Why only three black senators in post-Reconstruction America?
Here are some reasons for the low number —
1. Jim Crow and racism denied black people the right to vote and to run for office.
2. Even given the (not always uncontested) right of blacks to vote today, a large proportion of blacks in America live in the South where whites are not always inclined to vote for blacks. This is how George W. Bush easily carries Mississippi even though 30% of the people there are black.
3. Many states have very few black people and so black candidates are less likely to emerge from these places. (However, as I’ll be discussing in an upcoming post, sometimes black candidates do better where there are fewer blacks. Ed Brooke’s Massachusetts was a very white state. And Massachusetts is the only state with a black governor in 2008. )
4. The overwhelming majority of blacks are Democrats. As many Senators are Republicans, this limits the options.
5. Since most blacks are going to vote for Democrats no matter what, Democrats use this fact and do not push blacks to run for the highest offices. If someone is going to do something for you anyway, why not take advantage of them seems to be the line of thinking.
6. Since many black office holders have safe majority-minority districts or serve in majority-black cities, why take a chance on a tough statewide race?
7. Black politicians often have a terrible record of cultivating new people and young people for the tough battles ahead. It’s easy to sit in a safe seat and accumulate power while looking the other way at how the Democratic party uses blacks. It is more difficult to help people and fight for people in a more constructive way.
(There have been a total of five black U.S. Senators. The other two, from the Reconstruction Era were Hiram Revels a Republican from Mississippi who served in 1870 and 1871, and another Mississippi Republican, Blanche Bruce, who served from 1875 until 1881. Both of these men were appointed by the state legislature as was done for much of American history. Here is information about the 17th Amendment, ratified in 1913, that provided for direct election of Senators. )
Source : Texas Liberal -_Picture former Senator Edward Brookes R- Mass) Married a white woman and had an affair with Barbara (ba-ba) Walters. That she now brags about in her book
Posted By: Marta Fernandez
Wednesday, December 31st 2008 at 1:31PM
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