Black Politicians See New Landscape in L.A. Politics
In the final moments of a celebration to mark his 80th birthday, Assemblyman Mervyn M. Dymally (D-Compton) looked out over an emptying hotel ballroom and offered a thought about the future of black politics in Los Angeles.
"There are no safe black districts anymore," he said. "We have to look at politics differently now."
Much has changed in the 44 years since Dymally won his first Assembly seat in a stretch of south Los Angeles County that is home to one of the largest concentrations of black voters west of the Mississippi.
A steady migration of African Americans to outlying areas and a massive influx of Latinos have eroded the traditional breadbasket of black political strength from Crenshaw to Compton, and these demographic changes have taken their toll.
Nationwide, the number of African Americans holding public office has increased sixfold -- from 1,500 to 9,500 -- since 1970, according to figures kept by the Joint Center for Political Studies, a Washington think tank.
In California, the number of black officeholders was 105 in 1970, came close to 300 in the mid-1980s -- a political heyday for African Americans -- and then began a steady decline to the current level of about 230, said David Bositis, a senior policy analyst at the center.
The traditional "safe seats" for African Americans in Los Angeles County -- three on the Los Angeles City Council, three in Congress, one on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and a handful in the Legislature -- have so far continued to be held by blacks and are not expected to change hands anytime soon, due in part to a lag in Latino voter registration.
But in the face of demographic shifts, some African American hopefuls seem to be following Dymally's advice to "look at politics differently" -- they are running and winning office outside historically black enclaves.
Black mayors now wield gavels in Palm Springs, Manhattan Beach and Lancaster. Culver City has an African American school board president. Blacks sit on city councils in Gardena, Lawndale, Lake Forest, San Bernardino and Moreno Valley. And Signal Hill -- where the 1981 death of Cal State Long Beach football player Ron Settles while in police custody once spurred racial tensions -- has an African American on the City Council.
"If our voices are to be heard, we have to legislate on behalf of a broad-based group, which means every place we run we are in the minority," said Palm Springs Mayor Ron Oden, who is black and openly gay. "I am different, but I don't run or hide from my difference."
