Hotmail
Messenger
My MSN
MSN Directory
Quiet political shifts as more blacks are elected
Increasing number of white voters becoming familiar with black leadership
 Jonathan Ernst / Getty Images file U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), seen here in 2007, represents a predominantly white district. |
|
Interactive |
|  |
Slide shows |
 AP World reacts to Obama’s victory From the U.S. president-elect’s ancestral homes in Kenya and Ireland to his namesake town in Japan, election fever grips the globe. |
Special coverage |
 | Discuss on Newsvine |
BROOKLINE, N.H. - Melanie Levesque grabbed the campaign signs from her Mercedes S.U.V. and plunged into the white crowd at the fairgrounds here. The cows were lowing, the cider presses churning and Mrs. Levesque, a black state legislator, was hunting for votes and a place in history.
Blacks account for less than 1 percent of the population in this small suburban district near the Massachusetts border. But none of that seemed to matter to the people here at an annual fall festival this month.
A group of snowy-haired retirees promptly invited Mrs. Levesque to a potluck dinner. Art Fenske, a 91-year-old former paratrooper who served in World War II, presented her with a T-shirt that proclaimed, “Don’t ever give up.”
And next month, Mrs. Levesque is expected to win re-election to her seat in the New Hampshire House of Representatives, where she represents one of the whitest districts in one of the whitest states in the nation. She is part of a new generation of black elected officials who are wooing white voters and winning local elections in predominantly white districts across the country.
Political analysts say such electoral gains are quietly changing the political landscape, increasing the number of black lawmakers adept at crossing color lines as well as the ranks of white voters who are familiar, and increasingly comfortable, with black political leadership.
The black officials, who often serve in small- and medium-size towns, have been overshadowed by the presidential candidacy of Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, who if elected would be the first African-American to hold that office.
But over the last 10 years, about 200 black politicians have won positions once held by whites in legislatures and city halls in states like New Hampshire, Iowa, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina and Tennessee.
In 2007, about 30 percent of the nation’s 622 black state legislators represented predominantly white districts, up from about 16 percent in 2001, according to data collected by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a research group based in Washington that has kept statistics on black elected officials for nearly 40 years.
Political scientists and local officials also point to an increase in the number of black mayors who represent predominantly white cities in places like Asheville, N.C., population 74,000, and Columbus, Ohio, population 748,000. According to a study conducted by Zoltan L. Hajnal, a political scientist at the University of California, San Diego, about 40 percent of Americans have lived in or near cities that have elected black mayors or in states with black governors.
Most black elected officials, however, still represent predominantly black communities. And Dr. Hajnal and other analysts say racial animosity toward black candidates still exists and may affect the results of local and national elections, including the race for president. But he said such feelings were declining.
“There’s a fair amount of experience out there among white voters now, and that has lessened the fears about black candidates,” said Dr. Hajnal, whose book about white experiences with black mayors, “Changing White Attitudes Toward Black Political Leadership,” was published last year by Cambridge University Press.
Click for related content |
At the fall festival here in New Hampshire, white voters peppered Mrs. Levesque — one of six black state legislators in New Hampshire — with questions about property taxes, repairs to the police station and local zoning rules. No one mentioned race.
Some of the officials who have bridged the racial divide have achieved national prominence, like Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, whose state is 79 percent white.
In Congress, several black lawmakers now represent predominantly white districts, including Representatives Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Representative Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri, Democrats who were elected in 2006 from districts that are more than 60 percent white.
“I had great concerns,” said Mr. Cleaver, recalling his initial fears that white voters, particularly in rural communities, would not support him in sufficient numbers to ensure victory.
“But the truth is that the hard-core bigots are dwindling in numbers,” he said. “All of this fear — ‘Is he going to throw watermelons at us?’ — all of that stuff was gone.”
|
In the 1980s, few black state legislators represented predominantly white districts, said David A. Bositis, the senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies who conducted the most recent study of black state legislators.
By 2001, that number stood at 92, according to Tyson King-Meadows and Thomas F. Schaller, political scientists at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, who analyzed statistics from the joint center and other sources. In 2007, the figure was 189, Mr. Bositis said.
About 45 percent of the black state lawmakers represent communities that are 35 percent to 40 percent black in states like Georgia, Indiana and North Carolina. But roughly a quarter represent communities where blacks make up 20 percent or less of the population, including districts in Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan and Tennessee.
- Discuss Story On Newsvine
- Rate Story:
View popularLowHigh - Instant Message
MORE FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES |
 The New York Times Section Front |