Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP

Joshua D. Farrington is Assistant Professor of History at Bluegrass Community and Technical College.

"Farrington . . . remind[s] us that the great migration from the 'party of Lincoln' did not happen all at once-or once and for all. A significant minority of African-Americans resisted the appeal of the New Deal, and many of those who embraced Franklin Roosevelt continued to vote Republican in down-ballot races. National politics provide Farrington with a sturdy frame, but what makes his book special is his painstaking re-creation of scores of little-known state and local activists and a lost world of two-party competition." (The New York Times Book Review) "By the 1990s, the only African Americans welcome within the GOP were the small number who, like Clarence Thomas and J.C. Watts, had completely rejected the race-conscious policies of the previous generation of black Republicans. It is one of the book's main achievements that explains beautifully how this change occurred." (American Historical Review) "Farrington's book is an important addition to the literature on twentieth-century partisan politics and history...[that is] excellent at showing the broader transformations in the Republican party on matters of race, without losing sight of the party of Abraham Lincoln's long-standing range of ambivalence, disinterest, and hostility to civil rights." (Journal of American History) "Farrington's story places mid-twentieth-century black Republicans at the center of civil right debates...[which] should be commended for providing nuanced analysis of underresearched topics within black politics and history." (Political Science Quarterly) "Farrington's history of African Americans in the Republican Party provides nuanced insight into the fluidity of both the black political landscape and the GOP, two groups that whose political histories have often been over-determined. . . . This story of seemingly paradoxical black Republicans is much needed in this political moment." (Atlanta Studies) "Joshua D. Farrington has given scholars, pundits, and the general public the timeliest book yet about how the GOP purged itself of racial minorities and cast its lot with America's declining white majority. A book that is at once complex and clear, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP is a must read for any student of politics or history interested in how the GOP's failed answers to the race question have pushed a once-great national party to the brink of political self-destruction." (Devin Fergus, The Ohio State University) "Drawing impressively on a wide range of primary sources, underpinned by a mastery of the relevant historiography, Black Republicans and the Transformation of the GOP is full of fascinating detail about how black Republicans worked hard to push their party toward engagement with issues of civil rights." (Robert Mason, University of Edinburgh)