Trump Claims African Americans Have Chosen Democrats for 100 Years—Except His Math Is Way Off

Angela Helm | The Root

During a campaign stop WWE match political rally in Nashville, Tenn., on Tuesday night, President Donald Trump claimed that African-American voters have been choosing Democrats almost exclusively for over a century.

“African Americans vote for Democrats, for the most part. Vast majority. They’ve been doing it for over a hundred years,” he told fans at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.

Earlier in the day, Trump held a fundraising event in support of Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who is running a close race for the U.S. Senate against former two-term Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, a Democrat, the result of which may tip the balance of power in the Senate.

Trump, who tends to go off on tangents and reality, did so again, because the 100-year claim sounded all good, except that it would be a lie ahistorical—not only because a century ago, black folks tended to choose the “party of Lincoln,” but also because black people were disenfranchised up until the 1960s in this country.

So, if one did the math, it would mean that African Americans have only “voted for Democrats” for about 50 years (something that those who like to say that slavery and its effects happened so long ago should be keen to remember).

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