One Supreme Court justice has been playing a prominent role in the Elena Kagan confirmation hearings, and he died 17 years ago: her mentor, Thurgood Marshall.

Kagan served as a law clerk for the jurist. On the first day of confirmation hearings for Kagan, Marshall's name came up more than 30 times.

...

Many African-Americans "think of Thurgood Marshall as being an even more important figure than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.," says David Bositis, an expert on African-American voters and politicians at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies."

Bositis has a hard time understanding why Republicans would paint Marshall as the enemy.

Even some conservatives share this view.

"I cannot imagine who mobilized this," says Michael Greve, a scholar with the American Enterprise Institute. "It makes your jaw drop. At least mine," says Greve, who adds that Kagan has such a slim record that Republicans have decided to go after her mentors instead.

Read the Full Story at NPR or WBUR.

n 1948, the segregationist governor of South Carolina was so infuriated by President Harry Truman's moves to desegregate the U.S. Army and enact anti-lynching legislation that he left the Democratic fold and accepted the presidential nomination of openly-racist States' Rights Party

Strom Thurmond campaigned for the presidency as the original "segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" candidate. He preached his gospel of hate across the south, wit the line: "I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there's not enough troops in the army to force the Southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigra race into our theaters, into our swimming pools, into our homes, and into our churches."

...

David Bositis, of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, perhaps the wisest analyst of African-American political progress in the country, cautions against thinking that the Scott-Thumond race was a test of progress for South Carolina or the Republican Party in the south.

Scott, argues Bostitis, is an anomaly rather than a harbinger of a progressive surge in the deepest of deep south states. "It certainly is a changing country in a lot of places in the country, yes," Bositis explained. "(But) South Carolina is not one of those places, not by a long shot."

To Read the Full Story, go to TheNation.com.

CHARLESTON, South Carolina - A black lawmaker is battling the son of one-time segregationist Strom Thurmond for the Republican congressional nomination here, a contest that could provide an indicator of both racial progress in the South and the Republican party's ability to diversify.

There are black men in the White House and at the helm of the Republican Party, but there hasn't been a black Republican congressman since Oklahoma's J.C. Watts retired in 2003.

Tim Scott, already South Carolina's first black Republican state legislator in a century, has a shot at changing that, but first he has to beat Paul Thurmond, whose father ran for president as a segregationist six decades ago.

Scott is one of three black Republican congressional hopefuls in runoffs across the United States. Five have won their party nominations outright, and several others are expected to, said David Bositis, a senior political analyst at the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

To Read the Full Story, go to MSNBC or The Augusta Chronicle.

MELBOURNE, Fla. — The theory was that Barack Obama's election as president in 2008 signaled a new era for black candidates trying to win statewide contests for senator or governor.

Now, Rep. Kendrick Meek is struggling with the reality.

In Florida, the 43-year-old African-American congressman, long the presumptive Democratic nominee in the state's tumultuous Senate race, is trying to fend off a surprise primary challenge from a Palm Beach billionaire and running a distant third in general-election matchups against a darling of the anti-tax "Tea Party" movement and the state's popular governor.

...

David Bositis, a veteran scholar of black politics at The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, says a lack of a deep bench of African-American officeholders in lower offices also has been a factor in the paucity of nominees for prized offices this year.

And he and others say it was never realistic to expect that Obama's election, while a milestone, instantly would transform the nation's racial politics. Expectations were oversized when he won: Seven in 10 Americans predicted in a USA TODAY survey that his election would make race relations better.

Read the Full Story at USA Today.

Sixteen months after Barack Obama's presidential win seemed to usher in a new era in racial politics, a different reality has emerged: Black candidates in races around the country are struggling so much that the number of African Americans in major statewide offices is likely to drop from the already paltry three. And the possibility exists that there will be no black governors or senators by next year.

...

"There were a lot of people who were in fantasy land about black candidates all of sudden getting elected to all of these offices," said David Bositis, who studies black political trends at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "But in most years, there are only a handful of Senate seats that are truly competitive, and a lot of people want these seats. And given this is going to be a favorable year for Republicans, the notion that it was going to a great year for African American candidates, it just wasn't going to happen."

Read the Full Story at Washingtonpost.com

In the wake of Arizona's strict new immigration law, which grants police broad powers to check people's legal status, Hispanics nationwide are fired up. Thousands of protesters converged at the Arizona capitol in Phoenix to denounce the measure in April. Rallies on May 1 drew tens of thousands more into the streets of 70 cities across the country. Earlier this week, student activists staged a sit-in at Sen. John McCain's Tucson office to condemn his support of the law. City leaders (not all of them Latino) from San Diego to St. Paul, Minn., declared boycotts against Arizona.

Does this mean Hispanics are poised to storm the ballot boxes this November? Not necessarily. In a poll taken prior to the passage of the Arizona law, a survey by Latino Decisions found Hispanic political engagement "at an all-time low," according to Gary Segura, a member of the polling firm. Only 49 percent of Hispanic registered voters were very enthusiastic about voting in the coming November elections, compared with 89 percent in September 2006, during the last midterm cycle. (A February survey of four states by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, on the other hand, showed that between 74 and 80 percent of African-Americans said they were very likely to vote in November.)

Read the Full Story at Newsweek.com.

This study, commissioned by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and carried out by leading researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, provides important insight into how much of a financial burden racial disparities are putting on our health care system and society at large. The researchers examined the direct costs associated with the provision of care to a sicker and more disadvantaged population, as well as the indirect costs of health inequities such as lost productivity, lost wages, absenteeism, family leave, and premature deaths.

This study documents the failure of government and nonprofit agencies to engage Black clergy and churches as a key resource in responding to the urgent needs of people of color in Katrina’s aftermath. As a result, only one of the Black churches studied was reimbursed for the costs of assisting Katrina victims and survivors. Some of the African American ministers serving as first responders had lost everything themselves, including the assurance of a pay check or a church building to return to. However, no special arrangements were made and one pastor reported he was moved seven times before ending up in a FEMA trailer. Likewise, a number of Black clergy were routinely ignored by mental health professionals on the scene, despite the fact that the emotional and spiritual support they can give congregational members is pivotal to the success of mental health treatment and interventions. Even more striking was the failure of government workers to use Black ministers as mediators or advisors in instances where Katrina survivors pointed out racial biases and discrimination on the part of American Red Cross personnel and others.

On November 2, 2004, the black vote was critical to the outcome of a number of closely contested elections. What follows is a brief review of turnout and election results from November 2, 2004, based on the available evidence. It focuses on the behavior and significance of African American voters in the elections; and the changing numbers and profile of black candidates for federal office as well as their performance at the polls.

To order a hard copy of this publication, download the publication order form.

To download a PDF copy of this publication, click the file icon below.

All prices do NOT include shipping and handling fees. Please see form for details.

Date Published: 2005

Price: $15.00