Fredrick C. Harris

Something Within: Religion as a Mobilizer of African-American Political Activism

Few studies have explored the multidimensional aspect of religion and its impact on political action. This is especially true of African Americans who have been stereotyped, at least in the social science literature, as having an otherworldly religious orientation that deflects attention away from worldly concerns, such as politics, to otherworldly rewards. Expanding the work of Kenneth Wald, this study posits a theory of religion and political action by considering religion as a resource for political mobilization. Using the 1987 General Social Survey (GSS), this article argues that religion among African Americans serves as both an organizational and psychological resource for individual and collective political action. It also demonstrates how individual religious beliefs and practices affect different modes of political action like voting and collective action, and how these effects differ between black and white Americans.

It Takes a Tragedy to Arouse Them: Collective Memory and Collective Action during the Civil Rights Movement

This paper examines the impact that collective memories of key events related to the civil rights movement had on black political activism during the 1960s. It proposes a theory that examines the effects of collective memory on collective action by considering how events and collective memories are appropriated by political entrepreneurs for collective action. Examining four events through a rare opinion survey of blacks taken in 1966, the analysis specifies a framework that illustrates how events evolve into collective memories and how collective memories are appropriated for collective action as time passes from the original event. Qualitative materials from historical accounts, including autobiographies, biographies, and oral histories, are used to make inferences about the meaning of events to political actors. The analysis shows that one event among the four, the murder of Emmett Till, had a stronger residual effect on black activism than the other events. The findings suggest that scholarship on the movement may have underestimated the impact of Tills murder on the generation of black insurgency in the 1950s.

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.

Towards a Pragmatic Black Politics

This article examines black public opinion in the wake of the election of Barack Obama as the first black president of the United States. The artcile asks whether there has been a shift in black attitudes from a more activist-oriented approach to challenging racial inequality to a more moderate, pragmatic approach. This pragmatism in black public opinion acknowledges the persistence of racial inequality and racism in society, but sees individual solutions as a cure rather than government action.

Unreconciled strivings and warring ideals: the complexities of competing African-American political identities

Although much has been written about the diversity of black political opinions, less research has addressed the fact that blacks often have multiple social identities that they utilize in viewing the political world. This observation raises several important questions including: Which group memberships (racial or race-neutral identities) do blacks feel are most important? And, what factors account for blacks’ expressed preferences for one social identity over others? Utilizing the 2008 Center on African-American Politics and Society (CAAPS)/ABC News Black Politics Survey, our analysis documents divides among African-Americans regarding preferences for national versus racial identities, individual versus communal beliefs, and social class versus racial attachments. The findings reveal that blacks’ views about the primacy of identities are conditioned by experiences with discrimination, attitudes toward racial identity, social class standing, residency in black neighborhoods, and sense of financial security. We also discuss the broader implications of competing black political identities for understanding American public opinion.

A Solemn Father's Day

This article is a personal reflection of the Fathers Day march protesting New York Citys stop and frisk policy. The article details the origins of the idea of the march and discusses the need for a national agenda around criminal justice reform.

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.