Brian D. McKenzie

Macrodynamics of Black Political Participation in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Research on black political life has demonstrated both the positive effects of black political empowerment and the negative effects of economic and social distress on black political participation. Using black respondents from the Roper Social and Political Trends data set, we estimate the effects of political, social, and economic factors on aggregate-levels of black civic activity in the time period from 1973 to 1994. We hypothesize that black political activity is stimulated by factors that enhance the political empowerment of black communities and is depressed by downward turns in the social and economic fortunes of black communities. We find that the positive influence of black political empowerment on macrolevels of black civic activity is countered by economic and social factors that swamp the benefits gained from black political success.

Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973–1994: Studying Group Activism: Toward a Macro Approach to Black Civic Participation

In a first-ever longitudinal study assessing black civic participation after the civil rights movement, Fredrick C. Harris, Valeria SinclairChapman, and Brian D. McKenzie demonstrate that the changes in black activism since the civil rights movement are characterized by a tug-of-war between black political power on one side and economic conditions in black communities on the other. As blacks gain greater access and influence within the political system, black participation in political activities increases while downward turns in the economic conditions of black communities produce less civic involvement in black communities. During the course of black activism from the early 1970s to the 1990s, the quest for black political empowerment and the realities of economic and social life acted as countervailing forces in which negative economic and social conditions in black communities weakened the ability of blacks to organize so that their political voices could be heard.

Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973–1994: Good Times and Bad: Trends in the Economic, Social, and Political Conditions of African Americans in the Post–Civil Rights Era

1. Introduction 2. Good times and bad: trends in the economic, social, and political conditions of African Americans in the post-civil rights era 3. Studying group activism: toward a macro approach to black civic participation 4. Echoes of black civic activism: historical foundations and longitudinal considerations 5. Shifting forces: modeling changes in post-civil rights black activism 6. From margin to center: bringing structural forces into focus in the analysis of black activism.