Black Republicans

If somehow in 1927 Herbert Hoover had had some common sense and decency talked into him, African Americans may not have left the GOP in droves. This is from Wikipedia:

The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke the banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in flooding of millions of acres and leaving one and a half million people displaced from their homes. Although such a disaster did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi specifically asked for Herbert Hoover in the emergency. President Calvin Coolidge sent Hoover to mobilize state and local authorities, militia, army engineers, the Coast Guard, and the American Red Cross.
With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Hoover set up health units to work in the flooded regions for a year. These workers stamped out malaria, pellagra, and typhoid fever from many areas. His work during the flood brought Herbert Hoover to the front page of newspapers almost everywhere, and he gained new accolades as a humanitarian. The great victory of his relief work, he stressed, was not that the government rushed in and provided all assistance; it was that much of the assistance available was provided by private citizens and organizations in response to his appeals. "I suppose I could have called in the Army to help," he said, "but why should I, when I only had to call upon Main Street."
The treatment of African Americans during the disaster endangered Hoover's reputation as a humanitarian. Local officials brutalized blacks and prevented them from leaving relief camps, aid meant for African-American sharecroppers was often given to the landowners instead, and many times black males were conscripted by locals into forced labor, sometimes at gun point. Knowing the potential ramifications on his presidential aspirations if such knowledge became public, Hoover struck a deal with Robert Moton, the prominent African-American successor to Booker T. Washington as president of the Tuskegee Institute. In exchange for keeping the suffering of African Americans out of the public eye, Hoover promised unprecedented influence for African Americans if he was elected president. Moton agreed, and consistent with the accommodationist philosophy of Washington, worked actively to suppress information about mistreatment of blacks from being revealed to the media. Following election, Hoover broke his promises. This led to an African-American backlash in the 1932 election that shifted allegiance from the Republican party to the Democrats.
Apparently the Great Humanitarian had feet of clay and ultimately that cost the Republicans.
 
If somehow in 1927 Herbert Hoover had had some common sense and decency talked into him, African Americans may not have left the GOP in droves. This is from Wikipedia:
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke the banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in flooding of millions of acres and leaving one and a half million people displaced from their homes. Although such a disaster did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi specifically asked for Herbert Hoover in the emergency. President Calvin Coolidge sent Hoover to mobilize state and local authorities, militia, army engineers, the Coast Guard, and the American Red Cross.
With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Hoover set up health units to work in the flooded regions for a year. These workers stamped out malaria, pellagra, and typhoid fever from many areas. His work during the flood brought Herbert Hoover to the front page of newspapers almost everywhere, and he gained new accolades as a humanitarian. The great victory of his relief work, he stressed, was not that the government rushed in and provided all assistance; it was that much of the assistance available was provided by private citizens and organizations in response to his appeals. "I suppose I could have called in the Army to help," he said, "but why should I, when I only had to call upon Main Street."
The treatment of African Americans during the disaster endangered Hoover's reputation as a humanitarian. Local officials brutalized blacks and prevented them from leaving relief camps, aid meant for African-American sharecroppers was often given to the landowners instead, and many times black males were conscripted by locals into forced labor, sometimes at gun point. Knowing the potential ramifications on his presidential aspirations if such knowledge became public, Hoover struck a deal with Robert Moton, the prominent African-American successor to Booker T. Washington as president of the Tuskegee Institute. In exchange for keeping the suffering of African Americans out of the public eye, Hoover promised unprecedented influence for African Americans if he was elected president. Moton agreed, and consistent with the accommodationist philosophy of Washington, worked actively to suppress information about mistreatment of blacks from being revealed to the media. Following election, Hoover broke his promises. This led to an African-American backlash in the 1932 election that shifted allegiance from the Republican party to the Democrats.
Apparently the Great Humanitarian had feet of clay and ultimately that cost the Republicans.

I'm skeptical about whether this caused any backlash at all, since it's unlikely many people outside the immediate area knew about it in an era long before TV news and the internet. And the blacks in the immediate area couldn't vote at the time anyway.

True, blacks voted for Hoover in far lower numbers in 1932, but then, so did everybody.
 
If somehow in 1927 Herbert Hoover had had some common sense and decency talked into him, African Americans may not have left the GOP in droves. This is from Wikipedia:
The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 broke the banks and levees of the lower Mississippi River in early 1927, resulting in flooding of millions of acres and leaving one and a half million people displaced from their homes. Although such a disaster did not fall under the duties of the Commerce Department, the governors of six states along the Mississippi specifically asked for Herbert Hoover in the emergency. President Calvin Coolidge sent Hoover to mobilize state and local authorities, militia, army engineers, the Coast Guard, and the American Red Cross.
With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, Hoover set up health units to work in the flooded regions for a year. These workers stamped out malaria, pellagra, and typhoid fever from many areas. His work during the flood brought Herbert Hoover to the front page of newspapers almost everywhere, and he gained new accolades as a humanitarian. The great victory of his relief work, he stressed, was not that the government rushed in and provided all assistance; it was that much of the assistance available was provided by private citizens and organizations in response to his appeals. "I suppose I could have called in the Army to help," he said, "but why should I, when I only had to call upon Main Street."
The treatment of African Americans during the disaster endangered Hoover's reputation as a humanitarian. Local officials brutalized blacks and prevented them from leaving relief camps, aid meant for African-American sharecroppers was often given to the landowners instead, and many times black males were conscripted by locals into forced labor, sometimes at gun point. Knowing the potential ramifications on his presidential aspirations if such knowledge became public, Hoover struck a deal with Robert Moton, the prominent African-American successor to Booker T. Washington as president of the Tuskegee Institute. In exchange for keeping the suffering of African Americans out of the public eye, Hoover promised unprecedented influence for African Americans if he was elected president. Moton agreed, and consistent with the accommodationist philosophy of Washington, worked actively to suppress information about mistreatment of blacks from being revealed to the media. Following election, Hoover broke his promises. This led to an African-American backlash in the 1932 election that shifted allegiance from the Republican party to the Democrats.
Apparently the Great Humanitarian had feet of clay and ultimately that cost the Republicans.

I'm skeptical about whether this caused any backlash at all, since it's unlikely many people outside the immediate area knew about it at all in an era long before TV news and the internet. And the blacks in the immediate area couldn't vote at the time anyway.

True, blacks voted for Hoover in far lower numbers in 1932, but then, so did everybody.
 
In my opinion the black vote started to turn its back on the GOP even before the Depression. Teddy Roosevelt made some big mistakes in his relations to the black population, and even though this didn't matter that much at the time, as blacks were largely disenfranchisied in the beginning of the 20th century(the nadir of American race relations), it still meant that he alienated the leaders of the civil rights movement. Though TR made history by dining with Booker T. Washington in the White House, he never committed fully to acquiring equal rights for African-Americans, and his alliance with Booker never much besides appointing a few men of color to public office(William Crum in Charleston).
His condemnation of the 25th buffalo regiment in relation to the Brownsville incident(1906), also made a staunch enemy of W.E.B. Du Bois.

I know this is before the POD of 1950, but if TR managed to be a bit more sincere in his attempt to forge an alliance with the prominent black leaders of the time, and had won the 1912 election with the Bull Moose party, Joel Spingarn had been succesful in adding an anti racial discrimination statement to te Progressive platform, we might see a more progressive GOP with a solid hold on the black constituency.

This post might be irrelevant as it is a bit far from the OP's requirements, and TR winning in 1912 might be asb, I don't even know why I'm posting this:). Well here it is.
 
Having moderate Republicans like Barry Goldwater get Title II of the Civil Rights Act removed would be a good start. Goldwater was not a racist and had a long history of supporting civil rights, but he couldn't bring himself to support a bill that gave the federal government such wide ranging power of the actions of private citizens and business. Goldwater did not like segregation but he realized that much of this came in at a state level and others knew this as well. Most of the people to filibuster against the bill were Democrats Al Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd and it is not incorrect to say they did so for racist reasons. Had Goldwater been willing to move the conversation back towards the rather weak portions of Title I and rally Republicans on a state level to oppose segregation laws he may have done a lot better.

As Goldwater said, "You can't legislate morality.", but he also knew that the power of the almighty dollar could and would convince private business owners to end segregation. This is why many whites supported Homer Plessy in his attempt to overturn Louisiana segregation laws. Much of the segregation that occurred in America before 1964 was due to state and local legislation not because every white person wanted to keep out the blacks. Goldwater and the libertarian wing of the Republican Party wanted to end segregation by way of social and economic pressures, and while this may have taken longer I believe it would have led to a better overall result with a more even distribution of economic wealth and less need for welfare and government provided social support.

Regardless, Goldwater and crew did a horrible job at countering Johnson's two faced campaign that painted Goldwater as a racist in the North and being pro-Civil Rights in the South. Goldwater, knowing he was weak in the North, allowed his campaign to focus on getting the Southern vote and so doomed his chances. It also alienated blacks, including King, and ended Black loyalty to the Republican Party.

Benjamin
 
In my opinion the black vote started to turn its back on the GOP even before the Depression. Teddy Roosevelt made some big mistakes in his relations to the black population, and even though this didn't matter that much at the time, as blacks were largely disenfranchisied in the beginning of the 20th century(the nadir of American race relations), it still meant that he alienated the leaders of the civil rights movement. Though TR made history by dining with Booker T. Washington in the White House, he never committed fully to acquiring equal rights for African-Americans, and his alliance with Booker never much besides appointing a few men of color to public office(William Crum in Charleston).
His condemnation of the 25th buffalo regiment in relation to the Brownsville incident(1906), also made a staunch enemy of W.E.B. Du Bois.

I know this is before the POD of 1950, but if TR managed to be a bit more sincere in his attempt to forge an alliance with the prominent black leaders of the time, and had won the 1912 election with the Bull Moose party, Joel Spingarn had been succesful in adding an anti racial discrimination statement to te Progressive platform, we might see a more progressive GOP with a solid hold on the black constituency.

This post might be irrelevant as it is a bit far from the OP's requirements, and TR winning in 1912 might be asb, I don't even know why I'm posting this:). Well here it is.


The better way of having this accomplished is Roosevelt not running in 1912 against Taft but rather wait until 1916. Colonel Roosevelt basically proved that Roosevelt did not want to run in '12 but had no choice because he could not, personality wise, back down from a fight, given that in all of his personal diary entries from before the election even started right up until Election Night he admitted he had no real chance to win.

I forget what exactly the personal offense was in '12 that galvanized him to take political action against Taft but avoid that and Roosevelt, a very progressive and civil rights friendly Roosevelt, runs in '16, and probably wins. That changes the whole entire history of race relations in the US, for the better I hope.
 
In my opinion the black vote started to turn its back on the GOP even before the Depression. Teddy Roosevelt made some big mistakes in his relations to the black population, and even though this didn't matter that much at the time, as blacks were largely disenfranchisied in the beginning of the 20th century(the nadir of American race relations), it still meant that he alienated the leaders of the civil rights movement. Though TR made history by dining with Booker T. Washington in the White House, he never committed fully to acquiring equal rights for African-Americans, and his alliance with Booker never much besides appointing a few men of color to public office(William Crum in Charleston).
His condemnation of the 25th buffalo regiment in relation to the Brownsville incident(1906), also made a staunch enemy of W.E.B. Du Bois.

Yup.

The problem with the Republican party and the black vote, is they took it for granted almost as soon as they got it. Whenever it faced the choice of siding with African americans, or temporarily wooing southern whites, they chose the later. Meanwhile the democratic northern urban political machines were willing to work with blacks to a certain degree. While Blacks were very low on the patronage poll,, they were given a seat at the spoils table. Therefore while blacks voted reliably republican, where they could vote, the democratic party nurtured a rather comfortable, northern black constituency.

The democrats built upon this base thanks to both FDR and Truman. Said support became engrained thanks to Kennedy/Johnson embracing the cause of civil rights, while Republicans nominated Goldwater, and then spent the next 40 years pursuing Nixon's southern strategy.
 
Is there a chance that the Dems today could still hold a significant majority of the black vote but GOP still does better than OTL? For example, I think blacks are in favor of Democrats something like 90%-10%.
How late a POD could we have and blacks are only in favor of Democrats like say 70%-30%?
 
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