Black Mayors, White Majorities: The Balancing Act of Racial Politics

Title Page, About the Series, Copyright, Dedication

BLACK MAYORS, WHITE MAJORITIES JUSTICE AND SOCIAL INQUIRY Series Editors Jeremy I. Levitt Matthew C. Whitaker BLACK MAYORS, WHITE MAJORITIES The Balancing Act of Racial Politics RAVI K. PERRY UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS | LINCOLN AND LONDON © 2013 by the Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska Portions of the introduction and chapters 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were previously published in Ravi K. Perry, “Kindred Political Rhetoric: Black Mayors, President Obama, and the Universalizing of Black Interests,” Journal of Urban Affairs 33, no. 5 (2011): 567–90. Portions of this book originally appeared in Ravi K. Perry and Andrea Owens-Jones, “Balancing Act: Racial Empowerment and the Dual Expectations of Jack Ford in Toledo, Ohio,” in 21st Century Urban Race Politics: Representing Minorities as Universal Interests, ed. Ravi K. Perry (Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2013); and Ravi K. Perry, “Black Mayors in Non-Majority Black (Medium -Sized) Cities: Universalizing the Interests of Blacks,” Ethnic Studies Review 32, no. 1 (Summer 2009): 89–130. Used with permission. All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Perry, Ravi K. Black mayors, white majorities: the balancing act of racial politics / Ravi K. Perry. pages cm. — (Justice and social inquiry) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8032-4536-5 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. African Americans—Politics and government. 2. African American mayors. 3. Municipal government—United States. 4. African Americans—Social conditions. 5. United States— Race relations—Political aspects. 6. United States—Politics and government. I. Title. E185.615.P434 2014 323.1196'073—dc23 2013022400 Set in Lyon Text and Neutraface by Laura Wellington. Designed by A. Shahan. To my parents, Drs. D. LaRouth Perry and Robert L. Perry, for their unconditional love and support To be an Afro-American, or an American black, is to be in the situation, intolerably exaggerated, of all those who have ever found themselves part of a civilization which they could in no wise honorably defend—which they were compelled, indeed, endlessly to attack and condemn—and who yet spoke out of the most passionate love, hoping to make the kingdom new, to make it honorable and worthy of life. James Baldwin ...