African American Urban Electoral Politics in the Age of Jim Crow. (March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Materson, Lisa G.; Trotter, Joe William
• Other Names: Materson Lisa G. guest-editor.; Trotter Joe William guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Journal of urban history. Volume 44:Number 2(2018:Mar.)
• Page Start: 123
• Page End: 133
• Publication Date: 2018-03
• Subjects: party politics -- electoral politics -- urban politics -- disfranchisement -- Obama -- voting rights -- grassroots activism -- Republican -- Democrat -- voting realignment; Cities and towns -- History -- Periodicals; 909.09732
• DOI: 10.1177/0096144217746134
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0096-1442

Abstract

This article reviews the literature on black politics in the United States during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It argues that with notable exceptions, the expanding corpus of scholarship on black politics has largely focused on grassroots organizing and social movements, making electoral politics a secondary force in the history of African Americans. This critique of recent scholarship frames and introduces four articles in this special section that carry forward research on urban electoral politics as a central feature of black freedom struggles. By looking at the level of local urban party politics, this new work, this article asserts, challenges familiar narratives about the history of black electoral politics, including the steadfastness of black Republican loyalty before the Depression, the characterization of the black struggle against disfranchisement as a southern story, and the representation of black electoral leadership as middle class.