American ethnic groups have relied on various paths to move up the economic ladder, but among African Americans the foremost pathway has been elections. This effort has produced notable successes. Voting rates are now roughly equal and Blacks have been elected to the highest positions, including President of the United States. Few can deny that the “Black vote” plays a major role in American politics.
Nevertheless, one can ask if this electoral process improves the life of the average African American. Does replacing White rule with a Black mayor and a majority Black city council translate into tangible benefits? After all, political power is a means to an end, not the final goal.
One answer to this quandary can be found in the history of Selma, Alabama whose civil-rights battles have come to symbolize the African American quest for political equality. Selma recently received national attention when Vice-President Kamala Harris along with eleven members of Congress and the U.S. Attorney General, participated in the celebration of the 59th “Bloody Sunday” march. In fact, the 1965 march has become so iconic that President Biden mentioned it in his recent State of the Union address: “A transformational moment in our history happened 59 years ago today in Selma, Alabama: Hundreds of foot soldiers for justice marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, named after a Grand Dragon of the KKK, to claim their fundamental right to vote. They were beaten bloodied and left for dead.” This watershed moment facilitated in passing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an Act that greatly expanded Black voting.
Black voting in Selma sharply expanded, and as most of the White population departed, Blacks eventually dominated the city’s politics. Today, Selma’s population is about 80% African American and a Black political stronghold.
But, has this newfound political power in Selma brought improved conditions for Blacks? The answer, unambiguously, is “no.” Most notably, the mass exodus of Whites was accompanied by a sharp decline in the local economy and Selma today ranks among Alabama’s poorest cities with almost twice the poverty rate of the rest of the state,. Efforts to attract tourists with murals and a museum recounting the voting rights struggle have become the primary source of income but have failed to revitalize the decrepit downtown of shuttered stores, boarded-up buildings and abandoned residences. The average income of $35,000 per year is a third lower than the state’s average. Nearly a third of Black Selma residents live below the poverty line versus 11% of Whites.
Crime is a serious problem with the odds of being victimized by violent crime in Selma about twice the national average, even higher than all of Alabama (whose crime rate exceeds the national average). The level of crime per square mile was nearly three times the average for the entire state. According to one survey of city residents, 87% expressed concerns about personal safety and feeling uncomfortable walking alone at night.
Selma’s educational statistics reveal a similar troubling picture. Despite a 92% high school graduation rate, Selma Hight School, one of two such schools in the city, had a reading proficiency score of 12% and 5% in math (no data are available from the other school), Selma HS is also highly segregated with 98.6% of the students being classified as “Black and 85% “economically disadvantaged.” One half of one percent were White.
While this picture is only a snapshot, it would be hard to argue that Black political power has uplifted the lives of Selma’s Black residents. Nor is the Selma story of towns going from White to Black rule unique. Comparable depressing tales can be told about Gary, Ind., Jackson, Miss., Camdem, N.J., East St. Louis, Ill., among others, where the promised reward of Black political control was disappointing. A comparable failure holds for many larger, Black politically-dominated cities, notably Detroit, Baltimore, Newark, N.J., Atlantic City, N.J., St. Louis, Mo, and Trenton, N.J., among others. Yes, newly achieved Black political control may have brought well-paying government jobs for at least some Blacks, plus government contracts for minority businesses, but for ordinary Blacks, the tangible payoff has been meager.
The argument that elected Black leaders know how to boost Black educational attainment or reduce Black-on-Black crime is just not credible. In many, if not most, instances, the rise of Black political control triggers an exodus of Whites that lowers the quality of life for many Blacks -- closed stores, less tax revenue for social services, worse educational outcomes, and many other benefits that no longer exist compared to when Whites governed.
What lessons can be learned from this disjunction between relying on the vote to move up the economic ladder and the paltry results of this triumph? A disinterested observer might suggest that Blacks should abandon obsessing over electoral politics and embrace alternatives favored by other groups with the same aim, for example, Jews starting small businesses or the Irish working for large bureaucratic organizations like the police department and slowly advancing up the ranks. All have proven records of success that far exceed the emphasis on politics.
Alas, shifting strategies will not be easy. Many Blacks -- 40% according to one recent poll -- believe that the ballot box still remains the pathway to racial progress and this article of faith and will not be reversed by statistical data (only about a quarter of Whites saw politics this way). Nor can we expect Democratic Party functionaries to tell their most loyal supporters to deemphasize the vote. There is also enormous pride in seeing fellow Blacks achieve high political office, including mayors of major cities such as Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. Such pride may well transcend clear-eyed cost/benefit analysis. Politics is often about emotion, not statistical data.
But perhaps most important is the dramatic rise of elected Black officeholders.These positions bestow power, prestige and, often, wealth to incumbents, and these officeholders are not about to minimize the value of electoral politics. And while a long tradition exists among Blacks of self-help organization and leaders who encouraged self-reliance, notably Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey, self-reliance is easily pushed aside by promising instant payoff if only fellow Blacks vote for them.
For those who might raise doubt about the efficacy of electoral politics, the all-too-typical rejoinder is to double down and insist that progress will come only if yet more Blacks vote. When the promised paradise fails to materialize, the easy excuse is “voter suppression.”
Blacks have been winning elections in Selma over a half century, but the city’s economic travails have grown worse, and there is little prospect of a breakthrough. This is a harsh, undeniable truth, so perhaps it is time to examine this awkward failure. There are better options.
Image: Tony Webster
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