I Worked For Bruce Davis

Although tensions existed between both blocs, Harold Washington was able to prove that African American, like whites, could effectively run politics. The Mayor was able to renew the face of Chicago politics through a “rainbow coalition” that entailed the inclusion to high positions in the city government of “minorities, women, progressive whites and gays”. City agencies were more accountable, funds for social services were now given “to churches, social service organizations, and community organizations” so in this way there was not a patronage system been execute. He provided to many different communities the power needed to progress, a vision never seen before in Chicago. However, the City Council Wars saw an increased in the number committees going from 29 to 37 benefiting the “majority bloc supporters with chairmanships” and the budget for more council staff also grew. The end of Council Wars occurred when elections for aldermen took place in seven wards where racial inequality existed in Byrne’s remapping (CH7).

Wayne Ford served 14 years as an Iowa State Representative for one of the most diverse districts in Iowa. While there, he authored the Minority Impact Statement. This statement allows for the opportunity that new bills can be evaluated to make sure they do not negatively affect minorities. Ford retired in 2011 as the longest serving African-American state representative in Iowa’s history.

In “Congress in Black and White,” Christian Grose discusses his theory of politics and the different methods of choosing a representative that will serve the majority and minority communities equally. He believes that the best way to choose a representative is based on the majority of the people within that community. For example, he states that the best person to represent the African American community would be another African American who can empathize with what the community experiences on a daily basis. He explains the two theories black majority versus black-influence districts. For example, the term white-majority has lost its emphasis over the year. Within California, you can

He demonstrates that Northern Republicans, Southern Conservatives and Southern Radicals all had reasons to court black citizens. With blacks being given the right to vote, the parties had to appeal to blacks also in order to win elections.

It is now 2017. African Americans are apart of the society of the United States. They are an equal contributor to the success of the country. Even after having an African American president, some White people fail to acknowledge to role the African American race has played in the progression of our country. Politics have been historically dominated by White males. Even though politicians are supposed to represent their region as a whole, not by each separate race, they still are one-sided. Ward composes a brief experience she had with a White politician, “Trent Lott took a whip as long as a car off his office table, where it lay coiled and shiny brown, and said to my one male schoolmate who grinned at Lott enthusiastically: Let’s show ‘em how us good old boys do it. And then he swung that whip through the air and cracked it above our heads, again and again. I remember the experience in my bones” (Ward 6). Despite the progress that the United States has made as a country, some people are stubborn and forever stuck in their ways. To have a whip in your

146). In 1989 many Blacks were elected under this paradigm including mayors, David Dinkins in New York, Norm Rice in Seattle, John Daniels in New Haven, Connecticut, Chester Jenkins in Durham, North Carolina, and Michael White in Cleveland (p. 146). Also, in that election Douglas Wilder became the first Black governor in Virginia since Reconstruction, and these successes lead many throughout the Black political arena began to adopt this “race-neutral” philosophy (pgs. 146-147). Transcending into the 1990’s Black scholars analyzing how political campaigns emphasizing the importance of racial disparities and barriers were polarizing to the white community, came up with strategies that was called “deracialzation” (p. 147). Proposing that to remove the element of racial politics out of a campaign would weaken the impact of the Republican Party’s traditional use of race as a way to play on the inherent racial prejudices of Whites, and revert to the coalition politics of uniting labor, liberals, Whites and Blacks under the same banner. Candidates using the “deracialzation” template exhibit behavior that in non-threatening to Whites, and avoid talking about issues that

In Whose Black Politics?: Cases in Post-racial Black Leadership, Andra Gillespie argues that there has been a transformation when it comes to black leaders when looking at Generation X. Gillespie has created a three-dimension model. These typologies are what Gillespie calls “Third Phrase Black Politicians” in which is a “wave characterized by ambitus politicians with more moderate politics” (13). These leaders will not have as many racialized political views and movements like the previous generation such as the Civil Rights movement. Gillespie analyzes the different leadership types using a multidimensional model such as if the individual has crossover appeal, ties to the black establishment, and perceived trajectory. The typologies are broken down into eight different types such as the Ivy League upstarts, Local Kids Made Goods, Rebrands of their parents, Deracialized sequels, chips off the old block, New “Old standard Bearers, New Activists, and Rebels without a chance. This critical review will be to apply Gillespie’s typology to Harold Ford Jr., Artur Davis, Cory Booker, Marion Barry, Jesse Jackson Jr., Michael Steele, and Tim Scott, who are Black politicians that have similar and different backgrounds. To understand Gillespie typologies there must be an understanding of the multidimensional model that is use to analyze the typologies. In addition, Gillespie typology goes much deeper because it help us understand how sometimes to be successful you have to have both

However, Secretary Clinton must find ways to preserve this level of support. African American voter turnout had record highs of 65% and 66% in ’08 and ’12 respectively (Walter,1). While this turnout was a piece of a larger trend, the chance to vote for the first black President could have overinflated these numbers. Obama pulled down 95% and 93% of the black vote in the general elections, and Sec. Clinton must find a way to replicate those results. She will not have the support based on shared demographics that the president benefitted from. The secretary is a rich white woman and that demographic difference from her predecessor will require her to find different ways to connect to this voting bloc. Specifically, she will need to run a color conscious campaign, in contrast to the relatively color blind campaigns that the President ran.

Reports about gerrymandering, the dividing of a district to give one political party a majority while concentrating to have an electoral advantage, is dominating the news. For example, the Washington Post Editorial Board wrote a piece on how federal judges delivered a blow to racial gerrymandering in Virginia (Editorial Board, 2014). Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District stretches from James River from Norfolk to Richmond engaged in racial gerrymandering and the panel of judges ordered state lawmakers to redraw the boundaries by next spring. They pack more blacks voters into black incumbent Rep. Booby Scott (D), which already had a majority black population and this left other districts “whiter and safer” for Republican incumbents and this raises many questions as many answers because it suggests the redistricting plays a huge role in affecting black

Second, Clinton’s Black endorsements will sway the general African-American population to vote for her. Clinton’s strategic plan to use Black endorsements to her campaign’s advantage is shown in the aforementioned column, Key Bloc of Black Mayors to Back Hillary Clinton. Author, Perry Bacon Jr., writes: “Clinton has made courting African-Americans activists a key part of her campaign, from attending the annual gala for the Congressional Black Caucus to meeting with key figures in the ‘Black Lives Matter’ [movement]” (NBC News). It is essential to note that Clinton’s ability to “court” Black socioeconomic and political figures she has inevitably allowed her to received a large faction of their approval nationally. Consequently, these endorsements will ultimately persuade the general Black public to vote for Clinton because they are influence by the decisions of the nation’s Black leaders. African-American endorsements represent more than just fiscal support for Clinton’s campaign, rather it gives her the “she is one of us” Black appeal for her presidential

clearly says that “Kentucky is not ready for a black president”, the film also brought to the forefront of how divided the country, not only between black and white, rich and poor, or red and blue, but between the educated and the uneducated—a fact exemplified routinely by the incessant criticism of Obama's tenure at Harvard.

The election of President Obama marks the most noteworthy political accomplishment for African Americans in the United States during the post-civil rights revolution, thus bringing about a change in the country’s social and political landscape that was steeped in racial discrimination since the founding of this great nation. Because social and political conditions are subject to constant change, President Obama’s

Prior to the 1960s, rarely was there black representation in Congress. Putting aside for a moment the irony of this in a country that declared its independence under the banner of “no taxation with representation,” this posed a serious issue for the black community.

How the republican party gain black-american votes, is more or less the same as the democratic party gained votes using their own strategies. As both parties have been influencing minorities, ethnic groups have been sought after as voting blocs and attracted by one or another political party based on agendas designed specifically for them (Zake and Gormly, 469–490). This offers insight on how strategies were used not just by the republican but also by the democratic party, this insight offers an opposing viewpoint of Brown that the Republican party was not the only party to use political strategies that were constructed to create diversity. There are many ways that ethnic groups and minorities have been part of political content, during the 1930s the Democratic Nationalities Division found itself engaged in political work even in the periods between the election campaigns and its task was to generate a long-term strategy for appealing to ethnic voters. It consisted of a person or two looking after foreign language affairs (Zake and Gormly, 469–490). The Democrats’ strategy was to put senators or congressmen as the leaders of these foreign languages sections and thus avoid conflicts and power competition among different leaders within the ethnic group. Doing this gives other minorities a sense of accomplishment. Going back to the republicans

This book examines the advancement of black leadership and politics since the Civil Rights Movement. It looks Barack Obama, from his time spent 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.