Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-sh8wx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-22T22:57:09.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

U.S. Senator Edward W. Brooke and Governor L. Douglas Wilder Tell Political Scientists How Blacks Can Win High-Profile Statewide Office

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2013

Judson L. Jeffries
Judson L. Jeffries*
Affiliation:
Purdue University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The number of black elected officials has increased steadily since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Prior to that time, less than 150 blacks had been elected to public office. By 1993, there were over 8,000 black elected officials. Of these 8,000, over 300 were mayors (Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies 1993). By contrast, blacks have not experienced the same kind of success at the state level. The number of blacks who have been elected to statewide office is a mere one-tenth of the number elected to mayorships. The number of black high-profile statewide office holders, those being governors and U.S. senators, is even smaller. Only three blacks have been elected to these offices since Reconstruction.

Holding high-profile statewide office is important for a number of reasons. First, issues such as funding for education, health care, housing, and social services are decided at the state level and these resources have traditionally been distributed disproportionately. Second, blacks elected to high-profile statewide offices would have the ability to bring other blacks into government through appointments and hiring. Third, blacks holding these positions would serve as symbols and role models for all of a states' citizens. It is important that whites see blacks as capable of governing and making intelligent decisions that affect white people's lives. It is equally important for young blacks to see people with faces like their own in positions of power. Finally, holding a high-profile statewide office is an important step on the career path of those wishing to occupy a national office. Candidates who are fortunate enough to win their party's nomination for president are usually former governors or U.S. senators, as are many vice presidents (Schlesinger 1966, 1991).

Type
Research Article
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , September 1999 , pp. 583 - 588
Copyright
Copyright © The American Political Science Association 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Special thanks goes to Jim Glaser at Tufts University who encouraged me to write this article and provided valuable insight in its early stages.

References

Brooke, Edward W. 1995. Telephone Interview by Judson L. Jeffries. April 6.Google Scholar
Edds, Margaret. 1987. Free at Last: What Really Happened When Civil Rights Came to Southern Politics. Bethesda, MD: Adler and Adler.Google Scholar
Holsworth, Robert. 1990. “Race, White Attitudes, and the Doug Wilder Model.” Virginia Review (January/February):26–27.Google Scholar
Jeffries, Judson L. 1995. “Douglas Wilder and the Continuing Significance of Race: An Analysis of the 1989 Gubernatorial Election.” Journal of Political Science 23:87–111.Google Scholar
Jewell, Malcolm E. and Morehouse, Sarah M. 1996. “What Are Party Endorsements Worth?” American Politics Quarterly 24(July): 338–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. 1993. Black Elected Officials: A National Roster, 1970–1993. Washington, DC: Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.Google Scholar
McCormick, Joseph, and Jones, Charles E.. 1993. “The Conceptualization of Deracialization: Thinking Through the Dilemma.” In Dilemmas of Black Politics, ed. Persons, Georgia. New York: Harper-Collins.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Joseph A. 1966. Ambition and Politics; Political Careers in the United States. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Schlesinger, Joseph A. 1991. Political Parties and the Winning of Office. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Sonenshein, Raphael J. 1990. “Can Black Candidates Win Statewide Elections?” Political Science Quarterly 105(Summer): 219–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strickland, Ruth Ann, and Whicker, Marcia Lynn. 1992. “Comparing the Wilder and Gantt Campaigns: A Model for Black Candidate Success in Statewide Elections.” PS: Political Science and Politics 25(June): 204–12.Google Scholar
Wattenberg, Martin P. 1984. The Decline of American Parties, 1952–1984. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wilder, L. Douglas. 1995. Interview by Judson L. Jeffries, Richmond, VA, July 1.Google Scholar
Williams, Linda F. 1990. “Years of Contrast: Race, Politics and Press Coverage from Sutton '77 to Dinkins '89.” Unpublished Manuscript.Google Scholar
Williams, Linda F. 1989. “White/Black Perceptions of the Electability of Black Political Candidates.” National Political Science Review 1:45–64.Google Scholar