Voting Hopes or Fears? White Voters, Black Candidates, and Racial Politics in America

by Reeves, Keith

• ISBN13: 9780195101614
• ISBN10: 0195101618
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-10-23
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

When President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, he explained that it flowed from "a clear and simple wrong." But a generation later, whites still remain resistant to the election of blacks to public office. That widespread resistance, Keith Reeves illustrates, can be explained in large part by election campaign appeals to whites' racial fears and sentiments. Based on empirical research examining white voters' attitudes towards black candidates and racial framing of campaign news coverage, Voting Hopes or Fears? explosively documents that racial discrimination against black candidates is contemporary, specific, and identifiable. Reeves concludes by outlining possible remedies such as modified at-large voting systems and by defending the practice of race-conscious legislative districting, now under attack by the Supreme Court.Marshaling startling evidence of voting discrimination against black candidates on account of race, and featuring a Foreword by The Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., Chief Justice Emeritus of the US Court of Appeals, Voting Hopes or Fears? will be mandatory reading for political and social scientists, scholars of racism and African-American Studies, civil rights litigators, journalists, black lawmakers and office-seekers, and general readers interested in the subject of race and politics in American society.

Author Biography

Keith Reeves is Assistant Professor of Public Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University

Table of Contents

Foreword	xiii
The Honorable A. Leon Higginbotham Jr.
I OUR INTRACTABLE PROBLEM	13	(32)
1 Race--A Political Lightning Rod	13	(12)
2 Voting Discrimination against Black Candidates	25	(20)
II THE EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE	45	(48)
3 The Print Press--Making an Issue of Race	45	(16)
4 The Persistence of Racial Prejudice in the Electorate	61	(15)
5 The Consequences of Cueing Subtle Appeals to Race	76	(17)
III AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND EQUAL POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY REVISITED	93	(20)
6 In Pursuit of a Level Playing Field	93	(20)
Appendix A The Content Analysis Study	113	(2)
Appendix B The 1992 Biracial Election Campaign Study	115	(4)
Appendix C The Voting Rights Act	119	(26)
Notes	145	(10)
References	155	(17)
Table of Cases	172	(1)
Index	173