In the race: ‘Breakthrough’ of black politicians

In her new book “The Breakthrough,” journalist Gwen Ifill investigates post-civil rights era black political power. She sheds light on the impact of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential campaign and introduces the emerging young African-American politicians who are forging a bold new path in American politics. An excerpt.

Chapter one
It is easy to overlook change when it happens, even when it is as dramatic and historic as this year’s breakthrough Presidential election. But as I stood at Denver’s Invesco Field on the night Barack Obama accepted his party’s nomination for President, I swear I could feel the rumbling under my feet.

Jesse Jackson, Sr. strode through the crowd remembering how different this night was than the day, 24 years before, when he had his own star turn at a Democratic National convention. “I’m excited beyond measure,” he told me. His son, Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., held court at a purposeful distance from his father.

Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, and Deval Patrick, the governor of Massachusetts, grinned and backslapped and owned the night as the rising stars they are. Artur Davis, the Congressman and aspiring governor from Alabama, sorted through a crowded dance card of public appearances. Ben Jealous, newly elected to lead the venerable NAACP, choked up. He is 35 years old.

Each in his own way was basking in the political glow of the night. They were not interlopers or token black invitees at this particular party. They did not necessarily even know each other particularly well. But they were the stars of the evening. For one night, all of the friction and below-the-radar political positioning each had endured — much of it obscured by Obama’s meteoric rise — was on display. It was a rare lightning stroke moment that finally illuminated the dramatic shift in tone, message and leadership that has forced a redefinition of black politics and of black politicians. It was the Age of Obama, in full effect.

On television, that sparkling night in Denver appeared to be all about a Presidential nomination. But in the stadium itself, it was about so much more. It was about the past, and about progress and about race — the most divisive issue in the nation’s history. And it provided a convenient yardstick with which to measure what the change Obama talked so much about could really mean. Before my eyes, I was able to witness the romance and achievement of 1960s civil rights marches bearing fruit, as the lions of the movement mingled with the up and comers. Some had been slow to embrace Barack Obama. Some had been quick. But, this night, all wanted to bear witness.

The 2008 election forced Americans unused to talking about race to confront their own biases or their own naiveté. Civil rights heroes had to learn to relate to a generation of excited new voters – black, white and brown — who were not born when they scored their last legislative victories. Newcomers pondered how to push their elders off the stage without being disrespectful. It was a sandpaper moment for everyone, as Americans struggled with the kind of friction that forces self-examination, conflict, and finally actual change.

There were many ways to measure this race-based change. In 1958, more than half of Americans responding to a Gallup poll said they would not vote for a black candidate. By 1984, that number had dropped to 16 percent. By 2007, only 4 percent told Newsweek they would not. In 2008, 43 percent did. That sounds unimpressive until you notice John Kerry, a white candidate, got only 41 percent of the white vote in 2004.

The nation had moved a long way even from the 1970s, where the prospect of black mayors taking over from white mayors spawned slogans like “Atlanta’s Too Young to Die” and, in Los Angeles, “Will your city be safe with this man?”

Obama’s unexpected breakthrough made it blazingly clear that we had reached a place we had not been before. John Lewis, the Georgia Congressman who was 23 years old when he appeared on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial with Martin Luther King, Jr. at the 1963 March on Washington, said 2008 was unlike anything he had ever experienced.

“I think it’s something new, it’s different, it’s exciting,” said Lewis, who had his own breakthrough when he was elected to Congress in 1986 at the age of 46. “It is almost like the dreams, the hopes, the aspirations are being realized. “

To be clear right off the bat, I do not believe this to be a “post-racial” moment, as so many have claimed. After talking to scores of people for this book, I am still not even entirely sure what that term means. My well-reported suspicion is that it is the type of code language that conveniently means different things to different people. For those interested in resisting any discussion of racial difference, it is an easy way to embrace the mythic notion of color blindness. For civil rights veterans, it is a term that sparks outrage. (Why is getting “past” race considered to be a good thing? Does that make race a bad thing?) For some up and coming politicians hoping to build their success on erasing, rather than maintaining lines of difference, the idea has some appeal.

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Those are the fault lines. Can insiders effect real change, or once inside, do they become change’s worst enemy? This is when the friction kicks in, that sandpaper place where change happens and the nerve endings of ambition become exposed and frayed. Sometimes sparks fly, and often — for a while at least — it is difficult to discern the good. The protest marchers find themselves picketing black elected officials. The officials — so recently inside the door — find it necessary to push back. In politics, this usually signals that a painful and challenging power shift is underway. And all of the parties involved are seldom happy about it.

That is what happens with a breakthrough. The first ones through the door often get bruised, if not broken. Eventually, with a little political acumen, racial sensitivity and a lot of hard work, a smooth new place can emerge.

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