Friday, September 26, 2008

Black politicians prosper in Obama's home state

AP:
In fact, segregation, in combination with machine politics, played a large role since 1928 in Illinois' contributing 16 black members of Congress _ 14 in the House and two in the Senate. More recently, though, a black candidate for statewide office won every Illinois county, including rural, white ones.

"The main explanation for the large number of blacks in Congress from Illinois is the fact that residential segregation patterns in south Chicago created a firmly black-majority district long before they existed in other northern cities," said David Canon, a University of Wisconsin political science professor. "African-Americans are rarely elected in House districts that are not black majority."

Chicago's political machine, which rewarded those who could bring in important voting blocs, also helped black politicians rise as the black population grew.

"The machine politics of Chicago was based on everybody getting its share and coalitions, and everybody got a share of the pie," said Kent Redfield, a University of Illinois-Springfield political science professor.

The opportunities for black Chicago politicians were rooted in the Great Migration. Early in the 20th century hundreds of thousands of blacks left the impoverished South and its legally enforced brand of discrimination for the North, where they could find better-paying jobs in quickly expanding industries.

From 1920 to 1940, the number of blacks in Illinois more than doubled to 387,466, 5 percent of the population. Now, the black population hovers around 15 percent, with about a million black Chicago residents alone.
This wasn't the only article I found on this subject, however, I have to take some time to look for it. In the meanwhile go read the whole thing.

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