Black Political Activity


Beginning in the 1960s many blacks focused on political activity as a means of obtaining justice, equality of opportunity, and full political participation. During this Second Reconstruction, as the period has been called, a rapid increase occurred in the number of black registered voters, particularly in the South, followed by a marked increase in the number of black elected officials. Even before the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, black voters were influential in some Northern states, as in the election to the presidency of Democrat John Kennedy in 1960. In the presidential election of 1976 widespread black support for the Democratic candidate Jimmy Carter produced critical parts of his majorities in several Northern and Southern states.


In 1984 the Rev. Jesse JACKSON, a civil rights activist in the 1960s, first campaigned in the primaries for the Democratic party presidential nomination. He won over 3 million primary votes (and about 75 percent of the black vote) but fell far short of winning enough convention delegates to gain the nomination. In 1988 his second failure to win the nomination was a history-making event--he ran second in the primary season, winning 6.6 million votes and about 30 percent of the delegates to become the first "serious" black contender for the presidency. Jackson attracted 92 percent of the black vote and 12 percent of the white. He addressed issues of interest to a wide public, did much to register new voters, and secured himself a prominent place in national politics. In 1992, L. Douglas WILDER of Virginia, the first elected black governor in the United States, ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic presidential nomination.


A steady increase in black elected officials has taken place at all levels of government since the 1960s. In 1967, Thurgood MARSHALL became the first black Supreme Court justice. In the same year, Edward W. BROOKE of Massachusetts became the first black member of the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction. In 1993, Carol Moseley BRAUN became the first black woman U.S. senator. In the mid-1970s, 17 blacks served in the House of Representatives, among them, Shirley CHISHOLM, Barbara JORDAN, and Andrew YOUNG; by the mid-1990s the number was 38.


From the mid-'60s through the early 1990s, black mayors of major cities included Tom BRADLEY in Los Angeles; Kenneth Gibson and Sharpe James in Newark, N.J.; Richard Hatcher in Gary, Ind.; Maynard Jackson in Atlanta, Ga.; Ernest Morial in New Orleans, La.; Carl Stokes in Cleveland, Ohio; Walter WASHINGTON and Sharon Pratt Kelly in Washington, D.C.; Coleman Young in Detroit; Harold WASHINGTON in Chicago; Wilson Goode in Philadelphia; and David DINKINS in New York.


Blacks began to fill major appointive positions in force in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, when Patricia Roberts HARRIS became the first black woman cabinet member as secretary of housing and urban development.



Copyright 1995 by Grolier Electronic Publishing, Inc.