So I was confused by the fact that I've had the most unique visitors today since I've started looking at that sort of thing. So I tracked down where the increase was coming from, and it's due to a single post: fourth black governor in u.s. history
This is just a short post on the ascension of Lt. Gov. David Patterson to Governor of New York, but it's up to #13 on a Google search of 'black governors in the U.S.,' which I think makes it likely my most popular post ever. There is real excitement about this, so I thought I'd go into the history of black governors in a bit more detail. Not that difficult, given that there have only been four of them.
The first black governor was P.B.S. ("Pinckney Benton Stewart") Pinchback of Louisiana, in 1872. Pinchback was born to a white planter and the planter's former slave in Georgia in 1837. Moving from Cincinnati to Terre Haute, Indiana to avoid being pressed into slavery by his father's relatives, he eventually joined the Union Army and fought as a captain in what became the 74th U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment. He was elected a Louisiana state senator during Reconstruction, became President Pro Tempore of the state senate, which led him to become Lt. Governor when the sitting Lt. Governor died (also African American, and the first elected African American Lt. Governor), and then became governor when the sitting governor, Henry C. Warmoth, was impeached and convicted for massive corruption. Pinchback served as governor for the remainder of Warmoth's term, which was exactly five weeks.
The second black governor and first elected black governor was Douglas Wilder of Virginia, in 1990. That's right; during the 118 year period from 1872 to 1990, there were ZERO black governors in the U.S. A Korean War veteran and recipient of the Bronze Star, Wilder became the first African American state senator in Virginia since Reconstruction in 1969. His election to governor was closer than pre-election polling suggested, leading some to refer to the phenomenon of voters reporting support of black candidates to pollsters while voting against that candidate in the voting booth. The "Wilder Effect" is also known as the "Bradley Effect," after Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, around whose campaign the same phenomenon was first documented. Wilder served one term, until 1994.
The third black governor is Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, in 2007. Patrick was an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights under Pres. Clinton, and a businessman. He is the sitting governor, up for reelection in 2010.
And of course, the fourth black governor will be, on Monday, David Patterson, who will also be the first blind governor in U.S. history. Patterson, part of the Harlem Democratic political institution, is a former state senator and was Minority Leader at the time. I think he's more feisty than his calm, friendly demeanor implies; he staged a coup in the state Democratic caucus to become Minority Leader, on a platform of trying more actively to win back the state senate, in opposition to the status quo where the Democrats control the state house and the Republicans control the state senate. He is a staunch progressive, more so than Spitzer was on tax policy, the death penalty, police use of deadly force (he was prominent in the grassroots response to the Amadou Diallo murder), and civil rights in general. The Nation has a great profile on the next governor.
Pinchback was a Reconstruction Republican; the other three governors have been Democrats.
Mar 13, 2008
my most popular post ever
8 comments:
Thanks for posting this information. As a New Zealander (read ignorant white guy) living in NYC I wanted to know more. I know New Zealand is not perfect but come on! 4 black governors and about the same for senators.....throughout history!!! How can anyone suggest Obama has an advantage by being black in this country.
I think you also have to stop talking about America leading the way for democracy in the free world. Its not 1950 anymore, the rest of the world is moving on witout the US. By the way, I lived under female prime ministers in England and New Zealand and so US is also behind on that.
Lets hope the new independents getting involved in the election this time can drive some real change. Good luck to you.
Col
Thanks for the thoughtful comments, Col. You're spot on about the "black" advantage that former Congresswoman Ferraro suggested about the Obama candidacy; beyond the lack of black elected executives at the highest levels of government, I think common sense would lead most people to understand the massive disadvantages that African Americans face in the U.S.
While I agree with you that many other countries have demonstrated greater willingness to support and enact progressive policies that strengthen democracy (e.g. universal healthcare, election day as a holiday, proportional representation), I think that some progressive Americans believe in the country's potential and history for leadership in the world, democratic and otherwise, if only due to the cynical realities of our economic and military power (though current circumstance are making both of those look considerably strained). I'm not denying a strong strain of American exceptionalism that runs through the country, but I believe there is also a conscientious argument for American leadership, the "Spiderman Principle" that with great power comes great responsibility. It is difficult to imagine the U.S. not having an international impact through its domestic policies, so the question becomes what the impact will look like.
it is a shame that throughtout the history of America there has only been 4 black governors. To make it even worse 2 of them were elected within the past 30 years. One has yet to be appointed. The first black governor was during reconstruction and he was in office for less then 2 months.
America---Now you know why black people living in America are in the horrible political, economic, and social conditions they find themselves in....
Paul Rosenberg has a pretty good post up at Open Left, "(Black America)--Invisible Nation" that discusses these issues of opportunity and racism in detail.
http://www.openleft.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4576
Thanks for your wonderful information. It strikes me that no one, even wikipedia, has this information, while thousands if not millions are wondering "how many black governors were there in the US?". Way to go Sen. Obama, eh?
I think it's pretty bad that there have only been 4 black governors.
But there have been a lot more blacks in congress, wikipedia does have an article about it. or you can go to baic.house.gov baic= black americans in congress
1213, as you'll note, most of my links are to wiki, so they do have this information, it's just not aggregated.
vanessa, thanks for the link! As you note, there have been many Black Members of Congress, some of whom have held leadership positions. I think that the significance of having a Black governor (or Black president, for that matter), is that in a country with the painful legacy of slavery and discrimination that was written into its Constitution (i.e., the so-called 3/5th Compromise), we have come to a place where Black Americans are elected to the highest offices in the land by a majority of voters who do not share their skin color. It is, I think and hope, a statement on the great progress that America has made in the past century and a half.
Thanks for the info.
A clarification, though.
There have only been four governors in the U.S. "states."
The U.S. Virgin Islands, a territory of the U.S., has consecutively elected black governors for more than 70 years.
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