Institutionalizing the Struggle for Black Political Representation: the Founding of the Joint Center for Political Studies

Black political representation in the United States has historically been viewed as a radical and, at times, threatening endeavor. This perception dates to Reconstruction (1865–1877) when Black men gained the right to vote and hold public office following the Civil War and the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. During this period, Black elected officials emerged in unprecedented numbers at the local, state, and national levels. Notably, Hiram Revels of Mississippi became the first Black U.S. Senator in 1870, and Blanche K. Bruce followed shortly after.  In the South, Black lawmakers were elected to state legislatures. They held positions as mayors, sheriffs, and other officials, helping to craft policies that expanded civil rights, public education, and labor protections.

However, this progress was met with fierce resistance. White vigilante, populist groups like the Ku Klux Klan engaged in intimidation, violence, and political terror, while Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws, poll taxes, literacy tests, and grandfather clauses to disenfranchise Black voters.  By the early 20th century, Black political power had been almost entirely dismantled through systemic oppression, racial terrorism, and legal disenfranchisement.  The violent backlash to Black political gains demonstrated the deep entrenchment of white supremacy in American institutions and signaled that Black political empowerment would be an ongoing, contested struggle.

The 1960s: Civil Rights Victories, Repression, and the Need for Political Strategy

The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s sought to reclaim the political rights stripped away post-reconstruction.  It was a decade of nonviolent and militant struggle, with organizations such as the SCLC, NAACP, CORE, SNCC, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the Black Panther Party, the Nation of Islam, and the National Urban League, each advocating different approaches to Black liberation.

While the civil rights movement of the mid-20^th century is often remembered for its nonviolent victories, the 1960s were also a period of extreme violence.  The 1963 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing, which killed Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denis Mcnair, and the assassination of NAACP leader Medgar Evers all the same year as the March on Washington highlighted the life-threatening dangers of pushing for Black civil rights.  Malcolm X, killed in 1965; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., assassinated in 1968; and Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, murdered in his bed during a police raid in 1969, are a few other highly recognized names of the thousands of Black activists facing state repression,  imprisonment, and police brutality.

Meanwhile, Black communities responded to their continued marginalization with an estimated 700 urban rebellions throughout the decade—acts of resistance against economic exclusion, police violence, and systemic oppression.  As the movement transitioned from protest to policy, a pressing question emerged: Could Black political power be sustained and expanded within America’s political institutions?

The 1970s: From Protest to Political Participation

The 1970s marked a shift in Black political strategy. Building on the gains of the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans began to focus on entering electoral politics as a means of advocacy and governance.  Malcolm X had once remarked, “If the Black man had ten like [Congressman Adam Clayton Powell] in Washington, I’d think about retiring.” The decade saw a surge in Black political leadership: Black elected officials rose from 72 in 1965 to 1,469 by 1970, and cities nationwide began electing Black mayors and congressional representatives.

The move to electoral politics in the 1960s and 1970s was one embraced by a wide swath of Black activists, from those singing We Shall Overcome in nonviolent protest to those raising their fists chanting Black Power.  In fact, the book written to define Black power, “Black Power: The Politics of Liberation” by Stokely Carmichael and Charles V. Hamilton, laid out much of the agenda that Black elected officials would focus on for the coming decades: a focus on overcoming institutional racism rather than individual racism; advancing electoral politics and the development of Black-led political institutions as an essential part of the Black freedom struggle, and a focus on the development of a Black political economy.  To this day, these aspects of the “politics of liberation” are central to the agenda of most Black elected officials, though through a reformist politic rather than a call for revolution.

The distinction between Black radical and Black reformist political action was regularly blurred, as could be seen in the successful mayoral campaign of the moderate Ken Gibson in Newark, New Jersey, openly supported by Black radicals and community activists who saw a Black mayor as an important step forward to ensure the police violence used to quell the 1967 Newark urban rebellion would not happen again.  Black professionals like Shirley Chisholm entered Congress in 1968, launched a historic presidential campaign in 1972, and garnered an endorsement by the Black Panther Party.  Even the more traditional civil rights struggle in the South utilized the more radical youth movement, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, to register to vote and help create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which challenged the white-dominated Democratic Party in the 1960s and sent Julian Bond to the Georgia legislature where he was initially denied his seat due to his opposition to the war in Vietnam.

In this environment, the Joint Center for Political Studies was founded in 1970 at Howard University. The Center was the idea of a task force created by the Metropolitan Applied Research Center, a nonprofit group created by psychologist Kenneth Clark.  He joined forces with Frank Reeves and Louis Martin, politically connected men who advised presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.  The Joint Center for Political Studies was a joint project of the Metropolitan Applied Research Center and Howard University. At the time, Howard had just witnessed radical student activism pushing the institution to become a true Black university. This activism reflected the broader transition of Black political thought: from grassroots struggle to institutional power.

The Founding of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

The Joint Center for Political Studies was the brainchild of Louis Martin, Frank Reeves, and Kenneth Clark—three highly influential Black professionals committed to integrating African Americans into American political life.  These men were insiders, in the tradition of Mary McLeod Bethune, who had advised President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his “Negro Cabinet,” not the outsider tradition represented by social-justice advocate Ida B. Wells.  They believed in leveraging electoral politics and policy analysis to secure Black progress within the American system.

• Louis Martin was a leading Black journalist, political strategist, and influential advisor to three U.S. presidents—John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Jimmy Carter. Often called the “godfather of Black politics,” Martin played a crucial role in shaping the Democratic Party’s outreach to Black voters during the Civil Rights era.  His work in the media and politics underscored the power of information in shaping public policy and mobilizing Black political engagement.
• Frank Reeves was a civil rights lawyer and strategist deeply involved in the fight against segregation and voter suppression. He was one of the first Black graduates of Harvard Law School.  Reeves served as a key legal advisor to the NAACP and worked with Thurgood Marshall to desegregate public schools.  Reeves also worked with Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, helping to negotiate the 1963 March on Washington and the 1968 Poor Peoples Campaign.  Reeves taught at the Howard University School of Law and co-founded the National Conference of Black Lawyers.
• Kenneth Clark, a psychologist and educator, was widely known for his groundbreaking research on racial segregation’s psychological effects. His famous “doll test” studies provided key evidence in the landmark Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education, which led to the desegregation of American schools.  Clark was deeply invested in the economic and political advancement of Black communities and believed that research-driven policy was essential to dismantling systemic racism.

Martin, Reeves, and Clark came together in the late 1960s at a pivotal moment in American history.  The Civil Rights Movement had secured major legislative victories, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but Black communities still faced significant economic and political challenges.  Many newly elected Black officials lacked access to the resources and policy expertise necessary to govern effectively.

Recognizing this gap, the three men envisioned an organization that would serve as a hub for research, policy analysis, and leadership development to support Black elected officials and policymakers.  They wanted to ensure that Black political leaders had access to data, policy expertise, and strategic guidance to create meaningful change in their communities.

In 1970, their vision became a reality with the founding of the Joint Center for Political Studies (later renamed the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies).  Established as a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institution, the Joint Center focused on advancing Black political power and economic opportunity through rigorous research and policy advocacy.

Major American institutions, such as universities and foundations, reacted to Martin Luther King’s assassination with investment in Black institutions. With an $820,000 grant from the Ford Foundation, the Joint Center was established as a nonpartisan think tank to train and support the growing number of Black elected officials.  It provided policy research, leadership training, and voter education programs to ensure that Black political representation translated into real power and tangible benefits for Black communities.

Building Black Political Infrastructure

The Joint Center quickly became a critical resource for Black policymakers at all levels of government.  Its early work focused on voter education, policy development, and leadership training for newly elected Black officials. The Center also provided research on issues such as voting rights, economic development, education policy, and healthcare—areas where Black communities were historically underserved.

One of the Center’s early successes was its role in helping Black mayors and legislators navigate the complexities of governance. As cities across the country began to elect more Black officials,, the Joint Center provided essential training on municipal budgeting, economic planning, and public administration.  This support helped ensure that Black political leaders were not only elected but that they were able to be effective in implementing policies that benefited their constituents.

In its first decade, during this time of African Americans working to institutionalize the struggle against institutional racism, the Joint Center for Political Studies supported the development of an array of Black organizations:

• The National Black Caucus of State Legislators (NBCSL) (1977)
• The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) (established in 1976 to provide research and policy support for the Congressional Black Caucus)
• The National Organization of Black County Officials (NOBCO) (founded in 1982 to advance Black leadership at the county level)
• The National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM) (founded in 1974, it is now called the African American Mayors Association. It serves as a platform for Black mayors to share strategies and policy solutions)
• The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) was founded in 1975 (as a result of Black journalists covering a Joint Center convention) due to the lack of Black representation in mainstream media.

These organizations helped ensure that Black elected officials at all levels of government had access to research, training, and networks to maximize their effectiveness.

The Joint Center grew to an independent entity, leaving Howard in 1976, and became the premier institution for Black political studies.  It published an annual census of Black elected officials, organized governance and municipal budgeting workshops, and developed programs like Operation Big Vote, a national effort to mobilize Black voter participation.  It also established the National Center for Black Civic Participation, ensuring grassroots organizations could connect to policy-making efforts.

At a time when white scholars controlled the narrative on Black political life, the Joint Center provided Black-led research on Black political participation.  It sought to avoid the mistakes of the past, where white academics like Gunnar Myrdal, author of An American Dilemma, had studied Black communities without engaging Black scholars like W.E.B. Du Bois and Carter G. Woodson.

A Lasting Legacy

Over the decades, the Joint Center has continued to evolve, adapting its research and advocacy to address the changing landscape of Black political and economic life.  From voting rights and criminal justice reform to technology and workforce development, the Center remains at the forefront of policy discussions that impact Black communities.

Louis Martin, Frank Reeves, and Kenneth Clark’s vision lives on in the organization’s commitment to using research and data to drive social change. Their belief that Black political participation and economic advancement are deeply connected remains a guiding principle of the Joint Center’s work.

Today, the Joint Center is a testament to its legacy, providing vital research and policy analysis to support Black leaders in government, business, and civil society.  Their foresight in creating an institution dedicated to Black political and economic empowerment has had a lasting impact, ensuring that future generations continue to benefit from informed and strategic leadership.

Through their efforts, Martin, Reeves, and Clark not only built an organization but also helped shape the trajectory of Black political power in America—an achievement that continues to resonate more than fifty years after the Joint Center’s founding.

The Joint Center’s work was essential in solidifying Black political gains made after the Civil Rights Movement.  While the 1968 Presidential Kerner Commission Report had warned that America was becoming “two societies, one black, one white—separate and unequal” and that “Negroes are systematically excluded from the mainstream of life,” the Joint Center worked to meet these challenges, by advancing Black institutions that could help address institutional racism.

The organization remains a vital force in American politics today, analyzing issues like voting rights, criminal justice reform, and economic opportunity. It has helped ensure that Black political representation is symbolic and substantive, contributing to meaningful policy change.

Louis Martin, Frank Reeves, and Kenneth Clark understood that electoral politics was not the end goal but a tool for Black liberation. By founding the Joint Center, they ensured that Black leaders had the knowledge, support, and strategy to navigate the system, build institutions, and fight for economic and political justice. More than fifty years later, their vision endures, proving that the struggle for Black political power is both a radical act and essential in shaping a more just society.