Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP by Joshua D. Farrington (review)

While most scholarship on African American political thought has focused on the black Left, studies examining the African American conservative perspective have more recently emerged. Joshua D. Farrington's latest study, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP, offers an examination of black Republicans from the New Deal era to the Richard M. Nixon administration and explores how their goals within the party changed over time. Throughout the twentieth century, many middle-class African Americans remained in the Republican Party, where they sought to carve out a place for the black community and their socioeconomic needs. However, as the title suggests, this book is about more than black Republicans and their political agendas. It also explores the transformation of the Republican Party and how its interactions with African Americans changed throughout the twentieth century.

While New Deal benefits were luring the black working class to the Democratic Party, notable black Republicans such as Archibald Carey Jr. and Robert Church Jr. occupied leadership positions in the South's Black-and-Tan organizations. They were elected to powerful positions at the local and state levels and lobbied for civil rights. Black Republican politicians were successful at getting meaningful civil rights legislation passed. Furthermore, on the national level, President Dwight D. Eisenhower, although a gradualist with civil rights, made judicial appointments that led to significant civil rights victories in the 1950s and 1960s.

Despite the rising tide of conservatism within the GOP in the 1950s, black Republicans remained a visible presence in the party. Many received highranking federal appointments and maintained influential local and state positions. However, during the 1960s black Republicans and black issues were becoming less of a priority within the party. There were cuts to the Republican National Committee's Minorities Division, fewer black delegates attended Republican conventions, Black-and-Tan organizations were disregarded, and GOP resources were put into Operation Dixie—a plan to court southern white voters.

The 1964 presidential nomination of notoriously conservative Arizona senator Barry Goldwater marked a low point for the GOP's relationship with black voters and black Republicans. Despite their marginalization within the party, black Republicans maintained their belief in using the two-party system to make both parties address black issues. Ideologically, many black Republicans had also shifted their focus from civil rights to economic self-help. Nixon's black capitalism initiatives had goals of promoting entrepreneurship within the African American community and elicited support from black Republicans. Nevertheless, as the GOP grew more conservative into the 1970s, black support for the Republican Party declined significantly on the national level and has not recovered.

Farrington weaves his chronological narrative together with a wealth of archival sources. Using diverse manuscript collections from around the United States, he attempts to fill a vacuum in the current scholarship. However, the book is not without its shortcomings. There is only a brief mention of the work and experiences of African American women in the Republican Party, such as Nannie Burroughs, Daisy Lampkin, and Jewel Lafontant-Mankarious. Indeed, this study would have been further enriched by a discussion of black Republican women's perspectives. Nevertheless, unlike previous studies on black Republicans, the book takes a close look at the changes within the GOP and how the party managed to gradually alienate African American voters throughout the twentieth century. Ultimately, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP is a welcome addition to African American political history and will appeal to those interested in politics, history, and civil rights.