In what’s shaping up to be a close presidential election, analysts are keeping an eye on the “Black vote,” which some polls suggest could be starting to slip away from Democrats after decades of dominance. But when exactly did African American voters first shift their allegiance from the Republican to the Democratic Party?
Some historians focus on the 1960s and the civil rights movement. Others trace the change back to the 1930s, with the New Deal policies that addressed the widespread poverty of the Great Depression. But the roots of Black Americans’ move toward the Democratic Party go back further – to the first three decades of the 20th century.