Movement within conservatism among African Americans
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Black conservatives typically oppose affirmative action and tend to argue that efforts to obtain reparations for slavery are either misguided or counter-productive. Black conservatives tend to be self-critical of aspects of African-American culture that they believe have created poverty and dependency.[5]
A National Election Pool poll showed that support for California Proposition 8 (2008) (a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as an opposite-sex union) was strong among African-American voters; 70% of those interviewed in the exit poll—a higher percentage than any other racial group—stated that they voted in favor of Proposition 8.[8] Polls by both the Associated Press and CNN mirrored this data, reporting support among black voters to be at 70%[9] and 75%,[10] respectively. African-American support was considered crucial to the Proposition's passage because African Americans made up an unusually large percentage of voters in 2008; the presence of African-American presidential candidate Barack Obama on the ballot was believed to have increased African-American voter turnout.[11]
Historical basis
From Reconstruction up until the New Deal, the black population tended to vote Republican. During that period, 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 racial segregation and the Republican Party's roots in the abolitionist movement (see Dixiecrats).
Blacks started to shift in significant numbers to the Democrats with the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt[12] and continued with the election of John F. Kennedy. Among Truman Administration officials, the publication of Henry Lee Moon's Balance of Power spurred Democratic partisan support for African-American constituencies.[13] This shift was also influenced by Herbert Hoover's practice of firing loyal African-Americans from positions within the Republican Party, in order to increase his appeal to Southern white voters.[14] This can be considered an early example of a set of Republican Party methods that were later termed the Southern Strategy.[15][better source needed]
Lisa Holder White - Justice of the Illinois Supreme Court (since 2022), Judge of the Illinois Fourth District Appellate Court (2013-2022), Trial Judge Illinois Sixth Judicial Circuit Court (2001-2013)
Kanye West – Rapper and record producer. Endorsed Donald Trump subsequently to the 2016 presidential election. Met President Trump in the Oval Office on 11 October 2018. Independent candidate for President of the United States in 2020 and 2024.
Karl Malone – Olympic Gold medallist and basketball player[45]
George Washington Carver[citation needed] – Agricultural scientist and inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion
Glenn Loury – Academic, economist, and podcast host
Mary Church Terrell - One of the first African-American women to receive a college degree, she was a journalist and educator. She was an active Republican, campaigning for Warren G. Harding in 1920.
Ezola Foster – Teacher, writer, political activist, and unsuccessful candidate for public office on the Republican and Reform Party tickets
Roscoe Simmons – Orator, journalist, political activist, he was part of the "Old Guard" of Black Republicans in Tennessee. He attended three Republican National Conventions and seconded the nomination of Herbert Hoover in 1932.
Mark Burns (pastor) - televangelist, unsuccessful candidate for United States House of Representatives from South Carolina in 2018 and 2022.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali - Somali-born Dutch-American activist associated with the conservative American Enterprise Institute and Hoover Institution, a former Muslim, she has spoken out against Islamic suppression of women and has criticized American feminists for their failure to speak out on this issue.
^Diamond, Sara (1996). Facing the Wrath: Confronting the Right in Dangerous Times. Common Courage Press. p. 96. ISBN978-1-56751-078-2. Christian Right activists allied with black conservatives to make their causes appear more mainstream across racial and class lines. In this vein, the Family Research Council (the lobbying affiliate of Focus on the Family) recently named as vice-president Kay Cole James, a black anti-abortion activist.
^For an overview of these themes, see Stan Faryna, Brad Stetson, and Joseph G. Conti, Eds., Black and Right: The Bold New Voice of Black Conservatives in America, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997)
^Brian Greenberg; Linda S. Watts; Richard A. Greenwald; Gordon Reavley; Alice L. George; Scott Beekman; Cecelia Bucki; Mark Ciabattari; John C. Stoner; Troy D. Paino; Laurie Mercier; Andrew Hunt; Peter C. Holloran; Nancy Cohen (2008). Social History of the United States [10 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 360. ISBN978-1-59884-128-2.
^Gilmore, Glenda Elizabeth (2016). These United States: A Nation in the Making, 1890-Present (First ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co. p. 24. ISBN9780393283075.
