In the Balance of Power. Omar H. Ali

      Foreword

      Although Americans habitually refer to our political structure as a two-party system, third parties and other independent political movements have been a persistent feature of our history. From the Workingmen’s parties of the late 1820s to the recent presidential candidacies of John Anderson (1980), Ross Perot (1992), and Ralph Nader (2000 and 2004), some Americans have always felt that the two major parties fail to reflect their interests and concerns. Third parties have forced into the public sphere issues that their larger counterparts sought to avoid, such as slavery before the Civil War and the plight of farmers in the era of Populism. Although only one third party, the Republican Party, in the 1850s, has actually risen to national power, many have influenced the course of American history by giving voice to otherwise silenced discontents.

      Indeed, many ideas widely taken for granted and assumed to be timeless features of American culture originated with independent political movements, whether organized as political parties or taking other forms. The idea of freedom as a universal entitlement, for example, was developed by the abolitionists, who developed the idea of equal citizenship irrespective of race. The modern idea of privacy—the extension of individual rights into the most intimate areas of personal life—arose from the efforts of generations of feminists to secure for women control over their own persons. Without political mobilizations outside the two-party system, it is difficult to imagine the progress that has been made in the last half-century toward the goal of equal rights and opportunities for all Americans, regardless of race. Independent political movements have made this a better society.

      For black Americans, the traditional two-party system has posed a particular set of challenges. Before the Civil War, the vast majority of African Americans, of course, were slaves, stripped of all legal and political rights. Even those who were free generally lacked the right to vote, so political action, almost by definition, had to take place outside the confines of the major parties. After the nation’s brief experiment with interracial democracy during the era of Reconstruction that followed the Civil War, the Democratic and Republican parties ignored the plight of black Americans. Nonetheless, where they were able to vote, blacks generally supported the Republican party, which had freed the slaves. During the 1930s, black voting allegiance began to shift to the Democrats, a trend that culminated in recent elections, when under 10 percent of the black electorate supported the Republican candidate for president. But many black political leaders today feel that their votes are taken for granted by a party that lacks a substantive program for addressing the continuing incidence of racial inequality in American life.

      It is not surprising, given this history, that some black leaders have seen political independence as offering the most viable strategy for their community. In the pages that follow, Omar Ali traces the history of black participation in third parties and in other forms of political activism. His narrative touches on subjects that have inspired an extensive historical literature, such as abolitionism and the Black Panther party, and on lesser-known parts of this history, including black participation in the Socialist, Progressive, and Communist parties. He reveals the complex dynamics that have shaped the sometimes problematic relationships between African Americans and third-party movements.