ABSTRACT
This chapter explores theoretical, empirical, and interpretive levels, the nature, scope, and significance of the recurrent phenomena by examining the articles presented in the oldest disciplinary journals: The Political Science Quarterly and The American Political Science Review. It suggests that some political scientists do not study race and the African-American political experience because they see research efforts as a form of social danger. The chapter explains a systematic, chronological search through each volume of the selected journals to determine the number of single-focus and multi-foci articles that dealt with African Americans in the political system. It analyses a century of articles to construct a picture of how the discipline has dealt with the subject of race. The four common foci of journal inquiry are suffrage, school desegregation, political participation, and public policy. The articles reveal that African Americans do have a distinct belief system and that they relate to emotionally charged political slogans differently than whites.
