African American Politics

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Descriptive representation: The extent to which the leg. looks demographically like the population.
Symbolic Representation: The extent to which the people have confidence or trust in the legislature.
Substantive representation: Concerns whether the laws passed by the leg. correspond to the policy interests or preferences of the people.
Baker v. Carr (1962); Wesberry v. Sanders (1964): Supreme court cases that established the "one person, one vote" decisions. These cases aided the black community in expanding black representation in congress.
Reapportionment: Involves the allocation of the legally est. 435 House seats among the 50 states on the basis of changes in the population (census). The census regularly undercounts minorities, when the census wanted to use statistical sampling to adjust for the undercount the Supreme Court ruled the const. required an actual "enumeration" for Reapportionment purposes.
Redistricting: (After reapportionment)The allocation of seats within a state on teh basis of pops within each cong. dist., with each dist. containing approx 6K persons. When the census bureau wanted to use statistical sampling to adjust for minority undercounts the Supreme Court ruled that stat. sampling could not be used for Reapportionment but could be used for redistricting and allocating fed. monies.
Incumbency: Once elected blacks are routinely re-elected b/c of the advantages of incumbency. Name recog., staff, free mailing, and campaign finance contr.-more than 90 percent get reelected. A major advantage of incumbency are PAC campaign contr. Blacks rely more heavily on PACs than whites and get them from labor unions, corporate and trade groups.
Congressional Black Caucus (CBC)-Activities: Lobby the pres.; presenting various black leg. agendas and alternative budgets in floor debates, and holding its annual leg. weekend.
CBC operation/power: Until Rep. majority election in 1994 the caucus was supported by 4,000 dues paid by members and 1,000 dues paid by white associative members. In '95 Gingrich adopted rules prohibiting House caucuses from receiving dues or using House office space, staff, etc. The CBC is no longer an official House caucus but rather the CBC foundation (sep. tax exempt est. 1982) and operates on donations and fund raising dinner. The republican majority has deeply weakened the CBC and black reps. power since they are mostly Dems.
Committee Leadership: A.A. are represented on each of the major or power committees, and are heavily represented on those committees of special relevance to black interests. A.A. also hold ranking members positions on many committees and subcommittees which gives them power within the house and sets them up for more power when the Dems regain control of the House.
Gag Rule (Order)-1836: Until 1836 black petitions to end slavery were received, printed in the record and referred to committee. In 1836 Congman James Hammond(SC) demanded congress not recieve these petitions b/c to do so would be an unconst. infringment on slavery. Until 1944-the gag rule was debated, opponents (led by former Pres. J.Q.Adams) argued that to ban slave petitions was a violation of 1st amend rights that should be afforded even to slaves.
Congressional Responsiveness (Recon Era): 1)Civil Rights Act, 1866
2)C.R.A, 1870
3)C.R.A, 1875
4)Enforcement Act, 1870
5)Enforcement Act, 1871
6)Enforcement Act, 1875

Most of the 1860's laws were invalidated by the Supreme Court as unconst. or declined to require enforcement. The Acts passed in the 1960's were in many ways just the repassing of acts passed in the 1860's.
Congressional Responsiveness (Civil Rights Era): 1)C.R.A, 1957
2)C.R.A., 1960
3)C.R.A., 1964*
4)Voting Rights Act, 1965*
5)Fair Housing Act, 1968*
Congressional Responsiveness (Post Civil Rights Era): 1) Equal Employment Opp. Act, 1972
2) Civil Righst Restoration Act, 1988
3) Civil Rights Act, 1991

The Civ. Rights Rest. Act and Civ. Rights Act of '91 were passed to overturn Supreme Court decisions that made part of the '64 Act difficult to enforce.
Judicial Restraint: "strict constructivism": Conservative scholars and jurists argue jurists should look to the intent of the framers or the Constitution and precedents in interpreting the Const. rather than applying their own political values or changing the Const' to fit the needs of a changing society.
Judicial Activism-"loose constructivism": Liberal scholars argue the intent of the framers on many issues is vague and unclear, and that the framers designed the Const. as a "living" document to be interpreted broadly to fit the needs of a changing society.
NAACP Legal Defense Fund: Created in 1939, signifying a shift from lobbying to litigation in the NAACP's approach to civil rights. Under guidance of Thurgood Marshall the Legal Defense fund developed a strategy of using the courts to expand civil rights. Their success eventually brought a conservative backlash and currently conservatives have a narrow majority of justices.
Dred Scott V. Sanford (1857): First case to address AA rights and found they had none and were not citizens under the const. as a subjug race of the whites
School Desegregation Cases (Plessy Cases): NAACP attacked notion of equality before the fought for deseg.
1)Plessy V Ferg (1896):declared "separate but equal" in ed a violation of 14th amend. equality.
2)Cummings V. Rich Co BOE (1899): undermined plessy equality. allowed white high school but not one for AA.
School Deseg. Cases-Graduate level equality cases: 1) Missou ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1938): Court invalidated Missou's policy of excluding blacks from their law school and offering them tuition to attend out of state l.s.
2) Sweatt v. Painter (1939): Court found UT's black law school inherently inferior to the white l.s. and ordered them to admit blacks.
3)McLaurin V. Oklahoma State BORegents (1950): Ruled practice of segregating grad students was unconst.

Grad level victories led the NAACP to directly attack "separate but equal".
School Deseg. Cases- The slow move towards integrated schools: 1)Brown II(1955): Ordered schools to deseg. "with all deliberate speed" i.e. take your sweet time.
2)Alexander v. Holmes Co. BOE (1969): Ordered deseg. "at once".
School Deseg. Cases-Busing: 1)Swann v. Charlotte Mecklenburg(1971): ordered busing to reach quotas at schools.
2)Keyes v. S.D. #1,Denver: Ruled even if a school had never practiced de jure(legal) seg. it could still violate Brown by practicing de facto(drawing boundries etc.) made Denver bus.
3)Milliden v. Bradley(1974): White flight to the burbs, private schools and protests of busing AND split pub opinion in AA led to a ruling that began dismantling busing. Ruled cross district busing not req. to comply with Brown.
Race Representation Cases-majority-minority dist. cases: 1)United Jew Orgs. v. Carey(1972): When NYS leg. redrew districts to create majority black and puerto rican dist. it split up a community of jews who arged it was reverse discrim. and violated 14th Amend. equality Court ruled it wasn't and allowed districts.
Race Rep Cases-Following the Carey case: 1)Shaw v. Reno(1993): overturned Carey deciding deliberate creation of minority-majority dist. could violate equal protection of whites.
2)Easley v. Cromartie: Clarified principles of Shaw case that permits some use of race in creating districts. Esp. when race correllates with party aff.
Education-Aff Act. Cases: 1) Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978). Ruled it was const. permissible to take race into account in alloc. mat. benefits and est. use of quota system.
2)Texas v. Hopwood (1996): UT law; declared UT law's aff action admission policy a violation of 14th amend.
Employment Cases-Aff Act.: 1)Griggs et al v. Duke Power Co (1971): Struck down test and educ. reqs in employment that discrim. against blacks unless the tests/ed. could be shown neccessary for job.
2)Wards Cove v. Atonio: Overturned Griggs, busin. could engage in racially discrim. practice if served legit employ. goals.
Govt Contracts-Aff Act. Cases: 1) Fullilove V. Klutznik and Metro Braodcast V. FCC: Court upheld Gov't had right to set aside gov't contracts for minorities.
2) Croson v. City of Richmond (1989): Ruled cong. could set aside minority contracts but localities could not w/o violating 14th amend.
3Adarand Const. V. Pena (1995): Ruled cong. could not set aside contracts w/o violating 14th amend.
Aff Action cases-state of confusion: 1) Grutter v. Bollinger et al. (2003): Law School ruling, No quotas or race consideration allowed in admissions.
2) Gratz er al v. Bollinger er al. (2003): Same university system where court upheld use of quotas and race allowed in undergrad Lib Arts school.
1982 Amend to 1965 VRA: Mandated creation of minority-majority districts
Fed Bureaucracy: 3 major functions subsumed under rubric of implementation of laws of the land.
1) Must execute the law.
2) Must write rules so as to execute the law.
3) Must adjudicate between claimants and resolve disputes that arise about proper proc., regs, guidelines, and fed practices.
Wilson Admin. 1913: Prior to Wilson seg. occured in federal depts but was limited, recieved little white house consid. and did not prevent some AA from promotion.
After Wilson, who screened Birth of a Nation at White House, pressure from southerners led Wilson to allow full segregation in Fed. Bureaucracies.
Freedman's Bureau: Est 1865. First Bureau with race initiative (military necces.) Aided white refugees and former slaves by furn. med supplies/services, schools, supervised contracts between ex slaves and employers, managing confiscated or abandoned lands, leasing and selling some of them to former slaves. Dismantled in 1872 under pressure from whites.
Dept. of Justice: When (political necc.) arose the fed. govt gave the DOJ the new responsiblities of invest. and prosecuting violaters of civ. rights. this was discont. under outcry from whites. Then no bureaus with race init. until 1939 when att. gen ordered est. of civ lib unit in DOJ.; 1957 Civ Rights Act upgraded unit to full Civil Rights Division.
1965 Voting Rights Act: Est. protection of those from discrim. in voting. created unit in DOJ's CRD to handle matters of race dis. in voter reg. and voting.
Commission on Civ Rights: Est 1957 under Civil Rights Act. To act as a fact finding agency and make reccom. to Pres. who in turn frequently rejected their reccom.
Equal Employment Opportunity Comm.: First est under Title VII of 1964 CRA under the DOJ to ensure non discrim. in fed employment and in private employ. in co's with gov't contracts. !972 congress leg. made EEOC an independent commision.
MLK Fed Holiday Comm: 1984, Congress created MLK Fed holiday commission and some funding to help in the celeb and promotion of the holiday.
The Civil and Voting Rights Unit in the Just Dept: 1965 VRA mandated DOJ est unit to address discrim in voting reg. and voting.
Table 14.2: % of AA political appointees in Pres admin.: 1)Kennedy-Johnson: 2%
2)Nixon-Ford: 4%
3)Carter: 12%
4)Reagan: 5%
5)Bush: 6%
6)Clinton: 13%
7)W: 10%
Executive Orders: Used by Pres. when Cong refuses to enact desired law. Have same force as law. Most EO have est. policy of Aff Act or Non discrim. in federal employment, gov't contracters, and armed forces. Also est. committees to see to implementation.

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