
          The Importance of Black Legislators
          By Willingham, AlexAlex Willingham
          Vol. 7, No. 5, 1985, pp. 3-5
          
          The Southern state legislature, once the incarnation of
backwardness in Southern politics, now stands to become a center for
innovation in regional affairs. The formerly all-male, all-white,
one-party bastions of prejudice and reactionary social policy have
been changing in recent years. More change lies ahead. Political
moderates, Republicans, women, and labor representatives have won
seats, lending a bit of diversity to the legislatures. Blacks, whose
lack of power has characterized the South's "peculiarity," have been
elected in unprecedented numbers.
          Before 1963, when Leroy Johnson served in the Georgia senate, no
black had won election to a Southern legislature since early in this
century. Whites in the post-Reconstruction 

era eliminated blacks from
public office--indeed, from registration and voting. Disfranchisement
of blacks (and by the early 1900s, of poor whites as well) was the
linchpin of the modern South's undemocratic order. The effects of
disfranchisement have been shared not only by Southern state
legislatures but by county and city governments.
          Today 176 blacks--almost half of all black legislators in the
country--serve in the legislative chambers of the eleven Southern
states. Change, once begun, has been swift and dramatic. In Louisiana,
where blacks account for nearly a third of the population, there was
only one black in the legislature as late as 1970. Today, there are
eighteen, one of whom has been selected to the second ranking position
in the state's lower house. 
          As important as these Southern changes have been, they co-exist
with old continuities. For example, the racial composition of Southern
state legislatures does not yet reflect the black population. Black
legislators make up only ten percent of all Southern legislators, yet
blacks exceed twenty percent of the South's population. The forty-six
member South Carolina senate received its first black member in 1983
(see Southern Changes, May/June 1983). The number increased to four in
1984, but an additional ten blacks would have to be elected before the
senate would be representative of the state's black population.
          The situation is the same in the other Southern states. It would be
necessary to more than double their current numbers for black
legislators to achieve parity. In addition, reflective of continuing
racial polarization, the overwhelming majority of those so far elected
come from single-member districts composed primarily of black
voters--districts created in recognition of the special difficulties
facing black candidates.
          And, resistance continues. The creation of single-member electoral
districts has come under attack in North Carolina (see Laughlin
McDonald's article in this issue of Southern Changes) where state and
Reagan Administration officials have defended, before the US Supreme
Court, a state legislative election plan that would make tokens of
single-member districts and black voting strength.
          Recent resistance has also taken the form of Justice Department
collusion with state and local white powerholders in a so-far
unsuccessful two-year campaign involving the intimidation of rural
black voters and the prosecution of voting rights activists in the
Alabama Black Belt (see Southern Changes, May/June 1985).
          Blacks who do win legislative office find the chambers that await
them are fundamentally inhospitable to change. The accumulated wealth
and practiced despotism of business interests make for fierce
resistance or tempting accommodation. Setting out to represent the
hopes of their largely poor and powerless constituencies, black
legislators can find themselves stymied by the immovable, or swayed by
the irresistible.
          
            Winning Without A Majority
          
          The problems and prospects facing Southern black legislators were
discussed at a meeting in early November in Atlanta. Two questions
dominated the talk of black legislators and their staffs: To what
extent can the newly elected officials protect and expand their ranks?
What can they do to be effective in their present situations?
          "Winning Without a Majority," a conference paper prepared by Steve
Suitts addressed the question of effectiveness. "For continued
strength and increased clout," Suitts observed, "black legislators as
a group cannot depend upon a growth of their numbers. They must find
other means by which to make their current numbers count for more in
the legislative process." Several strategies were suggested: jawboning
presiding officers, influencing the implementation of policy at the
administrative agencies, proposing "local legislation", creating study
commissions, and blocking or changing legislative proposals that
require an extraordinary majority (i.e., a two-thirds or three-fourths
majority). Black state legislators now have the opportunity and the
numbers in most Southern states to win some important issues without a
majority of the votes. Suitts drew examples from several states;
legislators in attendance suggested others.
          
            
              Blacks in Southern Legislatures, 1985
              
                State       
                Reps.
                Senators
              
              
                Alabama     
                19       
                5
              
              
                Arkansas    
                4        
                1
              
              
                Florida     
                10       
                2
              
              
                Georgia     
                21       
                6
              
              
                Kentucky    
                1        
                1
              
              
                Louisiana   
                14       
                4
              
              
                Mississippi 
                18       
                2
              
              
                North Carolina 
                13    
                3
              
              
                South Carolina 
                16    
                4
              
              
                Tennessee   
                10       
                3
              
              
                Texas       
                13       
                1
              
              
                Virginia    
                5        
                2
              
            
          
          Illustrative of one tactic are the Sanders Bills, so named for
Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders of Selma. These "local bills,"
passed as custom decrees by the Alabama legislature upon request of
the legislators from the affected counties, allow local governments in
Senator Sanders' Black Belt district to change their method of county
elections from at large to single member districts. The Sanders bills
should insure proportional, bi-racial county and municipal governments
in these majority black counties.
          The effectiveness of black legislators will also be determined by
their tenure. Seniority will not only make them more "equal" with
their long-serving white colleagues but will let them look back on
their own experiences, make adjustments, form alliances.
          As for black increases in the present number of state legislators,
certainly the numerical potential exists throughout the South. In
Georgia, for example, which has the largest number (twenty-seven) of
black legislators, an additional thirty-two would have to be elected
before 

the racial make-up of the general assembly represented the
state's population. Black representation in the South Carolina Senate
is only ten percent of what it would be if proportionate to the
population; Mississippians would need to elect forty additional black
legislators.
          It seems clear, however, that the "easy" advances have already been
made; the "tough" cases remain.
          Most black representatives are elected in urban areas. Their
districts have compact populations, ready availability of candidates,
higher prospects for registration and voting, and a broader tolerance
for bi-racial politics. These patterns are nearly reversed in rural
areas where few blacks have been elected to the legislatures and where
opposition has been most persistent in opposition to black political
participation.
          In the past, and at least through the 1990 census, most hopes for
increasing the number of black legislators have lain and will lie with
redistricting. Now, with a visible, if small, number of blacks among
their ranks, white, Southern state legislators will claim even more
reason to resist substantial additions. The presence of even a few
blacks becomes a justification for no change.
          Token change in the racial make-up of Southern legislatures will
kill the promise of recent years. This would be tragic. In the coming
decade, state policies will be crucial in dealing with plant closings,
community development, job training, and in finding sources of money
for health care and public education.
          Business and corporate representatives are pressing their state
legislative agendas with the intention of avoiding anything and
everything which does not contribute to profitmaking. Moral guardian
groups are intent on retaining the death penalty, assaulting welfare
programs, and invading personal privacy. The election of black
legislators--like any search for popular participation
strategies--should speak to all Southerners who seek to counter the
powers of reaction.
          
            Alex Willingham lives in Shreveport, Louisiana. As a
Rockefeller Foundation Fellow, he is writing a book about Southern
reapportionment.
          
        