Richard Nixon’s Black Cabinet

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Wright Rigueur
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
Presidential Primary ◽  
Campaign Rhetoric ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
Party Members ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Black Republicans ◽  
American Party

This chapter talks about how Richard Nixon's classist appeals for minority enterprise mirrored a theme central to black Republican thought and action. As previously seen, African American party members consistently proposed variations on a single core agenda, wedding liberal appeals for racial equality with a belief in traditional Republican principles. In particular, they had long called for the creation and implementation of a movement for economic civil rights, as an alternative means of reaching full equality. A June 1968 article in Time highlighted the prominent position of this centerpiece of black Republican thought, noting that all three Republican presidential primary candidates had incorporated the concept into their campaign rhetoric. The chapter shows how even as prominent white politicians echoed black Republicans' ideas, blacks themselves were divided about those same politicians.

The Loneliness of the Black Republican

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Wright Rigueur
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
American Conservatism ◽  
Racial Experiences ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Black Republicans ◽  
The New Deal

Covering more than four decades of American social and political history, this book examines the ideas and actions of black Republican activists, officials, and politicians, from the era of the New Deal to Ronald Reagan's presidential ascent in 1980. Their unique stories reveal African Americans fighting for an alternative economic and civil rights movement—even as the Republican Party appeared increasingly hostile to that very idea. Black party members attempted to influence the direction of conservatism—not to destroy it, but rather to expand the ideology to include black needs and interests. As racial minorities in their political party and as political minorities within their community, black Republicans occupied an irreconcilable position—they were shunned by African American communities and subordinated by the Grand Old Party (GOP). In response, black Republicans vocally, and at times viciously, critiqued members of their race and party, in an effort to shape the attitudes and public images of black citizens and the GOP. Moving beyond traditional liberalism and conservatism, black Republicans sought to address African American racial experiences in a distinctly Republican way. This book provides a new understanding of the interaction between African Americans and the Republican Party, and the seemingly incongruous intersection of civil rights and American conservatism.

No Room at the Inn

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Wright Rigueur
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
African American ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
The People ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Black Republicans ◽  
American Party ◽  
The New Deal

This concluding chapter explores how the fundamental ideological rift illustrated by Elaine Jenkins' and Clarence Thomas' philosophies spoke to an evolution of the thoughts and actions that black Republicans had advanced since 1936. In that year, about one hundred African American party members from New York gathered to discuss the party's responsibilities in times of crisis; for them, Republicanism symbolized government that was “by the people,” that spoke to matters of social justice. And though they rejected the New Deal, disparaging social welfare as “handouts,” they nevertheless insisted that the party had to offer something to address racial inequality and the economic needs of the American public in a viable and empathetic way.

More Shadow than Substance

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Wright Rigueur
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Substance P ◽  
National Committee ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Political Ideas ◽  
Black Republicans ◽  
State And Local ◽  
American Party ◽  
Local Party

This chapter studies how, as the 1970s progressed, black Republicans were able to claim clear victories in their march toward equality: the expansion of the National Black Republican Council (NBRC); the incorporation of African Americans into the Republican National Committee (RNC) hierarchy; scores of black Republicans integrating state and local party hierarchies; and individual examples of black Republican success. African American party leaders could even point to their ability to forge a consensus voice among the disparate political ideas of black Republicans. Despite their ideological differences, they collectively rejected white hierarchies of power, demanding change for blacks both within the Grand Old Party (GOP) and throughout the country. Nevertheless, black Republicans quickly realized that their strategy did not reform the party institution.

scholarly journals Forceful Federalism against American Racial Inequality

2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 356-382 ◽  
Author(s):  
Desmond King
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Building Material ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
Slowing Down ◽  
The Us ◽  
Racial Progress ◽  
Elected Office

Why, many Americans rightly ask, can material racial inequality and widespread segregation still persist 50 years after the enactment of key civil rights legislation and eight years after the election of an African American to the nation’s highest office? Many from outside the US pose similar questions about modern America. The explanation, I argue, lies with inconsistent and fluctuating levels of federal engagement to building material racial equality. National engagement fluctuates because it is energetically resisted and challenged by opponents of racial progress. This vulnerability to disruption is exposed by varying strategies of resistance, some fiscal, some violent, some judicial, some desultory and some combining violent protest against change with local electoral triumphs for anti-reformers. Public resistance to employing national resources to reduce inequality encouraged a de-racialization strategy amongst many African American candidates for elected office who opt to de-emphasize issues of racial inequality in campaigns and in office. Whatever the means, the effect is uniform: the slowing down or outright death of federal civil rights activism.

A Thorn in the Flesh of the GOP

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leah Wright Rigueur
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Black Vote ◽  
Black Republicans ◽  
Thorn In The Flesh

This chapter looks at how the enactment of the civil rights acts of the mid-1960s, coupled with white Republican's rejection of segregationist appeals and embrace of “colorblind” outreach, gave some black Republicans the latitude to support candidates and leaders that they would not support earlier. Yet for others, including the militant leaders of the National Negro Republican Assembly (NNRA), this evolution was impossible, particularly since many white Republicans continued to equivocate over race, even as they championed the significance of the black vote. Jackie Robinson, for example, changed his affiliation to independent in August 1968 and disavowed the Republican Party, arguing that a few gestures and overtures did not demonstrate a genuine concern for African American needs.

White Protestants and the Civil Rights Movement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Dupont
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
Visible Minority ◽  
Freedom Struggle ◽  
American Protestantism ◽  
Religious Landscape ◽  
Christian Leaders

A small but highly visible minority of white Christian leaders vigorously supported the African American struggle for full freedom. However, these leaders represented an exception, not the mainstream, in the history American Protestantism, which has only rarely championed racial equality. Protestant leaders who openly joined civil rights initiatives came from the most liberal ranks of the Protestant traditions, and they often pursued civil rights activity over strenuous objections from their parishioners. The civil rights years exacted significant changes in the American religious landscape. Those traditions that most visibly supported the freedom struggle lost members in droves, while conservative traditions thrived.

scholarly journals From Hackensack to the White House: The Triumph and Travail of E. Frederic Morrow

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
Michael Birkner
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
New Jersey ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
House Staff ◽  
Racial Equality ◽  
White House ◽  
American Black ◽  
African American Leaders

Four decades after arranging a historic meeting in the White House of President Dwight D. Eisenhower and African-American leaders on June 23, 1958 former Eisenhower assistant Rocco Siciliano recounted the back-story of the meeting, highlighting its inherent drama and significance. In the course of sharing his recollections Siciliano paid tribute to an African-American member of the White House staff, E. Frederic Morrow, calling him a “true pioneer in the American black civil rights movement.” Added Siciliano: “[Morrow’s] impact on civil rights progress has yet to be appreciated.” Judging “impact” by one individual on a large-scale movement is tricky business. But, as this article notes, there should be no doubt that in serving President Eisenhower New Jersey native Fred Morrow advanced the civil rights cause. The fact that his five-and-a-half-year tenure as a black man in the White House was not always happy or consistently productive of the kinds of initiatives on behalf of racial equality that he advocated should not obscure his contributions.

Transcending the Veil

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-228
Author(s):  
Natasha V. Christie ◽  
Shannon B. O’brien
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Double Consciousness ◽  
Racial Issues ◽  
Color Blind ◽  
The Veil ◽  
Rights Issues ◽  
Selection Of

This work examines how Barack Obama’s speeches and remarks used various rhetorical techniques to strategically maneuver his rhetoric to address racial issues and represent African American concerns. The results of a content analysis of a selection of Obama’s speeches and remarks confirm that Obama and his speechwriters favored the use of statements of color-blind universalism. However, when making certain remarks regarding civil rights issues or perceived racial issues, the pattern shifted, presenting a rare glimpse of the unbalanced representation of African American concerns. These findings suggest that Barack Obama’s speeches and remarks performed double-consciousness; they used universal, balanced, and targeted universalism rhetorical techniques as a genuine, congruent political style for representing African American concerns as a “raced” politician.

Not as It Is Written

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-100
Author(s):  
Benjamin Houston
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Civil Rights Movement ◽  
International Exhibition ◽  
Black Experience ◽  
American Perspective ◽  
History Of ◽  
Black Life ◽  
Made In

This article discusses an international exhibition that detailed the recent history of African Americans in Pittsburgh. Methodologically, the exhibition paired oral history excerpts with selected historic photographs to evoke a sense of Black life during the twentieth century. Thematically, showcasing the Black experience in Pittsburgh provided a chance to provoke among a wider public more nuanced understandings of the civil rights movement, an era particularly prone to problematic and superficial misreadings, but also to interject an African American perspective into the scholarship on deindustrializing cities, a literature which treats racism mostly in white-centric terms. This essay focuses on the choices made in reconciling these thematic and methodological dimensions when designing this exhibition.

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