From Protest to Politics

Blacks are registering, winning—and eyeing the presidency

For Jesse Jackson it was a visit laden with symbolism. Eighteen years earlier, the black leader had dodged police horses and clubs with Martin Luther King Jr. on the bloody civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery. An apoplectic Governor George Wallace had closed the capitol, which brazenly flew a Confederate flag, to prevent the marchers from delivering a petition protesting voting discrimination. Back in Montgomery last week, Jackson was welcomed graciously by Wallace, who served him pecan rolls on a silver tray and iced tea in a silver pitcher on the sun porch of the Governor's mansion. The next day Jackson was given another cordial reception when he became the first black since Reconstruction to address a joint session of the Alabama legislature. Says State Representative Alvin Holmes, one of 16 blacks in the 140-member legislature: "Political power talks."

The scene in Alabama was the latest evidence of the growing political clout of blacks across the country. The energy that once created protests has been channeled into politics, spurring impressive victories at the polls, a steady surge in black voter registration and serious debate about whether a black should run for President in 1984. Replacing the old guard of civil rights activists, black mayors are emerging as a powerful force in national politics and public policy. Black leaders marvel that for the first time in a decade, there is a vibrant sense of momentum in the black community. "Back in 1970 we used to say that politics was the new cutting edge of the civil rights movement," says Eddie Williams, president of the Joint Center for Political Studies, a black think tank. "Thirteen years later, we're beginning to really believe it."

That edge has been sharpened by a concatenation of frustrations. Blacks face persistently high levels of joblessness at a time of cutbacks in social programs and growing indifference to black problems among a recession-strapped white majority. They are antagonized by what they perceive as the Reagan Administration's callousness, and dismayed at the lackluster response of the Democratic Party, which they have faithfully supported since the New Deal. "Blacks have a choice: to come out fighting or to come out voting," Williams says. "The intelligent choice is to vote." Adds Gary, Ind., Mayor Richard Hatcher: "Blacks have finally reached the point of political maturity where they see the power in the ballot box."