I wrote this essay as a final paper for AAS 201 (Intro to African American Studies) at Princeton in Fall 2008. Given the current state of the GOP primary and it's increasing descent into naked white supremacy, I thought it would be interesting to take a look back at my thoughts and research back then. Below is the essay, unedited.
According to exit polls in the 2004 presidential election, eighty-eight percent of black voters supported the Democratic candidate, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) (MSNBC, 2004). Less than 150 years earlier, however, African-Americans had overwhelmingly supported the opposite party. The relationship between African-Americans and the Republican Party has been defined largely by the latter’s attitude towards the former, and as such the current state of affairs, with massive support for the opposite party, can change, especially considering the ideas of past and current African-American leaders and the general ideological leanings of African-Americans as a whole. The danger of the current political alignment among African-Americans is evident when looking at history, especially post-Reconstruction, where one party takes their support for granted, and one doesn’t want it at all, and as a simple matter of demographics, Republicans must find a way to appeal to African-Americans and other minorities, or face becoming a permanent minority party (Frum, 2008).
Before the Civil War, the Republican Party had not become a totally anti-slavery party, mainly focusing on halting the spread of slavery to new territories (Walton, Jr., 1975, p. 4). For the few black people that were involved in politics in this period, this meant that they did not fully back the Republican Party. Frederick Douglass himself claimed that the Republicans did “not go far enough in the right direction” with regards to slavery (Walton, Jr., 1975). Furthermore, when in 1856, John Fremont was the Republican nominee for President on moderate opposition to extending slavery, a convention of blacks in Boston endorsed him, but with the qualification of “we do not pledge ourselves to go further with the Republicans than the Republicans will go with us” (Walton, Jr., 1975, pp. 7-8). Blacks hesitated to provide too much support, lest they be taken for granted, without securing full support for the most important issue facing them in the antebellum period: the problem of slavery.
Of course, during the Civil War, abolition became a matter of military importance as well, leading to the Emancipation Proclamation and other actions which placed the Republicans firmly on the side against slavery. Abraham Lincoln became a symbol of these noble goals to blacks, and when he was assassinated, he became a martyr to the black community (Walton, Jr., 1975, p. 18-19). Republicans would utilize the legacy of Lincoln (and in fact, they still do today) try to hold on to black support (Walton, Jr., 1975). Right after the Civil War, during the early stages of Reconstruction when a strong military presence was still evident in the South, African-Americans, most of whom were newly freed slaves, experienced a strong period of political mobilization (Foner, 1990). This mobilization was exclusively with the Republican Party primarily because of the legacy of Lincoln and their role in Reconstruction, although other factors were at work. Obviously, the Democrats were not an option, since a large portion of their membership in the South had participated in (or at least were sympathetic to) the fight to keep slavery in place. Furthermore, “carpetbaggers” and “scalawags” each had their own intentions, not always so noble, to ally with blacks in the South under the Republican umbrella (Foner, 1990).
As Reconstruction waned, however, Democrats began to gain more of a hold, and white Republicans weakened their support for equal rights for African-Americans, in part to try to hold on to white votes, and in part because of a general attitude that contributed to the waning of Reconstruction in the first place; that blacks had the ballot and therefore could fend for themselves, while white Southerners should be allowed to take care of their own areas (Foner, 1990). Economic troubles and the general incompetence and corruption of the Grant administration also severely weakened the Republican Party in the North, and Redemption began throughout the South (Foner, 1990). African-Americans were now stuck between a party that openly declared them to be inferior and a party who accepted this definition in order to try to survive in the South. “Black and Tan” Republicans, as they were called (in contrast with the reactionary Lily Whites) tried to remain relevant, but Republicans at the national level, in attempts to preserve some degree of strength in the South, pursued policies designed to appeal to southern whites, at the expense of blacks (Walton, Jr., 1975). Over time, these policies would cause a split in black political alignment, with leaders lining up on different sides.
In this environment, where some gains had been made in Reconstruction, but many of those gains were subsequently lost, naturally there were different ideas among African-Americans about what to do to secure economic and political strength. The conservative viewpoint was that blacks should essentially seek to build success on their own, without major government assistance or redressing of wrongs (Bracey, 2008, p. xx). What this meant in a more detailed sense is that black conservatives believed in focusing more on economic success and worth rather than trying to gain social and political equality right away (Eisenstadt, 1999). They felt that capitalism does not (at least in theory) exclude people based on race, and that long-term success would be built on multiples of individuals succeeding as capitalists (Bracey, 2008, p. xxii), and this economic power would generate its own political strength through respect from whites. To this end, black conservative leaders encouraged the build-up of black businesses and other methods of self-improvement.
Perhaps the most famous black conservative was Booker T. Washington. His work with the Tuskegee Institute and numerous other institutions like the National Negro Business League was meant to advance his goals of promoting his own philosophy of self-help and character (Bracey, 2008, p. 19). For Washington and others, self-improvement was the only way that African-Americans would ever be able to overcome white prejudice. It should be noted that Washington, despite his conservative viewpoints, remains a well-known black leader, on par with DuBois and others. This is a testament to the influence that he had over the black community and black political ideology, and as we will see, it has not disappeared to the present day. Other leaders since Washington’s death have also been motivated by conservative viewpoints. Marcus Garvey, for example, pursued what one could easily classify as a conservative program of black revitalization. In line with the idea of self-help that forms a pillar of modern conservatism, Garvey claimed, “If you want liberty, you yourselves must strike the blow.” (Levine, 1982, p. 119). This philosophy is also in line with Garvey’s strong advancement of race pride, even going so far as to meet with the Ku Klux Klan to share what he saw as their common views on social equality and miscegenation (Levine, 1982). Garvey’s movement also had strong religious overtones, another characteristic of modern conservatism, with Garvey himself invoking Christianity and positioning his movement as one of a messianic nature (Levine, 1982, p. 123).
Even later movements like the Nation of Islam have strong conservative components (Bracey, 2008). The Nation of Islam’s strong emphasis on improving on the perceived cultural weakness of African-Americans, and building a society built on family values give it a decidedly conservative tint, although its rejection of “Western” values does not quite line up with modern conservatives (Bracey, 2008). The Black Power movement also had a conservative flavor, with its very strong insistence that blacks had to help themselves improve without any white help at all (Bracey, 2008). While, once again, there are obviously components that do not agree with modern conservatism, the fact is that both of these movements, which are still part of the picture when considering black political ideology, are at their core, more conservative than not.
Even some of the most notable black liberal leaders have had some decidedly conservative ideas. DuBois in The Souls of Black Folk endorsed the idea of a “talented tenth” to “scatter civilization among a people” (DuBois, 1903, p. 60), and he emphasizes in an essay early in his career that “UNLESS WE CONQUER OUR PRESENT VICES THEY WILL CONQUER US” (DuBois, 1897). In the same essay, he explicitly refuses to push for social equality, instead stating that blacks must overcome their own problems and tendencies first before trying to correct the situation that they find themselves in (DuBois, 1897). Ida B. Wells, who later came to strongly oppose what she saw as Washington’s accomodationist attitude and aligned herself (at least ideologically) with DuBois and the NAACP (Holt, 1982), initially approved to some extent of his conservative message of self-help, although she believed that the economic power that African-Americans would gain from such success should be utilized as a weapon, rather than as an example (Holt, 1982, p. 44). Even today, President-elect Barack Obama, defined by the National Journal as the United States Senator with the most liberal voting record in 2007 (Friel et al., 2008), has embraced some conservative viewpoints on issues that are of particular interest to the black community. He has repeatedly called on black fathers to take a greater role in raising their children, and for parents in general to take more responsibility in helping to educate them (Bosman, 2008). He has also hinted at curtailing affirmative action programs based solely on race and introducing class into the equation (Swarns, 2008). Overall, while the most prominent and powerful African-American leaders today are on the Democratic, and therefore usually liberal, side of the political spectrum, and many prominent leaders in the past were on the whole opposed to the conservatism of people like Washington, there were and are conservative aspects to their views. Coupled with the conservatism of Washington and Garvey, and black nationalist movements, it is clear that black politics from the very beginning of major black participation after the Civil War to today, has been influenced by conservative ideals, and at least some of this influence must transfer to the larger population.
Black Americans have also been shown to be more conservative than would be expected on social issues, if one only considered their recent voting record for candidates. According to aggregated Gallup polling from 2006, 2007, and 2008, only thirty percent of blacks who also identify themselves as Democrats believe that homosexual relations are morally acceptable, which is about half of the percentage of non-black Democrats, and only one point (within the margin of error) more than all Republicans (Newton, 2003). Gallup also polled other moral issues on which Democrats generally fall on one side and Republicans fall on the other, and there was at least a twenty-point deficit between black and non-black Democrats on the moral acceptability of every issue except abortion (seventeen points) and the death penalty (twelve points) (Newton, 2003). Furthermore, black Democrats’ responses are nearly identical to those of Republicans on many of the issues (Newton, 2003). In the case of the death penalty, of course, its moral acceptability is a conservative viewpoint rather than a liberal one, but nevertheless, this data clearly shows that black Democrats are more conservative on moral and social issues than would be expected based on electoral history.
These viewpoints do have electoral ramifications. California’s Proposition 8 was a ballot initiative that amended the California state constitution to strip same-sex couples of the right to marry when it passed in the 2008 elections. Mr. Obama also won California, with ninety-five percent of the black vote (MSNBC, 2008). However, despite Mr. Obama’s expressed opposition to the ballot measure (McKinley, 2008), fifty-eight percent of African-Americans voted for it, according to a recent report (Egan & Sherrill, 2009). This situation, in which black voters chose a solidly liberal candidate but voted on something else in the same election in a somewhat conservative fashion, is an instructive example on how the Republican Party can appeal to black voters again on ideological grounds.
The same report accounts for the differences in support of Proposition 8 due to higher rates of church attendance among blacks (Egan & Sherrill, 2009), and Gallup polling confirms that black Democrats are significantly more likely to attend church regularly than other Democrats or even Republicans, and indeed the moral acceptance of homosexual relations, a reverse barometer of the level of social conservatism, has an inverse correlation with church attendance (Newton, 2003). While there is disagreement as to whether the black church has a negative or positive effect on black political ideology and participation, there is consensus that the church does have quite an effect (Harris-Lacewell, 2004). As slaves were freed in the South following the Civil War, they began to build their own churches, and their desire to determine their own destiny coupled with the refusal of many white congregations to accept black members ensured that the black church would become an independent institution from established religious order (Foner, 1990). This role allowed it to also become a powerful source for political strength as well, not at least helped by the fact that black religious leaders often took on political roles as well in their communities (Foner, 1990). This is most evident by its role in the civil rights movement in providing some of its most prominent leaders like Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rev. Ralph Abernathy, but also in black political leaders today like the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. While Jackson and Sharpton may not actually accurately reflect black political opinion, the point still stands that both gained their status among black people through the church.
It is no secret that the most solidly Republican voting bloc today, despite the efforts of Mr. Obama and the concerns of leaders worried about Senator John McCain’s conservative credentials, are evangelical Christians, with seventy-four percent of those voters going to the 2008 Republican nominee for President, Mr. McCain (MSNBC, 2008). Furthermore, even with the uncertainty of exit polls, Mr. McCain won by double digits among voters who said that they attend religious services weekly (MSNBC, 2008). The Republican Party is now clearly identified with the church (at least the Protestant variety) and its socially conservative stances, and emphasizing these in appeals to black voters could gain some headway.
However, the Republican Party and conservatism do have a large image problem among black Americans, which may be the biggest reason why they support Democrats so faithfully. According to Melissa Harris-Lacewell’s analysis of a 1998 study, African-Americans see many black conservatives as only looking out for themselves, instead of trying to uplift the whole community in the tradition of black nationalism (2004, p. 140). The difference between moderate nationalism and conservatism among blacks, as discussed earlier, is largely about perception, and in fact this study showed that blacks were actually more likely to express conservative viewpoints on a news event (in this case, the Million Man March) when not being prodded in a discussion by a conservative leader (2004, p. 141-142). This effect may be partially due to group interaction, as Harris-Lacewell states, but I believe that resistance to perceived paternalism might also be in effect. Especially with a message of conservatism, which puts the pressure on the deficient group to improve their own situation, people can become resistant to being told that they themselves must improve to fix their problems, especially coming from a group with more perceived power. We can recall the strong negative reaction to Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s report “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action”, released in 1965 (Hymowitz, 2005). Moynihan was accused most notably of “blaming the victim” when it came to blacks and their problems (Hymowitz, 2005).
Of course, the next step from a benevolent paternalistic viewpoint is one that is outright racist, and black perception follows this same path. Clearly, a large factor in the black community’s rejection of the Republican message is the perception that they are a largely racist institution, and they have to this date done many things to confirm that idea in the minds of black people. Ronald Reagan’s speech where he claimed that he “believed in states’ rights” from the very same Mississippi town where three men had been murdered in 1964 while trying to register black voters (Herbert, 2000). Then-candidate George W. Bush’s visit to Bob Jones University, which forbade interracial dating until controversy forced a change (Herbert, 2000). Senator Trent Lott (R-MS), as the Senate Republican leader, expressing regret that Strom Thurmond’s campaign for president, on a segregationist platform, had failed (Hulse, 2002). The poor response by the Bush Administration to Hurricane Katrina (Bumiller, 2005). Then-Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) using the word “macaca” to describe a dark-skinned opposing campaign worker (Stout, 2006). The “Harold, call me” ad used against Harold Ford, Jr. in a race for U.S. Senator in Tennessee (Toner, 2006). The numerous gaffes, intentional or not, by Republicans during the campaign season expressing racist sentiment when running against a black candidate, and the recent controversy over a parody song titled “Barack the Magic Negro” on a CD distributed by a candidate for the position of chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) (DeParle, 2008). All of these actions, even if they were not perpetrated with racist intent, contribute to the perception of racism from the Republican Party. Obviously one cannot expect from such a large group of people for everyone to control themselves (and the 2008 Democratic primaries demonstrated that even Democrats have trouble with this too), but avoiding the kinds of high-profile mistakes that contribute to this perception would go a long way towards changing it.
All these examples are not to say that Republicans have not tried to make inroads recently. When Ken Mehlman was chairman of the RNC in 2004, he notably went before many black audiences to apologize for the Republican Party’s racially polarized politics, President Bush finally accepted an invitation to speak before the NAACP, after turning it down five times (Nagourney, 2006), and Mr. McCain did speak in front of both the NAACP and the Urban League during the campaign. The problem with all of these overtures is that they seem to be isolated occurrences, and they are often overshadowed by the above incidents, fairly or not. Concerted efforts combined with reduced incidents should allow these efforts to be more widely recognized.
Another problem among Republicans is the lack of representation of African-Americans in high elected office (as Republicans) and at high levels in the party. Only thirty-six of the 2,380 delegates at the 2008 Republican National Convention were black (Keck, 2008), and the RNC has never had a black chairman (Nagourney, 2009). In contrast, there were 1,079 black delegates to the Democratic National Convention (Keck, 2008), and the DNC has had a black chairman, Ron Brown. Also, since 1940, only three black Republicans have served in Congress, in contrast with over twenty on the Democratic side (Elliot, 2008), and since Reconstruction, there have been no black Republican governors, compared to three Democrats, two of whom are currently serving, and of course, an African-American won the Democratic Party’s nomination for President in 2008. The reversal of Republicans’ reputation among African-Americans will take time, but it would certainly not hurt to have more black people as public faces of the party, to act as affirmation of an inclusive message. Figures like Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice are important, but their appeal has, I believe, always stemmed from the fact that they did and do not usually take strong political stances publicly, something that won’t work for Republicans trying to reach out to black voters based on common ideological grounds. I believe that promoting more black leaders within their own party will be the first step if Republicans want to commit to attracting more black voters. At the same time, as alluded in the study to earlier, black Republicans must appear to be helping the black community through their policies and actions in order to gain approval. Only then will African-Americans be more receptive to a Republican message.
Since black political participation began in earnest during Reconstruction, black people’s relationship with the Republican Party has changed drastically, from major support to major opposition, as an African-American has now been elected as president as a member of the opposing Democrats, who initially rejected the idea of equal rights for African-Americans. Black Republicans are now few and far between, and even when they run in elections with sizable black portions of the electorate, they make little headway among black voters. For example, in the 2006 Maryland U.S. Senate race, Democrat Ben Cardin beat black Republican Michael Steele by a 3:1 ratio among black voters, who made up almost a quarter of the voters (CNN, 2006). However, the election of the first African-American president has brought issues of race and politics to the forefront, and some of the few prominent black Republicans to the forefront. Steele and Ken Blackwell of Ohio are both leading candidates for chairman of the RNC (Nagourney, 2009). If either of them were to win, it would send a signal to African-Americans, but it is important for Republicans to follow up and demonstrate a real commitment, if they really want to make a dent in black support for Democrats. They may have no choice to ensure their survival.
According to estimates by the United States Census Bureau, by 2042, whites will no longer constitute a majority of America’s population (Hsu, 2009). Considering the demographic composition and general perception of the Republican Party, it must start making inroads with minorities, including African-Americans, if it wishes to continue as a viable force in national American politics. Also, African-Americans must be careful to avoid having their overwhelming support towards Democrats taken for granted, as Republicans did during and after Reconstruction. African-Americans deserve to be able to draw from ideas from all sides of the political spectrum in pushing for policies that work for them, and real and fair competition for their votes among politicians will hopefully result in results that work for the African-American community.
I pledge that this paper represents my own work in accordance with University regulations.
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