Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T06:01:54.907Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Whites as a Minority and the New Biracial Coalition in New Orleans and Memphis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 February 2006

Baodong Liu
Baodong Liu
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded more than 80% of the city of New Orleans. As the stories of hurricane victims, mostly African Americans, dominated the national news coverage, New Orleans' racial politics in particular, and the racial divisions in general, once again invited public debate. Why did a city that had been firmly controlled by African-American politicians from the mayor's office to the city council exhibit such a clear racial image? What role did Whites play in the city's political establishment?This project was supported by research grants from the American Political Science Association and the University of Wisconsin, which allowed the author to travel to Memphis and New Orleans to collect original data and interview the mayor of Memphis and other politicians. The author would also like to thank Susan Reed, Martin Gruberg, Wayne Parent, and David Siemers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the article. Special thanks go to the three reviewers and the editors of PS: Political Science and Politics, and to Laura Fisher-Guex, James Vanderleeuw, and Susan Howell for their invaluable assistance with the data-collection/recording process.

Type
FEATURES
Information
PS: Political Science & Politics , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , January 2006 , pp. 69 - 76
Copyright
© 2006 The American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bobo, Lawrence. 1983. “Whites' Opposition to Busing: Symbolic Racism or Realistic Group Conflict?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45: 1196–1210.Google Scholar
Brewer, Mark D., and Jeffrey M. Stonecash. 2001. “Class, Race Issues, and Declining White Support for the Democratic Party in the South.” Political Behavior 23: 131–156.Google Scholar
Browning, Rufus P., Dale Rogers Marshall, and David H. Tabb. 1984. Protest Is Not Enough: The Struggle of Blacks and Hispanics for Equality in Urban Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Browning, Rufus P., Dale Rogers Marshall, and David H. Tabb. 2003. Racial Politics in American Cities. New York: Longman Publishers.Google Scholar
Carsey, Thomas M. 1995. “The Contextual Effects of Race on White Voter Behavior: The 1989 New York City Mayoral Election.” Journal of Politics 57: 221–28.Google Scholar
DuBos, Clancy. 2001. “Does Substance Matter?” Gambit Weekly, November 13, 15.Google Scholar
Eisinger, Peter K. 1974. Patterns of Interracial Politics: Conflict and Cooperation in the City. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Engstrom, Richard L., and Willie Kirkland. 1995. “The 1994 New Orleans Mayoral Election: Racial Divisions Continue.” Urban News 9 (spring): 6–9.Google Scholar
Firestone, David. 2002. “New Orleans, Amid Revelry, Makes Time to Vote Today.” New York Times, Feb. 2, A-13.Google Scholar
Giles, Micheal W. 1996. “A Comment on ‘David Duke and Black Threat’.” American Review of Politics 17: 69–72.Google Scholar
Giles, Michael W., and Melanie A. Buckner. 1996. “Comment.” Journal of Politics 58: 1171–1180.Google Scholar
Giles, Michael W., and Melanie A. Buckner. 1993. “David Duke and Black Threat: An Old Hypothesis Revisited.” Journal of Politics 55: 702–713.Google Scholar
Giles, Micheal W., and Kaenan Hertz. 1994. “Racial Threat and Partisan Identification.” American Political Science Review 88: 317–326.Google Scholar
Gill, James. 2002. “A Visit to the Political Paddock.” Times Picayune, Jan. 27, B-07.Google Scholar
Glaser, James M. 1994. “Back to the Black Belt: Racial Environment and White Racial Attitudes in the South.” Journal of Politics 56: 21–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hill, Ricky. 1994. “ The Study of Black Politics: Notes on Rethinking the Paradigm.” In Black Politics and Black Political Behavior: A Linkage Analysis, ed. Hanes Walton, Jr. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger, 11–18.Google Scholar
Hirsch, Arnold R. 1997. “ Harold and Dutch: A Comparative Look at the First Black Mayors of Chicago and New Orleans.” In The Making of Urban America, 2nd edition, ed. Raymond A. Mohl. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc.Google Scholar
Howell, Susan E., and Brent K. Marshall. 1998. “Crime and Trust in Local Government: Revisiting a Black Empowerment Area.” Urban Affairs Review 33: 361–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert. 1986. Politics in Context: Assimilation and Conflict in Urban Neighborhoods. New York: Agathon Press.Google Scholar
Huckfeldt, Robert, and John Sprague. 1995. Citizens, Politics, and Social Communication: Information and Influence in an Election Campaign. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. 1949. Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Judd, Dennis R., and Todd Swanstrom. 2002. City Politics: Private Power and Public Policy. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Keech, William R. 1968. The Impact of Negro Voting. Chicago: Rand McNally.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Lynn M. Sanders. 1996. Divided by Color: Racial Politics and Democratic Ideas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and David O. Sears. 1981. “Prejudice and Politics: Symbolic Racism versus Racial Threats to the Good Life.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 40: 414–431.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kinder, Donald R., and Tali Mendelberg. 1995. “Cracks in American Apartheid: The Political Impact of Prejudice among Desegregated Whites.” Journal of Politics 57: 402–424.Google Scholar
King, Gary. 1997. A Solution to the Ecological Inference Problem: Reconstruction Individual Behavior from Aggregate Data. Princeton: University of Princeton Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuklinski, James H., Michael D. Cobb, and Martin Gilens. 1997. “Racial Attitudes and the ‘New South.’” Journal of Politics 59: 323–349.Google Scholar
Langoria, Thomas. 1999. “The Impact of Office on Cross-Racial Voting: Evidence from the 1996 Milwaukee Mayoral Election.” Urban Affairs Review 34: 596–603.Google Scholar
Lublin, David. 1997. The Paradox of Representation: Racial Gerrymandering and Minority Interests in Congress. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Liu, Baodong. 2003. “Deracialization and Urban Racial Context.” Urban Affairs Review 38: 572–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liu, Baodong. 2001a. “The Positive Effect of Black Density on White Crossover Voting: Reconsidering Social Interaction Theory.” Social Science Quarterly 82: 602–15.Google Scholar
Liu, Baodong. 2001b. “Racial Context and White Interests: Beyond Black Threat and Racial Tolerance.” Political Behavior 23: 157–80.Google Scholar
Oliver, J. Eric, and Janelle Wong. 2003. “Intergroup Prejudice in Multiethnic Settings.” American Journal of Political Science 47(4: 567–82.Google Scholar
Palmquist, Bradley. 1999. “Ecological Inference in Practice.” Presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago.Google Scholar
Perry, Huey L. 2003. “ The Evolution and Impact of Biracial Coalition and Black Mayors in Birmingham and New Orleans.” In Racial Politics in American Cities, eds. Rufus P. Browning, Dale Rogers Marshall, and David H. Tabb. New York: Longman Publishers, 227–254.Google Scholar
Perry, Huey L. 1996. Race, Politics, and Governance in the United States. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.Google Scholar
Pettigrew, Thomas. 1998. “Intergroup Contact Theory.” Annual Review of Psychology 49: 65–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pohlmann, M., and M. Kirby. 1996. Racial Politics at the Crossroads: Memphis Elects Dr. W. W. Herenton. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.Google Scholar
Powers, Daniel, and Christopher Ellison. 1995. “Interracial Contact and Black Racial Attitudes.” Social Forces 741: 205–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reeves, Keith. 1997. Voting Hopes or Fears? White Voters, Black Candidates and Racial Politics in America. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Russell, Gordon, Frank Donze, and Stephanie Grace. 2002. “Mayoral Race Gets Nasty Quickly.” Times Picayune, Feb. 6, B-01.Google Scholar
Sonenshein, Raphael J., and Susan H. Pinkus. 2005. “Latino Incorporation Reaches the Urban Summit: How Antonio Villaraigosa Won the 2005 Los Angeles Mayor's Race.” PS: Political Science and Politics 38(October): 713–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sonenshein, Raphael J. 2003. “ The Prospects for Multiracial Coalitions: Lessons from America's Three Largest Cities.” In Racial Politics in American Cities, eds. Rufus P. Browning, Dale Rogers Marshall, and David H. Tabb. New York: Longman Publishers: 333–356.Google Scholar
Sonenshein, Raphael J. 1993. Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tate, Katherine. 1994. From Protest to Politics: The New Black Voters in American Elections. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Marylee. 1998. “How White Attitudes Vary with the Racial Composition of Local Populations: Numbers Count.” American Sociological Review 634: 512–35.Google Scholar
Tolbert, Caroline J., and Rodney E. Hero. 2001. “Dealing with Diversity: Racial/Ethnic Context and Social Policy Change.” Political Research Quarterly 54 (3): 571–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voss, D. Stephen. 1996. “Beyond Racial Threat: Failure of an Old Hypothesis in the New South.” Journal of Politics 58: 1156–1170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voss, D. Stephen, and David Lublin. 2001. “Black Candidates, White Districts: An Appraisal of the 1996 Congressional Elections.” American Politics Quarterly 29: 141–82.Google Scholar
Welch, Susan, Lee Sigelman, Timothy Bledsoe, and Michael Combs. 2001. Race and Place: Race Relations in an American City. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, S. 2000. Race, Power, and Political Emergence in Memphis. New York: Garland Publishing.Google Scholar