support for the following election years. Jackson may have acted as a means to make anew “the covenant” between the Democratic Party and black America like he intended, but blacks still were not satisfied with their party in 1988, 65 percent saying that they would support an independent bid by Jackson (Tate 1994: 66). The Jackson bid for president opened new alternatives for blacks and allowed them to realize that they had more choices, but as far as black leadership went, they didn’t have anywhere to go with it, because black leaders would not move to or support an independent or third party for fear of becoming even more marginalized within the political sphere (Tate 1994:71). So black Democrats are left to work within the party to achieve political power and clout.The Great DivideBlack voters and lobbyists did not have the wealth needed to keep governmental attention, but they had the numbers, yet it still was not enough, because like the pre Roosevelt Republican party, the Democrats had learned to count on black votes. The black vote has become loyal to the Democratic Party because of the many accomplishments of the Civil Rights Movement (quite a number of which were symbolic achievements only), yet it has been marginalized. They no longer felt the need to appeal to blacks because they had done what needed to be done, - accomplished social equality, put a ban on discrimination and racism – party loyalty was only a logical conclusion. In addition, the African American community has become divided within itself. The majority of African-Americans remains Democratic, but there is a growing divide within the community. As Katherine Tate points out in From Protest to Politics the black community does not actually divide conservatism or liberalism along the boundaries of class or age or education, but rather along the boundaries of race-consciousness and race identification – the idea of a common f...
