10/07/2026
‘When African Americans took over cities, legislative districts, and other jurisdictions previously occupied by white political machines, their vanquished opposition and disgruntled white citizens fed allegations of mismanagement and corruption to the local press and law enforcement. The (almost uniformly white) press corps often printed these accusations, or their own, in the hopes of reproducing the scoops of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Few did. They did, however, succeed in instigating scores of government investigations of black elected officials. Though these investigations seldom ended in convictions, they disrupted careers, eroded public confidence in the targeted officials, and reinforced the racial distrust and animosity already existent in U.S. politics.‘“
Black people have a complicated challenge in regard to the responsibility of holding Black civic and elected leaders accountable. On one hand, there are Black elected and civic leaders that leverage their connection to the Black community (however real or imagined) as fuel for their own personal fin...
