“How did the party that elected the first black U.S. senator, the party that elected the first 20 African American congressmen, become a party that now loses 95 percent of the black vote? How did the Republican Party, the party of the Great Emancipator, lose the trust and faith of an entire race? During the Great Depression … African Americans understood that Republicans championed citizenship and voting rights, but they became impatient for economic emancipation.”
