Michael C. Dawson

Focuses on the 1920s, 1930s, and the Black Power movement to examine successive failures of socialists and Marxists to enlist sympathetic blacks, and white leftists' refusal to fight for the cause of racial equality which led to black leftists separating from the groups and turning to the hard left or staying independent. Calls for current discontent to be mobilized within the black community to active opposition to the social and economic status quo through a return to its radical roots.

"In the summer of 1967, in response to violent demonstrations that rocked 164 cities across the U.S., the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, commonly known as the Kerner Commission, was formed. As part of its work, the Commission employed social scientists to research the root causes of the disturbances, including the role that law enforcement played. Chief among its research projects was a study of 23 American cities, headed by social psychologist Robert Shellow. Shellow's social scientists worked from the vast material brought back by teams of Commission investigators who fanned out across those cities, conducting interviews and gathering data. An early draft of the scientists' analysis was delivered on November 22, 1967. Their report, titled "The Harvest of American Racism: The Political Meaning of Violence in the Summer of 1967" provoked the Commission's staff by uncovering political causes for the unrest; the team of researchers was fired, and the controversial report remained buried at the LBJ Presidential Library until now. The first publication of the Harvest report half a century later reveals that many of the issues it describes are still with us, including how cities might more effectively and humanely react to groups and communities in protest."--Provided by publisher.

"Political scientists and social choice theorists often assume that economic diversification within a group produces divergent political beliefs and behaviors. Michael Dawson demonstrates, however, that the growth of a black middle class has left race as the dominant influence on African-American politics. Why have African Americans remained so united in most of their political attitudes? To account for this phenomenon, Dawson develops a new theory of group interests that emphasizes perceptions of "linked fates" and black economic subordination. According to this model, being black affects the economic and social opportunities of most African Americans so profoundly that it is only rational for them to see racial group interests as a proxy for their own. The key to African-American social identity can be found "behind the mule," Dawson suggests. A community oppressed for centuries will not yield easily to division along class lines." "Behind the Mule is one of the few works in black politics to present a new theoretical perspective by combining historical and quantitative evidence. Drawing on the 1984-1988 National Black Election Panel Study and other survey data, it analyzes black positions on a variety of issues, finding that division by class is significant only with respect to issues of redistribution of property and black nationalism. Dawson concludes by looking to the future of black politics and identifying the conditions under which African-American political divisions may become more meaningful."--BOOK JACKET.