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Topic: Black Elected OfficialsPress Release
October 2012
We join with residents of California in mourning the loss of one of the state’s most remarkable leaders and a key figure in the founding of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in 1970, the Honorable Mervyn Dymally. For more than 40 years, he embodied the notion that anyone who works hard and plays by the rules can realize the American Dream.
A native of Trinidad,...
News
September 2012
The U.S. House of Representatives Ethics Committee, following a two-year investigation, has cleared U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) of alleged wrongdoing.
Their finding paves the way for her to become the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and possibly its chairman if Democrats retake the House in the November election.
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Late last year when U.S. Rep. Barney...
August 2012
The performance by the Rev. William Owens at the National Press Club last week was enough to make a cynic blush. In a nearly empty room, as the C-SPAN cameras rolled, Owens, a Tennessee minister and self-proclaimed leader of the civil rights movement called out the president for his changed position on same sex marriage.
“I didn’t march one inch, one foot, one yard, for a man to...
July 2012
When President Barack Obama arrives in New Orleans on Wednesday to speak before the National Urban League annual conference, he will touch down in a state where his party, less than a month before the qualifying deadline, has yet to find a congressional candidate for any district outside the black-majority seat held by Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-New Orleans.
For Sen. Karen Carter Peterson, D-New...
July 2012
After the 2010 elections, it seemed a safe bet that the District would continue its 12-year streak without a major political scandal. The image of a city run by a crack-smoking mayor was a distant memory, no longer visible in the rearview mirror as successive mayors drove the District on the road to municipal respectability.
Washingtonians took pride in their city’s improved reputation,...
June 2012
For more than four decades, the people in Charles Rangel's Harlem congressional district have willingly kept him in office every two years.
For a repeat performance, he's got to first get through Tuesday's congressional primaries, where changed demographics in a redrawn district, shadows from an ethics controversy in recent years and strong challengers could result in something no...
December 2011
Congressional map-drawers in states across the country are struggling to maintain majority-black congressional districts as African Americans move out of urban areas. And now, it appears plausible that one of those new districts could be won by a non-black candidate.
Former congresswoman Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.) is trying to do what few before her have accomplished: win a majority-black...
November 2011
Herman Cain’s turn atop the polls in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination captured the attention of journalists and pundits and sparked excitement among grass-roots conservative activists. But is it really possible that he — a black man who overcame poverty in the segregated South to become a wealthy entrepreneur and front-runner in the GOP race — would be the...
November 2011
An overwhelming allegiance to the Democratic Party has left black lawmakers in the South without power in Republican-controlled state legislatures, according to a new report.
The nonpartisan Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies said in a report issued Friday that despite Barack Obama’s election as president, black voters and elected officials in the South have less influence...
October 2011
When Lucille Richmond cast her ballot for Barack Obama three years ago, she, like many African-Americans, embraced the historic opportunity to help elect the nation’s first black president.
But waiting in line at the county employment security commission last week, the 52-year-old grandmother - who lost two food preparation jobs and is searching for full-time work - can’t muster...
Archived Research
May 1, 2005
On April 20, 2005, the Joint Center, with support from the AT&T Foundation, hosted a town hall meeting entitled Rising African American Leaders: Challenges for a New Generation. In a lively and thought-provoking discussion moderated by Joe Madison, the eight panelists agreed that while conditions have significantly improved, racism still permeates our institutions and rising African American...
January 1, 2001
This is a report on a national survey of black elected officials which was conducted as part of the Joint Center's Divergent Generations Project. The Divergent Generations Project seeks to document differences in political participation and public policy views associated with generational change in the black population. While previous research for this project has focused on the black population...
January 1, 2000
Between January 1998 and January 1999, the number of black elected officials (BEOs) in the U.S. increased by 68, from 8,868 to 8,936, a 0.8 percent increase (Table 1). In 1970, the first year in which the Joint Center collected data on BEOs, there were 1,469 BEOs. The 1999 total of 8,936 black elected officials represents a historic high. The largest categorical increase in BEOs between 1998 and...
January 1, 1999
Since last year, when the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies published Black Elected Officials: A Statistical Summary, 1993-1997, the number of black elected officials (BEOs) in the United States increased by 212, from 8,658 to 8,868, a 2.4 percent increase over the previous year (Table 1). In 1970, the first year in which the Joint Center collected data on these officials, there...
May 1, 2002
The last edition of Black Elected Officials: A Statistical Summary showed that as of January 2000, the number of black elected officials (BEOs) in the U.S. was 9,040. This edition, which records the most current complete data for those in office as of January 2001 shows that in the intervening year,the number of BEOs rose by 61 to reach 9,101, a 0.7 percent increase over the previous year (Table...
January 1, 2001
The first edition of Black Elected Officials: A National Roster was published 32 years ago, when it was reported that there were 1,469 black elected officials (BEOs) in the United States. This newest edition of Black Elected Officials (which covers officials in office as of January 31, 2000) reports 9,040 BEOs, a more than six-fold increase. Growth over this period is especially impressive at the...
