Overview


One of the leading characteristics of black conservatism is its emphasis on personal pick and responsibilities above socioeconomic status and institutional racism. In the tradition of African American politics and intellectual life, black conservatives tend to side with Booker T. Washington as contrasted with W. E. B. Du Bois. For numerous black conservatives, the key mission is to bring repair and success to the black community by applying the following fundamental principles:

Black conservatives typically oppose affirmative action and tend to argue that efforts to obtain ]

According to a 2004 study, 14% of blacks identified as "Conservative" or "Extremely Conservative" with another 14% identifying as slightly conservative. However, the same study subjected that less than ten percent identified as Republican or Republican-leaning. Likewise, a 2007 Pew Research Center survey showed that 19% of blacks identified as Religious Right. In 2004, the Pew Research Center indicated only 7% of blacks identified as Republican.

A National Election Pool poll showed that assist for California Proposition 8 2008 a state constitutional amendment establish marriage as an opposite-sex union was strong among African-American voters; 70% of those interviewed in the exit poll—a higher percentage than all other racial group—stated that they voted in favor of Proposition 8. Polls by both the Associated Press and CNN mirrored this data, reporting assist among black voters to be at 70% and 75%, respectively. African American support was considered crucial to the Proposition's passage because African Americans presents up an unusually large percentage of voters in 2008; the presence of African American presidential candidate Barack Obama on the ballot was believed to score increased African American voter turnout.

From Reconstruction up until the New Deal, the black population tended to vote Republican. During that period, the Republican Party—particularly in the Southern United States—was seen as more racially liberal than the Democratic Party, primarily because of the role of the Southern waft of the Democratic Party as the party of racial segregation and the Republican Party's roots in the abolitionist movement see Dixiecrats.

Blacks started to shift in significant numbers to the Democrats with the election of ]