Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973–1994

This is a study assessing black civic participation after the civil rights movement.

Fredrick C. Harris (Author), Valeria Sinclair-Chapman (Author), Brian D. McKenzie (Author)

9780521849364, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 December 2005

190 pages, 5 tables
23.5 x 15.9 x 1.5 cm, 0.376 kg

"This brilliant work is an exceptional piece of scholarship on a rarely considered but highly important and quite interesting topic: how far can political power move a people in a downward spiraling and declining economy? The book contains a persuasive empirical answer. This makes the book significant not only for the current moment in time but historically when African Americans gained political power with the passage of the 15th Amendment in 1870. With such an empirical answer, these young scholars can enter the current public dialogue about the limits of public policy reform with the mere granting of political power." Hanes Walton, Jr., University of Michigan

In this study assessing black civic participation after the civil rights movement, Fredrick C. Harris, Valeria Sinclair-Chapman and Brian D. McKenzie demonstrate that the changes in black activism since the civil rights movement is characterized by a tug-of-war between black political power on one side and economic conditions in black communities on the other. As blacks gain greater access and influence within the political system, black participation in political activities increases while downward turns in the economic conditions of black communities produce less civic involvement in black communities. Examining changes in black activism from the early 1970s to the 1990s, this tug-of-war demonstrates that the quest for black political empowerment and the realities of economic and social life act as countervailing forces, in which negative economic and social conditions in black communities weaken the capacity of blacks to organize so that their political voices can be heard.

1. Introduction
2. Good times and bad: trends in the economic, social, and political conditions of African Americans in the post-civil rights era
3. Studying group activism: toward a macro approach to black civic participation
4. Echoes of black civic activism: historical foundations and longitudinal considerations
5. Shifting forces: modeling changes in post-civil rights black activism
6. From margin to center: bringing structural forces into focus in the analysis of black activism.

Subject Areas: Politics & government [JP], Sociology & anthropology [JH], Regional studies [GTB]