ABSTRACT
Richard Hatcher was elected mayor of Gary, Indiana, and Carl Stokes won the mayoralty of Cleveland. By 2003, almost one third of large American cities had African American or Hispanic mayors serving in office. The 1999 election of African American John Street in Philadelphia is another clear example of a racially polarized election. By the time of the election, the city had become a majority-minority city, with the white population falling to approximately 45 percent of the total population. The pattern of majority-minority cities being much more likely to elect minority mayors is clear evidence of the continuing significance of race in urban electoral politics. In many contexts, racial identity politics makes sense as a stage in a long term process of minority mobilization and political incorporation. Even when the rules of electoral competition are free and fair, the electoral market place can be dominated by political monopolies.
