Slavery to Liberation- The African American Experience, 2019a

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Source: Congressional Election Data, 1970-2012.
Figure 2 shows the reelection rate of African American Congressional Incumbents
in1970-2012 44 . The data suggest that African American incumbents in Congress are
reelected at a very high rate. Figure 2 shows that nearly 92 percent of African American
congressional incumbents between 1970 and 2012 were reelected, confirming the
expectation of the incumbency advantage.
African American incumbents often face weak challengers and are more likely to
be opposed in an election by a White opponent. According to figure 3, between 1970
and 2012, Whites made up about 79 percent of the candidates challenging Black
incumbents while African Americans or other racial groups made up only 21 percent.
44
To examine the electoral success of African American incumbents, this research relies
on an original dataset of 1970-2012 and encompasses 426 elections of African
Americans in the U.S. House of Representatives. This analysis utilizes the U.S. House
Clerk’s publication entitled Statistics of the Congressional Elections in the United States
1968-2012 and the U.S. Census Data, The United States Congressional Districts and
Data. A record of all congressional elections returns for both the incumbents and the
challenger candidates was compiled. Only elections involving African American
incumbents were analyzed. To determine the race and quality of the challenger
candidate, an extensive content analysis was conducted through the use of online
newspaper searches and database (i.e. LexisNexis) queries.