Traditionally, African American's aligned themselves with the Republican "party of Lincoln."  As the years progressed through World War I and the depression, blacks embraced Democrat Franklin Roosevelt’s “new deal.”  Many blacks switched parties and now predominantly support the Democratic Party which is strange because typically, blacks have been politically liberal but socially conservative.  There is however, a small group of blacks that still aligns with the conservative Republican Party because they feel this party is more in keeping with their conservative lifestyles.

Since the “new deal” many blacks have deserted the conservative Republican ranks, leaving very few to support the party that freed them over a century ago.  For example, in 1996, Democrat Bill Clinton won 86% of the black vote resulting in only 12% of the black vote for his Republican opponent.  Furthermore, when George W. Bush ran for his second term in 2004, he won with a slightly larger margin than in 2000, carrying an increased percentage of the black vote. While increasing his number of black supporters, he still did not receive as many votes as the Republican candidate, Bob Dole, did in 1996.  Bush won only 11% of the black vote while the Democrats won 89% of the black vote.[1]  Additionally, the small percentage of blacks in the Republican Party is reflected in the number of African American’s that are delegates for that party.  Only 6.7% of the total delegates are black and only 24 of those blacks held positions on convention committees in 2004.[2]  On the other hand, the Democratic Party has a black membership of 20.1% and 109 blacks hold positions on convention committees.  There is also one African American who serves as chair person on a major convention committee for the Democratic Party.[3]

One major reason that some blacks vote Republican instead of Democratic is that they are socially conservative.  For a large number of black people, their church membership is a major factor in their life.  Many attend church weekly. One stereotypical version of a Republican is that of a southern white man with strong Christian views and powerful family ties.  It is easy to see the common aspects of white and black Christians.[4]  For example, in the most recent Presidential election, gay marriage was a heated and difficult topic that divided voters into separate camps; those for and against gay marriage.  The Republicans and social conservatives both wanted a strong stance against gay marriage.  Bush demanded that the federal government pass a law banning gay marriage whereas the Democratic candidate John Kerry, who was also against gay marriage, took the weaker stance and was going to leave it up to the states to decide. Bush’s strong stance helped him win more black votes.   Derrick Boston, a black voter said “what appeals to me about Bush is that he is not quiet about his beliefs.  His response to gay marriage was ‘I’m against it.’  He was firm about it.”[5]

Additionally, many black conservatives argue that a majority of the problems in the black community are not connected to racism but come from within the culture of the black community itself.  They oppose any welfare plan where the majority of people using the benefits system are blacks and minorities.[6]  This can be seen in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ opinion of these systems when he suggested the ‘unnecessary negative’ of the Reagan administration had been more alienating than its political philosophy toward welfare and affirmative action.[7]  Rather than accepting free help from the government, black conservatives would rather have small government and use “self-help programs to ‘pull oneself up by his or her bootstraps.’”[8]  Booker T. Washington was one of the first strong African American advocates of self-help programs and could be classified as the first black conservative because he did not blame race for the difficulties blacks were facing.[9] 

Many blacks also approve of the Republican Party because of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) education plan that Bush has implemented.  They favor this plan because according to Elon University’s Introduction to Education class, black students have consistently performed lower than white students on standardized tests.  The NCLB law was created to help eliminate this problem and “was designed to improve performance in underperforming and poor neighborhoods.”[10]  One theory about why blacks have fallen behind in testing states that rich whites have moved out of the city leaving the poor blacks in under funded inner city schools.  In true, small government, Republican fashion, NCLB is designed to make improvements without having to expand the government. 

Finally, Bush has tried to play to the fear of blacks through his plan for changing the social security system.  The fact is that in the near future, social security will be bankrupt.  Bush has tried to appeal to the black community by pointing out their lower life expectancy.  White House officials say that the new social security plan “should appeal to blacks because they have a shorter average life span than whites and end up putting more money into the retirement system than they take out.”[11]

 There are two very predominant black Republican's in the party at this time and each of them decided to support and vote for the Republican Party for similar reasons.  The first is Condoleezza Rice who was born in Birmingham, Alabama on November 14, 1954, in one of the most racially charged places in the country. 

She explains the atmosphere by saying, I remember it as a time when my parents had to try to explain why we couldn’t go to the circus, when we had to drive all the way to Washington D.C. before we could stay in a hotel.  And they had to explain why I could not have a hamburger in a restaurant but I could be President anyway, which was the way they chose to handle the situation.[12]

Ms. Rice’s parents seemed to take racism with a grain of salt and tried to explain the situation to her while still teaching her to believe that there was hope for her future.  They explained that if she worked hard she could get out of the city of Birmingham and make something of herself.  Rice went to college and became fluent in Russian and an expert in Russian government.  Following in her father’s footsteps, she decided to support the Republican Party because of the “weak and naive” way President Jimmy Carter responded to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.[13]  It is clear that the way Carter dealt with this invasion strongly influenced her political opinions.  She wished the “black middle class would spend less time thinking about itself and more time worrying about the witches ‘brew that is poverty and race.”[14]

Clarence Thomas also grew up in the segregated south during the 1950’s, as part of a family that demanded hard work and no excuses in school or on the job. His family was devoutly Catholic and lived the very conservative life style that Catholicism required.[15]   Throughout his academic career he worked to disassociate himself from black stereotypes.  He has denounced affirmative action and financial support, although he benefited from both while attending Yale University.  Many people disagree with these decisions because Thomas is a perfect example of a beneficiary of the work of civil rights activists and as Jesse Jackson says, “he stood on our shoulders and kicked us in the head.”[16] 

Both Rice and Thomas grew up in the south and each had a family that did not let them accept race as an excuse for failure.   Their families did not allow blame for poverty or lack of opportunity to be placed on whites, blacks or a specific political party.    Each family demanded perfection and did not allow hardship to deter their plans.  Both Rice and Thomas were more worried about defining themselves based on their skills rather than their race.   

The Republican Party will continue to increase its African American membership for several reasons.  The first reason is the Republican Party is consciously trying to appeal to social conservatives by making Christian religious morals a major part of the party's platform.   Secondly they are focusing on making government smaller by limiting social service support and overall becoming more conservative. “By 2012, says Jammal Simmons, former spokesman for Wesley Clark’s campaign, ‘The Republicans could get as much as a quarter of the African American votes if we follow the current trajectory.’”[17]  As long as the Democratic Party as a whole continues to struggle, the Republican Party will gain supporters who have decided to abandon the Democratic Party.  The nation's African American's are poised to return to the "party of Lincoln" and bring the political picture full circle.