Blacks Share Spotlight At Republican Convention In Philadelphia

VOWING to usher in a new day for Republicans, Texas Gov. George W. Bush eagerly accepted the GOP presidential nomination recently to the roar of delegates who assembled in Philadelphia for the party's national convention.

Unlike past conventions, which were lily-white in appearance and anti-Black in tone, this year's convention courted African-Americans much like a schoolboy would a pretty girl a week before the prom. Believing that if he wins as little as one-fourth of Black votes in November he will become the next president, Bush said he will fight to convince the African-American fence-straddlers, and even some staunch Democrats, that the Republican party is a party that will listen to their needs, and is concerned about their future.

During a week of festivities, Republicans rolled out the red carpet for African-Americans throughout the city and on the convention floor. Of the 2,066 delegates, 85 were Black, up from 51 in 1996.

At the many corporate-sponsored parties for Blacks, handshakes, grins and pats on the back flowed as freely as the booze. "You're like us, and we're like you," was the theme of the week as White Republicans seemed to go out of their way to make African-Americans seem welcomed.

At the convention, R&B singer Brian McKnight, as well as soul diva Chaka Khan, and a local gospel choir were among the featured performers. And African-Americans like Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK), Gen. Colin L. Powell, and Bush's international affairs advisor Condoleezza Rice were given primetime exposure to tout the party's new stance on diversity. When asked about the GOP courting Blacks, Rice said: "I think for African-Americans, what I've been saying is just take another look." (Rice is in line to become chair of the National Security Council if Bush becomes president.) "I'm not trying to convince you to vote Republican tomorrow. I'm trying to get you to take another look at this party."

And Bush, who holds a double-digit lead over Vice President Al Gore in the latest polls, didn't miss a chance to show off his more-inclusive stance.

The son of former President George Bush eagerly greeted many of the African-American delegates, scores of Black schoolchildren, and even embraced Black Democrats like Philadelphia's Mayor John Street shortly after he arrived in the city. "Because the 2000 presidential election will likely be very close, the Black vote will play a pivotal role, particularly in swing states," says Eddie N. Williams, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. "Blacks comprise a significant voting bloc in Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Louisiana, Ohio, New Jersey, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Tennessee many of the states won by Bill Clinton in 1996, but are likely to be strongly contested by George W. Bush this year."

Throughout the convention held at the First Union Center, Blacks, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans were highlighted.

Republicans hope the convention will, at the very least, add confusion to what has been a simple choice for a nation of Blacks who have almost exclusively voted Democratic for the last 40 years. Supporting Republicans is nothing new for Blacks. For generations after the Civil War, Blacks voted overwhelmingly Republican, the party of Lincoln. It was only during Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal that Blacks began to switch allegiance to the Democratic Party. By the 1960s, Blacks were voting almost exclusively Democratic.

But with the new Republican push to attract Blacks, questions loom large as the Democrats prepare for their national convention in Los Angeles. African-American delegates like Beaverton, OR-resident Jacqueline Stovall think this time Republicans are sincere. "I think that George Bush would be a president who would lead," she said as she proudly displayed her"Bush 2000" sign. "Republicans offer Blacks the freedom to think for themselves. Democrats spend a lot of time telling Blacks what they can and cannot do. Republicans don't do that."

During his speech to the delegates on the convention floor, Colin Powell, who is rumored to be in line to become Secretary of State if Bush is elected, warned his fellow Republicans that their inclusive stance must be more than a few evenings of made-for-television speeches. "The party must follow Governor Bush's lead and reach out to minority communities and particularly the African-American community--and not just during an election-year campaign," the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said. "It must be a sustained effort. It must be every day. It must be for real."

In his acceptance speech at the convention, Bush, who a month earlier delivered a message of diversity to members of the NAACP, expressed his desire for equal access to opportunity for all Americans. "Single moms struggling to feed the kids and pay the rent. Immigrants starting a hard life in a new world. Children without fathers in neighborhoods where gangs seem like friendship, where drugs promise peace, and where sex, sadly, seems like the closest thing to belonging. We are their country, too. And each of us share in its promise, or that promise is diminished for all...," Bush said. "When these problems aren't confronted, it builds a wall within our nation. On one side are wealth and technology, education and ambition. On the other side of the wall are poverty and prison, addiction and despair. And my fellow Americans, we must tear down that wall. Big government is not the answer. But the alternative to bureaucracy is not indifference. It is to put conservative values and conservative ideas into the thick of the fight for justice and opportunity. This is what I mean by compassionate conservatism. And on this ground we will govern our nation."