1. In my view, the premier figure in this regard was Gosnell, Harold F., whose Negro Politicians (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1935)CrossRefGoogle Scholar was far ahead of the curve. Gosnell deserves our respect, as well, as one of the earliest political scientists to take seriously, in his other works, to quantitative methodological innovation.

2. Comments in Herskovits, Melville J. (ed.), Interdisciplinary Aspects of Negro Studies, Washington, DC: American Council of Learned Societies, Bulletin No. 12, 1941.Google Scholar

3. The premise appears to have been even stronger in sociology, psychology, and philosophy as one infers from Mecklin, John, Democracy and Race Friction, New York: Macmillan, 1914 Google Scholar, especially Chapter II on “Race Traits.” The notes in that chapter are particularly instructive.

4. Walton, Hanes, McLemore, Leslie Burl, and Gray, C. Vernon, “The Pioneering Books on Black Politics and the Political Science Community, 1903–1965.” Review Essay, National Political Science Review, II (1990): 196–218.Google Scholar

5. Bobo, Lawrence and Gilliam, Franklin D. Jr., “Race, Sociopolitical Participation, and Black Empowerment,” American Political Science Review 84:2 (June 1990): 377–393 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Paula D. McClain and Albert K. Kamig, “Black and Hispanic Socio-economic and Political Competition,” ibid., 535–545.

6. Persons, Georgia, “Blacks in State and Local Government: Progress and Constraints,” The State of Black America, New York: National Urban League, 1987, 167–192.Google Scholar