Conventional wisdom holds that if the Republican Party is to make inroads into the Black community, it will be through the younger generation. The prevailing thinking is that the farther removed African-Americans are from the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the more likely they are to support conservative political causes.

In preparing to moderate a recent town hall meeting on the 2002 election and voter empowerment in Jacksonville, Fla., I came across some interesting statistics about the voting patterns of young people. That data shows that, at least in this instance, conventional wisdom is neither conventional nor wise.

The Voter News Service, which conducts exit polls for major media organizations, showed that in 2000, Blacks favored Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, over Republican George W. Bush 90 percent to 8 percent, with 1 percent going to Ralph Nader and 1 percent to others.

African-Americans aged 60 or older, voted for Gore 87 percent of the time and 11 percent cast ballots for Bush in the last presidential election. Blacks 45-59 years old supported Gore over Bush by a margin of 89 percent to 9 percent. African-Americans in the 30 to 44 age group went for Gore 91 percent to 7 percent. And the youngest group—18 to 29 years old—voted for Gore over Bush 91 percent to 8 percent.

What this shows is that rather than being conservative, younger voters tend to be more progressive than older adults. And this should come as no surprise. After all, it was students—both high school and college—who were the backbone of many of the civil rights protests of the 1960s. In Birmingham, the marchers included elementary students.

To make sure the 2000 election was no fluke, I studied the previous presidential election as well. In 1996, African-Americans 60 and older gave the GOP 16 percent of their vote. Blacks 45 to 59 voted for Republican Bob Dole at a rate of 12 percent. Only 11 percent of African-Americans 44 and younger voted for Dole.

Again, the pattern was the same. Young people are simply not as susceptible to Republican dogma as conventional wisdom would have us believe. After the town hall meeting in Florida sponsored by the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and People for the American Way Foundation, young people told me that they want to be active in politics but not in a condescending way.

That means it’s not enough for older adults to tip their hats in the direction of young voters. Rather, the young people must be included in all aspects of the political process, including being supported for public office. In short, they want to be full partners.
As we saw in the last mayoral election in Detroit, when young African-Americans find a candidate closer to their age and vision of the future, they will turn out on election day in impressive numbers. That was the key to the election of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. The new mayor didn’t start at the top. He was already serving in the Michigan House by the time he was elected mayor at the age of 31.

In addition to paying attention to the youth vote next fall, we need to pay special attention to the gender gap at the polls.

The 1966 presidential election saw Black women and Black men going to the polls at roughly the same rate. In 2000, however, the exit polls showed that African-American women represented 60 percent of the Black vote and Black men represented only 40 percent.

When Black men do go the polls, they are twice as likely to vote for a Republican presidential candidate than for the Democratic nominee. In 2000, only 6 percent of Black women voted for George W. Bush while 12 percent of Black men supported the former Texas governor.

In addition to galvanizing the youth vote, we must find a way to expand the number of African-American women going to the polls. And before Black males go, they should take a page from the sisters, who are clearly more politically astute.