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.We should remember that most of these officials and their con-stituencies grew up and were intimately familiar with Jim Crow.Manywere educated in historically black colleges and universities.They sawtheir duties as clearly linked to their localized black constituencies butalso to a broader black agenda, a continuation of the civil rights move-ment and in some cases the Black Power movement.The establishmentof the Congressional Black Caucus in 1969 is an example of the raceagenda of this early post civil rights movement cohort of elected blackofficials.Through the caucus, black elected officials  joined togetherto strengthen their efforts to address the legislative concerns of blackand minority citizens. 8Even more radical, and different from the politics practiced today,was the participation of a number of prominent black elected officialsin the National Black Political Convention, held in Gary, Indiana,in 1972.This convention was an attempt to build a unified politicalagenda and movement among black people.It is estimated that severalthousand black Americans attended the event, including elected offi-cials such as Carl Stokes, Louis Stokes, Walter E.Fauntroy, RonaldDellums, and Barbara Jordan.9 Having lived with the daily remind-ers of systemic racism in this country, first-wave black elected officialsunderstood that statewide offices and predominately white districtswere probably not available to them, so the focus of their agendas,their aspirations, and the roots of their power were clearly tied to theirblack constituencies.204 Democracy RemixedUnfortunately, as blacks were increasingly elected as mayors andrepresentatives they found themselves governing cities and repre-senting districts that were suffering from massive white flight tothe suburbs, the disappearance of their tax base, and the Reaganadministration, which was intent on defunding social service andurban development programs.These elected officials, especiallymayors, found themselves and their cities with little federal sup-port and few mechanisms and resources to improve the conditionof their black constituencies.Scholars such as Adolph Reed havewritten about the transformation of black elected officials from raceleaders to politicians consumed with reelection (like all politicians).This transformation was often accompanied by compromises withdowntown interests that were meant to stabilize a governing coali-tion, which in turn increasingly ignored the voices and needs of theblack poor.10Of course, given the continuing segregation experienced by blacksin urban cities and the crowding together of different classes of blackpeople, the neglect of the black poor had spillover effects for theblack middle class.As the neighborhoods and opportunities of theblack poor were allowed to erode, so did the living conditions ofthe not-so-distant black middle class.Believing that their interestswere being ignored, black constituencies, especially the middle class,became increasingly disenchanted with this first wave of black electedofficials.They were decried by whites for fueling a divisive racialagenda that facilitated the exit of business and tax resources fromtheir cities and by black constituencies for their inattentiveness tothe agenda of black people.The result was the defeat (or retirement)of incumbents who were among the first wave of black mayors andrepresentatives.The Second WaveThompson argues that as first-wavers were exiting the political stage,a second wave of black mayors emerged.11 He suggests that these newblack officials, elected in the 1990s, were technocrats.They promisedto manage cities, making them more efficient, safe, and enticing tobusinesses, whites, and middle-class residents.They did not avoid theissue of race, but it was not the hallmark of how they built their con-stituencies.A number of these mayors, such as Mike White in Cleve-land and Dennis Archer in Detroit, garnered significant numbers ofwhite votes in their bids to become mayors. My President Is Black 205These second-wavers were well educated, often at predominatelywhite institutions, who ran on platforms of securing public safety andinfusions of more police, not the regulation of police brutality.Theseofficials never established a firm base either within or outside of blackcommunities, so their electability always seemed tenuous.What isimportant to note is the change in the agenda, as well as the constituencybase that these representatives pursued and built.Often these mayorswon an election by beating another black candidate closely identifiedwith the civil rights generation of black elected officials.Second-waveblack mayors also drew significant numbers of white voters beyond theliberal whites who supported first-wave politicians.Thompson notesthat the accomplishments of the second wave of black mayors oftencentered on the building of a new athletic stadium in the downtownarea, without the achievement of any significant and sustained changesin daily life, for particularly the lower middle class and the poor.12 Ashad been the case for the first wave, it was the inability of the secondwave of black officials to significantly alter the position of the poor orto buffer the middle class from spillover effects of living in and nearpoor communities that led to the downfall of many black mayors.The story of second-wave black politicians is not confined to justblack mayors.There also was a group of black officials elected frompredominately white congressional districts or with significant whitesupport for state offices.Republican congressmen J.C [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]