ABSTRACT
Blacks exhibit higher rates of public, and especially, private religiosity than do whites, and are more orthodox in belief. This religious involvement and orthodoxy has important political implications in its own right. This chapter discusses some results from the National Black Election Study, conducted as a supplement to the regular American National Election Study in 1984. Black Americans voted in overwhelming numbers for Jesse Jackson in Democratic primaries. After the 1988 general election, exit polls revealed that nearly 90% of black voters supported Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis. Many black churches are institutions with important political resources. The private religious behavior of blacks is also different from that of whites. Partisanship is not the only political attitude on which blacks differ from whites; blacks are also much more likely to call themselves liberals. On election day some 90% of blacks cast their ballots for Michael Dukakis.
