This A-to-Z volume examines the role of African Americans in the political process from the early days of the American Revolution to the present.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Entries
• A
• abolitionist movement
• accommodationism
• Adams, John Quincy
• Adarand Constructors Inc. v. Pena
• affirmative action
• Affordable Care Act
• “African American”
• African-American convention movements
• African-American culture
• African-American education
• African-American elected officials
• African-American engagement in citizen diplomacy
• African-American interest groups
• African-American media
• African-American militancy
• African-American participation in state and local governments
• African-American political culture
• African-American political participation
• African-American politics
• African-American population
• African-American presidential campaigns
• African-American public intellectuals
• African-American public opinion
• African-American relationship with the presidency
• African-American representation in politics
• African-American studies
• African-American thought
• African-American voting behavior
• African Americans and the concept of self-help
• African Americans and the criminal justice system
• African Americans and the electoral college
• African Americans and the gay rights movement
• African Americans and the judicial process
• African Americans and the political system
• African Americans and the social-contract theory
• African Americans and the two-party system
• African Americans and the U.S. Congress
• African Americans and the U.S. Constitution
• African Americans in the bureaucracy
• African Americans in the military
• African Americans in Washington, D.C.
• African Blood Brotherhood
• African immigrants
• Afrocentricity
• AIDS-HIV among African Americans
• Ali, Muhammad
• alienation in African-American culture
• Allen, Richard
• American Colonization Society
• American Muslim Mission
• American Negro Academy
• American welfare state
• An American Dilemma
• apartheid
• Aptheker, Herbert
• Asante, Molefi K.
• assimilation
• “Atlanta Compromise” Speech
• Atlanta University
• B
• back-to-Africa movements
• Baker, Ella
• Baker v. Carr
• balance of power
• Baldwin, James
• “Ballot or the Bullet” Speech
• Bandung Conference
• Baraka, Amiri
• Barber II, William J.
• Barker, Lucius
• Belafonte, Harry
• Bell, Derrick
• Berry, Mary Frances
• Bethune, Mary McLeod
• Biden, Joseph R.
• Bill of Rights
• Birmingham demonstrations
• The Birth of a Nation
• “black”
• black agendas
• Black Arts Movement
• Black Cabinet
• black church
• black civic culture
• black codes
• black community
• Black Lives Matter
• black nationalism
• Black Panther Party
• Black Power movement
• Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America
• Black Radical Congress
• black religiosity
• blackness
• Blair Education bill
• Blyden, Edward Wilmot
• Boggs, Grace Lee and James
• Bond, Julian
• Booker, Cory
• Brennan, William J.
• Brooke, Edward W.
• Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
• Brown, Elaine
• Brown, John
• Brown, Ron
• Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas
• Bruce, Blanche K.
• Buchanan, Patrick
• Buckley, William F., Jr.
• Bunche, Ralph
• Burris, Roland
• Bush, George W.
• busing and education
• C
• capitalism in African-American culture
• Carmichael, Stokely
• Carson, Benjamin
• Carter, Jimmy
• Chisholm, Shirley
• citizenship and African Americans
• City of Richmond v. J. A. Croson
• civil disobedience
• civil liberties
• civil rights
• Civil Rights Act, 1964
• civil rights cases of 1883
• Civil Rights Commission
• Civil Rights Division (CRD)
• Civil Rights movement
• Civil War
• Clark, Kenneth
• class stratification
• Clinton, Bill
• Clyburn, James
• co-optation in African-American politics
• Coalition of Black Trade Unionists
• coalitions in African-American politics
• Cohen, Cathy J.
• COINTELPRO
• cold war and African-American politics
• Colfax massacre
• colonialism
• color stratification
• commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution
• communism in African-American politics
• Communist Party
• community control
• Compromise of 1877
• Congress of Racial Equality (CORE)
• Congressional Black Caucus
• Connerly, Ward
• conservatism in African-American politics
• conservative coalition
• constitutionalism
• Cook, Samuel Du Bois
• Cooper, Anna Julia
• coronavirus pandemic
• Council on African Affairs
• Cowan, Mo
• CROWN Act
• Crummell, Alexander
• Cruse, Harold
• cultural nationalism
• culture of poverty
• Cumming v. Board of Education
• D
• Davis, Angela Y.
• Davis, Artur
• Dawson, William L.
• Declaration of Independence
• Delany, Martin Robison
• Dellums, Ron
• democracy and African-American politics
• Democracy in America
• Democratic Party
• Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
• deracialization
• desegregation
• Diggs, Charles, Jr.
• discrimination
• disparate impact
• disparate treatment
• Douglass, Frederick
• DuBois, W. E. B.
• due process clauses in the U.S. Constitution
• Dyer antilynching bill
• E
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act
• Ellison, Keith
• Emancipation Proclamation
• Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC)
• equal protection clause in the U.S. Constitution
• equality in African-American politics
• ethnicity
• Evers, Medgar
• executive orders and civil rights
• “Eyes on the Prize”
• F
• Fanon, Frantz
• Farmer, James
• Farrakhan, Louis
• Feagin, Joe
• Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Civil Rights movement
• federalism and African-American politics
• feminism and African-American culture
• Fifteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• filibuster
• Fletcher, Arthur, Jr.
• foreign policy and African-American politics
• Forten, James
• “forty acres and a mule”
• Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Franklin, John Hope
• “free Negroes”
• Freedmen's Bureau
• freedom in African-American politics
• Freedom Rides
• Freedom Summer
• fugitive slave clause in the U.S. Constitution
• full employment
• Fuller, Hoyt
• Fullilove v. Klutznick
• G
• gag rule
• Garnet, Henry Highland
• Garrison, William Lloyd
• Garvey, Marcus
• Garza, Alicia
• George Floyd protests
• Gettysburg Address
• ghetto
• Ginsberg, Ruth Bader
• globalization
• Goldwater, Barry
• Grant, Ulysses S.
• Gray, William
• Great Migration
• Great Society
• Gregory, Dick
• Griggs v. Duke Power Co.
• H
• Haiti, Republic of
• Hamer, Fannie Lou
• Hamilton, Charles V.
• Hare, Nathan
• Harlem
• Harlem Renaissance
• Harris, Kamala D.
• Harris, Patricia Roberts
• Harrison, Benjamin
• Hatcher, Richard
• Hawkins, Augustus
• Hayes, Rutherford B.
• Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States
• Height, Dorothy
• Highlander Folk School
• historically black colleges and universities
• Holden, Matthew, Jr.
• Holder, Eric
• Hoover, Edgar, J.
• Houston, Charles H.
• Howard University
• human rights and African-American politics
• Humphrey-Hawkins Act
• Humphrey, Hubert H.
• Hurricane Katrina
• I
• “I Have a Dream” Speech
• individual racism
• individualism among African-Americans
• institutional racism
• integration
• internal colonialism
• internal inferiorization
• Intersectionality
• J
• Jackson, Jesse
• Jefferson, Thomas
• Jim Crow
• Johnson, Andrew
• Johnson, James Weldon
• Johnson, Lyndon B.
• Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
• Jones, J. Raymond
• Jones, Mack H.
• Jordan, Vernon E., Jr.
• Juneteenth
• K
• Kaepernick, Colin
• Karenga, Maulana
• Kennedy, Edward M.
• Kennedy, John F.
• Kerner Report
• Keyes, Alan
• Keyes v. School District No. 1, Denver, Colorado
• King, Martin Luther, Jr.
• King, Martin Luther, Jr., Holiday
• King, Rodney
• Ku Klux Klan (KKK)
• Kwanzaa
• L
• Langston, John M.
• Lawson, James
• Leadership Conference on Civil Rights
• leadership in African-American politics
• Legal Defense Fund (LDF)
• Lewis, John Robert
• liberalism in African-American politics
• Liberia, Republic of
• “Lift Every Voice and Sing”
• Lightfoot, Lori
• Lincoln, Abraham
• litigation by African Americans
• lobbying by African Americans
• Logan, Rayford
• Lorde, Audre
• lynching
• M
• Malcolm X
• Marable, Manning
• March Against Fear
• March on Washington, 1963
• March on Washington movement
• Marshall, Thurgood
• Martin, Louis
• Martin, Trayvon
• Mayfield, Curtis
• McCarthyism and African-American politics
• McClain, Paula
• McGovern, George
• melting pot
• Meredith, James
• Miller, Kelly
• Milliken v. Bradley
• Million Man March
• minority group
• Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP)
• Mitchell, Clarence M.
• Montgomery Bus Boycott
• Montgomery, Isaiah T.
• Morrow, Frederic
• Moseley Braun, Carol
• Moses, Robert
• Muhammad, Elijah
• multiculturalism
• music in African-American culture
• Myrdal, Gunnar
• N
• names controversy
• Nash, Diane
• Nation of Islam
• National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP)
• National Association of Colored Women (NACW)
• National Baptist Convention
• National Black Election Study
• National Black Leadership Roundtable
• National Black Political Convention
• National Conference of Black Political Scientists
• National Council of Negro Women
• National Negro Congress
• National Negro Convention
• National Political Congress of Black Women
• National Urban League
• National Welfare Rights Organization
• natural rights and African Americans
• Negritude
• Nelson, William “Nick”
• neo-slavery
• New Deal
• Newton, Huey P.
• Niagara movement
• Nixon, Richard
• O
• Obadele, Imari A.
• Obama, Barack
• Office of Federal Contract Compliance
• Operation PUSH
• oppression
• Organization of Afro-American Unity
• organizations in the African-American community
• P
• Pan-Africanism
• Parks, Rosa
• Patrick, Deval
• Patterson, David
• Philadelphia Plan
• Pierce, Samuel
• Pinderhughes, Dianne
• Piven, Frances Fox
• Plessy v. Ferguson
• pluralism and African-American politics
• political incorporation of African Americans
• political parties and African Americans
• Political Polarization
• political repression of African Americans
• political socialization in the African-American community
• Poor People's Campaign
• populist movements in African-American politics
• post–civil rights era
• poverty in the African-American community
• Powell, Adam Clayton, Jr.
• Powell, Colin
• power elite
• power in African-American politics
• Prestage, Jewel Limar
• Proposition 209
• protest in African-American politics
• public policy toward African Americans
• Q
• quotas
• R
• race
• Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (REP)
• race issues and the U.S. Census
• racism
• Radical Republicans
• radicalism in African-American politics
• Rainbow Coalition
• Rainey, Joseph
• Randolph, A. Philip
• rap
• Reagan, Ronald
• Reconstruction
• Reed, Adolph, Jr.
• Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
• reparations
• Republic of New Africa
• Republican Party
• Revels, Hiram
• Rice, Condoleezza
• Rice, Susan
• riots
• Robeson, Paul
• Robinson, Jackie
• Robinson, Randall
• Robinson, Ruby Doris Smith
• Roosevelt, Franklin D.
• Rowan, Carl
• Rustin, Bayard
• S
• Sanders, Bernie
• Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
• Schuyler, George
• Scott, Tim
• Scott v. Sanford
• Seale, Bobby
• segregation
• Selma demonstrations
• “separate but equal”
• separation of powers
• sexism
• Sharpton, Al
• Shaw v. Reno
• Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder
• Simone, Nina
• sit-in movement
• slaughterhouse cases
• slave revolts
• slavery
• slavery in Western thought
• social movements
• socialism
• Socialist Party
• The Souls of Black Folk
• Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
• Southern states
• “Southern strategy”
• Sowell, Thomas
• Spingarn, Joel E.
• Steele, Michael
• Stevens, Thaddeus
• Stewart, Maria W.
• Stokes, Carl
• “Strange Fruit”
• Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
• Sullivan, Leon
• Sumner, Charles
• Supreme Court
• Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education
• T
• Talented Tenth
• Tate, Merze
• Terrell, Mary Church
• third parties
• Third World
• Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Thomas, Clarence
• three-fifths clause in the U.S. Constitution
• Till, Emmett
• Tillmon, Johnnie
• TransAfrica
• Trotter, William Monroe
• Truman, Harry S.
• Trump, Donald
• Truth, Sojourner
• Tubman, Harriet
• Turner, Henry McNeal
• Turner, James
• Turner, Nat
• Tuskegee Institute
• Twenty-Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Twenty-Third Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• U
• U.S. Justice Department
• “Uncle Tom”
• Uncle Tom's Cabin
• underclass
• United Nations and African-American politics
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights
• Universal Negro Improvement Association
• urban politics
• V
• Vietnam War
• violence in African-American politics
• Voting Rights Act of 1965
• voting rights struggle
• W
• Walker, David
• Wallace, George
• Walters, Ronald
• Walton, Hanes, Jr.
• War on Poverty
• Wards Cove v. Antonio
• Warnock, Raphael
• Warren, Earl
• Washington, Booker T.
• Watts, J. C.
• Watts riot
• “We Shall Overcome”
• Weaver, Robert C.
• Wells-Barnett, Ida B.
• West, Cornel
• West Indians
• white backlash
• “white flight”
• White, George H.
• White Nationalism
• white primary
• white supremacy
• White, Walter F.
• whiteness
• Wilder, Douglas L.
• Wilkins, Roy
• Wilson, William Julius
• Wilson, Woodrow
• Woodson, Carter
• Wright, Jeremiah
• Y
• Young, Andrew
• Young, Whitney M.
• Support Materials
• Bibliography