Elwood Watson. Journal of Black Studies. Volume 29, Issue 1, September 1998.
Black conservatives have been viewed by many African Americans suspiciously and chastised by many white liberals. Some believe these conservatives are racial traitors and right wing racists. They have been, however, revered by some Republican politicians. The main reason many African-Americans were Republicans prior to the 1950s was because that party was seen as most concerned about the interests of the group.
During the mid-1980s and continuing into the early 1990s, scholars and journalists observed a new political trend within the African American community. It involved African American men and women from all regions of the United States and individuals who were products of state universities and Ivy League colleges, as well as those who were self-educated. The message that these individuals have espoused is one of equal opportunity, self-reliance, and individual initiative, and a message that encouraged community-based approaches to problem solving, a message that endorsed less government intervention, strengthening the Black family, and abolishing the welfare state.
Black conservatives are men and women who have been viewed with suspicion by more than a few African Americans and have been chastised by many White liberals. They have been referred to as racial traitors and right wing racists. Some Black conservatives have also been accused of self-hatred, of egoism, of being disrespectful toward the poor, of being “house niggers,” and of being willing to sell out an entire race for the sake of their own gratification (Jones, 1991, p. 19). Film director Spike Lee referred to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a “handkerchief head, a chicken and biscuit-eating Uncle Tom” (Thornton, 1991).
Black conservatives have been revered by some Republican politicians and have gradually augmented their presence in the American political landscape. From churches to college campuses to political rallies to academic think tanks, they are a growing political and intellectual force in society. Black conservative rhetoric, politics of the Black right, Black conservative criticism of affirmative action, critics of Black conservatives, Black conservative politicians, Black conservative media, and a summary on the state of Black conservatism will be discussed.
Historical Background
Prior to the mid-1950s, most African Americans were Republicans. Famed Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston and baseball great Jackie Robinson were prominent supporters of the party (Robinson, 1972). The late civil rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the early stages of his life, was a Republican. (However, in 1960, he changed his affiliation.) After being disturbed by the naked, raw, right-wing sentiment he witnessed at the 1964 Republican National Convention, as well as Republican nominee Barry Goldwater’s association with several right-wing organizations, including the John Birch Society, Robinson severed his ties with the party and became a supporter of Minnesota Democrat, Hubert Humphrey (Rampersad, 1997, p. 387).
The primary reason so many African Americans were Republicans was that, historically speaking, the Republican Party was seen as the party most hospitable to the interests of African Americans, especially because of its role in abolishing slavery. When it was founded in 1850s, the Republican Party was known as the Antislavery Party. As the first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln was responsible for signing the Emancipation Proclamation. This piece of legislation, signed on January 1, 1863, outlawed slavery in a few states involved in the rebellion.
For the few Blacks who could vote in the early 20th century, the Republican Party was the only alternative for African Americans, due to the fact that the Democratic Party had established an all-White primary, which included poll taxes, grandfather clauses, arduous historical documents, and other forms of restrictions that prohibited most African Americans from voting. Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt managed to make minor inroads against the large Republican stronghold in the South. The White primary law established in 1944 outlawed Black political enfranchisement. The great migration of African Americans from the rural South to the urban North that had begun in the middle decades of the 20th century had increased the number of registered Black voters. By 1964, a majority of African Americans had begun to vote for the Democratic ticket because of the historic 1964 Civil Rights Act passed that year. This was evident in the landslide victory for Lyndon Johnson.
Many Black scholars and leaders agree that the African American community has a long tradition of being socially conservative in its behavior. African Americans share a tradition of being churchgoers, of building cohesive family units through their reliance on extended family and kinship networks, and of adhering to other principles that have been identified as conservative. This sort of social conservatism among many Blacks was pertinent for survival. This was much different from the political conservatism of the Black Right.
Perhaps the original Black conservative was Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskeegee Institute. Washington was also the author of the early 20th century classic, Up From Slavery (1901). Many Black conservatives do indeed embrace Washington as their linear father. Throughout the early half of the 20th century, George Schuyler, referred to by many late 20th century scholars and intellectuals as “the preeminent Black conservative in this century” (West, 1993, p. 49), published a column in The Pittsburgh Courier for decades. His book Black and Conservative, published in 1966, is considered a minor classic in certain intellectual circles. Up until his death in 1972, Schuyler was a staunch critic of the New Deal programs of the 1930s and denounced the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
Clarence Thomas
It was President George Bush’s nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court that focused extensive national attention on Black conservatives. Thomas would be only the second Black American nominated for the prestigious position. Judge Thomas would differ sharply from his predecessor, the late Thurgood Marshall.
Born in rural Georgia, Thomas grew up in abject poverty. Throughout his confirmation hearings, Thomas spoke eloquently and emotionally of growing up without indoor plumbing, being schooled by the local nuns who lived in the area, living under the shadow of racism, and hearing about the humiliation and degradation that his older relatives endured because of racism. Moreover, he discussed his gratitude for receiving scholarship assistance (better known as affirmative action) in the pursuit of higher education, first at Holy Cross College and later at Yale Law School.
From the outset, the nomination was mired in controversy. There were many liberals and moderates who argued that President Bush had passed over many judges, both Black and White, who had far more federal experience than Thomas and, what is more, were more in unison with the historical civil rights agenda of mainstream Black leadership that Thomas was not. However, in Thomas’ nomination, it seemed that the White House was two steps ahead of the American public. Harvard University government professor Martin Kilson (1993) stated,
The White House assumed the correct belief that the majority of Black Americans would take a tough-minded, pragmatic posture toward the symbolic importance of a Black appointment to a powerful national institution like the Supreme Court, regardless of typical black voters’ political disagreement with the conservative Black nominee.
Indeed, early polls taken within a week of the Thomas nomination showed a small plurality supporting it. A New York Times poll taken on the eve of the confirmation hearings—from September 3 to 5, 1991—found that Blacks were split in the attitudes toward the nomination (1991). Some 63% of Blacks said that they “couldn’t say”—were neutral, despite Thomas’ conservatism—among those who had a position. Even after the extraordinarily divisive heatings were concluded, a majority of Black Americans (54%) still favored Thomas’ confirmation nomination.(3) This was not true of the mainstream civil rights establishment.
The televised Senate hearings focused an even brighter light on Black conservatives. For more than a week, Americans sat glued in front of their television sets listening to direct, complex, and graphic testimony from University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill and Thomas, as well as from their friends and critics. At one point, it did indeed appear that the Thomas nomination was in serious jeopardy. Many observers believed that a turning point in the hearings occurred when Thomas confronted the Senate judiciary committee, headed by Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware, and decried the hearings as “a high-tech lynching.” Experts say that some of the senators were dumbfounded by such a comment and thus were manipulated into silence.
It was this comment that prompted some liberals (particularly many Black civil rights leaders) to remark cynically and angrily that Thomas had no grounds for playing the “race card,” given his past history. Thomas was on the record attacking affirmative action, although he had clearly had been a beneficiary of it. He also condemned welfare, even criticizing his sister for being on it, and had questioned the necessity of virtually all liberal social programs that were intended to benefit minorities and the poor. Many prominent African Americans lambasted Thomas for comparing his situation with the historical horrors of lynching, charging him with amoral hypocrisy.
The Senate ultimately voted 52-48 to confirm Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. It was the closest margin of victory for a Supreme Court nominee in the nation’s history. Since taking his seat on the court, Thomas has voted in a manner that has pleased his conservative detractors and that has outraged his liberal detractors. Along with Justice Antonin Scalia and Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Thomas is considered to be part of the Court’s right wing.
Many African American political publications have been searing in their criticisms of Thomas. In November 1993, Emerge magazine ran a cover of Thomas with a handkerchief tied around his head. This symbolized that Clarence Thomas was a “handkerchief head negro.” In certain segments of the African American community, this slogan refers to a Black person who is diametrically insensitive and antagonistic to the problems and struggles of their own community, and rather seems to serve the interests of the foes of the community. Three years later, the magazine ran an even more scurrilous caricature of Judge Thomas. Under it, the caption said, “Uncle Thomas, lawn jockey for the far right” (Emerge, 1996).
Critics of Black Conservatives
Clarence Thomas is not the only Black conservative to come under fire from certain segments of the American public. Many Black leaders in particular have been critical, if not downright hostile, in their attitudes toward the Black right. The following are examples of such acrimonious disdain:
1. In the February 1994 issue of Emerge magazine, former NAACP President Benjamin Chavis remarked, “Unfortunately, we have our Buthelzis” (referring to the South African Zulu Chief who was somewhat resistant to Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress in their efforts to end apartheid). Chavis was referring to Black American conservatives. Chavis went on to say that
Black conservatives get more attention from white conservatives. They have very little impact in the Black community, and most of them are taken as political and social deviants…. It is very interesting that a group that has no support in the Black community can get financing outside the community to play a divisive role in the community. (as cited in Coleman, 1994, p. 52)
2. Los Angeles commentator and talk show host, Tavis Smiley says, in his book Hard Left, in regards to Black conservatives, “When is the last time you have heard Black conservatives say anything even remotely positive about Black people?” (Smiley, 1996, p. 37). Further, “They do nothing more than provide cover and justification for White conservatives who cannot get away with uttering such racist and discriminating comments” (p. 37). Smiley concludes his argument by saying “so Black conservatives—all ten of them—might just as well stay in the closet, because that’s exactly where they belong” (p. 37).
3. In the summer of 1992, then U.S. 3rd Circuit Court Judge Leon Higginbotham, in an open letter to Judge Clarence Thomas, replied, “Other than your own personal advancement, I do not see what it is that you Black conservatives want to conserve.”
4. Even Black conservative Robert Woodson of the Neighborhood Enterprise Institute has been somewhat critical of his fellow brethren. In the May 1996 issue of Headway magazine, Woodson states,
In general Black conservatives have not defined themselves in a positive manner. Too many have been reflexive “me-too” conservatives, merely echoing the views and opinions of established white conservatives and their stands against affirmative action, set-asides, and the welfare system. (p. 8)
Woodson goes on to say that
It is important for Black conservatives to offer positive alternatives to be originators of ideas that go beyond the bi-polar debates of the left and the right … that Black conservatives should be less concerned about what they call themselves, but rather, be concerned how their actions define them in the eyes of everyday people, particularly their own people. (p. 8)
5. Black academic and public intellectual Adolph Reed (1997) said in regards to Black conservatives, “The Black conservative species does not select for intellectual sophistication; none of its output rises above banality and fatuity…. They’re a dime a dozen and their line is always basically the same” (p. 20).
For their part, Black conservatives seem to view Black liberals with equal disdain. Political activist Alan Keyes accuses civil rights leaders of “intellectual totalitarianism” (as cited in Lang, 1991, p. 1). Another Black conservative urged Blacks to abandon the “politically correct” positions of the “liberal paternalistic plantation” (Bell, 1991, p. 9). Black conservative talk radio host Armstrong Williams (1998) argues that, although racism exists, too many African Americans have used it as a crutch, which in return only aggravates resentment and hostility among both Blacks and Whites (p. 6).
African American syndicated columnist and ABC news commentator Clarence Page (1996) offered a mildly ambiguous assessment of Black Conservatives:
I distinguish between “Black conservatives” and “conservative Blacks.” The former is a relatively small, if high-profile, movement of avowed conservatives who happen to be Black. The latter best describes the Black masses who harbor many conservative attitudes, but part company with traditional conservative party lines, especially the line that says Black people make too much of racism. (pp. 194-195)
Page further argues,
Black conservatives are poised to win converts. Now the questions arises, can they succeed in their counterrevolution to win the hearts and minds of Black America, or will they implode from their own internal conflicts and contradictions, first they have to be taken seriously. (p. 199)
There have been many issues that have garnered Black conservatives considerable hostility from a large segment of the Black community; perhaps the most controversial is the vehement opposition that many Black conservatives have toward affirmative action. The issue is a staple topic for conservatives, and Black conservatives have comfortably jumped on the bandwagon. Indeed, some Black conservatives have been blistering in their attacks on affirmative action. Conservative activist Armstrong Williams (1995) refers to affirmative action as “patronizing, degrading and self-defeating.” Shelby Steele (1990) sees affirmative action as a “guilt-induced” program for Blacks. Stephen Carter (1991) argues that affirmative action creates “bona fide moral confusion regarding the mobility status of Black American beneficiaries of these policies” (pp. 143-168). Carter further refers to this as “the best Black” syndrome (p. 47). This, according to Carter, is where Whites refuse to judge the merits of Blacks on a par with theirs, but rather against other high achieving Blacks.
Another Black conservative who thrust himself into the public eye is University of California Board of Regents President Ward Connerly. In the summer of 1994, Connerly spearheaded the effort to urge the California Board of Regents to vote against preferential treatment programs based on race and gender, claiming that such programs were unfair and discriminatory, and made people bitter. In November 1996, Connerly was largely credited for engineering the success of Proposition 209, a California referendum that prohibited all race- and gender-based preferences in business and higher education; however, this same proposal allowed veterans and other groups to benefit from affirmative action programs. The referendum was approved by 54% of California voters.
However, a few weeks after its victory, the bill experienced a major setback as civil rights groups questioned its constitutionality, arguing that it was a “strong probability” Proposition 209 was unconstitutional. On December 6, 1996, Chief U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson ordered the University of California to stop its implementation. In April 1997, a federal appeals court panel reversed Judge Henderson’s decision and upheld the November 1996 ratification of Proposition 209. In September 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of the opponents of the measure. The Clinton administration and the Justice Department have joined the ranks of opponents of Proposition 209.
One of the more vitriolic attacks on Black conservatives was given by Representative William Clay, a Black Democrat from Missouri. Shortly after the November 1996 elections, Clay referred to the then recently defeated Gary Franks of Connecticut as a “Negro Dr. Kevorkian,” bent on destroying his own race (as cited in Richardson, 1996, p. 29). Franks was elected to Congress in November 1990. He was the first Black Republican to serve in the House of Representatives in 60 years, and his victory prompted a barrage of media interest. Franks is also author of Searching for the Promised Land: An African American’s Optimistic Odyssey (1996).
In a six-page open letter circulated on Capitol Hill, Clay described Franks, along with Supreme Court Justice Thomas and radio host Armstrong Williams, as part of a conservative “New Negro cabal” that has undermined efforts by Blacks to improve their communities and their economic standing through government programs. Congressmen Clay goes on to say that Franks’s 6 years in Congress were highlighted by support of legislation inimical to the permanent interest of Black folk (as cited in Richardson, 1996, p. 29). Franks, through the words of an aide, replied, “Obviously Bill Clay is not a fan of mine, but nonetheless, I wish him Godspeed” (as cited in Richardson, 1996, p. 29).
Running for Public Office
Although they have less visibility than their Black liberal counterparts, there have been some notable African Americans who have run as Republicans and have won elections. First of all, it is imperative not to automatically equate the term Black Republican with conservative. There are certain Republicans, such as retired Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell, who identify themselves as Republicans, yet also refer to themselves as moderates. When he was thought to be a possible candidate for the presidency, Powell stated that he strongly supported affirmative action and abortion.
Powell’s viewpoints on these issues put him at odds with many Black conservatives. Black conservative activist Ezola Foster said about the distinguished retired general in the Wall Street Journal that “As I listen to Colin Powell, I wonder if he is in the right party. He should be a Democrat” (as cited in Frisby, 1996, p. 14). Foster is the author of What’s Right for All Americans: A Fearless Los Angeles Schoolteacher Challenges the Black Political Establishment (Foster, 1995). Nonetheless, the vast majority of Black Republicans running for public office identify themselves as conservatives, and it is a conservative message that they espouse in their campaigns.
In November 1994, The Christian Science Monitor cited the following information on Black conservatives and politics:
- In November 1994, 24 African Americans ran for public office as Republican congressional candidates, up from 11 who ran in 1990, and 15 who ran in 1992.
- In 1995, only 10 African Americans served in state legislatures as Republican politicians.
- In the 1996 Presidential campaign, several African American were in the running for the Republican presidential nomination. Among them Arthur Fletcher, former civil rights commissioner, declared his nomination in 1995. Colin Powell was touted as a candidate before announcing his decision not to run. Alan Keyes also made a run at the nomination but was unable to generate any significant momentum for his campaign. (“GOP’s Surprise Weapon,” p. 1)
Since the mid-20th century, there have been brief moments of Black Republican successes in politics. In 1966, Edward Brooke won his senate race in Massachusetts. Brooke was the first Black senator elected to congress since Reconstruction. His election was seen as a milestone in U.S. race relations. Although Brooke was reelected in 1972, his liberal views placed him at odds with more conservative colleagues within the Republican Party. Optimism that Brooke’s example would generate more support from Black voters faded when other African Americans who ran on the Republican ticket failed to win election to Congress. After Brooke was defeated in his third run for the Senate in 1978, no other Black Republican was elected to Congress until Gary Franks of Connecticut in 1990.
During much of the 1970s and 1980s, the vast majority of African Americans either dismissed or ignored the Republican Party, claiming the party was hostile and insensitive to the needs of ethnic minorities and poor people. Although notable Black candidates did run for state and federal offices in the 1980s and 1990s as Republicans-William Lucas for governor of Michigan in 1986, and Alan Keyes for the U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1988 and 1992 and for the Republican presidential nomination in 1996. Both candidates received lukewarm support from the GOP party and the Republican voting electorate. This response caused Keyes and other Black observers to lambaste the party and question whether African Americans had any allies in the party.
Perceived hostility toward African Americans has been a major topic in Republican politics. Many Americans, including a few conservatives like syndicated columnist Mona Charen lambasted the treatment of GOP candidate Alan Keyes when he was arrested in Atlanta during the GOP candidates debate in early 1996 as he tried to participate. As he was being handcuffed and placed in a police car, his supporters yelled, “Let him speak! Let him speak!”
The question of party commitment has been a continuing question among many Black Republicans. In its September 1994 issue, National Minority Politics magazine, (now known as Headway magazine), a conservative African American publication, ran for as cover story titled, “Is the GOP Serious About Getting Black Votes?” This particular issue included several commentaries from registered Republicans, Democrats, and independents who had begun to express doubts about the Republican Party’s efforts to include African Americans into the mainstream. The only absolutely positive commentary was written by former GOP chairman Haley Barbour (Barbour, 1994, p. 8).
The rest of the commentaries displayed considerable ambivalence toward the current state of the Republican Party and its relation to Black Americans. The sentiments of the articles ranged from “Talk Is Cheap” (Jackson, 1994, p. 12), to discussing the need for the GOP to “Invest in Black Candidates” (Burley, 1994, p. 11), to warning the Republican party that it must moderate its image if it was to gain the support of African American voters (Watson, 1994, p. 8). A prominent Black Houston attorney who ran unsuccessfully in 1992 for a House seat, due to little support from his party, wrote an article titled, “It Makes No Sense to Be Either Taken for Granted or Ignored” (Irvin, 1994). The same author concluded his article by saying, “Despite some highly commendable efforts of some, the GOP on the whole is directing its efforts elsewhere. But for that it seems that we largely have ourselves to Blame” (p. 10).
Even some White Republicans have been critical of the GOP attitudes toward Black voters. Republican political consultant Edward Rollins, in his 1996 book Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms: My Life in American Politics, cited the case of two Black republican candidates, Teresa Doggett of Texas and Joe Watkins of Pennsylvania. Rollins said that “both were outstanding candidates who were essentially abandoned by our party” (Rollins, 1996, p. 332), although he further stated that “some day the Republican Party will get serious about Black outreach and support candidates like Joe and Teresa” (p. 332).
Gwen Richardson, editor of Headway magazine, said in the magazine’s December 1996 issue, “There was little cause for celebration among Black Republicans running as congressional candidates in 1996” (p. 29). The number of Black Republicans in Congress shrunk from two to one as Connecticut congressman Gary Franks was defeated. Former University of Oklahoma football star J. C. (Julius Caesar) Watts retained his seat. Watts is now the only Black elected Republican on Capitol Hill. Of the 16 Black GOP candidates who ran for Congress, only one, Watts, received over 50% of the vote (Richardson, 1996, p. 29). Three candidates received 40% or more of the vote, three also received 30% or more of the vote, and the rest received below 20% of the vote (Richardson, 1996, p. 29). The November 1996 results are listed in Table 1.
Table 1 Support for Black Republican Congressional Candidates in 1996 Election
| Candidate (state, congressional district) | Percentage of Vote |
| Congressmen J. C. Watts (OK, 4th) | 58 |
| Congressmen Gary Franks (CT, 5th) | 46 |
| Teresa Doggett (TX, 10th) | 41 |
| Joseph Rogers (CO, 1st) | 40 |
| Danny Covington (MS, 2nd) | 38 |
| Rod DeBerry (TN, 9th) | 37 |
| Patricia Long (MA, 7th) | 30 |
| Elsie Holland (VA, 3rd) | 18 |
| Deborah Wright (CA, 9th) | 18 |
| Vanessa Williams (NJ, 10th) | 15 |
| Larry Murphy (PA, 2nd) | 12 |
| Wellington Rolle (FL, 17th) | 11 |
| Claudette Hayle (NY, 10th) | 8 |
| Amelia Parker (NY, 10th) | 8 |
| Jerry Burley (TX, 18th) | 6 |
| Edward Adams (NY, 15th) | 5 |
Source: Richardson, 1996, p. 29.
A striking example of the acrimonious relationship between the Republican Party and Black voters was seen in July 1996. Republican presidential nominee Robert Dole ran into controversy, as well as criticism, when he declined to attend an invitation to the annual NAACP meeting in Baltimore, Maryland. On asking why he did not attend the event, one of the former Senator’s replies was that NAACP president Kwame fume was “trying to set him up.”(6) Dole’s reply was greeted with ample disbelief by many segments of the mainstream media, liberal and conservative. Conservative syndicated columnist Mona Charen said on the CNN program, The Capital Gang, that Senator Dole’s behavior was “an insult to all African Americans in this country” (The Capital Gang, 1996).
Republican Faye Anderson, a policy advisor to the Dole campaign and president of the Douglas Policy Institute, an educational and research group based in New York City, expressed her disgust in a New York Times op-ed article: “I wish Republican strategists would stop running away from African American voters” (1996, p. 17), A few months later, Anderson, along with Milton Bins, chairman of the Douglas Policy Institute, wrote in Headway that the Republican Party will remain an illusion to African Americans until the party makes a valiant effort to include Blacks at much higher levels in the party (Anderson & Bins, 1996, p. 15).
Conservative Black Media
Despite what minimal success Black GOP candidates have with the mainstream of their party, they nonetheless get ample promotion from the sudden splurge of various conservative Black media. Since 1990, there has been a small, but growing number of newspapers, magazines, and talk shows in the African American community that have presented a conservative message (Reuter, 1995). The cause of Black conservatism is well represented in the media. Newspapers espousing a conservative message include the Chicago Independent Bulletin and the Atlanta Daily World. Among some Black conservative magazines are Destiny, located in Selma, Oregon; Headway, published in Houston; and Issues and Views, published in New York City.
The common theme of these publications is a message of personal responsibility, strong families, marital fidelity, free enterprise, limited government, and other traditional themes. The majority of these publications have a small, select readership, yet one that is loyal and enthusiastic in its support of conservative ideas. Among Black conservative talk show hosts are Armstrong Williams, host of The Right Side, Phyllis Berry Myers, host of A Second Look Live, both of which also air out of Washington, D.C. (both Williams and Myers gained media attention during the Clarence Thomas hearings); Ronald Edwards; and Earl Jackson—the latter two having, like Williams, syndicated talk programs. Hosts Larry Elder, Star Parker, and Errol Smith are located in Los Angeles. Parker is also the author of Pimps, Whores and Welfare Brats: The Stunning Transformation of a Welfare Queen (1996). Mason Weaver is based in San Diego. Kenneth Hamblin, the self-described “Black avenger” airs his program out of Denver and is author of Pick a Better Country: An Unassuming Colored Guy Speaks His Mind About America (1996). James Hereford, Made Kaigler, Jesse Peterson, and Edward Shannon broadcast their talk shows from Cleveland, Detroit, Medford, Oregon, and Houston, respectively.
On the television front, for the past several years, PBS host Tony Brown has regularly presented a conservative viewpoint on his program Tony Brown’s Journal. Brown is the author of the controversial Black Lies White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown (1995). Black conservatives were profiled on ABC’s 20/20 on May 13, 1994. There was even a television situation comedy with a Black conservative character—704 Houser, produced by Norman Lear—that appeared on CBS. The show was canceled due to low ratings. The only Republican African American politician in Congress today, J. C. Watts, has been profiled on numerous television programs. Watts also gave the Republican response to President Clinton’s 1997 State of the Union speech. Although certain conservative politicians and talk shows have generated a fair-sized niche among certain White conservatives, Black conservative media have struggled with increasing their base within certain segments of the Black community.
Conclusion
Conservative African Americans have managed to carve a small niche within a certain segment of American society. Like any group of individuals who advocate a specific ideology, they have encountered enthusiastic loyalty as well as considerable disdain from various politicians, magazines, spokespersons, and other observers. They have made efforts to take to the airwaves and print media. They have run for public office, spoken in public forums, and presented themselves in other avenues of American society to promote their agenda.
Like any group of political theorists, Black conservatives depend on the strength and loyalty of their followers. So far, their success among Black Americans has been limited. Many Americans (both Blacks and many Whites) view Black conservatives as opportunists, due to their alliance with many right-wing foundations and politicians. Moreover, they are viewed by many African Americans as having virtually no sense of reality about the centuries of past historical policies that have impeded the progress of African Americans and other minorities. Some Black conservatives have become aware of this problem. Black Conservative Los Angeles talk radio host Errol Smith (1996) said in regards to Black conservatives, “Significant political and social influence has eluded Black conservatives. The Black right has demonstrated precious little ability to profoundly influence politics within the Black community, or to mobilize Black Americans behind a generally conservative agenda” (p. 17).
Over the past few years, some Black conservatives have become increasingly disenchanted with what they perceive as the ever-increasing acrimonious posture of mainstream conservatism. In the fall of 1995, Black conservatives Robert Woodson and Glenn Loury publicly terminated their affillation, with the American Enterprise Institute on the institute’s publication of Dinesh D’Souza’s book, The End of Racism: Principles for a Multiracial Society. consultant, argues, “If Black conservatives are to be factors in politics in this country, there must be a departure from the idea that they must prove who they are by trading their respect and identity for acceptance in the Republican Party” (p. 38). In the fall of 1997, Glenn Loury further derided fellow conservatives for what he sees as their impervious, unyielding stance on racial issues:
The fact, as chilling as it is unavoidable, is that many among the conservative elite seem tone-deaf on the issue of race. They can’t see that our country’s moral aspirations—to be “a city on a hill,” a beacon of hope and freedom to all the world—seem impossible when one sees the despair of so many of those Americans who descend from slaves. We have unfinished business on the race front, and it won’t be finished by enacting tax cuts, approving school vouchers, continuing the war on drugs or reforming welfare.
Internal party conflicts aside, it is clear that Black conservatives must make a more favorable public impression among more African Americans if they hope to become a significant presence in the African American community. To paraphrase international consultant and Black conservative businessman David McClean (1994, p. 12)—if we, as Black conservatives, do not get a better handle on who we are or how we are going to reach more of own people, other political and ideological groups are going to be happy to fill the void for us. Time will tell.