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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 22. Political Practices Today - 5. What the Negro Gets Out of Politics
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500 An American Dilemma
In referenda and other nonpartisan elections, Negro votes have often
been able to achieve advantages for Negroes in Southern cities. In 1921,
Negroes defeated a bond issue for schools in Atlanta until it was agreed
that they would receive a share of the funds for new schools; the Booker
T. Washington High School and four elementary schools were the out-
come. In 1926, a similar deal was made, but the promises made to the
Negro leaders were not kept in full.^® In 1939, Negroes in Dallas received
a high school and a grade school, for supporting a bond issue.®*^ Negro
participation in the nonpartisan municipal elections in Austin, Texas, is
always rewarded: at present there are four Negro policemen, several
garbage collectors, a few janitors in the city buildings, and a well-equipped
recreation center for Negroes.®®
Wherever Negroes vote in the South, white politicians who gain from
their votes ^^repay” them with a few minor administrative or menial jobs,
a few streets paved or lighted, and occasionally a school building or
community center. If Negro votes are necessary to the success of a refer-
endum and if Negroes are organized enough to make a deal with white
leaders, they can get a share of the advantages provided by the success of
the referendum. Southern Negro voters are never expected to consider
issues broader than the interests of their own group, and they seldom do.
On the whole. Southern Negroes have been content to vote against discrim-
inatory measures rather than jor progressive measures.®® The vote of the
average Negro has to be directed toward getting those elementary civic
rights which are the unqu^ stioned prerogative of every white citizen. The
aims of the Negro political hack can usually be directed no higher than
to get the merest left-overs of the political spoils.® The rare Negro who
has broader political interests has to concentrate on getting out the Negro
vote rather than directing a vote that already exists. Partly as a result of
this situation, the Negro voter in the South, not unlike the poor white
voter, tends to be easily ^‘bought” and not very intelligent on issues. With
few exceptions,** the only occasions when there is no effort to buy up the
Negro vote on the part of white politicians are those when there are so
few Negro voters that they can have no influence on the outcome of an
election.
In the North, where Negroes are not restricted from voting, they get
full police protection and justice in the courts to about the same extent as
whites of comparable economic and educational status. They get community
services, such as schools, libraries, street paving, and sanitation facilities,
in rough proportion to the size of their Vote, which is in rough proportion
• There are exceptions to this : the Bellingrers—father and son—have g’otten a great deal
for themselves by marshaling the Negro vote of San Antonio.
® Such as occurred in the spontaneous Ne^ro political inpyeuieuts ii> and Qrepu-
yjlle in
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