Recent Advances in Black Electoral PoliticsAuthor(s): Huey L. PerrySource: PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Jun., 1990), p. 141Published by: American Political Science AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/420051 .

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Symposium

Recent Advances in Black Electoral Politics

Huey L. Perry, Southern University

The political system has proved to be amenable to black penetration which has encouraged continued par- ticipation by blacks. At the same time, the economic system, the other principal arena for group enhance- ment in American society, has proved to be much more resistant to black penetration. This has further encouraged blacks to look to the political system for group enhance- ment opportunities.

Blacks have become a political community. In 1986, the registration rate of blacks equalled that of whites for the first time nationally. In all other forms of political participation, except citizen-initiated contacting, blacks participate at a rate higher than expected given their generally low socioeconomic status and at a rate higher than whites of a compar- able socioeconomic status. Blacks participate in campaign and coopera- tive activities, two high-initiative forms of political participation, at a rate much higher than whites, when controlling for the effect of socio- economic status on participation.

This symposium presents a collec- tion of original articles describing and analyzing some of the black elec- toral victories in the 1989 and 1990 elections. The elections analyzed in- clude five mayoral elections and the gubernatorial election in 1989 in which blacks were victorious and the 1990 mayoral election in New Orleans in which the incumbent black mayor was reelected. The 1989 elections are important in part because of the large number of blacks winning election to office.

Four of these victories have historic significance-Norman Rice in Seattle, David Dinkins in New York City, John Daniels in New Haven, and Douglas Wilder in Vir- ginia, all elected as the first black

chief executive of their respective political jurisdictions. Special sig- nificance attaches to the Wilder elec- tion-Wilder is the first black to be elected governor in the United States. The symposium explores whether there are patterns of black political behavior observable in the 1989 elec- tions that reinforce research findings on black political behavior in other political jurisdictions.

Several observations are made in the articles which empirically rein- force points made in previous scholarship. One common observa- tion of several of the articles is the effect that a viable black mayoral candidate running against a white candidate generally has on black voting behavior. In such a situation, black voters usually give near unan- imous support to the black candidate and turn out to vote at a rate equal to or higher than white voters. This tendency in black politics is well documented in Thompson's analysis of Dinkins' election as mayor in New York City and Summers and Klinkner's analysis of Daniels' elec- tion as mayor in New Haven. Thompson's and Summers and Klinkner's research in this regard reinforce previous research on this point (see Perry and Stokes 1987; Perry 1990). Summers and Klinkner also indicate that a significant mobil- ization among blacks in New Haven in relationship to the Daniels' cam- paign did not result in a counter mobilization among whites. Again, Summers and Klinkner's observation in this regard reinforces previous scholarship on this point (Perry and Stokes 1987; Perry 1990).

Thompson, Summers and Klink- ner, and Schexnider point to the effect that the presidential candidacy of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, par- ticularly the 1988 candidacy, had on stimulating increased black political

activity in the jurisdiction they studied.

Overall, the articles in this sym- posium suggest that black electoral victories registered in the 1989 and 1990 elections represent positive developments in black politics. However, Smith in the concluding article in the symposium cautions against such an interpretation. He feels the de-emphasis of the tradi- tional goals of black politics pursued by several victorious black candidates in order to get enough white support to get elected is destructive to black politics. He feels that this new de- racialized approach to black politics will result in a black politics big on symbols yet deficient in substantive benefits for black people.

Finally, the symposium provides some recent data points in the ongo- ing analysis of black politics in the United States and it does so in a way that both reinforces and advances our understanding of the structure of black politics in the United States.

References Perry, Huey L. 1990. The Evolution and

Impact of Biracial Coalitions and Black Mayors in Birmingham and New Orleans. In Rufus P. Browning, Dale Rogers Mar- shall and David H. Tabb, ed., Racial Politics in American Cities. New York: Longman.

Perry, Huey L. and Alfred Stokes. 1987. Politics and Power in Sunbelt: Mayor Morial of New Orleans. In Michael B. Preston, Lenneal J. Henderson, Jr. and Paul L. Puryear, ed., The New Black Politics: The Search for Political Power. New York: Longman.

Editor's Note: Huey L. Perry is the organizer of this symposium.

June 1990 141

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