Blacks at one time were almost all Republican voters. If you look at Blacks who served in Congress, they were all Republicans until 1935. So from the year 1832 to 1935, all Black Congressmen were Republicans. The reason is obvious, the GOP freed the slaves.
Then the democrats gave us Jim Crow in the South, as the migration of blacks headed north into major cities that later became dominated by the DNC and slowly turned their vote towards Democrats.
en.wikipedia.org
Interestingly, Thomas Jefferson had a dim view of major cities due to the corruption in them, but also because a major plague was ravaging major cities during his time as well, which took the life of his wife. And looking at how Covid ravaged New York city, the worst carnage in the US, it's hard to argue against him. But Jefferson was also very concerned about the corruption within major cities.
“The mobs of great cities,” he wrote, “add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution.” Those are tough words that are not acceptable today, but no doubt widely felt.
He called big cities “pestilential to the morals, the health, and the liberties of man…. When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as in Europe.”
Governing Magazine ran a nice summary earlier this year with more on Jefferson’s views on cities.
Jefferson’s views about cities were not embraced by the nation for 230 years, but that may be changing. Most of his other views were held sacred, but that, tragically, is also changing. Time will soon tell which ones prevail.
Jefferson's views about cities were not embraced by the nation for 230 years, but that may be changing. Most of his other views were held sacred, but that, sadly, is also changing. Time will soon tell which ones prevail.
wirepoints.org