After Reconstruction and when the federal troops left, many African-Americans were threatened with their lives and also discriminated against in the workplace and in their towns.  This along with the addition of the rise of industrialism and an emergence of jobs in the North lead to a great deal of Black migration from the south to the north in inner city areas. 

His election grew him national fame, and his all black district, fed up for electing white politicians, decided to vote for a Black person to represent their needs.  However, DePriest was not very innovative as

President Teddy Roosevelt and his White House dinner guest Booker T. Washington.

a member of Congress and did not introduce any legislation during his first congressional term and did little of any during his second term. 

After serving three terms, he was defeated by the first black Democrat elected to Congress, Arthur Mitchell, representing the same district.  He was defeated because his failing to represent his constituents needs as well as his voting against what his district might have needed at the time with the Roosevelt emergency legislation. 

The election of the Democrat Mitchell in 1934 was just the beginning of the trend of Blacks heavily voting for Democrats.  In 1936, there was a Democratic landslide in elected offices, and African Americans changed party in large numbers from the Republican to the Democratic Party, thanks to the efforts of the New Deal legislation and former President Herbert Hoover’s term in office during the Great Depression, ruined a great deal of people’s lives and put a lot of people in poverty situations.

Another group of African American politicians began to emerge in Congress, such as Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. and William Dawson, meaning the most African Americans in Congress since 1891.  They were both Democrats however, making more of a reason for African Americans to disassociate from the Republican Party.

Civil Rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
A. Phillip Randolph meet with President
Eisenhower in the Oval Office.

The Republican Party also began to be portrayed as the rich and well to do party, really not being appealing to many African-Americans.  Then in 1952, with the realignment of power to the Republican Party in Congress and in the White House, this was the beginning of the Civil Rights movement period in the United States.  During this time a great deal of things occurred that shot to the forefront of people’s feelings on the movement.  The Republican Party was also at the forefront of a lot of these decisions. 

In 1954, a majority Republican, Supreme Court handed down the Brown vs. Board of Education decision (1954), in

which it abolished the misinterpreted “separate but equal” doctrine within the educational system, and eventually lead to all other institutions within the country. 

This also was the period of the Alabama Bus Boycott, and the Little Rock School integration crisis, which President Eisenhower at that time sent troops to intervene.  However, President Eisenhower also refused to support the Supreme Court decision, limiting his role and not fully engaging in civil rights legislation.  He was however, still popular among the black vote, and this continued all the way up to the 1960s with other Republicans as well.

In 1960, with the election of John F. Kennedy as President, and then Lyndon B. Johnson as his successor after his assassination in 1963, many acts of civil rights legislation was passed.  A majority of the legislation however, was fully pushed by the Republican majority Congress, and opposed by the

Southern Democrats.  So the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, was seen as legislation fully endorsed by the Democratic Party, further enhancing blacks to vote for majority of Democrats.

The election of 1964 also harmed Republican chances of regaining a majority of Black votes, with presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, who was one of the six Republicans who voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and made his campaign seem anti civil rights along with the rest of the Republican Party. 

The Republican Party also suffered many set backs with African Americans through Richard Nixon’s campaign, drastically made to appeal to the fears of White America and the growth of racial change within the country.  He was directly against the Black vote and ran with the majority “southern strategy” garnished at writing off the Black vote completely. 

All Republicans during this time were trying to turn the black vote off, as well as all blacks were not trying to completely disassociate the Republican Party, because in 1966 a great breakthrough occurred when Edward Brooke, a Republican candidate for Senator from Massachusetts, won his seat and became the first African American Senator of the 20th century. 

This didn’t affect much, mainly because black support began to drop in the country, and in the 1980 and 1984 elections the black Republican vote was at its lowest in the country ever.  They were to stay that way all throughout the 1990s. 

President Ronald Reagan also did not make huge strides in trying to establish the black vote, or even helping African Americans while he was in office.  His “trickle down theory” and pro-business stance renovated the Republican Party with a new stance and platform, and also began to associate the Party more openly for the rich and well to do, now more than ever.

Then-Congressman J.C. Watts (R-OK) and then-Secretary of State
Colin Powell, Sept. 2003 (Department of State)

This was also a period where a great deal of “Southern Democrats”, changed party lines to become Republicans and many of those former ideologies sifted through to the Republican platform.  The platform of being against social programs and a lot of

government aid, as well as being anti-affirmative action, a program that helped African Americans in this country, shifted the support of the  African-American community a great deal more from the Republican Party. 

This brings the party to its current state.  Throughout President Reagan and Bush’s terms in office, they’ve had a great deal of political appointments, such as the appointment of Clearance Thomas to the Supreme Court, and also other prominent Black Republicans appointed to key positions. 

This was also a period where the first Black Republicans in nearly 60 years were elected to the United States House of Representative with the election of Congressmen Gary Franks (R-CT) and J.C. Watts (R-OK).  In the early 90’s, this reestablished a since of the Republican Party trying to shift towards gaining the Black vote, and also with the shift in the spotlight of retired General Colin Powell, these important African-American Political figure heads is a result that some African Americans still associate with the views of the GOP. 

However, this is a very small minority, because in the previous two presidential elections the Black vote was in single digits for the Republican candidate.  Also, Blacks in many districts vote in large numbers for Democratic candidates.  However, we still see in many instances today the Republican Party supporting the African American community and trying to place things right within this country. 

There were several political positions that were occupied by minorities and Blacks in the current Bush White House, more than any other president in history.  Also, there are a great number of strides African Americans have made under Republican leadership in the White House and in Congress.  The Republican Party is steadily, but surely trying to reestablish the African American vote it once had a lock on over a hundred years ago. 

However, it may just be a cycle, just like the Republicans had a majority several years ago, that one or two instances may change the tide and the African American vote may shift again to the other party.