ABSTRACT
In the 1980s and the 1990s African Americans lived in interesting times. Many racial problems continued to be unresolved, and even worsened, yet there were also some advances. In political terms blacks achieved electoral success unknown since the 1860s and the 1870s. In 1971 black congressmen of all political persuasions founded the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), which became an important pressure group campaigning on racial issues. In 1994 there were over 40 black congressmen, including Carol Mosely Brown, an Illinois Democrat who in 1992 became the first African American woman to be elected to the US Senate. Success at national level was repeated at the grassroots with the election of numerous blacks to local political office. Most spectacular was the election of black mayors in leading cities throughout the United States. These included Harold Washington in Chicago, David Dinkins in New York City, Thomas Bradley in Los Angeles, Wilson Good in Philadelphia, Andrew Young in Atlanta and Marion Barry in Washington, DC.
