4th generation of ‘centrist’ Black politicians remakes politics

11th May 2015   ·   0 Comments

By Christopher Tidmore
Contributing Writer

It was “St. Bernard Day” at the Louisiana Legislature, and by general acclimation the acknowledged star of that parish’s delegation was an African-American State Senator, a state of affairs unthinkable just a decade ago.

The April 28 evening event, held under sprawling tents in the courtyard of the “Pentagon Barracks” (where the legislative leadership is provided apartments during the session) highlighted St. Bernard’s cultural and economic activities — with free charbroiled oysters, gumbo, and locally produced beer used as incentive for attendance. St. Bernard Parish leaders joined their local representatives and senators to explain the needs of their community to the legislature at large — as they plied them with food and drink — in the hours after the House & Senate had adjourned for the day.

Yet nothing showed that times had changed more than the fact that the majority Caucasian & Republican delegation brought forth “one of our leaders” to give the brief keynote address to the legislative luminaries.

No one even blinked at the fact that ‘the leader’ in question was JP Morrell, scion of a Black New Orleans political dynasty. Instead, his conservative colleagues hailed him as simply a State Senator for a large swath of St. Bernard and Jefferson, who had forged a centrist course on maintaining as well as reforming the film tax credits as well as forging budgetary reform to spare the state from its $1.6 billion deficit.

That a group of white Republicans dubbed Morrell the ultimate centrist glue that allowed the legislature to function through an incredibly contentious legislative session was reflective on how the fourth generation of African-American politicians have garnered more influence amongst their suburban white colleagues than ever thought possible. And, how racial politics has changed in Louisiana — and the U.S. as a whole as this 4th Generation takes charge.

JP Morrell is not alone. The State senator stands on the vanguard of a crop of young rising and politically moderate African-American politicians who are realistically positioned to expand beyond their urban roots, and to compete in statewide and even national elections.

Some are receiving attention for their bipartisan efforts, from New Orleans City Councilwoman LaToya Cantrell, subject of a profile on Politico.com just a week ago to Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden, a realistic Democratic contender for Lt. Governor in a GOP-leaning state, to national figures like U.S. Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey or Tim Scott of South Carolina. Even LA Republican State Senator Elbert Guillory is noted as a member of this “fourth generation” of African-American politicians whose politics seeming has expanded beyond the urban/civil rights focus of the Black political class that has come before.

Not everyone likes these rising centrists, of course. Some consider the moderation of the new generation of Black politicians a form of “treason” against the civil rights-focused agendas of years before, and their willingness to cross party lines to appeal to middle class voters as a denial of their history and roots.

Morrell especially does not classify himself as anything beyond a hardworking senator for an increasingly suburban-focused seat. In an interview with The Louisiana Weekly, he noted how the demographics of the metropolitan area had changed, with St. Bernard now 25 percent African-American, and Jefferson more than a third.

The change in racial dynamics has had an impact, Morrell maintained, on more than just the geography of his seat, which stretches across the three parishes. Demographic diversity has also influenced local politics. Parishes that once were at odds, now have more of a cooperative spirit thanks to their racial blending. “We have gone from ‘bedroom communities’ versus the city to more like burrows of a Greater New Orleans area,” he explained. Those who represent such districts must reflect their constituents, in other words, whether White or Black.

The comparison of Jefferson and St. Bernard as Brooklyn and Queens to Orleans Parish’s Manhattan not only reflects the increasing racial multiplicity of the various parish populations, but also is emblematic of how the newest generation of Black leaders are looking beyond the old urban cores of cities to political opportunities regionally and statewide. The larger geographic perspectives have not only provided political shields to tack to the ideological center, but to actually contemplate election on a wider scale than just urban minority districts.

It’s the anthem of the “fourth generation of Black politicians,” explained WBOK’s Mason Harrison, who has studied the political leanings of the newest generation of African-American elected officials.

“They are more centrist,” Harrison noted. “They see things less in a racial lens, and more broadly.” That allows the ‘4th Generation’ to have political opportunities in areas that Black politicians normally could not go, from white suburban neighborhoods to larger districts outside of the traditional urban core. Yet, there are challenges for this newest generation as well.

“The difficulty, mind you, with 4th Generation politicians,” Harrison continued, “as it relates to African Americans is the idea that are they going to be as responsive to their constituents as might be a Civil Rights era politician. You do want to ascend. You do want to move up the political ladder. Well, you do have to abandon the sort of Black-identified politics.”

“And part of the reason is this, right. We are 50 years removed from the 1960s. And the 1960s and 50s, society was obviously bifurcated along economics lines, along racial lines. You name it; it was there. Now that there is increasing Black middle class, for the most part, you have got people who have more economic issues, than they do traditional civil rights issues.”

While a wider focus has won this rising generation of African-American politicians outspoken Caucasian supporters, it has created friction between the Black working class that remains urban based, and generally poor, and their 4th Generation of Black politicians looking further afield. “That is the challenge that these politicians face,” said Harrison. “You are no longer city-wide [solely in perspective], if you want to run statewide. You no longer are beholden, or exclusively in a position where you have to advocate on 100% Black districts, or 98% Black districts.”

“So if your coming out of the city, which is where most Black politicians come out of, and you want to run statewide, how do you balance the rural interests and suburban interests vs. the urban interests? This is the balancing act people have to do if they want to become governor, senator, or anything beyond that. And the fact of the matter is you have to live in a state that aligns with your politics. So Maryland, New York, places of that nature.”

“It is difficult to do that, even though there are more African-Americans in the South. How do you align your politics to run statewide, unless you are someone like a Tim Scott, [the Black Republican US Senator from South Carolina] who obviously is in the minority [and not reliant generally on Black voters]. These folks [Democratic African-American politicians] are challenged at the local level if they want to anything beyond that.”

It’s important to look at the history of how the fourth generation of Black politicians came about, Harrison emphasized. Generationally, “politicians have changed. All politicians, but this discussion is about African-American politicians. In order to understand what is happening now we have to go back a little bit. So the genesis of African-American politics clearly is after the Civil War during the Reconstruction Era.”

“Where white planters were not allowed to vote. African-Americans were enfranchised, and given suffrage. And so, there were about 2,000 African-American politicians during this period. Louisiana, for example, in 1872 had P.B.S. Pinchback as a governor. The very first Black senators and Congresspeople came out of this era. And then after that, unfortunately we had the period of Jim Crow. Following, after which, in 1883, the civil rights acts were ruled unconstitutional.”

“About 35 African-American politicians during reconstruction more or less were murdered and intimidated into not doing the things that they set out to do. In 1890 all of this comes to a halt. And not until 100 years later with the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Fair Housing Rights Act do we see African Americans come into sort of political transcendency.”

“And a part of that has to do with the Housing Rights Act where white Americans left the inner city, which of course started in the 1930s with deindustrialization. But its hard to move out, right. What’s commonly known as ‘white flight.’ And so now, you have the historic cores of the city largely African-American and became a very large voting bloc. So in 1978 we get Dutch Morial. In 1983 we get Harold Washington in Chicago. In 1990 we get David Dinkins in New York. And so these are some of the civil rights era people of the first generation.”

“Moving beyond that in the 2nd generation/3rd generation, we get folks like Harold Ford in Ten­nessee, who inherited a seat. We get Jesse Jackson Jr. in Chicago. His father of course is the civil rights leader Jesse Jackson. Marc Morial and others. And then progressing beyond that, you get to Ray Nagin fit into that category somewhere. Moving toward 3rd generation with his business sense. Not beholden to the Black political class. BOLD, SOUL, organizations such as that. And now moving just a little bit beyond that we’ve got people like Cory Booker and Barack Obama.”

“To reduce this to simple terms,” Harrison explained the rise of the cross racial appeal of the 4th Generation in an entertainment metaphor. “Think of this as Will Smith versus Tyler Perry.”

“Tyler Perry is very successful film maker, but yet his genre is very much African-American focused. So compare that to a Civil Rights era Black politician, very much not concerned about statewide office in 1974. He may have no a chance at state-wide office, but is very much a politician, but yet a community activist.”

On the other hand, “Will Smith, very successful, but incredible cross over appeal, a la your 4th generation black politician.”

Morrell is far from the only 4th Generation African-American politician to gain national attention recently. Orleans District “B” Councilwoman was the subject of a profile on the influential Capitol Hill newspaper Politico.com specifically due to her crossover appeal. The author of that piece, Tyler Bridges, told The Weekly, “What is true of these [4th Generation] politicians is true of Cantrell…and is true of their constituents. They seek solutions.”

More than questions of race or traditional urban focuses, they look beyond the traditional answers on areas from education, to housing, to taxation, to criminal justice. “They are more focused on quality of life matters, on development, and other issues that matter to everyone.”

Cantrell is the living embodiment of this trend, especially considering she was the chosen candidate of a biracial coalition that stretched from her native Broadmoor to the Garden District. Harrison said the root of her wider-ranging appeal, and why writers like Bridges and others have said she is on the short list for Mayor of New Orleans and other offices is “because her emphasis has been on development.”

“Her emphasis and this might sound like a political platitude, but it really is on people. It is less-civil rights oriented. Councilmember Cantrell is more interested in what are the results. And so to the extent that you are on the margins, regardless of color that has been her political philosophy. And it is more in line with the centrist leanings of big-city politicians that we have been talking about. And so, given the fact that, not to mention the fact that Black women in the City of New Orleans tend to have a lot of crossover appeal because they are women…You can pick and pull from there. I do think she is someone with that crossover appeal.”

That often gains Cantrell, like Morrell, a fair number of critics. Harrison noted that some young African-American elected officials began with a general appeal, but retreated to more conventional civil rights focused tenures in office. He noted that State Sen. Karen Carter Peterson tended to follow this model.

The balancing act for 4th Generation Black politicians interestingly reflects what the civil rights white politicians experienced building biracial coalitions in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They were frequently called “traitors.”

“I think that’s a perfect juxtaposition. And so, sometimes we forget that if our memories are short politically. It mirrors exactly what was happening with big-city white politicians, and sort of the dynamic of race, economics, and things of this nature. Here is what remains: You talk about neighborhoods diversifying along economic lines. So, the poor, whether they are white or Black, are marginalized, they are pushed out, but here is what’s so similar, is that if you have white politicians who have to balance these acts, and then you get charges like ‘Moon’s Coons.’”

“Which we know from the 1970s, Moon Landrieu reached out bringing in African Americans to City Hall, but then fast forward 34 years later you have Black politicians called “traitor,” for much the same reasons of perceived racial betrayal.

A crossparty microcosm of the 4th Generation can be seen, in fact, in the upcoming Lt. Governor’s race. There, East Baton Rouge Mayor-President Kip Holden, a Black Democratic politician who has built his career on a pro-business platform with extensive white crossover backing could end up in a runoff with Black Republican State Senator Elbert Guillory.

This article originally published in the May 11, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.