The color of representation

the long version

Kenny J. Whitby explores how African-Americans are represented in Congress by focusing on the influence of African-American constituents on the policy-making behavior of members of the U.S. House of Representatives. The author uses the topics of voting rights, civil rights, and racial based redistricting to see how members of Congress respond to the interests of black voters. Whitby's analysis weighs the relative effect of district characteristics such as partisanship, regional location, degree of urbanization, and the size of the black constituency on the voting behavior of House members over time. Whitby explores how black interests are represented in formal, descriptive, symbolic, and substantive terms. Whitby finds changes in party and regional support for civil rights legislation over time, differences in support for final passage and for amendments to civil rights and voting rights legislation, and the significant differences race per se makes in representing black interests. He shows the political trade-offs involved in redistricting to increase the number of African-Americans in Congress.