The Third Troll Prerequisite, Part 2

Chapter 6 extends the book’s analysis of the strategic alignment of the Russian messaging and Trump’s electoral needs by looking at efforts to demobilize a number of key Democratic constituencies, particularly Black citizens and Sanders’s supporters. Jamieson details Russia’s extensive efforts to reach Black audiences through the use of many popular accounts across the social media platforms, which sought to sow a mistrust of mainstream media and the status quo, counterweight Trump’s rhetoric on race and crime, and suppress the Black vote. Similarly, hacked content and troll messaging were used to convert or suppress the Sanders vote by heightening antipathy and alienation toward Clinton and questioning Sanders’s religion. The trolls also attempted to redirect liberals to cast a vote for Jill Stein instead of Clinton.

Coming of Age

This chapter begins by discussing the death of Church Sr. and Church Jr.’s initial years as a local black Republican leader and his eventual ascendance within the GOP. It also highlights the beginning of Church’s approximately three-decade-long relationship with Boss E.H. Crump and his political machine. In 1916, Church launched the Lincoln League of Tennessee, a Republican faction designed to promote black interests and oppose the party’s lily-white faction. It later grew into the Lincoln League of America. Through this organization Church was launched into the national spotlight after he ushered over 10,000 black Memphians to the polls in November of 1916. This chapter also sees the birth of Church’s daughter, Sarah Roberta Church, who would follow in her father’s footsteps as a Republican leader and promoter of the black vote.

A Thorn in the Flesh of the GOP

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.

After Obama

Barack Obama, the nation’s first Black president, is approaching the end of his second and final term. Obama’s impending departure raises questions about his legacy. Here we explore what the consequences of the Obama Presidency might be for the future of racial politics in America: for prejudice itself; for the racialization of policy; for the mobilization of the Black vote; and for the racial polarization of the party system.