Black Presidential Politics In America

Assesses how Blacks have used presidential elections to exercise their political influence, and looks at primaries, party conventions, behind-the-scenes bargaining, and the general election

Black voters can make or break a presidential election--look at the close electoral results in 2000 and the difference the disenfranchised Black vote in Florida alone might have made. Black candidates can influence a presidential election--look at the effect that Jesse Jackson had on the Democratic party, the platform, and the electorate in 1984 and 1988, and the contributions to the Democratic debates that Carol Moseley Braun and Al Sharpton made in 2004. American presidential politics can't get along without the Black vote--witness the controversy over candidates' appearing (or not) at the NAACP convention, or the extent to which candidates court (or not) the Black vote in a variety of venues. It all goes back to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which formally gave African Americans the right to vote, even if after all these years that right is continuously contested. In Freedom Is Not Enough (a quote from Lyndon Johnson's 1965 commencement address to Howard University just before he signed the Voting Rights Act), Ronald W. Walters traces the history of the Black vote since 1965, celebrates its fortieth anniversary in 2005, and shows why passing a law is not the same as ensuring its enforcement, legitimacy, and opportunity.

"As Mouser shows, Scott spent his life figuring out--and satisfying--men's interests with liquor, gambling, and women, and . . . [he] refused to be complicit in backing politicians who took him and the broader base of first-generation black voters for dupes. . . . Scott saw the political game for what it was: a game of power."--Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Michael Eric Dyson delivers a provocative exploration of the politics of race and the Obama presidency. Barack Obama's presidency unfolded against the national traumas of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, and Walter Scott. The nation's first African American president was careful to give few major race speeches, yet he faced criticism from all sides, including from African Americans. How has Obama's race affected his presidency and the nation's identity? Dyson explores whether Obama's use of his own biracialism as a symbol has been driven by the president's desire to avoid a painful moral reckoning on race. And he sheds light on identity issues within the black power structure, telling how Obama has spurned traditional black power brokers, significantly reducing their leverage. Perhaps most movingly, Dyson illuminates the transformative moments, especially in his second term, when Obama has publicly embraced his blackness and used it as a powerful lens onto America, black and white. President Obama's own voice--from an Oval Office interview granted to Dyson for the book--along with that of Eric Holder, Al Sharpton, and Andrew Young, among others, adds depth to this tour of the nation's first black presidency.--Adapted from book jacket.

The struggle for civil rights among black Americans has moved into the voting booth. How such a shift came about--and what it means--is revealed in this timely reflection on black presidential politics in recent years. Since 1984, largely as a result of Jesse Jackson's presidential bid, blacks have been galvanized politically. Drawing on a substantial national survey of black voters, Katherine Tate shows how this process manifested itself at the polls in 1984 and 1988. In an analysis of the black presidential vote by region, income, age, and gender, she is able to identify unique aspects of the black experience as they shape political behavior, and to answer long-standing questions about that behavior. How, for instance, does the rise of conservatism among blacks influence their voting patterns? Is class more powerful than race in determining voting? And what is the value of the notion of a black political party? In the 1990s, Tate suggests, black organizations will continue to stress civil rights over economic development for one clear, compelling reason: Republican resistance to addressing black needs. In this, and in the friction engendered by affirmative action, she finds an explanation for the slackening of black voting. Tate does not, however, see blacks abandoning the political game. Instead, she predicts their continued search for leaders who prefer the ballot box to other kinds of protest, and for men and women who can deliver political programs of racial equality. Unique in its focus on the black electorate, this study illuminates a little understood and tremendously significant aspect of American politics. It will benefit those who wish to understand better the subtle interplay of race and politics, at the voting booth and beyond.

"A strong and well-informed set of reviews of efforts and achievements of African Americans and their political allies across the broadest spectrum of arenas of government." --Rufus P. Browning, San Francisco State University "Useful for undergraduate courses in black politics and American politics."--Jennifer L. Hochschild, Princeton University These essays offer a current and comprehensive analysis of black politics and its impact at the national level on the American political system. Whether analyzing the Supreme Court, interest groups, public policy, the Congressional Black Caucus, or political attitudes and behavior, these essays demonstrate that African Americans participate in national politics in a substantial way, and that they have done so in a manner consistent with pluralist theory. However, they have been less active in executive policy making, and this trend is also explored and analyzed. Contents INTRODUCTION Black Politics in the United States, by Huey L. Perry and Wayne Parent A Theoretical Analysis of National Black Politics in the United States, by Huey L. Perry BLACK POLITICAL ATTITUDES, BEHAVIOR, AND PARTICIPATION Black Political Attitudes and Behavior in the 1990s, by Wayne Parent and Paul Stekler Jesse Jackson's Campaigns for the Presidency: A Comparison of the 1984 and 1988 Democratic Primaries, by Mfanya Donald Tryman BLACKS AND NATIONAL INSTITUTIONS Blacks and Presidential Politics, by Henry B. Sirgo Blacks and the National Executive Branch, by Huey L. Perry, Tracey Ambeau, and Frederick McBride The Evolving Congressional Black Caucus: The Reagan-Bush Years, by Richard Champagne and Leroy N. Rieselbach The Supreme Court, African Americans, and Public Policy: Changes and Transformations, by Michael W. Combs BLACKS AND NATIONAL PUBLIC POLICY Black Interest Groups and the 1982 Extension of the Voting Rights Act, by Dianne M. Pinderhughes Budgets, Taxes, and Politics: Options for African-American Politics, by Lenneal J. Henderson, Jr. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS The State of Black Politics in the United States and Implications for the Future, by Huey L. Perry and Wayne Parent Huey L. Perry is dean of the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and professor of political science at Southern University, Baton Rouge. Wayne Parent is associate professor of political science at Louisiana State University.

This book examines the evolution of black leadership and politics since the Civil Rights Movement. It looks at the phenomenon of Barack Obama, from his striking emergence as a successful candidate for the Illinois State Senate to President of the United States, as part of the continuum of African American political leaders.

Amidst discontent over diversity, racial identity is a lens through which many US white Americans now view the political world.