… It is a paradox of American history that a party formed in the 1850s by free-soil advocates devoted to stopping the spread of slavery should find itself pondering its lack of appeal to black voters. … Political scientists and pollsters have noted for years that a cultural emphasis on […] Read more »
Black Southern Voters, Poised to Play a Historic Role
… Nearly five decades after the passage of the Voting Rights Act, black voters in the South are poised to play a pivotal role in this year’s midterm elections. If Democrats win the South and hold the Senate, they will do so because of Southern black voters. The timing — […] Read more »
Why Did Black Voters Flee The Republican Party In The 1960s?
If you’d walked into a gathering of older black folks 100 years ago, you’d have found that most of them would have been Republican. … Today, it’s almost the exact opposite. That migration of black voters away from the GOP reached its last phase 50 years ago this week. CONT. […] Read more »
50 years after Civil Rights Act, Americans see progress on race
Fifty years after the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, majorities of blacks and whites think real progress has been made in getting rid of racial discrimination, but most say at least some discrimination still exists today. African-Americans are more likely than whites to see discrimination as widespread. More […] Read more »
Republicans: ‘Thank God for Mississippi!’
… Mississippi, a state often ignored by the national political world, managed to do something rarely seen in politics: Produce two upsets in the same race in a three-week span. And it bucked a trend of generally pathetic turnout in primaries nationwide to produce the second and then first-largest primary […] Read more »
It Looks Like African-Americans Really Did Help Thad Cochran Win
Tuesday night, Republican Sen. Thad Cochran defied the polls and defeated tea party challenger Chris McDaniel in the Mississippi Senate primary runoff by a 51 percent to 49 percent margin. Cochran couldn’t have done it without expanding the pool of voters, and in the last three weeks he did just […] Read more »