The partisan balance among Black adults in the United States is
little changed over the last several decades, but it shifted substantially in the mid-20th century. In the 1930s, Black adults were just as likely
to support the Republican Party as the Democratic Party. The share of Black adults who affiliated with the GOP started to decline in the 1940s, particularly after President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat, issued an
executive order to desegregate the U.S. military in 1948. This shift was solidified after the passage of the Civil Rights Act under Democratic President Lyndon Johnson in 1964.
Today, only about one-in-ten Black adults identify with or lean toward the Republican Party. And in a Pew Research Center survey in October, only 4% of Black registered voters said they would
vote for the Republican candidate for the U.S. House seat in their district, while 69% said they would back the Democratic candidate.
When it comes to their views on race, Black Republicans differ from Black Democrats in one key way: They tend to
support individualistic approaches to addressing racial inequality, while Black Democrats tend to support institutional approaches. For example, Black Republicans and those who lean to the GOP are more likely than Black Democrats and Democratic leaners (59% vs. 41%) to say that the bigger problem for Black people is racist acts committed by individual people, as opposed to racism in our laws. And they are less likely than Black Democrats to support complete institutional overhauls to the prison system (35% vs. 57%), policing (29% vs. 52%) and the judicial process (35% vs. 50%) to ensure fair treatment of Black people.
