African American electoral participation has steadily risen over the past decades, reaching a peak of more than 65 percent of those eligible in the presidential election of 2012. Four years later, only 58 percent of eligible black Americans cast a ballot, a decline unprecedented in modern times for any American ethnic group. Perhaps black voters were uninspired by Hillary Clinton’s candidacy. “Young Black Voters Voice Doubts About Clinton,” reported the New York Times on September 5, 2016.2 On the other hand, similar headlines could surely have been reported about John Kerry in 2004. Yet
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