MalcolmMandel's JumboTweets
- Black Southern
Democrats:
Why aren’t black Southerners flexing
their political muscle more? © 2017
Samuel K
theblacksilentmajority SM
Every election cycle, conservative Republicans across the South are either elected or re-elected to House of Representative or Senate seats. The irony is that they are elected in states with significant black populations: Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana and South Carolina.
Blacks may not be the majority in those states, but their numbers could make a huge difference and could cause conservatives to think twice about taking extreme positions on civil rights issues. By voting in blocks rather than dispersing their votes, the black vote in Southern states could cause conservative Republicans to take more moderate stances on issues, or they could be voted out of office.
Alabama’s legendary former governor, George C. Wallace, who once stood at the entrance of the University of Alabama declaring “Segregation Now, Segregation Forever,” once catered to racists during the 1960s Civil Rights Era. But when black voters in Alabama got organized and flexed their political muscle, Wallace eventually changed his tune if he wanted to remain in office.
By the time he died, Wallace was a changed man. He had become a moderate, even hiring Blacks to work on his staff.
The takeaway is that even when Blacks are not a political majority, they can still have a moderating effect on the political climate in the South and on conservative politicians everywhere. What they need to do is set or define their political agenda and get out the vote to achieve that agenda. It won’t be easy, but few things worth fighting for are easy.
Alabama Sen. Jefferson Sessions has been named the Attorney General of the United States. Sessions is hardly a moderate. Imagine what would have happened if black Alabamians had gotten out to vote against Sessions years before. They could have elected a senator with more moderate views, or they could have compelled Sessions to moderate his own positions.
In a letter, Martin Luther King’s widow wrote that session launched attacks on the rights of black voters and voting rights. Yet, despite these accusations, Blacks still were not motivated to vote against Sessions. Why aren’t they using their political muscle?
The black Southern vote along with progressive white Southerners, and others, could change the perception and political climate in the South now and in the future.
What are they waiting for?