A Passionate Addiction to Lincoln

2018 ◽  
pp. 99-122
Author(s):  
Nina Silber
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
State Building ◽  
Limited Attention ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Racial Oppression ◽  
White People ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
Political Interests

No historical figure became as prominent in 1930s America as Abraham Lincoln. Once seen mainly as a figure of moderation and reconciliation, Lincoln became a more powerful figure associated with state building and the broadly defined work of emancipation. Under the influence of poet and Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg, important parallels were drawn between Lincoln and FDR. Yet, because of Roosevelt’s limited attention to racial oppression, there was a tendency to make Lincoln a more race neutral figure, one who freed white people more than black. At the same time, African Americans, who were increasingly shifting their political interests to the Democratic Party, invested Lincoln with more of a racial justice agenda. Conservatives, for their part, took aim at the way New Dealers and Popular Fronters re-imagined Lincoln, especially on the Federal stage.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
William L. Barney
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Abraham Lincoln ◽  
Political Force ◽  
National Convention ◽  
Secession Crisis ◽  
Do So ◽  
Abolition Movement

Sectional tensions over slavery persisted since the writing of the Constitution and exploded into secession and the Civil War in 1860–61. The resistance to slavery of African Americans, both enslaved and free, prodded the consciences of enough Northern whites to produce the abolition movement and emerge as a political force in its own right. Southerners recognized that the morality of slavery was at the heart of the issue and sought in vain to make Northerners acknowledge slavery as a morally just institution and allow it to grow and expand. The Northern refusal to do so fueled the rise of the Republican Party and split the Democratic Party at its national convention in the spring of 1860, setting the stage for the election of Abraham Lincoln and the outbreak of the secession crisis.

Racial Justice and Criminal Justice

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Valls
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Criminal Justice System ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Black Neighborhoods

The criminal justice system in the United States both reflects racial inequality in the broader society and contributes to it. The overrepresentation of African Americans among those in prison is a result of both the conditions in poor black neighborhoods and racial bias in the criminal justice system. The American system of criminal justice today is excessively punitive, when compared to previous periods and to other countries, and its harsh treatment disproportionately harms African Americans. In addition, those released from prison face a number of obstacles to housing, employment, and other prerequisites of decent life, and the concentration of prisoners and ex-prisoners in black communities does much to perpetuate racial inequality.

A Discussion of Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird’s Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-210
Author(s):  
Michael Leo Owens
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Behavioral Norm ◽  
Black Political Behavior

Charge: As Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird note, collectively more than 80% of African Americans self-identify as Democrats according to surveys, and no Republican presidential candidate has won more than 13% of the Black vote since 1968. This is true despite the fact that at the individual level many African Americans are increasingly politically moderate and even conservative. Against this backdrop, what explains the enduring nature of African American support for the Democratic Party? In Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, White and Laird answer this question by developing the concept of “racialized social constraint,” a unifying behavioral norm meant to empower African Americans as a group and developed through a shared history of struggle against oppression and for freedom and equality. White and Laird consider the historical development of this norm, how it is enforced, and its efficacy both in creating party loyalty and as a path to Black political power in the United States. On the cusp of perhaps the most consequential presidential election in American history, one for which African American turnout was crucial, we asked a range of leading political scientists to assess the relative strengths, weaknesses, and ramifications of this argument.

“The Servant Campaigns”: African American Women and the Politics of Economic Justice in Washington, D.C., in the 1930s

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary-Elizabeth Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Social Security ◽  
African American Women ◽  
New Deal ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Training Programs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Security Act ◽  
Black Voters

When Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, was elected president in 1932, most African Americans did not support him since they were still loyal to the Republican Party. Moreover, New Deal policies, especially the Social Security Act in 1935, excluded farmers and domestics, and thus, most African Americans. One of the people who encouraged black voters to switch to the Democratic Party was Elizabeth McDuffie, a black servant in the Roosevelt White House. In the 1936 election, McDuffie went on the campaign trail and toured Chicago, Cleveland, Springfield, and St. Louis. As a domestic servant, McDuffie was a familiar face to southern migrants, and she convinced many black voters to switch to the Democratic Party. After her campaign tour concluded, McDuffie became acquainted with the large black population in Washington, D.C. McDuffie worked alongside middle-class activists to increase economic opportunities for women workers by sponsoring training programs for servants. But, as this article demonstrates, most black servants did not want training programs; they desired higher wages, better jobs, and inclusion in the Social Security Act. Working-class women in Washington wrote letters to the newspaper and in 1938, 10,000 rioted for jobs as federal charwomen, jobs that paid higher wages and offered savings for retirement. After McDuffie witnessed these events, she became a vocal critic of the limitations of New Deal programs while continuing to praise Roosevelt and the Democratic Party. This article argues that Elizabeth McDuffie’s career in Washington illuminates the contradictions of New Deal politics for black women workers.

The 1999 Presidential Elections in Nigeria: The Unresolved Issues

1999 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-62
Author(s):  
Julius O. Ihonvbere
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Party ◽  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Limited Attention

One can say with certainty that all the contradictions that had bedeviled previous democratic experiments in Nigeria were present and magnified in the February 27, 1999 election: divided loyalties, manipulation of primordial identities and loyalties, corruption and other election malpractices, lack of political discipline, and limited attention to serious structural questions.Why did Chief Olu Falae lose the election to General Olusegun Obasanjo? Several reasons can be advanced. First, Obasanjo’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) clearly had more money. Obasanjo was able to donate N 130 million and several cars to his party.

scholarly journals Ferdinand Lassale and the General German Workers’ Association

2017 ◽  
pp. 261-278
Author(s):  
Natalia Papenko
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Labor Movement ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Social Democratic Party ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Historical Figure ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Xix Century

The article considers activity of particular representative of German socialistic movement – Ferdinand Lassalle. Historical figure of this person is connected with the history of German labor movement, the creation of first independent labor organization – the General German Workers’ Association (1863). Historical image of F. Lassalle was for the long time being brightened by historians one-sidedly, through ideological and personal difficulties with K. Marx and F. Engels. Unlike K.Marx, for whom a state and its structures where just superstructure, in other words – social and economic basis, for F.Lassale development of social formation is a natural historical process. K. Marx gambled on revolution, which had to destroy internal contradictions of the society, while F. Lassale gambled on parliament fighting, which, in his opinion, would discover the way to democratic transformations in society. F. Lassalle remains being bright, talented and discrepant person. Generally, his life and activity in the whole will have always been interesting for researchers. The whole of his life he was emphatically espousing the general, equal, straight right to vote, which, to his mind, would eliminate different problems of capitalist system and would promote building of democratic society. He was attracted by the idea of republic and democratic lawful state. F. Lassale had been studying problems of state and power, insisted on meaning of political institutions, role of human factor in history. He thought that constitution is a reflection of correlation of powers in fight for authority. That is why, by the means of agitation and popularization of democratic ideas he was trying to unite the labor movement to greater activity and to rally it. By the beginning of the 60th of XIX century he had been an adherent of democratic lawful state with the republican form of government. In the second half of the 60th he became a supporter of “social monarchy”. During his presidency at the General German Workers’ Association, the principles of authoritarianism were the dominating features of his activity. The General German Workers’ Association, which was created by him, afterwards facilitated the creation of German social democratic party.

scholarly journals “Using History to Make Slavery History”: The African American Past and the Challenge of Contemporary Slavery

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 125-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Deep Understanding ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Specific Detail ◽  
Abolitionist Movement ◽  
Racist Ideology

This article argues that contemporary antislavery activism in the United States is programmatically undermined and ethically compromised unless it is firmly grounded in a deep understanding of the African American past. Far too frequently those who claim to be “the new abolitionists” evince no interest in what the original abolitionist movement might have to teach them and seem entirely detached from a U.S. history in which the mass, systematic enslavement of African Americans and its consequences are dominating themes. As a result contemporary antislavery activism too often marginalizes the struggle for racial justice in the United States and even indulges in racist ideology. In an effort to overcome these problems, this article seeks to demonstrate in specific detail how knowledge of the African American past can empower opposition to slavery as we encounter it today.

Race

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Schickler
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Liberal Democratic Party ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Business Regulation ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
The Status

This chapter examines the status quo before the start of the civil rights realignment, showing that civil rights was simply not viewed as part of the standard “liberal program” as of the early 1930s. Although African Americans were vocal in attacking Franklin D. Roosevelt's weak civil rights record, they were largely alone. When whites on the left pushed Roosevelt to be a more forthright liberal or progressive, they criticized him for inadequate support for labor, weak business regulation, and insufficient recovery spending—but not for his failure to back civil rights. At this early stage, the “enemies” of a liberal Democratic Party generally were not identified with the South but instead were probusiness Democrats from the Northeast, associated with Al Smith of New York. Economic questions were the key battleground in the eyes of white liberals, and civil rights did not figure in these debates.

Memory Making on Parade

2019 ◽  
pp. 48-72
Author(s):  
Susan T. Falck
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Black Community ◽  
Free Blacks ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Free Black ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Union Soldiers

This chapter clarifies that black communities experienced emancipation traditions in different ways. Given the large proportion of blacks in Natchez, and the region’s well-established free black community, it seemed probable that Natchez would experience a robust emancipation tradition. That was not the case. The grand 1867 Fourth of July parade in Natchez organized by the Union League drew a large crowd of African Americans, suggesting the beginnings of a bold emancipation tradition. Instead, public emancipation celebrations dwindled. By the time of the 1871 Decoration Day observance, leaders stressed reconciliation and a tribute to Confederate as well as Union soldiers, a far different message heard only four years earlier. The erosion of a black emancipation tradition resulted from the unusually close ties that existed between Natchez free blacks and white elites, and the fear among free blacks that it was in their best political interests to suppress such traditions.

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