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Democrats Ignore Black Vot e PowerTAKING MUCH time to decide and deliberate as a hung jury, the Cook County Democratic Central Committee last week finally all but dashed the hopes of another black U.S. Congressman from Chicago when they slated white candidate Morgan Murphy torun in the Third Congressional*District, hopefully to maintainparty unity. (This means that it I r • * ^ .is easier to placate 17th wardCommitteeman Bill Shannon and lt;21st ward Committeeman JoeRobichaveaux, than it would be to deal with five white committeemen who make up the rest of the district’s rulling political lorces.)I WISH I could say that it was a tair fight but I don’t really feel that way. The white committee-men were committed from the get-go to slate a white. I can say that as a part of the team that urged the slating of Hep. Raymond Ewell, I hadthe opportunity to watch two black committeemen wage a determined and dedicated light for his candidacy. We were beaten, not so much by the organization, but by a poor, past track record, as black voters.OF ALL the things Daley is NOT, he is not an embryonic, emotional politician. He deals first in voter strength and ways to continue same. Everything else is secondary. The November electionwill determine whether the black voters of the Third Congressional District are as ‘together’ asthey ought to be.IN RAY EWELL, we had the best candidate intrict, that alludes to being at least 60 per cent blackin it's voter strength. The hold-back was: of this 60per cent majority, only about 40 per cent willregister and cast a ballot in the box, whereas the 40per cent whites will vote as close as 00 per cent oftheir potential, in one big. bloc. Therefore to carrya black candidate in the District, black people willhave to at least double their normal voting habitsand even then they would have to decide on onecandidate..MORGAN MURPHY'S name on the Democraticballot virtually assures him ol a solid white%Democrat vote and a reasonable 75 per cent black Democtra! vote. As Jesse Jackson is prone to say, black people have a tradition ol voting tor the party first and the race second, conversely, whites vote for the race first and the party second. At this point m time, there is nothing to indicate any real change in this pattern. Since a candidate need only a majority vote to win the Primary and thus represent a party in the General Election, Morgan Murphy could win with the almost the same margin as his predecessor William T. Murphy.The quest ion now is: Should black voters support the Democratic ticket, bargaining for some leverage in the process, or should they “protest vote” a non-endorsed Democrat, who is fastbecoming the black Lar Daley?I BELIEVE that the black voters of this District are a more knowledgeable group than in some other areas, it for no other reason than they have been through a black-white Primary before. (If you will recall, Charles Chew made Independent history right in the 17th ward.)IN SPITE of my personal reaction to another “wind campaign” from Augustus Savage, I believe that the Independent voice, as oneby Savage, would have fared muchbetter in more of an organized effort by a realgrassroot Independent Organization. It would be my feeling that, an Independent political group, formed after Savage’s last loss, would haveassayed the District in more realistic terms and *thus arrived at a different candidate. The continued rattling of political sabers in an effort to increase the stature of a non-eharismatie candidate is about two years too late.ON THE OTHER HANI), Savage is black and the only way to break a political strangle-hold which is killing us is to break tradition and put the pressure on the other guy. A strong showing by Savage in the Primary, will give some black bargaining power in the General. And that's AtKa ct:
Newspaper Details
South Side Bulletin
Chicago, Illinois, US
Wed, Dec 03, 1969
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USA 03 Aug 2022
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