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Has black inclusion in the political process changed political institutions and led to more black influence in the governmental process? How do African American legislators balance racial interests with broader issues of government? And how is their effectiveness subjectively perceived and objectively evaluated?In one of the first book-length studies to analyze the behavior of African American state legislators in multiple legislative sessions across five states, Kerry Haynie has compiled a wealth of valuable data that reveals the dynamics and effectiveness of black participation in the legisl

AbstractThe emergence of an African American and Latino-dominated coalition with the potential to reconfigure American government and politics at the national, state, and local levels is one of the most noteworthy developments in U.S. politics over the past two decades. Racialized mass incarceration and felon disenfranchisement are impediments to this coalition's political power. Social scientists, legal scholars, and activists have long paid attention to how devices like poll taxes, English competency tests, voter intimidation, racial gerrymandering, and voter identification laws restrict participation and diluted the political influence of racial and ethnic minorities. This essay seeks to direct renewed scholarly attention to racialized mass incarceration and felon disenfranchisement as similar devices for suppressing and containing minority group political power.

In this paper, we investigate the agenda-setting behavior of female & black state legislators, & examine whether women & blacks are as successful as white men in passing legislation. Using a six-state, 3-year sample, we test a descriptive representation model in which group members (blacks & women) represent group interests above & beyond the extent motivated by constituency & party pressures. Moreover, in keeping with the social distance between the races, we expect blacks to be less successful than whites at passing legislation. We find that although constituency influences sponsorship agendas, blacks & women share a set of distinctive policy interests. Women are generally as likely as men to achieve passage of the legislation they introduce, whereas blacks are, in three states, significantly less likely than whites to pass legislation. 2 Tables, 1 Appendix, 71 References. Adapted from the source document.