That isn’t the case jveritas, Republicans used to receive the majority of the Black Vote until Nixon’s Southern Strategy.”
That isn’t accurate at all, in 1964 republicans got 6% of the black vote.
“After leaning Republican following the Civil War, blacks first swung to the Democrats with the advent of the New Deal. However, Eisenhower got 39 percent of the vote in 1956. Richard Nixon received 32 percent of the black vote in 1960. The Republican share of the black vote in 1964? Six percent. A Republican presidential candidate hasn’t gotten above 15 percent since then. What happened in the short four years between 1960 and 1964? Well, in short, two names — Barry Goldwater and Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1960, King refrained from endorsing anyone for president. King had a gut reaction that John F. Kennedy was marginally better on civil rights; Kennedy had called King’s wife Coretta while King languished in a Georgia jail. Meanwhile, Bobby Kennedy worked on the judge to allow King to post a bond. Nonetheless, King felt it better for the cause to stay neutral. His father, Martin Luther King, Sr., originally endorsed Nixon, but switched to Kennedy after his son was released from jail two weeks before the election.
King’s neutrality changed dramatically by 1964. King declared that though Barry Goldwater was not racist, his positions gave aid and comfort to racists:
I had no alternative but to urge every Negro and white person of goodwill to vote against Mr. Goldwater and to withdraw support from any Republican candidate that did not publicly disassociate himself from Senator Goldwater and his philosophy.
Thanks for dispelling the notion ansel12, my error.
That does show were the divergence began, Goldwater is the beginning of Conservatism, King thought it empowered racists, and here we are..damn.
I had read an article a while back that claimed Nixon got fortyfive percent of the black vote and Goldwater only fifteen percent in 1964. I've been unable to verify that claim through research. Your total seems to be the one most cited by the articles I did find that mentioned the 1960 election. I can't find the database that lists the official numbers. But even if Republicans got only thirty-two percent of the vote today, most Dems wouldn't get elected dogcatcher.