To survive, Republicans figure they need a 15% share
"Black people need the Republican Party to compete for us so that we have real alternatives ... The Republican Party needs black people if it is ever to compete for national office."
That claim of mutual interest was made last week before 155 members of the Republican National Committee, all but four of them white, at Washington's Mayflower Hotel. The speaker was no party functionary but the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Chicago's flamboyant preacher of black activism. Jackson is a far cry from the usual G.O.P. orator, but his call for closer ties between blacks and the G.O.P. comes at a time when the party is looking for ways to woo black voters.
Party Chairman Bill Brock, a former Tennessee Senator, launched the effort after returns from the last presidential election showed that Democrat Jimmy Carter had won an overwhelming 90% of black votes. Carter outpolled Gerald Ford by 1.7 million votes overall; his margin among blacks was 4.7 million votes. As Jackson told his Republican audience:
"Hands that picked cotton in 1966 did pick the President in 1976, and could very well be the difference in 1980."
To improve on the dismal G.O.P. performance, Brock hired a firm of black political consultants in Columbus, Ga., promoted the appointment of blacks to organize Southern states for the G.O.P. and visited Georgia and Mississippi to see what else could be done. Last November two top officials of the Mississippi Republican Party created a stir by making an unprecedented appearance at the state's convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. "We're not likely to attract a large number of blacks," concedes Kansas Senator (and former G.O.P. chairman) Robert Dole, "but we can attract substantial numbers." Brock says he hopes to garner 15% or more of the black vote—enough to swing close elections. Notes he: "There's no alternative. To survive, we must do it."