However, despite this, 89% of African Americans voted Democrat in the 2004 election. This high degree of loyalty to the Democrats stems from the political history of the country.
The first historical event that began the loyalty was Roosevelt’s New Deal. Federal relief programmes provided aid for poor blacks who had previously been forced to survive without government assistance. Blacks were also hired to build and were enabled to occupy new housing financed by the government. Roosevelt also appointed several blacks to his administration. Among these were Robert C. Weaver, an adviser in several agencies, and Bethune, who was director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration.
Two other elections, one in 1960 and another in1964, also helped he Democrats gain support from black voters, both elections took place during the civil rights movement. Due to the ‘Jim Crow’ laws, black people were treated as inferior due to segregation and the denial of the right to vote and other legal devices. The Democratic presidential candidate in 1960, John F. Kennedy, started his campaign by not supporting the demands put forward by the civil rights campaigners. However, Kennedy called the wife of Martin Luther King Jr two weeks before the election. At this time, King was imprisoned on false charges in Georgia. 70% of black voters voted for him, this gesture being the reason for the large amount of support. In 1964, Senator Barry Goldwater stood as the Republican candidate. His strategy meant focusing on the white population, in particular the white southerners. His was opposed to ‘forced integration’ this made him seem a supporter of segregation. That year, only 6% of black voters voted Republican.
The winner of the 1964 election, Lyndon Johnson was responsible for the passage of important civil rights legislation. This legislation ‘outlawed segregation in every facility designed to serve the general public’ (Thernstrom and Thernstrom 1997). A special joint session of congress resulted in the 1965 Voting Rights Act which finally gave black people the right to vote. Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats were also responsible for the appointment of the first black Supreme Court judge, Judge Thurgood Marshall, in 1968.
Jesse Jackson was the first black man to run for the presidency, as a Democrat, in 1984. He received 3.5 million votes, enough to secure a measure of power and respect at the Democratic convention. His 1988 campaign for the Democratic nomination was characterized by more organization and funding than his previous attempt. With the experience he gained from 1984 and new resources, Jackson and his Rainbow Coalition attracted over 6.9 million votes--from urban blacks and Hispanics, poor rural whites, farmers and factory workers, feminists and homosexuals, and from white progressives wanting to be part of a historic change.
There has also been a lot of anti-Republican feeling spread through the black communities through the dislike of affirmative action programmes by high profile Republicans. The NAACP in Florida helped improve the Democrat share of the vote in 2000 by raising the number of black voters who did not approve of Jeb Bush’s dislike of affirmative action programmes.
High-ranking southern Democrats defected to the Republicans during the 1950s and 1960s (the civil rights era); an example of this would be Senator Strom Thurmond. Thurmond was the originator of the 1956 "Southern Manifesto" against the 1954 Supreme Court desegregation ruling. He holds the record for the longest filibuster in Senate history; he spoke against the 1957 civil rights bill for twenty-four hours, eighteen minutes. As the defectors were seen as anti-civil rights, it gives the impression that the Democrats are more pro-civil rights than the Republicans. Nixon’s ‘Southern Strategy’ in which he made two controversial Supreme Court nominations increased this feeling, both appointments (Carswell and Haynesworth) were racist.
There is an increasing number of the white vote going to the Republicans, and so they are being seen as a party for the white population. Two-thirds of white southerners voted for Bush in 2000. Even though segregation in the south has ended, the role of the white southerners has increased the perception that the Republican party are a white organisation and so the black population identify more with the Democrats. Since 1961, black people elected to Congress have almost all been Democrats.
This sense of detachment from the Republicans and identification with the Democrats has resulted in the high vote for the Democrats. It has also allowed the Democrats to form connections in the black communities. These connections have helped with the Clinton campaign in the past, he appeared on black TV shows and church leaders. This alongside the economic boom benefited black Americans and so helped Clinton gain the black vote.
The federal government has also played a part in the loyalty to the Democrats. Its role in the quest to put an end to segregation in the 1960s lead to its association with social justice. The government is also a major employer of African-Americans. Roughly a quarter of black people work for the government. Federal programmes have resulted in the growth of jobs within government; which benefits the ethnic minorities.
In addition to this, African Americans tend to live in urban areas and are therefore reliant on public services. As democrats are in favour of minimum wage, affirmative action and public services (i.e.welfare), they tend to appeal to black people living in these areas.
In conclusion, black Americans remain loyal to the Democrat party as they are being seen as the party that has the aim of increasing civil rights for the black communities. They have done more for the black population than the Republicans have. This coupled with the fact that the Republican party is constantly being viewed as a part for the white population, has lead to this high amount of support.
The pen is withdrawn, the pages are dry, it’s written
