This research aims to understand how black descriptive representation comes about and why black descriptive representation matters, at the state level. What distinguishes this research from previous works is its simultaneous analysis of different forms of descriptive representation at the subnational level, rather than in Congress or at the local level. This research argues black descriptive representation can take four different forms: dyadic, collective, parity and caucus. An important and understudied mechanism for black descriptive representation is the formation of state legislative black caucuses and their potential to influence policy and behavior. Subnational descriptive representation need not have negative tradeoffs for black substantive policy representation, as has been found with minority representation in Congress (Lublin 1997). Black representation is akin to a diamond, and looking at it from only one perspective is similar to judging a diamond only by its color, instead of also judging it by its hardness and fluorescence, as well as its clarity, shape, and size. In short, this work recognizes the multifaceted nature of black representation in the states. This research defines a theory of black descriptive representation as taking four different forms: dyadic, collective, parity, and caucus. Dyadic descriptive representation is the one-to-one relationship between a legislator and a voter, and heretofore it has received the most scholarly attention. This one-to-one relationship may occur between a minority citizen and their elected representation in Congress, in the state legislature, or in local government (Bobo and Gilliam 1990; Barreto, Segura, and Woods 2004), but this work focuses on dyadic descriptive representation in Congress. Although some argue that dyadic descriptive representation leads to better policy outcomes for blacks (Whitby 1997; Hutchings, McClerking, and Charles 2004), and encourages blacks to engage in politics (Gay 2001; Gay 2002; Tate 2003; Banducci, Donovan, and Karp 2004; Griffin and Keane 2006), others argue that dyadic descriptive representation is not only unnecessary to implement policies beneficial to blacks (Swain 1993), but also that it may actually lead to poorer policy outcomes for the group (Lublin 1997). That is, there is a tradeoff between increasing the number of black representatives (descriptive representation) and passing policies beneficial to the group (substantive representation). Collective descriptive representation is the relationship that an individual has with elected officials with whom they share a group identity. For blacks, collective descriptive representation may include the percentage of black lawmakers in the state legislature or Congress. An argument developed in this research is that collective descriptive representation in the state legislature, a topic rarely studied by scholars of race and ethnicity, may maximize both descriptive and substantive representation, and as a result, it may encourage black political behavior and lead to better policy outcomes for the group. Both parity and caucus descriptive representation are extensions of collective descriptive representation in the state legislature. Parity descriptive representation examines the extent to which the percentage of blacks in the state legislature is equal to a state's black population and is a measure of racial equity in electoral representation. Caucus descriptive representation is the formal organization of black lawmakers within a state legislature. Almost no published research has empirically studied legislative black caucuses in the states (for an exception see King-Meadows and Schaller 2006). Since the four forms of descriptive representation are distinct, the expectation is that they be caused by different factors. Moreover, this research builds on previous work by measuring and defining collective descriptive representation in all fifty states and is the first research to argue that state legislative black caucuses shape political behavior.

Le mouvement initié le 6 mars 1957 par l’indépendance du Ghana de la Grande-Bretagne balaya l’ensemble de l’Afrique australe jusqu’à culminer en 1960 – « année de l’Afrique ». La décolonisation et la résultante émergence d’une troisième voie dans le conflit idéologique entre les Etats-Unis et l’URSS provoqua l’irruption du continent africain sur l’échiquier politique international. Parallèlement, dans le Sud des Etats-Unis, les Noirs luttaient pour obtenir la reconnaissance de leurs droits civiques. Dès lors, les connections entre ce combat et la lutte internationale pour la décolonisation apparurent, échos modernes aux liens déjà tissés plus tôt entre les Afro-Américains et leur continent d’origine. Le changement dans les relations raciales s’accompagna par un regain de conservatisme aussi bien aux Etats-Unis qu’en Afrique subsaharienne. L’élection du républicain Nixon en 1968 faisait écho au maintien de régimes dirigés par la minorité blanche en Afrique du Sud, en Rhodésie et dans l’ensemble de l’Afrique lusophone. C’est dans ce contexte « globalisé », où politiques intérieure et internationale, race et nation commencèrent à fusionner que les relations raciales émergent sur la scène internationale comme enjeu politique. Les Etats-Unis durent faire face à la ségrégation et à la discrimination dans leur propre pays ainsi qu’à la décolonisation à l’étranger. L’émergence des relations raciales en tant qu’enjeu global se posait comme un obstacle aux tentatives américaines de construire une coalition internationale et multiraciale contre le communisme. L’émergence d’un corps politique noir américain à la fin des années 1960 dans ce contexte pose la question des Représentants afro-américains au Congrès et de la politique africaine des Etats-Unis. Se situant dans ce contexte, cette thèse examine le rôle que le Représentant Charles C. Diggs a joué dans les politiques de Washington vis-à-vis de l’Afrique subsaharienne de 1955 à 1980. Représentant démocrate du Michigan, « Mr. Africa » devint le premier Afro-Américain nommé à la Commission des Affaires étrangères de la Chambre basse en 1959. Il présida, sous l’Administration Nixon, la Sous-commission aux Affaires africaines, orchestra la fondation du lobby parlementaire noir, le Congressional Black Caucus, en 1971 et fut l’architecte de TransAfrica – un lobby non-institutionnel visant à sensibiliser les Américains à la situation raciale en Afrique – en 1977. De par sa carrière, ses engagements politiques et sa nature même de Représentant noir, Charles Diggs a incarné une vision transnationaliste des relations raciales. Notre propos vise à analyser le rôle de Diggs dans la reconnaissance nationale de problèmes raciaux globaux à travers sa définition de ces problèmes en des termes transgressant le simple intérêt racial. / The movement which began on 6th March 1957 with Ghanaian independence from Great Britain swept through the rest of southern Africa, culminating in 1960, hailed the ‘Year of Africa’. Decolonization and the resultant emergence of a third way in the ideological conflict between the United States and the USSR led to the sudden appearance of the African continent on the international political stage. At the same time, in the southern United States, blacks fought for recognition of their civil rights. From this point on, contemporary resonances of the links already woven by Afro-Americans with their continent of origin allowed the connections of their combat with the international struggle for decolonization to become apparent. Changes in race relations were accompanied by a rise in conservatism as much in the United States as in sub-Saharan Africa. The election of the Republican Nixon in 1968 was mirrored in the preservation of regimes of minority white rule in South Africa, Rhodesia and the whole of Portuguese speaking Africa.It is in this ‘globalised’ context, in which domestic and international politics, race and nation began to fuse that race relations emerged on the international scene as a political issue. The United States had to confront segregation and discrimination in their own country, as well as decolonization abroad. The emergence of race relations as a global issue acted as an obstacle to American efforts to construct a multiracial international coalition against communism. The emergence of a Black American political body at the end of the 1960s raises, within this context, the question of the status of Afro-American Representatives at Congress and the African politics of the United States as a whole. Rooted in such a context, this thesis examines the role that Representative Charles C. Diggs played in Washington politics in relation to sub-Saharan Africa from 1955 to 1980. Democrat Representative for Michigan, Diggs, later to be known as ‘Mr Africa’, became, in 1959, the first Afro-American appointed to the Committee of Foreign Affairs of the lower house. Under the Nixon administration, he presided over the Subcommittee on Africa, orchestrated the foundation of the black parliamentary lobby the Congressional Black Caucus in 1971, and was the architect in 1977 of TransAfrica, a non-institutional lobby aiming to raise American awareness of the racial situation in Africa. Through his career, his political engagements, and the very fact of being a black Representative, Charles Diggs incarnated a transnationalist vision of race relations. Our intention is to analyze Diggs’ role in the national recognition of global racial problems, through the terms he used to define them, terms which exceeded straightforward racial interest.