
<p>Most historians cite the Great Depression as the pivotal time when Negro Americans deserted their post-Civil War loyalty to the Republican Party in favor of the Democratic Party … Franklin Roosevelt … and the New Deal. ; On the surface, that argument seems compelling. ; ;</p>



<p>There is no doubt that the impact of the Depression – the blame leveled at President Hoover and the Republicans &#8212; played a major role in the number of blacks who were gradually changing their votes to the Democratic Party in the 1932 and 1934 elections. ; It was an act of desperation. ; A lot of white voters did the same. ; However, the conversion was not as sudden as many have been led to believe.</p>



<p>By most estimates, FDR received only 20 percent of the black vote in 1932 – three years after the start of the Depression. ; That might suggest that the Depression itself did not launch the switch to the Democratic Party. ; By 1936, the shift was evident with Roosevelt getting an estimated 70 percent of the black vote. ; Since then, no Republican presidential candidate has received more than 40 percent of the black vote.</p>



<p>Was black loyalty due to the Depression or something else? ; Even if the Depression had triggered the switch, was there something else that kept the black vote in the Democrat column?</p>



<p>There was a factor that might explain the long-term loyalty of blacks to the Democratic Party – and it, too, can be explained by economic desperation. ; It was not, however, a desperation resulting from the Depression but rather an impoverishment created in the black community by racist policies commencing with the New Deal. ;</p>



<p>By the late 1930s, there was every indication that black voters were returning to the GOP. ; Publications, such as <em>Life Magazine</em>, reported on that trend. ; In fact, the majority of black voters were registered Republicans until the 1948 presidential election.</p>



<p>So, what was the dynamic that cemented black loyalty to the Democratic Party even after the effects of the Depression were ebbing – at least for white America? ; What is the reason millions of blacks vote for Democrats even though they have been living in segregated impoverished, and dangerous communities for more than 150 years after the Civil War and more than 50 years after the 1960s civil rights era &#8212; communities ruled over almost exclusively by Democratic Party?</p>



<p>That is where the Chicago story comes in.</p>



<p>There was a local black leader in Chicago named William Dawson. ; He was initially a Republican alderman but switched parties when the Democrat political bosses offered him the position as Second Ward Democrat alderman and “boss” of all the black wards. He was made head of what was called the Democrats’ political “sub-machine.” ; He later became a congressman.</p>



<p>Dawson came up with a fiendishly clever way to keep black voters in the Democrat column – and ironically, President Roosevelt provided the opportunity. ; Dawson would tie voting to the receipt of the welfare benefits created by the New Deal programs. ; Rather than simple bribery – favors and money for votes – the Dawson scheme would create an ongoing relationship between government welfare and voting.</p>



<p>Roosevelt liked Dawson’s plan so much that he arranged to have him named as a vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee – with the proviso that he would travel the nation to sell his scheme to Democrat leaders in major urban centers with large segregated black populations.</p>



<p>What Dawson was able to do was to change the definition of civil rights from those articulated in the Constitution to a faux civil right to welfare. ; Generational dependency on welfare would be the new measure of civil rights. ; It would keep the segregated black masses suspended between impoverishment and welfare assistance of all kinds – housing, food stamps, daycare, and healthcare. ; It would also allow the Democrat bosses to keep blacks segregated and impoverished – in other words, desperate for Uncle Sam’s charity. ; It would be just enough to maintain a minimal survival economic status, but not a path to upward mobility and social mobility – enough to keep blacks in their place and voting Democrat.</p>



<p>With the focus on welfare as the premiere civil right, Democrats could continue racist policies that deprived blacks of their constitutional rights – ergo <em>de facto</em> racism that has characterized the Democrat-run cities.</p>



<p>As the plan unfolded, millions of blacks were hooked on welfare as the only means of economic survival. ; Those trapped in the inner cities would not have access to America’s opportunity society. ; They would be oppressed by unequal justice … inferior schooling … redlining to prevent integrating into white neighborhoods … inferior housing … inadequate city services … deteriorating infrastructure … and cultural prejudice. ; All that was surrendered for the civil right of welfare dependency.</p>



<p>Life in the ghettoes had many of the same attributes of life under slavery. ; The return for sustenance was the vote instead of the cotton. ; It is why the segregated cities have been referred to as “economic plantations.”</p>



<p>The effectiveness and perniciousness of the welfare-for-votes scheme was reflected when President Johnson later told a group of southern Democrat senators that his War on Poverty programs would “keep niggers vote Democrat for the next 200 years.” (I do not euphemize the N-word in direct quotes.)</p>



<p>Ironically, Dawson’s idea is in effect today. ; Our major cities are still segregated. ; Those living in the ghettoes still suffer the deprivation of equal justice … ; quality education … safe housing and safe streets … crumbling infrastructure. ; The oppression has resulted in thousands of protests and hundreds of deadly destructive riots born out of frustration. ; Riots occur where the segregation, racism, and oppression exist (duh!) – and those riots take place almost exclusively in cities with longstanding one-party Democrat rule. ;</p>



<p>Dawson was not a greatly admired figure in the black community of his day. ; He was not a crusader for civil rights in Chicago. ; He was widely criticized by black leaders and publications as a crony of the white establishment. ; They were not wrong. ; But those suffering the conditions in America’s iconic segregated ghettoes are the generational victims of one man with malignant idea – and its implementation by the Democratic Party.</p>



<p>The message to black voters should be the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. ; Until that changes, we should rename the segregated ghettoes as “Dawsonvilles.”</p>



<p>So, there ‘tis.</p>

Black History Month: How a Chicago Congressman Created Black Generational Dependency
