The effect of black congressional representation on political participation

The election of African Americans to Congress is a primary achievement of t he post-civil lights transition from protest to politics. I evaluate the li nk between black congressional representation and political engagement, as measured by voting participation. There are two related objectives. Constru ct a broader model of participation that takes into account a key component of the political environment since the civil fights era, and more fully ap preciate the political significance of minority officeholding by considerin g its nonpolicy, consequences. Using precinct data from eight midterm elect ions, I demonstrate that the election of blacks to Congress negatively affe cts white political involvement and only, rarely, increases political engag ement among African Americans.