Rep. Thomas Tancredo also dropped out after learning former diplomat Alan Keyes planned to participate.

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News of the no-show candidates further soured Morgan students’ opinions of Republicans, they said.

“If they’re not even going to show up, they are going to lose more votes because of that,” said Lolita Garcia, a freshman who learned about the debate from her professor.

Lakeya Hayden, a sophomore studying English, said she felt like protesting the GOP debate, which she said was first suggested by other students through a posting on the social networking site Facebook.

“I don’t feel Republicans do anything for black people,” she said.

Margie Martin, a freshman psychology major, said she believed the Republican debate was designed to attract the black youth vote.

“But we have to see what they are doing and what they are talking about before they can get the black vote,” she said.

Former vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings and former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele called on all the GOP candidates to attend the forum.

“Republican candidates have an enormous opportunity to become engaged in a conversation in the African-American community,” Steele said in a statement.

“This is why I am hopeful that each Republican presidential candidate will adjust his schedule to participate.”

Steele has promised to introduce the candidates at Morgan, where someone allegedly threw Oreos at him during a 2002 gubernatorial debate between him and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend.

Lorick said she was in the audience and that there “might have been one cookie.”

“It was outsiders brought in for the campaign, but it gave students a bad rap,” she said.

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The debate’s timing is particularly poignant because it occurs around the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock Nine, when nine black students entered an all-white Arkansas high school after Republican President Dwight Eisenhower sent in the Army to control the angry mobs.

kvolkmann@baltimoreexaminer.com