Thread by @karlajstrand

Excited to hear @keneshiagrant discuss her book The Great Migration and the Democratic Party: Black Voters and the Realignment of American Politics in the 20th Century up next @AsalhConvention! Other panelists include @profmtp, @dinambar, and @profblmkelley. #ASALH2020

First, Natanya Duncan reads an announcement from
@asalh Pres. Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham on the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and we take 30 seconds of silence in her honor. #RIPRBG #ASALH2020

Melanye Price is serving as moderator. This is a good time for us to reflect on why we feel loyalty to the Democratic Party. #ASALH2020

Ambar: Praises the book. What is the nature of Black political power? Book includes case studies of Detroit, NY, Chicago. Historical response to "the ballot or the bullet." Tale of tempered successes, resilience, oppression, migration, reverse migration. #ASALH2020

Ambar: Black migrants changed the nature of Democratic Party politics and the relationship of Black people to representative democracy. Examines Black political power in the US as insiders and outsiders and how people without a voice find a voice. #ASALH2020

Kelley: Grant's book is an important interdisciplinary work. Shows we must re-examine our past in order to understand our present. The migration was an economic driver but how important was the vote? #ASALH2020

Kelley: Even in places where Black people were a minority, they were still impactful politically. Important example of how we must examine the machinations of those who want to steal the Black vote and Black influence.

Kelley: Not only about what happens to Black people but what they do with what they have. Themes of community and nurturance are powerful and remind us that Black people took those things from the South to the North. Also affects reverse migration and the return to the South.

Price: Grant illustrates Black people's agency in the book. Black people had enormous impacts on North and Northern politicians as well as important cultural and historical moments, building institutions.

Price: Republicans missed the Great Migration as a political opportunity. They missed this time to connect with Black Americans as they are missing the opportunity to connect with Latinx currently. Dems seem more inclusive and attuned to seeking out new constituencies.

Price: "Political immunization" examines how the ways in which people first come to politics shape their relationship with politics. What happens when young voters' first experiences are negative?

Price: Interested in the "crystallized Southern identity" - the South becomes crystallized in historical memory and in Northern context. This is particularly important in the discussion re: reverse migration.

Grant: Explains how her background and educational experiences influenced her scholarship and her choice of studying the Great Migration as a political scientist. Saw a gap in the lit re: migration waves and influence of Black people in politics at that time.

Grant: Reiterates that the GOP did miss an opportunity during the Great Migration. Normative political science discusses Black people as if they didn't have political will or were politically ignorant, and that was not at all the case.

Kelley: When Blacks moved North, they are blank slates and open to party affiliations. GOP flubbed this opportunity and Black people were interested in who could assist and support them locally and nationally.

Grant: The Civil Rights Movement is there in the background of this book. Blacks move north and are excited to register to vote. They are doing Civil Rights work and focused on the long game, locally and nationally.

Price: SC is first election where you have a large Black population voting. Complicated conversations take place daily about who they will vote for. People discuss block voting; the dismissive idea that Black people will just vote as a block for Democratic party anyway.

Grant: There are diversities within Black communities, even during Great Migration. They reflect, challenge, discuss politics and candidates and make complicated decisions.

Ambar: There is a lot of non-party Black participation and other forms of engagement, and this can get dismissed in two party system of the US. Black civic engagement is often ignored unless associated with the Dem Party.

Grant: Black women were involved, held elected office; the book doesn't focus on this. The parties interrupt progress for women. She is spending time looking at political immunization currently, Black women and immigrants during the migration are important topics for the future.

Great panel! Be sure to pick up @keneshiagrant's book The Great Migration and the Democratic Party from your local library or Black-owned bookstore. #ASALH2020