0;interest in cultivating lily-white Republicanism in the South than in strengthening the party’s traditional ties to blacks.” (Weiss 1984: 5).Still, the black community remained with the Republican Party, because to stay seemed the lesser of two evils. Politically, they weren’t strong enough a force to gain political attention for themselves on a national level, because the majority of blacks still could not vote (Weiss 1984: 39), and as Robert R. Church said “the Republican Party offers us little. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY OFFERS US NOTHING” (Weiss 1984: 12). So although disenchanted, blacks stayed with the Republican Party on a passive basis, because they felt they had nowhere else to go. By 1932 that would begin to change as the Republican Party left them struggling economically with no way out.The 1928 Hoover presidency had been devastating to blacks, as he demonstrated no care or concern for them, in addition to his inability to adequately deal with the economic burden of the Depression. Although ultimately blacks began to shift parties due to economic concerns, his policy to displace African-Americans from their jobs and workplaces “to reduce unemployment among whites” was unacceptable, as blacks suffered disproportionately from the strains of economic crisis, especially in places like Baltimore where blacks made up only 17 percent of the population, but constituted 31.5 percent of the unemployed. By his terms end, blacks were suffering, but still did not want to leave the “party of Lincoln” behind, because “no matter how far short of black expectations Hoover had fallen, his was the party responsible for the [13th, 14th and 15th] Amendments, and the Democrats were the party of disfranchisement.” (Weiss 1984: 18). So although blacks began to shift democratic, in 1932 they had the lowest number of defectors to the Democratic party than any other Republican group,...
