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Warnock’s success as a Black candidate in a majority white district has me reminiscing on both personal and professional levels today. I wish my father were here to discuss it. He passed last year, so a thread here instead.
My father--who was once a sharecropper--was a civil rights activist and attorney in Louisiana in the 1960s and then transitioned to electoral politics as the movement shifted from protest to politics.
He ran for state Attorney General in 1971 on an all-Black ticket--an aim at Black political power in the one-party South. (Some of you will recognize the meaning in the color scheme of the campaign bumper sticker here.)
Though he lost, he did better than expected. So well, in fact, that he was asked to be an assistant AG by the winner.
He declined. To him, to accept would be selling out on the goal of Black empowerment for his own personal gain.
He declined. To him, to accept would be selling out on the goal of Black empowerment for his own personal gain.
My dad's concern about "selling out" became the basis for my work on social obligation & Black solidarity politics. That work--w/ @chryllaird--shows Black politics as social & highly strategic, reinforcing the keeping of our "eyes on the prize." http://bit.ly/SelloutAPSR
From that AG race loss on, my father worked constantly for one black candidate and then another--always reaching for that goal of electing the next Black candidate in whom he saw the promise of Black empowerment as the path to greater human dignity and freedom.
This was the backdrop of my childhood--which brought me to the study of Black politics.
Especially salient today: at about 10 years old, I remember canvassing for Faye Williams, the first Black woman to run in Louisiana's 8th Congressional district.
Especially salient today: at about 10 years old, I remember canvassing for Faye Williams, the first Black woman to run in Louisiana's 8th Congressional district.
For our rural South Black community, it was thrilling to watch Williams get a plurality in the first vote and make the runoff--in a majority white district. It was a striking affirmation of her viability.
(For history's echoes, read about the race here: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/31/us/politics-gets-personal-in-louisiana-s-8th-congressional-district.html)
(For history's echoes, read about the race here: https://www.nytimes.com/1986/10/31/us/politics-gets-personal-in-louisiana-s-8th-congressional-district.html)
Black turnout was high in the runoff & Williams almost pulled off what had first seemed an impossible victory (finished with 49%). This planted for me the idea of the importance of viability signaling in Black politics--a idea I've worked on w/ @ljk50 @parushah_mke & Kris Kay.
I see both these dynamics in the Warnock story so far--the importance of Black social ties to unique Black political behavior and the boost of Black turnout that can come from seeing a meaningful electoral viability signal. https://twitter.com/blfraga/status/1346853833595613184?s=20
I see in the Black activists who worked for this and the Black voters who made it happen the same potential my father saw in Black political empowerment as a means of achieving a more equitable world.
On his shoulders--and those of so many others who gave lifetimes--it is possible to reach. Eyes on the prize.
