Black Elected Officials Research Articles

Marshall Plan or neocolonization? The Model Cities Program and Black planning criticism

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the writing of Black activists, planners, and critics to reconcile two opposing perceptions of the Model Cities Program: an initiative known for its elevation of Black elected officials and a program that used the guise of citizen participation to stifle more radical forms of dissent. In 1966, Model Cities emerged in part from the call for a domestic Marshall Plan for Black Americans. Yet as the program began making incremental changes to the country’s neighbourhoods from 1967 to the early 1970s, participants and critics instead began to see Model Cities’ relationship to Black Americans as a new form of colonialism. To determine how this shift occurred, this paper analyses this critical commentary against the archival evidence of Model Cities implementation in the cities in which it appeared. Situating these authors’ arguments within the parallel emergence of Black studies and participatory planning as well as within larger Cold War diplomatic history, planning history, and African American intellectual history reveals how visions of revolution turned into a program of representation. Meanwhile, the plans these figures produced as part of Model Cities point to what a revolutionary program might yet be.

Perceived racial efficacy and voter engagement among African Americans

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to provide clarity on the link between Black people’s perceptions of racism in American institutions and society and voter engagement. We hypothesize that Black people with high feelings of racial efficacy, or the belief that government and society operate in a racially equitable manner, the more likely they will be to vote. Conversely, Black people with low racial efficacy are discouraged from voting. However, confidence in in-group leaders and movements can counteract the demobilizing risk of low racial efficacy. Our analysis uses data from an African American Research Collaborative national survey of 1200 Black voters. Analysis of turnout in 2016 finds that Black people with low racial efficacy were significantly less likely to vote, all else being equal. However, we find that having highly favorable attitudes toward Barack Obama, Black Elected Officials, and Black Lives Matter recovers the propensity to vote for low racial efficacy Blacks back to levels comparable with their racially optimistic peers. Finally, we conclude with a survey experiment which demonstrates that priming Black people with a low racial efficacy environment results in reduced faith in government, in part corroborating the causal direction theorized in our study.

African Americans’ Success in Alabama Before Obama: 1988-2008

The period between 1988-2008 represented an era of distinct contrasts for African Americans in Alabama. Although African Americans had considerable success following the Civil Rights Movement by1990, many of their children still attended all-black schools in poor racially isolated crime-ridden communities, and 38% of blacks lived in families with incomes below the poverty line, compared to an 18% state average. Politically, the period saw significant gains by African Americans. By the early 1990s the state had more than 700 black elected officials, one of the nation’s highest, which led to calls to create a district to elect an African American congressman. In 1992, such a district emerged, Alabama’s seventh as a result of a federal court-approved redistricting plan. Earl Hilliard, a state senator for Birmingham was elected to the seat becoming the first African American congressman since reconstruction. However, redrawing the seventh district proved costly to Democrats because it made two other congressional districts pro-Republican by taking away large chunks of black voters from the second and sixth districts. This paper examines the continuing challenges facing Alabama’s African American community at the close of the twentieth and start of the twenty-first centuries

Race, Representation, and Local Governments in the US South: The Effect of the Voting Rights Act

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 redefined race relations in the United States. Yet evidence on its effect on Black office holding remains scant. Using novel data on Black elected officials between 1962 and 1980, we assess the impact of the Voting Rights Act on the racial makeup of local governments in the Deep South. Exploiting predetermined differential exposure of Southern counties to the mandated federal intervention, we show that the latter fostered local Black office holding, particularly in the powerful county commissions, controlling local public finances. In the presence of election by district, covered counties experienced Black representation gains and faster capital spending growth.

From Complexity to Clarity

From Complexity to Clarity

“It’s a Racist Plot”: An Experimental Test of the Racial Defense

Black municipal leaders are routinely accused of using race and racism to sidestep allegations that they have run afoul the ethics of public office. That is, they use racial defenses to respond to what they view as racist attacks against them. This type of race-based account has been treated as commonplace in American politics, but its effectiveness as a political account has received little scholarly attention. For example, how effective is the racial defense at minimizing negative political fallout for scandalized Black politicians? Using data from a survey experiment, I test how Black Americans respond to the political accounts profferred by Black elected officials accused of official misconduct. I show that a strategy involving a racial defense can yield positive evaluations in terms of trait judgment and voter intention, while offering no comment reduces participant suspicion about investigative malfeasance.

Review: The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century, by Keneshia N. Grant

Review: <i>The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century</i>, by Keneshia N. Grant

The Limits of Black Politics in the Post–Civil Rights Era

Pluralist theorists have long contended that to exercise power and influence in the American political system, blacks should come together like any other organized interest group, form coalitions with other like‐minded people (white liberals), and advocate for policy reforms. Beginning during the “Black Power” era, the goal of putting black faces in high places to help address black concerns became a driving force in black politics. The deteriorating social and economic status of many in the black community, however, has not been prevented by either the political incorporation of more than 11,000 black elected officials or even the election of the nation’s first black president. This article will show how the inherent limitations of the pluralist interest‐group strategy and a growing white backlash fueled by an awareness of changing demographics in the country has spawned an economic and political crisis in black America.

“There Is NoNewBlack Panther Party”: The Panther-Like Formations and the Black Power Resurgence of the 1990s

“There Is No<i>New</i>Black Panther Party”: The Panther-Like Formations and the Black Power Resurgence of the 1990s

Live and Let Die: Rethinking Secondary Marginalization in the 21st Century

Thirty years ago black populations were disproportionately HIV + and far more likely to die of AIDS than other populations. Yet and still black elected officials, civil rights organizations, and black institutions ignored the problem. Now, at least in major metropolitan areas, circumstances appear to have changed—not only do civil rights organizations, black elected officials, and a range of black institutions take HIV and AIDS seriously, it is not uncommon to find promotional materials urging black populations to get tested and to practice safe sex. What has changed since that moment? In this paper I argue that the increased visibility attending HIV/AIDS in black communities has come with increased responsibilizing of blacks with HIV/AIDS or at risk of contracting HIV.

Reconsidering Palmer v Thompson

Reconsidering Palmer <scp>v</scp> Thompson

The Politics of Racial Symbolism: Deval Patrick and His Discourse of Education

This article assesses the link between racial symbolism and corporate education reform through the political discourse of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick between 2007 and 2010. Where many observers find the representation of high profile Black elected officials as an attenuation of racial domination, I argue it is the symbolism of racial progress that is utilized to advance corporate interests in public education reform. Patrick’s discourse supports neoliberal education reform as a solution to racialized issues of poverty, public safety, and mass incarceration. Through Patrick’s personal narratives he affirms a pro-blackness that acknowledges the pervasiveness of racial disparities in which he offers public education reform as an alternative in contrast to more punitive discourses of law and order.

The Racial Politics of Mass Incarceration

Dominant accounts of America's punitive turn assume that black elected officials and their constituents resisted higher levels of imprisonment and policing. We gather new data and find little support for this view. Panel regressions and an analysis of federally-mandated redistricting suggest that black elected officials had a punitive impact on imprisonment and policing. We corroborate this with public opinion and legislative data. Pooling 300,000 respondents to polls between 1955 and 2014, we find that blacks became substantially more punitive over this period, and were consistently more fearful of crime than whites. The punitive impact of black elected officials at the state and federal level was concentrated at the height of public punitiveness. In short, the racial politics of punishment are more complex than the conventional view allows. We find evidence that black elected officials and the black public were more likely than whites to support non-punitive policies, but conclude that they were constrained by the context in which they sought remedies from crime.

Relative Deprivation and Perceived Inefficacy of the Civil Rights Movement and of Black Elected Officials*

ObjectivesThis study addresses whether relative deprivation theory explains why some blacks perceive that the civil rights movement and black elected officials failed to improve the lot of the black community, including their own life chances.MethodsWe use data from a nationally representative survey of black adults, collected approximately 15 years after the passing of landmark civil rights legislation.ResultsNet of control variables, we find that relative deprivation associates significantly and positively with perceived inefficacy of black elected officials. However, relative deprivation does not predict perceptions of the civil rights movement as ineffective.ConclusionsWe know too little about mechanisms that produce variation in blacks’ perceptions of race‐related social change. Today's economic and sociopolitical climate provides a unique opportunity to explore and explain such variation.

Race and Anti-LGBT Legislation

This content analysis examines Mississippi and national newspaper coverage of House Bill 1523, which was considered harmful to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities in the state. The purpose of this study is to explore how the press, the public, and politicians discussed controversial issues related to LGBT rights and religious freedom legislation. Additionally, it examines how they interjected race into a discussion about the LGBT community. Results show conflict as a dominant news frame, anger as the dominant emotional appeal, and negativity as the primary tone. It also shows that Black elected officials cited as sources primarily discussed economics rather than race or equal rights.

Explaining White Opposition to Black Political Leadership: The Role of Fear of Racial Favoritism

Despite the election of America's first Black president, most non‐Hispanic Whites continue to oppose Black political leadership. The conventional explanation for White opposition is sheer racial prejudice, yet the available empirical evidence for this theory is inconsistent. I test an alternative theory that Whites perceive Black political leaders as a threat to their group's interests. Using a new survey measure and nationally representative panel data covering the 2008, 2010, and 2012 U.S. elections, I find that a majority of Whites perceive Black elected officials as likely to favor Blacks over Whites. Moreover, fear of racial favoritism predicts support for Barack Obama in both cross‐sectional models and fixed‐effects models of within‐person change, controlling for negative racial stereotypes. I replicate these findings using a separate cross‐sectional survey fielded after the 2014 election that controls for racial resentment. Collectively, these results suggest that perceptions of conflicting group interests—and not just prejudice—drive White opposition to Black political leadership.

Black Nationalist Tendencies and Their Association with Perceived Inefficacy of the Civil Rights Movement and of Black Elected Officials

This study addressed whether black nationalist tendencies explain why some blacks in 1980 perceived that the civil rights movement and black elected officials failed to improve the black community’s standing, including their own life chances. Those holding positions consistent with black nationalism argue, among other things, that racial integration, political participation, and alignment with white interests could not ultimately produce racial parity. Instead, they support (cultural, social, economic, and political) separatism, constant vigilance, and community uplift as tactics for engineering racial parity. Using data from a nationally representative survey of the black population collected 35 years ago, the authors measured black nationalist tendencies using six indicators: (1) agreement that blacks should vote for black candidates, (2) agreement that blacks should shop in black-owned stores, (3) agreement that black men should not date white women, (4) support for forming a black political party, (5) the presence of black literature and/or art in respondents’ homes, and (6) a sense of common fate. The authors found that these indicators associated significantly with perceived inefficacy of the civil rights movement and of black elected officials. However, the associations’ directions and strength often varied appreciably. The authors call for future research that characterizes black nationalist tendencies and investigates their contemporary interpersonal and sociopolitical implications.

Race in the Color‐blind Era: Deracialization and Black Elected Officials

AbstractThis paper reviews the emergence of Black elected officials and the deracialization concept within the literature of Blacks politics. The aim is to provide an overview of the critical issues and debates regarding Black elected officials since the Civil Rights Movement. I contend that an understanding of deracialization as an analytical construct, to assess the viability of Black elected officials and election outcomes, is clearer when examined from the perspective of structural change. Rather than just examining specific candidates and campaigns, a sociological approach that situates Black elected officials within the macro changes of society explains the contradiction of greater political representation yet persistent racial inequality. I conclude this paper with a brief discussion of how the study of deracialization as racial phenomena can be advanced through critical discourse analysis that identifies candidates within social networks of power and influence.

The Political Origins of Extremism: Minority Descriptive Representation and the Mobilization of American Hate Groups

Since 1997, the number of active white “hate groups” in the United States has nearly doubled, surpassing 800 as of 2011. Social scientists have paid only limited attention to this dangerous subculture, with the existing literature emphasizing the role of economic decline and frustration, demographic changes, and deep-rooted cultural forces as responsible for the sustained increase in contemporary hate groups. Although these factors are undoubtedly reflected in the extremist ideology of white hate groups, such explanations cannot fully account for the process by which white racist ideology is translated into political action. In this paper, we argue that white hate groups are best understood as a political movement, and that recent trends in white hate group activity can, to a large extent, be explained by contemporary changes in the political environment. Specifically, the literature on social movement formation would suggest that white hate group activity – as a form of unconventional political action – is most likely to occur when conventional political channels are perceived by racist extremists as ineffective at advancing their pro-white agenda. Perhaps no better cue that this is the case is the presence of blacks in office. We test this hypothesis by conducting state and county-level analyses of the relationship between the level of black descriptive representation and white hate group activity. The results of these analyses find the presence of black elected officials to be positively related to white hate group activity, even after controlling for the size of the nonwhite and Hispanic population, economic conditions, and other characteristics of the political environment. Ultimately, we conclude that increases in white hate group activity over the last two decades may have been at least partially fueled by white racists who have chosen unconventional politics to combat the enfranchisement of black voters and the election of blacks to office.

Who is Empowering Who

Previous studies of descriptive representation have not been able to overcome the classic endogeniety problem. For example, do Black elected officials cause Blacks to be more empowered? Or are Black politicians only elected in contexts where Blacks are already empowered? We address this shortcoming by utilizing genetic matching and the 1996 National Black Election Study. Genetic matching creates a pseudo-experimental environment where Blacks in districts with Black elected officials are matched with similarly situated Blacks in districts without Black representation. This research design allows us to better assess the causality of descriptive representation and changes in political attitudes. This study provides strong evidence that higher levels of efficacy are a result of descriptive representation, rather than the cause of it. Thus, our study demonstrates Black office-holding at the congressional level empowers the Black electorate.