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DIMENSIONS OF BLACK CONSERVATISM IN THE UNITED STATES This page intentionally left blank DIMENSIONS OF BLACK CONSERVATISM IN THE UNITED STATES MADE IN AMERICA EDITED BY GAYLE T. TATE AND LEWIS A. RANDOLPH palgrave DL\1E.'I/SIO!llS OF BLACK CO!llSERVATISM l!ll THE l!!IIITED STATES © Gayle T. Tate and Lewis A. Randolph. ZOOZ Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2002978-0-312-23861-2 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be lIsed or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied * in critical articles or reviews. First published Z002 by PALGRAVETM 175 Fifth Avenue. New York. N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE is the new global publishing imprint of St. Martin's Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-0-312-29370-3 ISBN 978-0-230-10815-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230108158 Ubrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Dimensions of Black conservatism: made in America 1 edited by Gayle T. Tate and Lewis A. Randolph. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-312-29370-3 (pbk.) 1. African Americans-Politics and government. 2. Conservatism-United States. 3. African Americans-Civil rights. 4. African Americans-Social conditions. 5. African American politicians. 6. African American inteUecnJals. 7. United States-Race relations-Political aspects. I. Tate, Gayle T. II. Randolph. Lewis A. EI85.D46 ZOO 1 3Z0.5Z'089'96073-dcZ 1 2001044657 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Lena Libre, Inc. First edition: May Z002 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 Z 1 In Memory of Rhonda M. WiUiams 1957-2000 and to Marietta L. Matthews, Adriane M. Livingston, and Adah Ward Randolph for their courage, wit, and wisdom This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS Notes on the Contributors ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 Gayle T. Tate and Lewis A. Randolph PART I THE CONTEXT OF BLACK CONSERVATISM 1. Black Creole Cultures: The Eighteenth.Century Origins of African American Conservatism 13 Rhett S. Jones 2. The American Moral Reform Society and the Origins of Black Conservative Ideology 31 Robert E. ~ems, JT. 3. "There is no refuge in conservatism": A Case Study of Black Political Conservatism in Richmond, Virginia 43 Gayle T. Tate and Lewis A. Randolph PART II GENDER, FAMILY, AND SOCIAL POLICY 4. The Politics of the Anti-Woman Suffrage Agenda: African Americans Respond to Conservatism 69 Rosalyn Terborg. Penn 5. "If it ain't broke, don't fIx it": Thomas Sowell on Black Women, Affirmative Action, and the Death of Discrimination 85 Rhonda M. WiUiams 6. The Neoconservative Assault on Black Males: Origins, Objectives, and Outcomes 101 James B. Stewart PART III RHETORIC, MEDIA, AND PUBLIC OPINION 7. The Individual Ethos: A Deftning Characteristic of Contemporary Black Conservatism 119 Sherri Smith viii CO!'<TENTS 8. Remaking African American Public Opinion: The Role and Function of the African American Conservatives 141 Hanes Walton, Jr. PART IV STRUGGLE, CLASS, AND IDEOLOGY 9. The Lonely Iconoclast: George Schuyler and the Civil Rights Movement 163 Oscar R. WiUiams, Jr. 10. Neoconservatives, Black Conservatives, and the Retreat from Social Justice 179 Frank Harold Wilson 11. Black Conservatives and Class Relations 197 Marcus D. Pohlmann 12. Beyond Black Neoconservatism and Black Liberalism 225 James Jennings Index 237 NOTES ON THE CONTRIBUTORS JAMES JE?\i'/L\lGS is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Urban and En vironmental Policy at Tufts University and a Research Associate with the William Monroe Trotter Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Boston. He has pub lished numerous articles in such varied journals as Review of Black Political Economy, Social Science Journal, National Political Science Review, Urban Affairs Review, PS (Po litical Science and Politics), and the Annals 0/ the American Academy of Political and So cial Science. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of Puerto Rican Politics in Urban America (1984); The Politics 0/ Empowerment: Transformation af Black Activism in Urban America (1992); Race, Politics, and Black Economic Development: Community Perspectives (1992); Blacks, Latinos, and Asians in Urban America: Status and Prospects for Activism (1994); Understanding the Nature 0/ Poverty in Urban America (1994); Race and Politics in the United States: New Challenges and Responses (1997); An Intro duction to Poverty: The Role 0/ Race, Power, and Wealth (1999); A New Introduction to Poverty: The Role 0/ Race, Power, and Politics (1999); and Racism: Essential Readings (forthcoming) . RHElT S. JONES, Professor of History and Afro-American Studies at Brown Univer sity, is interested in the study of race in the Americas before the nineteenth century. Although he has written over thirty articles on eighteenth-century African Ameri can and Caribbean history, his recendy published work focuses on African Ameri can/Native American relations. His recent articles include "Subverting the Master Narrative: Paradigms for the Study of Native American and African American Rela tions" (1999); "Indian/Black Relations in the Americas: Past Paradigms, Future Pos sibilities" (2001); and "Native American/ African American Relations: An Overview of the Scholarship" (2001). He chaired Brown University's Afro-American Studies Program for twelve years, and from 1991 to 1995 served as director of the Univer sity's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. MARcus D. POHL\1AjI;jI; is Professor of Political Science and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. His work has been published in the Urban Affairs Review, Urban Affairs Quarterly, National Forum, Jour nal of Sociology and Social Welfare. Political Science Quarterly. and Journal of Urban Af fairs. He is the author of several books including Political Power in the Industrial City (1986); Black Politics in Conservative America (1990 and 1999); Gooerning the Post In dustrial City (1993); African American Political Thought: An Anthology (Forthcoming); Landmark Congressional Laws on Civil Rights (Forthcoming); and Pursuing Power: x NOTES O!'< THE CONTRIBliTORS Black Political Tlwught in the Twentieth Century (Forthcoming). He is the co-author of Racial Politics at the Crossroads: Memphis Elects Dr. W. W Herrenton (1996). LEWIS A. RANDOLPH is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Ohio University at Athens. He has published in such disparate journals as Proteus, the Western Journal of Black Studies, the Review of Black Political Economy, and the Journal of Black Stud ies. He has co-authored Rights for a Season: Race, Class and Gender in a Southern City, Richmond, VJrginia (with Gayle T. Tate) to be published in Spring 2003; and the forth coming What Ever Happened to Black Capitalism: The Rise and Fall of Richard M. Nixon's Plan for Black America (with Roben E. Weems, J&). SHERR! SMITH, former Assistant Professor of Communication Arts at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, currently works in NAS~s Media Relations Office. Her research interests focus on diversity issues, specifically interracial and intraracial communication, and gender and communication. Actively involved in the Ala-Hunt chapter of the American Business Women's Association, D& Smith's other civic in terests include prison education and mental health care reforms. JAMES B. STEWART is a Professor of Labor Studies and Industrial Relations and African and African American Studies at Penn State University. He previously served as Vice Provost for Educational Equity and Director of the Black Studies Pro gram. He has published over fony anicles in economics and black studies professional journals. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of six monographs, includ ing Black Families: Interdisciplinary Perspectives; The Housing Status of Black Americans; Research on the African American Family: A Holistic Perspective; Blacks in Rural Amer ica; W. E. B. DuBois on Race and Culture: Philosophy, Politics, and Poetics; and African American and Post-Industrial Labor Markets.He has served as editor of The Review of Black Political Economy and president of the National Economic Association and is currently President of the National Council for Black Studies. GAYLE T. TATE is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in the Depanment of Africana Studies at Rutgers University. She has previously served as Chairperson of the Depanment of Africana Studies. Her published anicles have appeared in the Westernlournal of Black Studies, Women & Politics, the National Political Science Review, Urban Affairs Annual Review, ABAFAZI, Third World in Perspective, Black Women's History at the Intersection of Knowledge and Power, and the Journal of Black Studies. Her work has also appeared in several encyclopedias including Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. She was an associate editor for Africana: An Introduction & Study. She is the author of Unknown Tongues: Black Women's Political Activism in the AntebeUum Era, 1830-1860, to be published in Fall 2002, and co-author of Rights for a Season: Race, Class, and Gender in a Southern City, Richmond, VJtginia (with Lewis A. Randolph) to be published in Spring 2003. RoSALYN TERBORG-PENN is Professor of History and the Coordinator of Graduate Programs in History at Morgan State University in Baltimore. She was one of the early pioneers in black women's history, black women's suffrage in particular, and has published over forty articles in history and women's studies professional journals and antholOgies. She is the author or co-editor of several books, including Afro-American NOTES O!'< THE CONTRIBliTORS xi Women: Struggles and Images (1978 & 1998); Women in Africa and the African Dias pora (1987); Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia (1993); African American Women in the Struggle for the Vote, 1850-1920 (1998); and Black Women's History at the Intersection of Knowledge and Power (2000).