ABSTRACT
The historic 2008 election threatened to continue the tradition of the media rendering the African American candidates and their political vehicles as nonentities to end up declaring that Senator Barack Obama represents the death of African Americans politics. The two historical studies of African American politics are highly recommended to students of race and politics and African American politics. Professor Omar H. Ali of Vanderbilt University has written a very fine scholarly, topical, and timely book. Writing in the foreword, Eric Foner traces the history of black participation in third parties and in other forms of political activism. His narrative reveals the complex dynamics that have shaped the sometimes problematic relationships between African Americans and third party movements. Professor Charles Lumpkins, a historian at Pennsylvania State University, has written a book that analyzes African American political independents and partisans and their interaction and relationship in a single urban area, East St. Louis, Illinois.
