Black Student Political Power in 2006 and Beyond

By Shawn Chollette

Whether they are referenced as members of Generation Next, the Hip Hop Generation, or progenies of Pop Culture, the indictment leveled at many young Americans is generally the same: they don’t take voting or politics seriously.

In recent years prominent figures such as Jesse Jackson and Bill Cosby have lamented the state of political involvement and activism among young Americans – particularly African Americans. Yet, despite these criticisms, steadily rising voter turnout suggests an upswing in political activity throughout the young Black voting bloc. Preliminary exit polls indicate that a recent upward trend in turnout by youth voters (19-29), African Americans, and young Black voters alike most likely continued in the 2006 midterms.

The increases have been more incremental than dramatic. Exit poll analyses by the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) estimated that the number of youth voters increased for the second midterm election in a row last year, rising from 22 percent in 2002 to 24 percent in 2006. And while hard figures from 2006 remain unknown at this time, researchers expect young African Americans will continue to lead the trend they set in 2004, when turnout jumped 11 percentage points – the greatest increase of any racial or ethnic minority group during the recent election cycles.

Partly buoyed by national Get-Out-the-Vote campaigns, these gains are also the direct result of grassroots efforts at the local level such as the “Sleep Out for the Vote Extravaganza” sponsored by Florida A&M University. The event, which involved Florida State University and Tallahassee Community College, attracted more than 200 area students, some of whom spent the night at Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center and participated in early voting the next morning. While the exact number of Black student voters is not yet known, data from the board of elections show that Leon County turnout jumped to more than 63% – the highest in state.

In Texas, Prairie View A&M students marched in the rain to promote voting. Some even cast early ballots after the October rally, according to The Panther newspaper.

Meanwhile, College Republicans at Southern University in Baton Rouge organized a nonpartisan “poll watch” in November. Anthony Monroe, a senior marketing major and chapter president, said the event was aimed at increasing voter awareness, as well as informing students about issues that may directly impact them.

“Although our campus is mainly liberal, I don’t think it really matters what party you’re a part of as long as you know … why you vote for what you vote for,” Monroe said. “We don’t want you to be a Republican. We want you to have your own thought process and vote for the party that shares your views and interests.”

Issues-oriented organizations such as the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) also contributed to the 2006 increase through student outreach.  Working with a network of partners including Black Youth Vote! and local Student PIRGs, the organization enlisted more than 1,000 student volunteers to register more than 75,000 student voters at some 80 colleges coast-to-coast.  A project of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Black Youth Vote! registered 21,000 new voters in seven targeted states. It deployed student volunteers for “dorm storms” and events such as a celebrity basketball tournament in Georgia, where high Black turnout was critical to helping struggling Democratic Representatives squeak by in their districts.

Black Youth Voters Make Gains

While these scenes may be more the exception than the rule, they represent a trend in which African-American youth voting remains strong and growing.

Mark Hugo Lopez, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland and research director for CIRCLE, said the recent turnouts reversed a downward spiral that dates back to the 1970s, and young African Americans are setting the curve.

“You really see this trend in a lot of urban settings – especially Chicago – where young African Americans are outvoting their counterparts,” Lopez said.

While the turnout percentages have been rising, other important trends have been noted as well. As important as turnout numbers is where and how Black youth voted.  While multiple analyses show that youth voters, men and women, identified more strongly with Democrats in 2006, the margin was greatest among African Americans. In a November 2-7 phone survey of 500 youth voters by Lake Research Partners, 74% of African Americans reported they would or did vote for a Democratic congressional candidate while 16% leaned Republican; by contrast, the margins were 69%/28% for Latinos and 44%/39% for whites.

As a result, Black voters were clearly key to November’s Democratic sweep, according to a report for the African-American think-tank, The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. In the report “Blacks and the 2006 Midterm Elections,” Senior Research Associate David A. Bositis noted that the Black vote was strategically “pivotal” in electing a Democratic governor (Ohio), and re-electing three Democratic governors (Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) and two Democratic U.S. Senators (Florida and Michigan). However, the big story of 2006 was African Americans’ role in tipping the Senate balance by heavily favoring new Democratic Senators in Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. In just the most dramatic example, Virginia’s Black voters (16% of the electorate) overwhelmingly backed Democrat Jim Webb (84-15%), contributing 27% of the ballots that drove his razor-thin victory (49.6-49.2%) over incumbent Senator George Allen. The contest ultimately proved the decisive seat for the majority.

Although the exact role that Black youth turnout played in these races is still unclear, CIRCLE estimates show that while African Americans constituted 10% of the overall vote, they made up 13% of this year’s expanding youth vote.

Attitudes and Desire for Change

The Democratic sweep was helped by a desire for change among almost all voter groups, but it was particularly pronounced among young African Americans.  Lake Research found that among youth voters, African Americans most intensely felt the country was “strongly on wrong track” (58%).  Similarly, a CIRCLE analysis found that 54% of African-American youths surveyed said that government is “almost always wasteful and inefficient,” which was up 20 points from a similar survey conducted in 2002.

“I think the drastic change in attitudes among young African Americans is directly related to discontent over the federal government’s handling of [Hurricane] Katrina and the war in Iraq,” Lopez said.

Given this attitude, researchers warn that the new Democratic majority should not take young Black voters for granted moving forward. It also suggests that while increasing turnout is an optimistic sign, it should be the only priority or outlet for Black students’ political participation.

Fredrick Harris, a professor of political science at Columbia University, is concerned about evidence of a dwindling commitment to community activism among African Americans. Harris said that organizing at the national level is just as important as local GOTV activity because once elections have ended, there’s no activity until the next elections.

“While voting and community activism are related, they’re two separate things. Civic activism goes beyond just voting,” Harris said. “I’m talking about attending rallies, writing members of Congress, and organizing. In order for substantial change to occur, you have to do both. Just because a certain political party does or does not come into power, does not mean that the problems will be solved. In order to do something about the declining circumstances of Black men and women, our activism should not stop at the voter booth.”

Keeping it Going

This message is getting across to many students, who are continuing to organize beyond political campaigns and election years.

In a recent National Newspaper Publishers Association feature, “College Activists Take Up More Causes,” correspondent Hazel Trice Edney cited certain events last fall as indications that longstanding student organizations may be turning back toward their political roots. These included a Black Law Students Association demonstration at Texas Southern University protesting violence in the Sudan and a University of Wisconsin-Parkside Black Student Union demonstration against conservative activist Ward Connerly.

At the Borough of Manhattan Community College, second-year student Chris Woods recently persuaded the student government association to sponsor a relief trip to New Orleans.

“When you see pictures of bodies scattered throughout a city, being eaten by dogs, it’s time for a change,” said Woods, who considers himself a regular voter, but felt more needs to be done than casting ballots.

Indeed, while increasing turnout among young Americans, especially Black voters, is a hopeful sign – and may have contributed greatly to 2006’s congressional upheaval – it’s just a start. 

If students stay actively involved in political issues that matter to them outside of election season, they stand to build enough political clout to make candidates take close notice come 2008.

Related Readings in this Edition

• Getting Out the Vote on Our Campuses
  Multiple Contributors
• Yvonne Bynoe: Author of Stand and Deliver: Political Activism, Leadership and Hip Hop Culture
  By Shawn Chollette

Other Related Readings

• Interview: Sen. Barack Obama on Black Student Political Clout
  By Stewart Ikeda, Editor, THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine, and Alexia Robinson, Black College Wire
• Poll: Young Blacks "the Most Ready to Vote for Change"
  By Vanessa Mizell, Black College Wire

Shawn Chollette is a freelance journalist working and living in New Orleans, and a frequent contributor to THE BLACK COLLEGIAN Magazine. His previous article, “New Orleans’ HBCUs Fight to Recover," appeared in the October 2006 issue. He also contributed the feature "Today's Black Collegians" to the Special 35th Anniversary Edition, and both features and photographs to the special section, "After Katrina: Starting over in New Orleans” in the February 2006 Super Issue.