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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
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Chapter 22. Political Practices Today 493
have been moving to Northern cities at a more rapid rate than have others.
While the practice is clearly unconstitutional, and the state legislatures are
guilty as they are the only ones empowered to make the adjustments, the
courts have been loath to interfere. The Constitution, however, gives the
United States Congress power to override the state legislatures.*^® The
neglect to redistrict also creates a form of ^^natural” gerrymandering that
hurts the Negroes. When migrants come to a city they usually do not
happen to distribute themselves according to the boundaries of certain
voting districts. As a result their vote becomes split even though they
form a single community. In New York, for example, the Harlem Negro
vote is split mainly into two congressional districts and Negroes cannot
elect a congressman by themselves in either one. If there were redistricting,
and if there were no deliberate attempt to perpetuate this gerrymander,
Harlem should probably be in one voting district, since it is a natural
community area.
No comprehensive study has yet been made on the extent of nonvoting
among Negroes in the North. The general Impression is that Negroes
—
like whites with the same average educational and economic status—are
somewhat apathetic. The statistical evidence, however, does not present a
consistent picture and suggests that Negro apathy is partly a function of
local conditions.®® Litchfield found that Negroes voted one-third less than
whites, both native and foreign-born, in Detroit.®’^ In Chicago, however,
77 per cent of the adults of a Negro ward registered as compared to 68 per
cent for the entire city (1930).®® Negro apathy In Detroit seems to be due
to the city-wide type of election, the nonpartisan character of the election
with a concomitant weak party organization and the lack of organization
and leadership among Negroes.®® Negro activity in Chicago seems to be
related to the partisan and close character of the election, the solicitation
of the Negro vote by white politicians, the support of Negro racketeers
and the strength of the Negro organizations.
The fact that Negroes vote to a greater extent than whites in Chicago is
startling. All existing studies—made for a few cities in the United States
and for many democratic countries in Europe—show a striking relationship
between nonvoting and poverty.®® The correlation may even be stronger
for whites in the United States, since there is no labor party to bring out
the labor vote, and the political machines bring out only a relatively small
selected vote. Since the bulk of the Negroes are very poor, we should
expect them to be much more politically apathetic than the whites. The
fact that they vote almost as much, or more, in most Northern cities than
whites do, indicates that they are relatively more conscious of the vote.
The data do not support—so far as voting is concerned—^the common
stereotype that Negroes are politically apathetic.
Before 1933, Negroes voted the Republican ticket in overwhelming
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