The Election of African American State Legislators in the Modern South

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Charles S. Bullock,William D. Hicks,M. V. Hood,Seth C. McKee,Daniel A. Smith
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/lsq.12280

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LEGISLATIVE STUDIES QUARTERLY, 45, 4, November 2020

DOI: 10.1111/lsq.12280

CHARLES S. BULLOCK III

University of Georgia

WILLIAM D. HICKS

Appalachian State University

M. V. HOOD III

University of Georgia

SETH C. MCKEE

Oklahoma State University

DANIEL A. SMITH

University of Florida

The Election of African American

State Legislators in the Modern South

This study is the most comprehensive analysis of the election of black

state legislators in the American South. We start with the election of Leroy

Johnson to the Georgia Senate in 1962, the first African American to win a

state legislative seat in the modern South. We also document the election of all

subsequent African Americans who were the first to enter their southern state

legislative chambers. Next, we assess the factors influencing the election of

southern black state legislators from the 1970s through 2015. Because of notable

long-term changes to the southern electorate and alterations in the racial compo-

sition of legislative districts, there has been substantial variation in the likelihood

of electing black lawmakers. Our final analysis highlights the undeniable reality

and broader significance that the increasing share of southern African American

state legislators has occurred at the same time that Republican representation has

grown at a greater rate.

More than two decades after Reconstruction ended in the early

1900s, the curtain finally fell on black participation in southern

politics (Woodward 2002). According to Kousser (1974), by 1910

only about 10% of southern African American males were reg-

istered to vote. With the suppression, if not outright purging of

the black electorate, came the extinction of black lawmakers. For

instance, in Georgia, with the forging of the Democratic Solid

South, the last black state legislator to serve was Representative

W. H. Rogers, a Republican from McIntosh County, who left

office in 1907. Despite containing the lion’s share of African

© 2020 Washington University in St. Louis

582 Bullock et al.

Americans, the South1

had become a white man’s country for all

matters political (Key 1949). This state of affairs was absolute

until Leroy Johnson was elected to the Georgia Senate in 1962.

Though we are not certain who was the last African American

to serve in a southern state legislature prior to the 1960s, at

least in the Peach State, more than half a century transpired be-

tween Rogers and Johnson.2

Thus, Senator Johnson was the first

African American to break Dixie’s color barrier in what was for

decades an all-white and practically all-male southern state leg-

islative delegation.

In this article, we contribute to the literatures on state

legislative politics, black politics, and partisan change in the

American South.3

We present the most comprehensive assess-

ment of the election of black state legislators since their return

in the 1960s; analyzing longitudinal changes in the likelihood of

electing black state legislators from the 1970s through the mid-

2010s. In addition, and perhaps the most politically consequen-

tial feature of this study, is our examination of the relationship

between the rise in black legislators and the corresponding as-

cendancy of Republican lawmakers. Although featuring promi-

nently in congressional scholarship (e.g., Cameron, Epstein, and

O’Halloran 1996; Epstein and O’Halloran 1999a, 2000; Hill

1995; Lublin 1997a, 1997b; Swain 1993), we are the first to show

in state legislative contests how the increase in black lawmakers

has directly and indirectly contributed to Republican statehouse

victories, with data spanning four decades (1971–2015), and end-

ing with every southern state legislature controlled by the Grand

Old Party (GOP).

The study unfolds in the following order. We begin with a

discussion of the return of black lawmakers to southern state

legislatures. With a brief descriptive historical overview, we doc-

ument considerable variation in the reemergence of black legisla-

tors across the southern states. Next, we consider the factors that

influence the likelihood of electing black state legislators in the

South from the 1970s to the mid-2010s. We then shift our focus

to an examination of the relationship between growing southern

black state legislative delegations and the even more impressive,

but generally coincident, rise in Republican state lawmakers. Last,

we conclude with a discussion of what the growth of black state

legislators means for the past, current, and likely future state of

southern party politics.