One, we’re in a presidential election year. So let’s go through a little history journey. As a party of Lincoln, Republicans allied with 4 million former American slaves to pass the 13th 14th and 15th. Amendment to the United States Constitution. These amendments, they abolished slavery, granted citizenship and civil rights to newly emancipated blacks, as well as they guaranteed that the right to vote could not be denied based on race, color, or previous conditions of servitude. why Democrats in the south, they weren’t too happy with the outcome of the Civil War. So they then how are these amendments so they’d started disenfranchising many blacks during the 1870s 1880s 1890s, with poll taxes and a whole lot of other very discriminatory practices, known today as Jim Crow laws. Democrat Woodrow Wilson subsequently initiated segregation in the federal government after his 1912 presidential election, and a response, black subtly voted for Republican presidential candidates through the 1932 election. However, following the Great Depression, and enactment of FDR New Deal, saw switch, he garnered strong support from blacks in the 1936 election, and blacks began voting in larger numbers for Democrat candidates in every subsequent presidential election. In 1956. However, President Dwight Eisenhower, who Republican attained 39% of black vote after abolishing segregation in the military, integrating Washington DC and hire more blacks in the Foreign Service than ever before in history. However, black support for Republican candidates plunged after Barry Goldwater oppose the Civil Rights Act during the 1964 election. Then Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson signed civil rights legislation into law and passed his Great Society program in the mid 60s and black voters began to become more wedded to big government. Republicans by then they had lost interest to regain their support. And thus this lack of attention continued through the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, and blacks became very, very entrenched in voting for Democrat presidential candidates. And this peaked then in 2008, when Barack Obama won 95% of the black vote.

Interesting change in history in 2019. Under President Trump, black saw real median income grew by 7.9%, a record increase that brought black income to a new high and black poverty rates to a record low. Trump seemed poised to make real serious gains with black voters. But the COVID 19 pandemic disrupted this progress in 2020, and then the death of George Floyd. Wow, that really increased racial tensions. Trump at that point garnered 12% of the black vote in 2020. But some polls suggest that he could make significant gains in 2024 in February 2020 For CBS YouGov poll 81% of black said that the economy will be a major factor in how they vote. 44% said the economy is currently in bad condition. And 41% think the economy was good under President Trump.

In February 2023 Real Clear Opinion Research poll found that 73% of blacks support school choice, a policy that Trump supports and Biden opposes. History shows that black voters respond to policy differences will soon know how the differences between Democrats and Republicans impact black voters in our next presidential election, November 2024.