ABSTRACT
Citizenship as a civic virtue works for democratic communities. Citizenship status and civic virtue are related to the accumulation of property, where capital is a defining marker for legitimate power. Prosperity as a premise of community-as-citizenry reveals that some property accumulated by the founders and their heirs entailed possession of other people. The chapter focuses on the people and their descendants who sought citizenry through electoral power and advocacy, and examines the political persona of the "dishonored citizenry" of black women seeking political power to benefit their communities. Concepts of community and citizenship or community-as-citizenship are influenced by government treatment of those vulnerable to mental illness and poverty, and police violence. During February and March in 2016, black maternal grief was displayed prominently as blackwomen who lost children to police violence or vigilantes made presidential endorsements to only one candidate: Hillary Clinton. US electoral democracy values stable and predictable structures.
