Black politics after the civil rights movement: activity and beliefs in Sacramento, 1970-2000

237 Pages·2009·2.631 MB·English

by  Covin, David

Black Politics After the
Civil Rights Movement
ALSO BY DAVID COVIN
The Unified Black Movement in Brazil, 1978–2002
(McFarland, 2006)
Black Politics After the
Civil Rights Movement
Activity and Beliefs in
Sacramento, 1970–2000
D C
AVID OVIN
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Covin, David, ¡940–
Black politics after the civil rights movement :
activity and beliefs in Sacramento, 1970–2000 / David Covin.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-4258-4
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
1. African Americans—California—Sacramento—Politics and government—20th century.
2. African Americans—Civil rights—California—Sacramento—History—20th century.
3. African American leadership—California—Sacramento—History—20th century.
4. Political leadership—California—Sacramento—History—20th century.
5. Sacramento (Calif.)—Politics and government—20th century.
6. Sacramento (Calif.)—Race relations—History—20th century. I. Title.
F869.S12C686 2009 323.1196'07307945409045—dc22 2009004515
British Library cataloguing data are available
©2009 David Covin. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Men assembled for the 1,000 Man March, February 17, 1996.
Photo courtesy of The Sacramento Observer Newspapers.
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
To Ganga and Big-Momma, who lived their lives
that we might live ours more fully
This page intentionally left blank
Acknowledgments
By way of acknowledging the particular form this work has taken, I must first
thank Robert Smith for his detailed and invaluable reading of two complete early
drafts of the manuscript, including an initial one of almost 700 pages, which was
a riot of words. His incisive analysis and honesty made this book not only much
stronger, but even possible.
I must also thank Georgia Persons for her support and the thoughtful and
valuable editing she has given my work on Black politics in the U.S. for over 15
years.
Next I must thank Sacramento’s African-descended population which wel-
comed me into its midst from the first moment I arrived in the city for a job inter-
view. In those days of the Black Student Movement, hiring of Black faculty was
a joint community-university affair, with the B.S.U. playing a prominent role in
both settings. I never felt a stranger among Sacramento’s African population. I was
embraced, supported, and helped as a job applicant, teacher, researcher, colleague,
friend, and activist. I also thank them for the inspiration, instruction, friendship,
and tolerance they have afforded me over the years. As my presence here has been
long, wide, and deep, I owe too much to too many people to be able to cite them
individually for fear that with the passage of time and my declining faculties I
should forget and slight someone. I may, however, note two people, one a col-
league, whose presence affected every dimension of my work as first my student,
then colleague, fellow community activist, and ultimately, my boss, Otis Scott;
the other, who is a model of the committed activist, is Faye Kennedy. I thank Bill
Lee for great generosity with his newspaper’s photographs.
At the university, I have learned and gained far more from my students than
I have given them. They have been—and are—a delightful and unexpected addi-
tion to my life. Again, there are far too many to name individually. My colleagues
in Pan African Studies, the Ethnic Studies Department, the Government Depart-
ment, and the Cooper-Woodson College Enhancement Program, as well as in a
number of other settings throughout the university, have been more supporting
and rewarding than anyone could hope for.
My ongoing intellectual and collegial sustenance has been afforded by the
National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS). There I have learned,
grown, and benefited from a singular collection of immensely capable scholars
and activists. The whole organization has had an indelible impact on me. Among
vii
viii Acknowledgments
all my valued NCOBPS colleagues, those I regard foremost as my teachers and
mentors, though they are all younger than me, are Robert and Georgia, mentioned
above, Dianne Pinderhughes, K.C. Morrison, Kathie Golden, Melissa Nobles,
William Strickland, Lorenzo Morris, and the U.S. cohort of my colleagues from
the Race & Democracy Project that in addition to Dianne and K.C. includes
Michael Mitchell, Ollie Johnson, James Steele, Mark Sawyer, Tonya Williams,
and Raquel Souza.
I cite three colleagues from my graduate student days at Washington State
University, who, to this day, still deeply influence my life: Rutledge Dennis,
Johnetta Cole, and Rudy Martin.
The rest leads me back to family, my mother and father, Lela and Odell John-
son; my grandmothers and grandfather; my sister, Jacquie; and my whole host of
aunts, uncles, and cousins, Mathilde and Kimenyi, and what is referred to as the
nuclear family, Judy, my wife; Wendy and Holly, our daughters; and now—some-
how attached to the nuclear family—the grandkids, Nicola, William, and Claire.
Life is a collective project; they make possible what I do and give it joy.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Preface 1
Introduction 3
1. ORIGINS OF BLACK SACRAMENTO 15
2. THE 1970S 29
3. THE 1980S 97
4. THE 1990S 140
5. CONCLUSIONS 191
Chapter Notes 203
Bibliography 215
Index 221
ix