Until President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveiled his New Deal, “the name given to a sequence of programs he initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of giving work (relief) to the unemployed, reform of business and financial practices, and recovery of the economy during The Great Depression,” most African Americans voted overwhelmingly Republican. The shift in the voting preferences can be seen in the U.S. census beginning in the late 1930’s and continuing with the election of John F. Kennedy and the passage of the Voting Rights Act by a Democratic president. Rod Young, in his article on African American voting patterns, indicates that by 1964 eighty-two percent of African Americans voted Democratic, and by 1968 the number was ninety-two percent.9 With the exception of the 1972, 1984, and the 1992 elections, blacks continued to give at least 80% of their collective votes to the Democratic presidential candidate.10 As voter turn-out has steadily declined in the United States, voting by African Americans has also declined. Some have worried that generations who did not participate in the civil rights movement are taking the right to vote, which was earned through marches and even bloodshed, for granted. However, with the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama, Democratic senator from Illinois, voter turn-out by African Americans increased for the 2008 primary election, and many anticipate that this increase will remain during the general election for president.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 01:02:49 +0000
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