Black vote for Nixon 1972 and Ford 1976

[SingingAnalyst]

I'm curious the source of these numbers (18% and 16%). Gallup had 13% of the "nonwhite" vote going to Nixon and 15% to Ford. In Detroit's 8th, 22nd and 23rd Precincts, the vote for Nixon was 4.9%, 3.5%, and 4.2% while Ford's share was 4.9%, 4.1%, and 4.2% respectively (Reagan's 1980 share was just 1.7%, 1.6%, and 1.3%). Back then few Blacks lived in suburbs, and if anything white "stay-behinds" exaggerated Black Republicanism slightly.

[SingingAnalyst]

Nixon really got desegregation rolling and he did a lot for black small-business owners...even without considering McGovern.

That’s interesting.

As a sidelight of sorts, in how many states did Nixon get a larger proportion of the black vote than McGovern did of the white vote?

I am almost absolutely sure that was the situation in all five Deep South states. It may possibly have been the situation in some of the Outer South states (NC and AR seem the most likely). Does anyone have details to confirm this?

I feel pretty certain about Mississippi, though that would be hard to prove.

James Meredith's 1972 GOP Senate run would seem to indicate at least a fair number of Mississippi Blacks were still Republican in 1972. Black turnout was probably dismal in Mississippi that year, which may explain why fewer votes for President were cast in that state in 1972 than four years earlier. (In Jefferson County, McGovern received 55% of the PV, but about 1/4 fewer votes than Humphrey, who had received 63% of the PV, with 4% for Nixon and 33% for Wallace). However, when one looks at McGovern's percentages in places like George County (6.3%), Tishomingo County (9.5%), and Itawamba County (10.3%), it would appear McGovern's white vote percentage was almost certainly in the single digits, while Nixon's Black vote percentage may well have reached the low teens.

[SingingAnalyst]

Nixon really got desegregation rolling and he did a lot for black small-business owners...even without considering McGovern.

That’s interesting.

As a sidelight of sorts, in how many states did Nixon get a larger proportion of the black vote than McGovern did of the white vote?

I am almost absolutely sure that was the situation in all five Deep South states. It may possibly have been the situation in some of the Outer South states (NC and AR seem the most likely). Does anyone have details to confirm this?

For historical reasons, it does make sense that in the 1970s, the Black vote in the Deep South may have been a bit more Republican than outside the South (though the 1968 results do not support this thesis). Perhaps this reasoning applies only to Black incumbents (Eisenhower in 1956, but not in 1952; Nixon and Ford in '72 and '76, but not Nixon '68 or Reagan '80). As late as 1992, I would say in the Jackson, MS area, Bush's Black vote percentage and Clinton's white vote percentage were probably similar. Hinds County in 1992 may have been the last Black-majority county to vote for Bush, and in adjacent Rankin County, which was 15% Black, Clinton got just 22.5%.

In Northern cities, Nixon and Ford appear to have gotten almost nothing from Black voters. In addition to the Detroit districts I cited earlier, Anacostia in Washington, DC voted 6.5% for Nixon in '72 and 4.1% for Ford in '76 (Reagan would get just 3.2% in 1980), while Roxbury and Mattapan in Boston gave Nixon around 10% in '72 and Ford less in '76. All of these percentages probably overstate the Black GOP vote slightly, because of white "stay-behinds".