Double Trouble: Black Mayors, Black Communities, and the Call for a Deep DemocracyJ. Phillip Thompson III, an insider in the Dinkins administration, provides the first in-depth look at how the black mayors of America's major cities achieve social change. Black constituents naturally look to black mayors to effect great change for the poor, but the reality of the situation is complicated. Thompson argues that African-American mayors, legislators, and political activists need to more effectively challenge opinions and public policies supported by the white public and encourage greater political inclusion and open political discourse within black communities. Only by unveiling painful internal oppresssions and exclusions within black politics will the black community's power increase, and compel similar unveilings in the broader interracial conversation about the problems of the urban poor. Tracing the historical development and contemporary practice of black mayoral politics, this is a fascinating study of the motivations of black politicians, competing ideologies in the black community and the inner dynamics of urban social change. |
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administration African American agenda Al Sharpton alliances Atlanta black activists black and Latino black civic organizations black community black elected officials black leaders black mayors black middle class black nationalism black nationalists black political black politicians black poor black support black voters Borough president Bronx Brooklyn campaign Chicago churches city council city hall city’s citywide civic coalition coalition building Coleman Young conflict conservative Crown Heights David Dinkins deep pluralism Dinkins’s district economic electoral Ferrer Giuliani grass-roots groups Harlem Harold Washington ideologies interracial coalitions issues Jackson Koch leadership low-income Lynch machine majority Manhattan middle-class mobilization multiracial municipal NAACP neighborhoods Oakland oppression participation patronage percent police political coalitions political structure poor blacks population Press programs protest race racism reelection reform Sharpton social Staten Island Stokes strategy strong tion turnout urban vote Washington white liberals white voters workers York City York’s