Slavery to Liberation- The African American Experience, 2019a

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According to McCormick (2015), African American politics is predicated on the
assumption that “(1) that the election of more Black politicians would contribute to
material improvement in the lives of African Americans who live in the United States;
and (2) Black elected officials would seek to pursue policy initiatives designed to
improve the lives of African American Americans” (1). 66 Although mainstream political
science scholarship has neglected to center African American congressional incumbents
into their studies, these politicians—like their White counterparts—have taken
advantage of the incumbency factor. These politicians have brought distinct policy
interests to the U.S. Congress as they have represented Black interests descriptively
and substantively.
Consistent with much of what political scientists know, African American
congressional incumbents 1) benefit enormously from the incumbency factor, (2) often
face weak challengers in elections, and (3) engage in many different symbolic and
substantive forms of representation that speak to African American culture. In addition
to facing weak challenger candidates, they typically win their bid for reelection by large
margins. Scholarly understandings of political representation have traditionally treated
descriptive and substantive representation as two distinct forms of representation;
however, for African American Congressional incumbents, symbolic representation is
also substantive representation. Both descriptive and substantive representation are
necessary components of African American political representation. One is inconceivable
without the other. It is not enough to simply evaluate African American members of
Congress on the number of bills they are able to pass. Any serious attempt to evaluate
these members must engage a holistic view of their representational styles.
The evidence presented here raises several important questions concerning Black
political representation. First and foremost, most of the scholars studying Black political
representation must move the discussion from one that seeks to uncover the ability of
African American politicians to make a substantive change in the Black community.
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Joseph McCormick, “The Obama Presidencies and the Continuing Significance of the
Racial Divide in American Politics,” in Todd Shaw and Robert Brown, eds., After Obama:
African-American Politics in the Obama Era (unpublished, 2015).