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AFRICAN-AMER. & DEMOCRATIC PARTY.
Term Paper ID:25899
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Essay Subject:
Examines shift of black vote to Democrats beginning in 1928. Economics, organization, abandonment of Republican Party, Presidential elections, civil rights & 1960s, future.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Examines shift of black vote to Democrats beginning in 1928. Economics, organization, abandonment of Republican Party, Presidential elections, civil rights & 1960s, future.
Paper Introduction:
Historically, African Americans were strong supporters of the Republican Party after the Civil War. Throughout the nineteenth century, The Republican Party were perceived as the champions of Emancipation while the Democrats were associated with white supremacy. However, by the Great Depression and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1936 presidential campaign, African Americans had made a dramatic shift toward supporting the Democratic Party. African American support for the Democratic Party has remained steadfast in the sixty years since the New Deal. To a great extent, the change in African American perceptions of the two parties has changed because of the remarkable transformation these parties underwent from the beginning of the twentieth century through FDR's 1936 election. This paper will focus on the three presidential elections
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To a greatextent, the change in African American perceptions of the two parties haschanged because of the remarkable transformation these parties underwentfrom the beginning of the twentieth-century through FDR's 1936 election.This paper will focus on the three presidential elections between 1928 and1936 because this period saw the dramatic shift of the black vote to theDemocratic Party. By 1936 black flight to the DemocraticParty was very pronounced. II. The Tyranny of Change: America in theProgressive Era, 189 -192 . New York: Penguin Books. From Slavery to Freedom: AHistory of Negro Americans. The growth of black political movements such as the UrbanLeague and the NAACP, as well as the growth in black newspapers, provided aplatform for familiarizing blacks with the political process. The Great Depression officially began in October of 1929 but AfricanAmericans had been feeling the economic pinch a few years earlier. Partly motivated by the Progressiveactivism of the day, partly due to the frustrations at lack ofparticipation in government policies, African Americans began many of theirmost famous political and social advocacy organizations. Conversely, theyconvinced many white southerners that the Democratic party was abandoningthem for the Negro and that it was time to switch allegiance to theRepublican Party (Franklin and Moss, 1988, 346). A People's History of the United States. The last years of thedecade saw some of the worst racial riots in American history. After Kennedy's assassination, they supportedLyndon Johnson's reelection in overwhelming numbers because he had pledgedto continue the civil rights policies of the Kennedy administration. At any rate, the return of AfricanAmericans to the political process after the disenchantment of the 197 sand early 198 s, ensure that neither party can afford to take the blackvote for granted. Parker, a white supremacist, to thefederal judicial branch. Theywere looking to compensate for the inroads Republicans had made amongSouthern whites by securing the alienated black support (whose aid camemostly in the form of money rather than votes). World War I and thepolicies of the Wilson Administration reinforced the perception ofalienation for African Americans. After World War II, the NAACP, also frustrated at the slowpace of reform in the legislative and executive branches (especially thefoot dragging of the Eisenhower Administration) of government, began acampaign of legal challenges to segregation and Jim Crow Laws. Despite the transformation of African American political allegiance,they did not stop efforts outside the political process to affect change inAmerica's social, legal, and economic policies. By theearly 197 s, America was experiencing civil rights fatigue in which whitesfelt that, "America had done enough for blacks and that it was time to goback to the old 'morality' and the old verities of free enterprise andrugged individualism" (Bennett, 1993, 436). (1988). (1992). Mitchell was a registered Republican in 193 but by 1934, hehad been elected to Congress as a Democrat (Franklin and Moss, 1988, 346).In 1936 Roosevelt captured a majority of the black vote in important citiessuch as Chicago where he garnered 52% of their vote (Bennett, 1993, 36 ). Yet blacks still perceived they had a friends in the Kennedy brothersand the Democratic Party. Jr. Franklin states that in"1924 when the Democratic candidate for president, John W. Blackfarmers were already suffering from the effects of racism in agriculturalloans, depressed prices, and the boowevil blight on crops. Heading toward the 2 presidential election, it seems apparent thatAfrican Americans will continue to vote for the Democratic candidate as thelesser of two evils. After his election, FDR began a series of informal policies whichgained wide favor among African Americans. In fact,Reagan's hostility to blacks was perceived as so bad, Supreme Court JusticeThurgood Marshall (the first African American to sit on the High Court anda longtime Civil Rights Crusader) labeled him the worst civil rightspresident of the century (Bennett, 1993, 439). A. Eleanor Roosevelt virtually served as an ambassador to black America. YetAfrican American voters overwhelmingly supported the reelection bid ofJimmy Carter. Throughout the nineteenth century,The Republican Party were perceived as the champions of Emancipation whilethe Democrats were associated with white supremacy. Martin's Press. However, by the GreatDepression and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's 1936 presidential campaign,African Americans had made a dramatic shift toward supporting theDemocratic Party. Simultaneously, the Klu Klux Klan experienced atremendous growth in membership and political power. Although generally disenfranchised from the political process inAmerica, African Americans had been strong supporters of the RepublicanParty through the end of Reconstruction. Outrage over the Clarence Thomasconfirmation hearings also mobilized black women to vote in numbers greaterthan had been experienced during the Civil Rights Movement of the 196 s.Democrat Bill Clinton swept into power in 1992 with the support of 82% ofthe black vote nationwide while President Bush could only garner 11% of theblack vote. Many had difficultyabandoning the "party of Lincoln" which had done so much to secure theirfreedom in the immediate years surrounding the Civil War. For example, in Chicago, where blackpolitical activity was strong, only 23% of the Black vote supported theDemocrats. They stillfeared that electing a Democrat for president would open the door forracist Southern Democrats to control all branches of government. African Americans, like most Americans, were thoroughly impressedwith the programs of the New Deal. At the grass roots level, African Americans quietly opposed theReagan/Bush reactionism by electing black local and state officials.Between 1986 and 1987, the number of black elected officials rose from6,424 to 6,681 and the overwhelming majority of these candidates wereDemocrats (Bennett, 1993, 44 ). The recessionof the mid 192 s also affected urban blacks particularly hard in the formof layoffs (Franklin & Moss, 1988, 341). She enjoyed a close relationship with Mary McLeod Bethune and the NationalCouncil for Negro Women, having them to the White House for tea on severaloccasions. In 198 , CalifornianRepublican Ronald Reagan won the presidential election by a landslide. Hoover increasingly courted whiteSouthern voters and was responsible for the growth of the Republican partyin that region. Despite these warning signs of blackdiscontent, President Bush attempted to accelerate the policies todismantle "quotas" (affirmative action) and other civil rights gainsinitiated by his predecessor. Philip Randolph threatened Roosevelt with a 1 , strongmarch on Washington in 1941 unless he opened up the war industries to blackworkers and ended discrimination against blacks in the military (Bennett,1993, 366). Black political organizations also initiatedcampaigns to oust those Senators who voted for the confirmation of theJudge Parker (Franklin and Moss, 1988, 344). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. (199 ). While economic conditions were getting worse, their traditionalallies, the Republican Party, began drifting away from supporting issuesimportant to African Americans, and increasingly courted Southern whites.In the Presidential election of 1924, the Republicans made a conscientiousdecision to forgo the black vote in an attempt to make inroads into theSouthern Democrat's power base. Historically, African Americans were strong supporters of theRepublican Party after the Civil War. African American support for the Democratic Party hasremained steadfast in the sixty years since the New Deal. Lerone Bennett Jr. In1965 he rewarded his black supporters by signing the Voting Rights Act, abill he knew would bring more African voters and support to the DemocraticParty (Zinn, 199 , 45 ). Nevertheless, this represented a significant increase overprevious elections (Franklin and Moss, 1988, 345). A wholegeneration of African Americans were turning their backs on the traditionalpolitical alliances and embracing Black Power. Republicans face the dilemma of satisfying theirright wing, white constituents while also realizing that failure to appealto African Americans, the increasingly powerful Hispanic vote, and centristwhites, will almost certainly doom their presidential aspirations.Nevertheless, the decrease in black attendance at universities nationwide,and the growing gulf between those who have and those who do not, make itimperative that African Americans explore the possibilities for thirdalternatives to the two major parties. Chambers, J.W. Almost immediately he assembleda "kitchen cabinet," a group of experts and advisors with no officialcabinet rank but who nevertheless provided him with advice on many issues.From time to time prominent African American leaders were called upon toparticipate in these councils. It will also look at the relationship between blackpolitical activity and the Democratic Party in the decades after the 1936presidential election. He believesthat "faced with a choice between the Depression-doomed policies of Hooverand the social programs of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, enormous numbers ofblacks leaped from the deck and discovered that the new water of democracywas fine" (Bennett, 1993, 36 ). quotes an old axiom to explain why blacks didnot abandon the Republican Party in more dramatic numbers in 1928: "theRepublican Party is the deck and all outside is the sea." He also explainswhy the trickle of defection in 1932 became a flood by 1936. They believe that the black voter was becoming politically moresophisticated. They studied the voting records ofmembers of Congress and watched the utterances and policies of thepresidents in order to ferret out those whom they considered their enemies"(Franklin and Moss, 1988, 344). (1993) Before the Mayflower: A History of BlackAmerica. All of these tactics gave African Americans the perception that the newpresident cared about their aspirations and concerns. The Kennedy Administration becamestrong supporters of the African American movement partly out of sympathy,but also from fear of the embarrassment of a civil and human rightscampaign at home while the United States fought for democracy during theCold War abroad. Franklin and Moss make another interesting argument concerning whyblacks abandoned the Republican Party in the late twenties and earlythirties. Thus, in the 1932 election, FDR only captured smallnumbers of the African American vote. Thequestion of FDR's health was important to African Americans because theyfeared if something happened to him, then his white supremacist runningmate, John Nance Garner of Texas, would become president (Franklin andMoss, 1988, 345). By 1935, twenty-six percent ofblack males and thirty-two percent of black females, nationwide, wereunemployed (Bennett, 1993, 359). Despite these activities, African Americans did not abandon theRepublican Party completely in the 1932 election. Mitchell as typical of the transformation in black politicalallegiance. Furthermore, fewoutside New England knew anything about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and wereunwilling to trust the traditionally anti-black Democrats. At the same time Republicans were lookingto change their power base, Democrats began courting the black vote. Adam Clayton Powell Jr.lead a series of economic boycotts in Harlem throughout the 193 s (Bennett,1993, 361). The slow but steady rise in black defections from the RepublicanParty can be attributed to discontent with Herbert Hoover's social andeconomic policies from 1928 to 1932. Franklin, J.H. By the early 196 s, the Civil Rights Movement, lead by a new crop ofAfrican American leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., had capturednational and international attention. Franklin and Moss support their argument by providing examples ofblack backlash against those in the Republican Party whose votes onparticular issues ran counter to their interests. References Bennett, L. Thus, "more and more blacks were usingtheir votes to register their protests. In 193 they organized support pressuring Congress tovote against confirmation of John J. New York: St. However, an explosive backlash occurred in the early 199 s when someof the worst riots in over a generation occurred in Los Angeles after anall white jury acquitted white policemen of beating a black motorist aftera harrowing high speed chase. By 1968, both Kennedys, King, and Malcolm X were dead. Hoover also reduced the patronage traditionally reservedfor black Republicans. Franklin and Moss point to the example ofArthur W. It appeared that the nation as a wholewas more interested in democracy and human rights abroad than right here athome. However, the Republican andDemocratic Parties began changing their respective focus on their politicalbase as American industrialism became more sophisticated and developed.John Whiteclay Chambers II described this era as a time when a "new spirit[was infused] into the national government, rekindling public faith inWashington's ability to respond to national problems" (Chambers, 1992,199). Despite Kennedy's support and the passage of severalcivil rights bills, black frustration was increasingly voiced through themovement due to the slow change in their social and economic conditions.By 1963, 1/5 of all whites lived below the poverty line while more than 1/2of all blacks lived below the poverty line (Zinn, 199 , 45 ). In the mid-192 s blacksorganized their vote against those senators who voted against the Dyerantilynching bill. FDR also invited various African Americanleaders to the White House for consultations (photo opportunities). Eleanor Roosevelt also regularly attended black ceremonies,visited African American schools and federal projects, and always posed forpictures at these events which were widely circulated in black communities. and Moss A.A. Several studies have shown that newly registered (Democratic)black voters provided Clinton his margin of victory in New Jersey andGeorgia (Bennett, 1993, 441). These papersand organizations also acted as an information network which informedblacks of the most current developments on the political stage as well asthe voting records of politicians. Finally, Hoover's laze-faire economic policiesensured benefits for large corporations but brought no relief to blackfarmers or industrial workers as their financial woes spiraled out ofcontrol. African Americans were excluded from the economic benefits ofindustrialization, and lynchings and race riots were frequent occurrencesthroughout the nation. However, this new spirit of participation in the national governmentdid not extend to African Americans. Right wing conservatives had experienced a resurgence by the late197 s, in large part by appealing to white fatigue over civil rights issuesas well as promises to fix the ailing economy. Reagan set about further dismantling the economic gains ofAfrican Americans while encouraging social policies which raciallypolarized America in a manner not seen since the early 196 s. Davis, promisedthat if elected he would make no distinctions on the basis of race orcreed, and when the Progressive candidate, Robert LaFollette, made asimilar statement, Negroes began to desert the Republican Party" (Franklinand Moss, 1988, 343). Zinn, H. New York:Harper Perennial. Jr.
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