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Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - V. Politics - 22. Political Practices Today - 4. The Negro in Northern Politics
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Chapter 22. Political Practices Today 495
52 per cent In 1940,®’^ In Detroit the estimated proportion voting for
Roosevelt was 36.7 per cent in 1932, 63.5 per cent in 1936, and 69.3 per
cent in 1940.®®
Table i shows the same startling trends toward the Democratic party
for these and other cities, using a slightly less adequate technical procedure.
It is not certain whether the Northern Negro vote will remain Demo-
cratic, but It is certain that It has become more flexible and will respond
more readily to the policies of the two parties toward the Negro.®® This
will probably bring more political advantages to Negroes, since their vote
will take on more strategic significance in the close elections often occurring
in the North. It is also a sign that politically Negroes are becoming more
like other Americans.
There has been a widespread belief that Northern Negroes became
radical In large numbers during the depression. All the available data
reveal that this is a fallacy. In Detroit about 3.2 per cent of the Negroes
voted for a party other than Democratic or Republican in 1930. This was
larger than the third-party vote of native whites, but not of foreign-born
groups in that city. In 1932, the Negro percentage for third parties fell
to 1.5—equal to that of native whites and lower than that of foreign-born
groups. It remained low during the depression and by 1940 was only 0.5
per cent.*^® In Chicago, Gosnell estimated that only 500 Negroes joined the
Communist party during the depression, although many more participated
in parades and other activities.’^^ In Cleveland, Davis estimated that the
height of the depression saw only 200 Negroes in the Communist party
Before 1933, when Negroes were attached to the Republican party,
there was little. If any, difference between the lower class and middle class
Negroes in party affiliation. It is true that Tammany Hall succeeded in
attracting more lower class than middle class Negroes in New York, but
New York Negroes had already gone quite a way toward the Democratic
party before 1930. Since 1933, Negroes have split just as whites have,
though probably not so much: Negroes with lower incomes have gone
over to the Democratic party in somewhat greater proportion than
Negroes with middle incomes. In Detroit, for example, the 1940 election
found about 72 per cent of the lower economic group of Negroes for
Roosevelt as compared to about 63 per cent of the middle economic group,
whereas In 1930 the corresponding percentages were 19 and 22, respec-
tively.*^® Whether this differential between Negroes of different classes
will continue or not is problematical. The Negro middle and upper classes
are different from white middle and upper classes in that they are more
directly dependent on the lower class and in that they are more interested
in social reform.
On the whole, Negroes have come to be rather like whites in their
folitical behavior in the North. They vote in about the same proportion
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