Black conservatism in the United States

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Black conservatism in the United States is a political and social movement rooted in communities of African descent that aligns largely with the American conservative movement. Since the Civil Rights Movement in the latter 20th Century, the African-American community has generally fallen to the left of the right-wing conservative movement, and has predominantly favored itself on the side of liberalism and civil rights progressives. Black conservatism emphasizes traditionalism, strong patriotism, capitalism, free markets, and strong social conservatism within the context of black church.

Overview

One of the main characteristics of black conservatism is its emphasis on personal choice and responsibilities, irrelative of socioeconomic status and institutional racism. In the tradition of African American politics and intellectual life, black conservatives tend to side with Booker T. Washington as contrasted with W. E. B. Du Bois. For many black conservatives, the key mission is to bring repair and success to the Black community by applying the following fundamental principles:

• The pursuit of educational and professional excellence as a means of advancement within the society;
• Policies that promote safety and security in the community beyond the typical casting of a criminal as a "victim" of societal racism;
• Local economic development through free enterprise rather than looking to the federal government for assistance;
• Empowerment of the individual via self-improvement (virtue), conscience, and supernatural grace.^[1]

Black conservative may find common ground with Black Nationalists through their common belief in black empowerment and the theory that black people have been duped by the Welfare state.

On the other hand, some of the policies advocated by Black conservatives are in conflict with some of the key points in the common social, economic, and political positions that a high percentage of African-Americans favor. For example, black conservatives typically oppose affirmative action which is supported by the vast majority of African American communities. They tend to argue that efforts to obtain reparations for slavery are either misguided or counter-productive. Moreover, black conservatives - especially black Republicans - are often accused of being Uncle Toms. Ebony in their May 2001 "100+ Most Influential Black Americans" issue, did not include a number of influential African Americans such as Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele, Armstrong Williams, Walter Williams and, most notably, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The Economist, a British libertarian-leaning magazine, described the exclusion of Thomas from the list as spiteful.^[2] Black conservatives favor integration of African Americans into mainstream America and, consequently, disagree with Black nationalism. Black conservatives are more inclined to support economic policies promoting globalization, free-trade and tax cuts.

The term "Black Republican" was coined by Democrats in 1854 to describe the newly-formed Republican Party. Though the majority of Republicans at the time were actually white, the Republican Party was founded by abolitionists generally supported racial equality. Southern Democrats used the term as one of derision, believing that a Lincoln victory in 1860 would lead to widespread slave revolts. The use of the term continued after the Civil War to reflect most Southerners' opinions of the Radical Republicans during Reconstruction.^[3] Over the next century, the term "Black Republican" would come to refer specifically to blacks affiliated with or voting for the Republican Party and is now a subset of the broader movement of black conservatism.

According to a 2004 study 13.7% of blacks identified as "Conservative" or "Extremely Conservative"^[4] with another 14.4% identifying as slightly conservative. However the same study indicated less than ten percent identified as Republican or Republican leaning in any fashion. Likewise, a recent Pew Research Center survey showed that 19% of blacks identify as Religious Right.^[5] In 2004 the Pew Research Center indicated only 7% of blacks identify as Republican.^[6] Hence a certain percentage of noted Black conservatives (such as Harold Ford Jr.) are likely connected to the Democrats for Life of America movement or economic liberalism.

From Reconstruction up until the New Deal the black population tended to vote Republican as the Republican Party, particularly in the Southern United States, was seen as more racially liberal than the Democratic Party, primarily because of the role of the southern wing of the Democratic Party as the party of segregation and the Republican Party's roots in the abolitionist movement (See Dixiecrats for more on this). Blacks started to shift in significant numbers to the Democrats with the election of Franklin Roosevelt,^[7] whose New Deal particularly benefited economically disadvantaged minority communities and helped forge the New Deal coalition which dominated American politics for the next 30 years, and continued with the election of John F. Kennedy, an Irish-Catholic Democrat who pioneered racial equality legislation while in office, resulting in a flight of conservative Democrats in the South to the Republican Party.^{[citation needed]}

Another case study of differences between Black conservatives and Black Republicans is an emphasis on personal empowerment versus theological perspectives. Black Republicans like Colin Powell hold to the social ideas articulated by the early Radical Republicans like Frederick Douglass while at the same time supporting the self-empowerment message of Booker T. Washington. Many social conservatives who are black and Republican hold to a biblically based empowerment although they also appreciate Booker's emphasis on personal accomplishment. Conservatives like the Texas minister T. D. Jakes are evangelical African Americans who support policies more in common but not totally in line with many white Evangelicals.

Black conservatives and black churches

The African-American church has traditionally been an important element of social and political movements in the Black community. These generally have been identified with persons of the Left or liberalism, like Jesse Jackson, but this is not always true. On issues concerning homosexuality, Black Protestants are more socially conservative than other groups, excepting White Evangelicals.^[8] Their view on the issue of homosexual teachers changed less than any other segment based on religion or race.

• 1954 - President Dwight Eisenhower appoints J. Ernest Wilkins, Sr. as Assistant Secretary of Labor.
• 1968 - Arthur A. Fletcher is appointed Assistant Secretary of Labor; he will be a candidate for Chairman of the Republican National Committee in '76 and appointed Chairman of the US Commission on Civil Rights in '90.
• 1975 - President Gerald Ford appoints William T. Coleman Secretary of Transportation. James B. Parsons is named Chief Judge of the US District Court in Chicago, the first African-American to hold such a position.
• 1980 - NAACP President Benjamin Hooks is invited to address the Republican National Convention
• 1981 - President Ronald Reagan appoints Clarence Pendleton, Jr. as Chairman of the US Civil Rights Commission
• 1982 - President Reagan appoints Clarence Thomas as Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• 1989 - President George H.W. Bush appoints Louis Wade Sullivan as Secretary of Health and Human Services, General Colin L. Powell as Chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Condoleezza Rice as Director of the National Security Council.
• 1990 - Gary Franks is elected to US Congress (CT)
• 1991 - President Bush appoints Clarence Thomas to U.S. Supreme Court
• 1998 - U.S. House of Representatives elects J. C. Watts (R-OK) to be Chairman of the House Republican Conference.
• 2001 - President George W. Bush appoints General Colin Powell as the Secretary of State; Roderick R. Paige as the Secretary of Education; Condoleezza Rice as Advisor of the National Security Council; Alphonso Jackson as the Deputy Secretary to Housing and Urban Development; Claude Allen as the Deputy Secretary of Health and Human Services; Leo S. Mackay, Jr. as the Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs; Larry D. Thompson as the Deputy Attorney General; and Stephen A. Perry as Administrator of General Services Administration
• 2005 - President George W. Bush appoints Condoleezza Rice as Secretary of State
• 2009 - Michael Steele elected the first African American Republican National Committee chairman

Notable black conservatives in the United States

United States politicians

African American portal

• Ken Blackwell, former Secretary of State of Ohio, former Ohio gubernatorial candidate
• Keith Butler, minister, former Detroit councilman, former candidate for U.S. Senate from Michigan
• Randy Daniels, former Secretary of State of New York
• Ezola B. Foster, 2000 Vice Presidential Nominee of the Reform Party.
• Ryan Frazier, Aurora City Councilman, Candidate for United States Senate elections in Colorado, 2010
• Niger Innis, director of Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• Roy Innis, Chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• Alphonso Jackson, former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
• Steven Mullins,Commissioner of Planning and Zoning, West Haven,Connecticut. Republican nominee for State Comptroller in 2002.
• Rod Paige, former United States Secretary of Education
• Gregory Parker, Comal County Commissioner, Commissioner - Texas State Commission on Emergency Communications.
• Michael Powell, former Federal Communications Commission chairman
• Condoleezza Rice, former United States Secretary of State, former National Security Advisor
• Winsome Sears, former member of Virginia House of Delegates, former candidate for U.S. House
• Michael Steele, Current Chairman of the Republican Party.
• Thomas Stith, town councilman of Durham, NC, former candidate for Lt. Gov. of NC
• J.C. Watts, former U.S. Representative from Oklahoma
• Michael L. Williams, Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, and U.S. Senate candidate.
• Dr. Eric Wallace, Former Candidate for United States Senate elections in Illinois, 2010 and Co-chairman of Cook County Republican Party

In addition to J.C. Watts, there were four black Republican members of the United States Congress in relatively recent history; these Republicans were considered conservatives on at least some issues.

• Oscar Stanton De Priest
• Melvin H. Evans
• Edward Brooke
• Gary Franks

United States judges

• Janice Rogers Brown, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
• Wallace Jefferson, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court
• Clarence Thomas, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, former Equal Employment Opportunity Commission chairman
• Dale Wainwright, Associate Justice of the Texas Supreme Court

Talk show hosts

• Terry Anderson (radio), radio talk-show host from Los Angeles, anti-illegal immigration activist
• Herman Cain, newspaper columnist, businessman, politician, and radio talk-show host from Georgia
• Larry Elder, author of 10 Things You Can't Say in America, radio show host^[9]
• James T Harris, radio talk-show host from Milwaukee, Wisc.^[10]
• Alan Keyes, radio host, U.N. Ambassador, public office candidate, author^[11]
• Angela McGlowan, Republican political analyst for Fox News Network^[12]
• Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson, president of The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, television and radio host^[13]
• Armstrong Williams, author of Beyond Blame, TV host of On Point^[14]
• Shelley Wynter, radio talk-show host (formerly of 1380 WAOK Atlanta), daily show on USTalkNetwork.com, and occasional guest on CNN.^[15]

Columnists

• Erik Rush, columnist, author
• La Shawn Barber, columnist, blogger
• Stephen L. Carter, Christianity Today columnist, author of The Culture of Disbelief
• Ken Hamblin, Denver Post columnist
• Deroy Murdock, National Review columnist
• Star Parker, president of the Coalition on Urban Renewal and Education, columnist, author
• Thomas Sowell, Hoover Institute fellow, economist, author of Basic Economics
• Walter E. Williams, economist, columnist, author of More Liberty Means Less Government
• Sophia A. Nelson, columnist, blogger, commentator, GOP political strategist, Chairman of PoliticalIntersection.com and politicalintersection.blogspot.com

Athletes and entertainers

• Cowboy Troy, country rapper^[16]
• 50 Cent, rapper, founder of G-Unit^[17]
• Joseph C. Phillips, played Martin Kendall on the The Cosby Show, political writer and commentator.^[18]
• Karl Malone, former basketball player^[19]
• Lynn Swann, football player, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate^[20]
• Peter Boulware, football player, Florida House of Representatives candidate ^[21]
• Sheryl Underwood, comedienne^[22]
• Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock", actor and former professional wrestler
• Wilt Chamberlain, former basketball player, one of few African American figures to publicly endorse former president Richard Nixon

Other

• Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, senior fellow at the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, and former member of Georgia House of Representatives
• Akindele Akinyemi,CEO of One Network and conservative educator^{[citation needed]}
• Michelle Bernard, President and CEO of the Independent Women's Forum ^[23] and prominent media figure ^[24]
• Amy Holmes, CNN political contributor and formerly worked for Bill Frist
• Ward Connerly, University of California regent, activist and businessman^{[citation needed]}
• Stanley Crouch, author of In Defence of Taboos^{[citation needed]}
• Samuel B. Fuller, 20th century entrepreneur^{[citation needed]}
• Robert A. George, journalist, pundit and blogger^{[citation needed][citation needed]}
• Erika Harold, attorney; former Miss America and conservative GOP activist
• Zora Neale Hurston, novelist
• T.D Jakes, televangelist^{[citation needed]}
• Don King, boxing promoter ^[25]
• Michael King, National Advisory Board Member of Project 21, former radio talk show host^{[citation needed]}
• John McWhorter, author of Losing the Race and Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute^{[citation needed]}
• James Meredith, former civil rights activist^{[citation needed]}
• Eric Motley, former State Department official, now vice-president of the Aspen Institute^{[citation needed]}
• Deroy Murdock, Wall Street Journal opinion contributor, Cato Institute Scholar^{[citation needed]}
• Gerald A. Reynolds, president of the Center for New Black Leadership, member of Project 21^{[citation needed]}
• Vernon Robinson, Air Force intelligence officer, business professor^{[citation needed]}
• George Schuyler, journalist, novelist^{[citation needed]}
• Shelby Steele, Hoover Institute fellow
• Lee Walker, president of the New Coalition for Economic and Social Change, Heartland Institute Fellow^{[citation needed]}

Fictional black conservatives

Black conservative organizations

• Alliance of Black Republicans
• African American Republican Leadership Council
• Black Conservative Think Tank
• Black America's PAC
• Congress of Racial Equality
• American Civil Rights Institute
• New Coalition for Economic and Social Change
• National Black Republican Association

See also

• List of African American Republicans
• African-American leftism

References

External links

• Black conservatism on the rise
• The New Black Republicans from WBUR, Boston's NPR