Reminiscent of Barack Obama’s stunning presidential victory in the 2008 presidential election, Democrat Doug Jones scored a stunning victory in Alabama on Tuesday night by defeating controversial Republican Judge Roy Moore. And, like Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential victory, the Black vote was pivotal in the result.
96 percent of registered blacks voted
Alabama, infamous for its rabid acts of segregation and racist policies towards African Americans in the 1950s and 1960s, voted heavily for Obama in 2008 and 2012. Their support for the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton slipped in 2016, when Donald Trump won the state by some 28 percent, However, in Tuesday’s elections, according, to the election data, 96 percent of the 30 percent registered Black voters in Alabama voted for Doug Jones,
Black women vote
The votes of Black women were particularly strong, with 98 percent of the black women who voted voting for Jones, outdoing 93 percent of black men who also voted for the Democrat.
Amazingly, based on the push for the Black vote for Doug Jones, the black vote on Tuesday was higher than the massive turn out Obama received in 2008 and 2012.
High profile support
Notable black Democrats like Senator Corey Booker, former Massachusetts Governor Duval Patrick, and robo calls by Obama, played a significant role in getting out the Black vote. Other prominent African Americans, including former NBA star Charles Barclay, was also instrumental in getting out the vote.
Doug Jones is famous among African Americans in Alabama for the prosecution of Ku Klux Klan members, and the perpetuators responsible bombing a church in the state in the 1960s that killed four young black girls.
In Tuesdays elections eleven Alabama counties with large African American communities went from red (Republican) in 2016, to blue (Democrats).
Jamaican-American votes
Underlying the saying that “Jamaicans can be found anywhere in the world” the black votes in Alabama included Jamaican-Americans. One of these voters was Delores Matthews, who relocated from New Jersey to Birmingham, Alabama some 12 years ago as a teacher, after migrating to the US from Jamaica in 1985.
An elated Matthews told CNW she “proudly voted for Jones” and would have voted for him “even if he was 20 percent down in the polls.” She said a vote for Jones, was a vote “against immorality, prejudice, injustice, and those who misuse Christianity.” She said her vote was also a vote for the power of black women, as she carries the words of the late Coretta King, wife of slain Civil Rights’ leader Coretta Scott King in her heart. These words were “Women, If the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe you must become its soul.” “I firmly believe women, and particularly black women, will make a very major change in America, very soon,” Matthews said.
