ABSTRACT
Chapter 5 examines the transition from the eras of civil rights struggle to that of racial politics. As mentioned in chapter four, blacks in the nation made the transition “from protest to politics” during the era of the civil rights struggle. By using mobilization strategies that depended heavily on black unity and biracial coalitions, black candidates won citywide, district, national, and state elections. Black mayoral and at-large candidates were defeated in Memphis, however, because of a lack of confidence that they could elect a black mayor, an inability to form coalitions in a conservative Southern city, and institutional factors which diluted the black vote.
