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BLACK POLITICAL ACTION '72
STOKES

the total population and an even higher percentage of Democratic voters. The most creditable data we have from the 1968 general election indicates that 85 percent of the Black Americans who voted cast their presidential ballots for the nominee of the Democratic party. In 1964 when 94 percent of all Blacks voted Democratic, Blacks comprised only 2 percent of the entire national convention. When Democrats assembled in Chicago for the 1968 convention, thirteen states and three territories still had no Black delegates or alternatives whatsoever, and fifteen had no voting delegates. Another eleven states had only one Black member, and six more had three or less." Ohio ranked near the bottom of the list for Black participation by carrying only 3 percent of Black delegates to the convention. Even the state of Mississippi carried a delegation to the convention that was 50 percent Black. This same discriminatory situation was equally acute at the Republican national convention. Out of the 2,666 delegates alternates who assembled in Miami, only 76 or 2.4 percent were Black. Of these, only 26, or 1.9 percent, were actually voting delegates.

These facts clearly say to me and to other Black people that there is nothing inherently responsive about the label Democrat, nor the label Republican. Black people can ill afford "belonging" if the only thing they get out of "belonging" is to be able to say "I belong." 

In the words of one of our outstanding congressmen, Bill Clay of Missouri, Black people have no alternative except to adopt the political philosophy that "we have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just permanent interests." The young people, black and white, are going to be testing the system next year as it has never been tested before. They can be with us. They certainly won't be with the Democratic party unless we are there to welcome them into it.

In this process of developing and expanding our meaningful participation in the political processes, I would suggest that you look to those who have had experience and who have demonstrated political and organizational success. This is not a game for the personally ambitious. This is not the civil rights struggle repeating itself. Politics is tough. Good rhetoric, good looks, don't mean you can get elected dogcatcher. And don't round up a lot of entertainers, football players and performing artists--God love 'em--and permit them to make political decisions. They can help you raise funds by giving a concert, but unless you have the folks registered to vote, unless you know how to get the others out on election day and know that the ones you get out will vote right, unless you know how to count pre

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