Devolution and Black State Legislators

Extract

Devolution and Black State Legislators. By Tyson King-Meadows and Thomas F. Schaller. Albany: SUNY Press, 2006. 302p. $85.00 cloth, $29.95 paper.

It has been nearly a half century since the Civil Rights era, and there are today hundreds of black state legislators in the United States. Until now, however, no comprehensive examination of their contemporary legislative influence has been conducted. The need for such a study is clear, and Tyson King-Meadows and Thomas Schaller's research—part of the SUNY Series in African American Studies—is rooted in an interesting set of political trends. Since the Reagan Revolution of the early 1980s and the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994, devolution (or new federalism) has pushed much power and many resources (though some would argue not enough resources) to the states. At the same time, since the early 1980s the number of black state legislators has increased substantially. The authors want to know whether these two trends have resulted in greater real (as opposed to symbolic or descriptive) representation of African American interests in state policy. They suggest that the answer generally is that it has not.