DIMENSIONS OF BLACK IN THE 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.

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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 -Politics and government. 2. Conservatism-United States. 3. -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

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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": 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!'

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: and the 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 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 : 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). She is a founder and first National Director of the Association of Black Women Historians.

HA'IEs W ALTOK, JR., is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. His current areas of interest are African American politics, presidential elections, and public policy. He has published numerous articles on black politics. His major books include: Negro in Third Party Politics (1969); Political Philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., (1971); Black Political Parties: An Historical and Political Analysis (1972); Study and Analysis of Black Politics: A Bibliography (1973); Black Republicans: the Poli• tics of the Black and Tan (197 5); Invisible Politics: Black Political Behavior (1985); When the Marching Stopped: the Politics of Civil Rights Regulatory Agencies (1988); Native Son Presidential Candidate: The Carter Vote in Georgia (1992); Black Politics and Black Po• litical Behavior: A Unkage Analysis (1994); African American Power and Politics: the Po• litical Context Variable (1997); Reelection: William Jefferson Clinton as a Native-son Presidential Candidate (2000) ; and American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom (2000).

RoBERT E. WEEMS, JR., is Professor of History at the University of Missouri at Co• lumbia. Born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, he received his Ph.D. from the Univer• sity of Wisconsin at Madison. His publications include the following books: Black Business in the Black Metropolis: The Chicago Metropolitan Assurance Company, 1925-1985; Desegregating the Dollar: African American Consumerism in the Twentieth Century; and The African American Experience: An Historiographical and Bibliographi• cal Guide (co-edited with Arvarh E. Strickland). He is the co-author (with Lewis A. Randolph) of a forthcoming book entitled Whatever Happened to : The Rise and Fall of Richard M. Nixon's Plan for Black America.

OSCAR R. WILLIAMS is an Assistant Professor of History at The State University of New York at Albany. He received his Ph.D. in American History from Ohio State University in 1997. He is the author of "George S. Schuyler: Portrait of a Conserva• tive," in Africana: An Introduction and Study (1999) ; and "From Black Liberal to Black Conservative: George S. Schuyler, 1923-1935," in Afro-Americans in New York Ufe and History (1997). He is currently writing a biography of Schuyle&

RHO!'IDA M. WILLIAMS was an Associate Professor of Economics and Afro-American Studies at the University of Maryland at College Park. She became the Acting Di• rector of the Department of Afro-American Studies in 1999. She graduated cum laude from Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1978 and received her Ph.D in Economics from M.LT in 1983. She was a political economist noted especially for her work on occupational segregation, wage differentials, social outcomes, wealth, and affirmative action. Her 1996 study, '~ Logic Decomposition Analysis of Occupational Segrega• tion: Results for the 1970s and 1980s," was published in the Review of Radical Politi• cal Economics. She co-edited Race, Market and Social Outcomes in 1997. She authored Beyond Capital: Black Women, Work, and Wages, as well as two of the nine reports composing the 's 1999 State of Black America report. Beyond xii NOTES O!'< THE CONTRIBliTORS her scholarly contributions, she was celebrated for her excellence in teaching by her students; her selflessness by her colleagues; and her inspiration and activism to make the world a better place. She died of lung cancer on November 7, 2000.

FRA.'IK HAROLD WILSO:-.l is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Urban Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He has written several articles on such varied issues as urban inequality, housing, gentrification, poverty, and African Amer, ican population. His book, Race, Class, and the Post Industrial City: WdliamJulius Wzl.. son and the Promise of Sociology is fonhcoming. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

his volume was the brainchild of Talmadge Anderson, the founding editor of T the Western Journal of Black Studies, who believed that the historical, eco• nomic, and political dimensions of black conservatism required continuous exploration and analysis. To that end, we gathered together a group of contributing scholars who have made immeasurable contributions, in many ways, to this collec• tive endeavo~ We also owe a debt of gratitude to a number of other enthusiastic sup• potters, including Ernest M. Tate, J~, Eartha Tate, Charles Tutler, Ruth Ernestine Tutler, Juanita Glasgow, Gloria Burroughs, Lillie Johnson Edwards, Geraldyne Pem• betton-Diallo, Shirley Traylor, Elton A. Beckett, Mel Gary, Sheila Jean Walker, William Davis, J~, Stacia Murphy, William Jordan, Melva D. Burke, Donald Ames, and Gwen Parker Ames, all of whose highly spirited discourse, resources, and archival materials on contemporary black politics contributed to our perspectives. Georgia A. Persons provided invaluable insight, commentary, and analysis on the current politi• cal environment facilitating the resurgence of black conservatism. Mary Louise Byrd and Patty Zimmerman provided critical editing of many chapters, improving their overall quality in each instance. Barbara Jo Mitchell contributed her expertise on current computer software which made our job easie~ Karen Wolny, former Senior Editor of St. Mattin's Press, provided initial suppott for the project and Assistant Editor Ella Pearce patiently moved the book from its embryonic stages to completion. To all, we thank you.