Negro Political Behavior and Community Political and Socioeconomic Structural Factors

Abstract

In analyzing Negro political mobilization and its relationship to the political and socioeconomic structure of Alabama communities, it was found that substantial changes have been made since the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Negro political mobilization has increased in practically every county of Alabama, being facilitated by the presence of candidates acceptable to Negroes and the presence of federal examiners. Traditional relationships between community socioeconomic structure and Negro political mobilization have been disrupted and new ones instituted. It is thought that these changes in Alabama reflect similar changes occurring in other southern states, and demand a reformulation of many generalizations concerning Negro political behavior. Tr lraditionally Negroes have been isolated from the political systems of the South. As a result, many of them have been unaccustomed to the beliefs, values, and behavior common to political life. However, in the very recent past the southern Negro has begun to surge out of his domain of political impotence. The mid-1960's voter registration drives, the development of political organization by Negro communities, and the 1965 Voting Rights Act have fermented the process of political socialization of the Negro community.1 Studies of southern Negro political behavior have been primarily concerned with such behavior before the advent of these activities, and it is questionable whether their findings can be applied to current conditions.2 Revised version of a paper presented at the an-nual meeting of the Association of Social Science Teachers, 1968. The author gratefully acknowledges the technical assistance of his research assistant Billie Johinson, and the critical evaluation of the manuscript by Edgar Epps, Glenn Howze, C. G. Gomillion, Jo Howze, and Herbert Lindsey. 1 For an account of the 1960's southern Negro political movement see, Pat Watters and Reese Cleghorn, Climtbing Jacob's Ladder (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967). 2 See Donald R. Matthews and James W. Prothro, Negroes and the New Southern Politics This content downloaded from 157.55.39.242 on Thu, 21 Apr 2016 05:41:59 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms NEGRO POLITICAL BEHIIAVIOR 275 The aspect of political behavior of concern in this analysis is the mobilization of the Negro community to vote. Voter registration is used as a measure of this political mobilization. This study focuses on one of the southern states, Alabama, and attempts to analyze (a) the changes in Negro political mobilization from 1960 to 1966, and (b) the changes in the relationships between Negro political mobilization and the socioeconomic structure of Alabama communities from 1960 to 1966. Because of the lack of appropriate data on smaller units within the state, and the importance of such elected county offices as sheriff, the county was chosen as the basic unit of analysis. This limits the depth of the analyses; however, it affords greater comparability with those studies that have used the same unit of analysis. HYPOTHESES AND DESCRIPTION OF