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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 22. Political Practices Today - 4. The Negro in Northern Politics - 5. What the Negro Gets Out of Politics
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Chapter 22. Political Practices Today 497
as whites;^ they are no longer tied to the Republican party j they esche\v
third parties} they have manifested a class differential in their adherence
to the Democratic party. On the other hand, mos^ Negro voters are more
keenly aware of a candidate’s attitude toward their group than are most
other Americans—perhaps only because they are one of the few ethnic
groups against whom politicians ever discriminate. Even though Negroes
are seeking only their rights as citizens and a proportionate share of the
political spoils, they find they have to be choosy about parties and candi-
dates to get these.
5. What the Negro Gets Out of Politics
With the great northward migration, Negroes came to vote in large
numbers. In spite of the virtual disfranchisement of Negroes in the South,
there are about as many Negroes voting today in the United States as
there are whites voting in the seven Southern states of Mississippi, Loui-
siana, Alabama, South Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, and Florida—that is,
in the entire Deep South except Texas and Oklahoma.^** Yet Southern
whites get incomparably more benefits from politics than do Negroes.
Negroes arc grossly discriminated against in what they get from politics
just as they are in their exercise of the right to vote. A striking measure of
this fact is that the seven Deep Southern states have 52 members of the
House of Representatives and 14 members of the Senate, whereas the
Negroes, with the same number of actual votes, have only i member of
the House of Representatives and no senators. There are many other
ways in which Negroes are deprived of the benefits of politics. Unques-
tionably the most important thing that Negroes get out of politics where
they vote is legal justice—^justice in the courts} police protection and
protection against the persecution of the police} ability to get administra-
tive jobs through civil service} and a fair share in such public facilities as
schools, hospitals, public housing, playgrounds, libraries, sewers and street
lights. It is hard to demonstrate that a given number of Negro votes will
procure a given amount of legal justice for Negroes, because it can be
claimed, and correctly so, that these communities which allow Negroes to
vote to a given extent will also usually be willing to give them other legal
rights to a comparable extent. Yet case after, case can be cited to show
where white politicians have given community services, justice in the courts,
and ^^civil service” jobs to Negroes just because they have received a
certain number of votes from them. These cases may be cited to indicate
the nature of the power of the vote and not to measure this power. The
Negroes’ votes in some parts of the country buy them their rights as
citizens to a large extent, while their lack of votes in others cause them to
be discriminated against all around.®
* In Chapter 20, Section 2, we have pointed out specific reasons why the vote is of such
paramount importance to the individual citizen in America.
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