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John Lewis and the Durability of Transcendent Race Politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2021

Andra Gillespie
Andra Gillespie*
Affiliation:
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, Emory University
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Abstract

John Lewis's civil rights activism in the 1960s often obscures the fact that he won elective office as a racially moderate politician. Scholars have long noted the efficacy of using deracialized, or racially transcendent, campaign strategies to get elected, despite normative concerns. These strategies were critical to electing Black governors, senators, and even President Obama. However, in the age of Black Lives Matter, some have questioned the continued usefulness of the strategy. Using Rep. Lewis's life as a guide, I examine the ways that some Black politicians continue to use deracialization, even in this racially charged social and political moment, and I explain how younger cohorts of Black politicians challenge this approach. Ultimately, I argue that while deracialization is a contested strategy, its efficacy has not diminished. Rather, Black politicians have expanded the boundaries of what constitutes racially transcendent politics to include consensus issues like voting rights, which while highly racialized, are not likely to induce an erosion of support among non-Black Democratic voters.

Keywords

African American politicsderacializationvoting rightscampaigns and elections
Type
Essay Roundtable: John R. Lewis's Legacies in Law and Religion
Information
Journal of Law and Religion , Volume 37 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 55 - 62
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University

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References

1 “Rep. John Lewis Tours ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza’ with DC Mayor,” Fox 5 Atlanta, June 7, 2020, https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/rep-john-lewis-tours-black-lives-matter-plaza-with-dc-mayor.

2 John Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation,” New York Times, July 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html.

3 Richard Halicks, “Andrew Young Apologizes for ‘Unlovable Little Brats’ Remark,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, July 13, 2016, https://www.ajc.com/news/local/andrew-young-apologizes-for-unlovable-little-brats-remark/koBWzSwV88DlTLW9XRQ5OO/.

4 Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.”

5 Bayard Rustin, “From Protest to Politics: The Future of the Civil Rights Movement,” Commentary, February 1965, https://www.commentary.org/articles/bayard-rustin-2/from-protest-to-politics-the-future-of-the-civil-rights-movement/.

6 Gillespie, Andra, “Meet the New Class: Theorizing Young Black Leadership in the ‘Post-racial’ Era,” in Whose Black Politics? Cases in Post-racial Black Leadership, ed. Gillespie, Andra (New York: Routledge, 2010), 9–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7 Gillespie, “Meet the New Class.”

8 Charles Hamilton, “Deracialization: Examination of a Political Strategy,” First World (March-April 1977): 3–5; II, Joseph McCormick and Jones, Charles E., “The Conceptualization of Deracialization: Thinking through the Dilemma,” in Dilemmas of Black Politics: Issues of Leadership and Strategy, ed. Persons, Georgia (New York: Harper Collins, 1993), 66–84Google Scholar.

9 Gillespie, “Meet the New Class.”

10 See L. H. B., Jr. and A. S. C., “The Julian Bond Case,” Virginia Law Review, 52, no. 7 (1966): 1309–35. Bond sued to be seated. Ultimately, the US Supreme Court ruled in his favor in Bond v. Floyd, 385 U.S. 116 (1966).

11 Dudley Clendinen, “Ex-Colleague Upsets Julian Bond in Atlanta Congressional Runoff,” New York Times, September 3, 1986, A16.

12 Albritton, Robert, Amedee, George, Grenell, Keenan, and Veal, Don-Terry, “Deracialization and the New Black Politics,” in Race, Politics, and Governance in the United States, ed. Perry, Huey L. (Gainsville: University Press of Florida, 1996), 179–92Google Scholar.

13 McCormick and Jones, “The Conceptualization of Deracialization”; Gillespie, Andra, The New Black Politician: Cory Booker, Newark and Post-racial America (New York: New York University Press, 2012), 66n28–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stephens-Dougan, LaFleur, Race to the Bottom: How Racial Appeals Work in American Politics (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2020)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 See Gillespie, “Meet the New Class”; Gillespie, The New Black Politician. For example, Muriel Bowser became mayor of Washington, DC, after defeating a Black incumbent, Vincent Gray.

15 See, for example, Daniel Schorr, “A New, ‘Post-racial’ Political Era in America,” NPR, January 28, 2008, https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=18489466.

16 Gillespie, The New Black Politician.

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18 Gillespie, Andra, Race and the Obama Administration: Substance, Symbols and Hope (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2019), 15–16Google Scholar.

19 There are decades of data that corroborate the widespread prevalence of linked fate in Black communities. See Dawson, Michael, Behind the Mule (Princeton: Princeton University, 1994)Google Scholar. That is, majorities of African Americans report believing that whatever happens to other Blacks affects them. In a related vein, newer work corroborates Blacks ascribing to high levels of intraracial group consciousness, or the recognition that being Black is politically important to them. See Philpot, Tasha, Conservative but Not Republican (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018)Google Scholar. High levels of group consciousness and linked fate help to explain why most Blacks tend to vote Democratic and why class is not a good predictor of Blacks’ policy positions on economic issues such as social welfare spending. See Dawson, Behind the Mule. Given the high prevalence of linked fate and group consciousness, it is very likely that most Black Democratic elected officials, whether or not they choose to deracialize, have high levels of linked fate. Many of them were socialized in Black communities that reinforce the importance of making political decisions with racial group considerations at the forefront. And if their policy proposals deviate from the consensus about what Black interests are, there is often social pressure to reconsider their policy positions. Harris-Lacewell, Melissa, Bibles, Barbershops and BET (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; White, Ismail and Laird, Chryl, Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020)Google Scholar. Furthermore, experimental evidence suggests that Black voters would penalize Black candidates whose policy views fall outside of the ideological mainstream. See Kevin Sparrow, “Racial or Spatial Voting: How African Americans Balance the Tradeoff between Ideological Congruence and Co-racial Representation,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, March 2021 (virtual).

20 Melanye Price, “Ayanna Pressley and the Might of the Black Political Left,” New York Times, September 5, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/ayanna-pressley-massachusetts.html.

21 Price, “Ayanna Pressley and the Might of the Black Political Left”; “Does Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams Support Radical Abolish ICE Movement? She Owes Voters Answers,” Republican Governors’ Association News, September 10, 2018, https://www.rga.org/georgia-democrat-stacey-abrams-support-radical-abolish-ice-movement-owes-voters-answers/; Bill Barrow, “Stacey Abrams’ Record Complicates ‘Radical’ Label from GOP,” Associated Press, August 20, 2018, https://apnews.com/article/73a6439465d04d14883f46d29277a3ba.

22 Stacey Abrams for Governor, “We Are Georgia” (campaign advertisement), October 17, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RtC7psghco.

23 See Kelly Loeffler, “A Radical's Radical,” Facebook, November 12, 2020, https://www.facebook.com/KellyLoefflerGA/videos/a-radicals-radical/372510793801309/.

24 Shane Goldmacher, “How Alvin the Beagle Helped Usher in a Democratic Senate,” New York Times, January 23, 2021, A1.

25 Cohen, Cathy, The Boundaries of Blackness (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Cohen, The Boundaries of Blackness, 11–15.

27 Vianney Gomez and Carroll Doherty, “Wide Partisan Divide on Whether Voting Is a Fundamental Right or a Privilege with Responsibilities, Pew Research Center, July 22, 2021, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/22/wide-partisan-divide-on-whether-voting-is-a-fundamental-right-or-a-privilege-with-responsibilities/.

28 See Albritton et al., “Deracialization.”

29 Gerber, Alan S., “African Americans’ Congressional Careers and the Democratic House Delegation,” Journal of Politics 58, no. 3 (1996): 831–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Gillespie, Race and the Obama Administration, 200–05.

31 Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013).

32 Stout, Christopher, Bringing Race Back In: Black Politicians, Deracialization, and Voting Behavior in the Age of Obama (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015)Google Scholar.

33 McCormick and Jones, “The Conceptualization of Deracialization.”

34 Michael J. Fortner, “Reconstructing Justice: Race, Generational Divides, and the Fight Over ‘Defund the Police,’” Niskanen Center, October 2020, https://www.niskanencenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Reconstructing-Justice-Final.pdf.

35 “James Clyburn Says He and John Lewis Feared ‘Defund the Police’ Would Undermine Black Lives Matter Movement,” CBS News, November 9, 2020, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/james-clyburn-john-lewis-defund-the-police-messages-black-lives-matter/.

36 Lewis, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation.”