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A Thorn in the Flesh of the GOP

Leah Wright Rigueur

in The Loneliness of the Black Republican: Pragmatic Politics and the Pursuit of Power

This chapter looks at how the enactment of the civil rights acts of the mid-1960s, coupled with white Republican's rejection of segregationist appeals and embrace of “colorblind” outreach, gave some ... More

This chapter looks at how the enactment of the civil rights acts of the mid-1960s, coupled with white Republican's rejection of segregationist appeals and embrace of “colorblind” outreach, gave some black Republicans the latitude to support candidates and leaders that they would not support earlier. Yet for others, including the militant leaders of the National Negro Republican Assembly (NNRA), this evolution was impossible, particularly since many white Republicans continued to equivocate over race, even as they championed the significance of the black vote. Jackie Robinson, for example, changed his affiliation to independent in August 1968 and disavowed the Republican Party, arguing that a few gestures and overtures did not demonstrate a genuine concern for African American needs.Less

The Return to Electoral Politics, 1932–1946

Alton Hornsby

in Black Power in Dixie: A Political History of African Americans in Atlanta

This chapter focuses on the political awakening of black Americans in Atlanta. In 1921, the decisive impact of the black vote signaled the reawakening of African American voters in Atlanta and their ... More

This chapter focuses on the political awakening of black Americans in Atlanta. In 1921, the decisive impact of the black vote signaled the reawakening of African American voters in Atlanta and their return to electoral politics. However this reawakening was deeply rooted in the deep emotional sense of the black communities. This sustained renewal of black interest and a systematic return to electoral politics was spurred by the roles played by the African Americans during the municipal elections of 1932 and 1946 wherein they displayed their voting power and their political influence on the electoral process and in Atlantan politics. After acquiring their right to suffrage and their right to educating themselves, the black voters had a new important decisive role in elections—a decisive role wherein black leaders and white politicians saw a clear image of the forthcoming electoral and political opportunities for the blacks.Less

Black Politics in Mississippi to 1965

Chris Danielson

in After Freedom Summer: How Race Realigned Mississippi Politics, 1965-1986

This chapter discusses black voting and officeholding in Mississippi from the high point of Reconstruction through the disfranchisement of the Constitution of 1890. It ends with the civil rights ... More

This chapter discusses black voting and officeholding in Mississippi from the high point of Reconstruction through the disfranchisement of the Constitution of 1890. It ends with the civil rights movement and Freedom Summer in Mississippi but shows that black political efforts were severely limited with the absence of effective federal civil rights enforcement.Less

The Judicial Response to Massive Resistance: Allen v. State Board of Elections

Frank R. Parker

in Black Votes Count: Political Empowerment in Mississippi After 1965

To expand the participation of black leaders and voters in the electoral process in the state of Mississippi, it was indispensable to eliminate the discriminatory structural barriers imposed by the ... More

To expand the participation of black leaders and voters in the electoral process in the state of Mississippi, it was indispensable to eliminate the discriminatory structural barriers imposed by the white legislatures. These barriers hampered the political gains of the black community, and therefore strong judicial intervention was needed to curb such resistance strategies. This chapter focuses on the judicial response to the strong manipulative strategies of the state legislature to disenfranchise black citizens. In this context, this chapter discusses the response of the federal district court and the United States Supreme Court on black political voting rights. This throws light on the principal actors in the legal battle over the right to vote between the black representatives and the state legislature. The chapter also highlights how the Supreme Court failed to invalidate the redistricting plan.Less

Introduction

Timothy J. Minchin and John A. Salmond

in After the Dream: Black and White Southerners since 1965

At the Alabama state capitol on March 25, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebrated the end of the Jim Crow system with about twenty-five thousand people. As he believed that segregation was about ... More

At the Alabama state capitol on March 25, 1965, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. celebrated the end of the Jim Crow system with about twenty-five thousand people. As he believed that segregation was about to be terminated, King declared that the southern blacks were about to attain a society that was “at peace with itself.” King's speech after the Selma-Montgomery protest was perceived to be the culmination of the civil rights movement. The federal protection of black voting rights and the public accommodation desegregation was achieved after a decade. After which, the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed. King's Montgomery speech may be viewed as a beginning instead of an end as King asserted that there are many other developments that could be achieved such as desegregating schools and utilizing votes to modify a political system still dominated by those who advocate segregation. This book looks into the continuing struggle for civil rights after 1965.Less

The Strange Career of African American Voting and Office-Holding

in The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement

A sudden, large increase in rates of black voting and office-holding has taken place twice over the course of America's political evolution. The meaning of that fact is disturbing. From a social ... More

A sudden, large increase in rates of black voting and office-holding has taken place twice over the course of America's political evolution. The meaning of that fact is disturbing. From a social science standpoint it is also deeply interesting. The first large expansion in African American voting rights took place after the Civil War. It was so sweeping that in 1874, when Congress revised the United States Code, the revisors were able to take forty-seven separate regulatory provisions from the federal elections statutes enacted between 1870 and 1872 and place them in the code. A “second reconstruction” was therefore required for America to become fully democratic. To appreciate the importance of party- and jurisprudence-building and the institutional foundations of these processes, one has to absorb the remarkable events and dynamics of America's two reconstructions.Less

Nixon, the NAACP, and the Courts, 1924–1934

Will Guzmán

in Civil Rights in the Texas Borderlands: Dr. Lawrence A. Nixon and Black Activism

This chapter recounts how Nixon helped lay the foundation for Black voting rights in the South as the central plaintiff in two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases: Nixon v. Herndon (1927) and Nixon v. ... More

This chapter recounts how Nixon helped lay the foundation for Black voting rights in the South as the central plaintiff in two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases: Nixon v. Herndon (1927) and Nixon v. Condon (1932), and the little-discussed case of Nixon v. McCann (1934), Nixon's third attempt to dismantle the all-white Democratic primary. Nixon, along with the NAACP, helped set legal precedent that ultimately led to the dismantling of all-white primaries throughout the entire South. The political and social climate at the local, state, and national levels during the 1920s, as well as the 1923 Texas law that barred African Americans from voting in the Democratic primaries, compelled Nixon and the NAACP to take action. As these changes were brewing in the South, many—such as the Ku Klux Klan—would come to see them as a threat.Less

Coming of Age

Darius J. Young

in Robert R. Church Jr. and the African American Political Struggle

This chapter begins by discussing the death of Church Sr. and Church Jr.’s initial years as a local black Republican leader and his eventual ascendance within the GOP. It also highlights the ... More

This chapter begins by discussing the death of Church Sr. and Church Jr.’s initial years as a local black Republican leader and his eventual ascendance within the GOP. It also highlights the beginning of Church’s approximately three-decade-long relationship with Boss E.H. Crump and his political machine. In 1916, Church launched the Lincoln League of Tennessee, a Republican faction designed to promote black interests and oppose the party’s lily-white faction. It later grew into the Lincoln League of America. Through this organization Church was launched into the national spotlight after he ushered over 10,000 black Memphians to the polls in November of 1916. This chapter also sees the birth of Church’s daughter, Sarah Roberta Church, who would follow in her father’s footsteps as a Republican leader and promoter of the black vote.Less

Prologue

Nadine Cohodas

in Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone

This chapter shows that it was more a path emerging than a promise fulfilled that put Nina Simone on a makeshift stage in Montgomery, Alabama, on a sodden March night in 1965. Nina wanted to sing for ... More

This chapter shows that it was more a path emerging than a promise fulfilled that put Nina Simone on a makeshift stage in Montgomery, Alabama, on a sodden March night in 1965. Nina wanted to sing for the bedraggled men and women who had trekked three days from Selma to present their case for black voting rights to a recalcitrant Governor George Wallace. She was following the lead of James Baldwin, her good friend, mentor, and sparring partner at dinner-table debates, a role he shared with Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry. They were her circle of inspiration, writers who found their voice in the crackling word on the page—the deft phrase and the trenchant insight that described a world black Americans so often experienced as unforgiving.Less