The rural-urban divide in yesterday's special election in Alabama for a U.S. Senate seat wasn’t as important as race, a demographic that bridged the rural-urban divide.
Exit polls showed Democrat Doug Jones got 96 percent of the vote among African Americans, who are concentrated in urban areas and the Black Belt, a swath of land that was named for its soil. The largest plantations were concentrated there, and many freed slaves hung on as sharecroppers after the Civil War.
In his race with former judge Roy Moore, Jones won only one of the exit poll's four regions, Birmingham and South Central, the latter being roughly analogous to the Black Belt — the buckle of which is Dallas County, where the seat is Selma, epicenter of the battle for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Black turnout was also important. African-Americans make up 26 percent of Alabama's population, but the exit poll determined that they made up 30 percent of the vote yesterday.
Alabama is the ninth most rural state, with 41 percent of the population living in rural areas, but it's becoming more urban.
Exit polls showed Democrat Doug Jones got 96 percent of the vote among African Americans, who are concentrated in urban areas and the Black Belt, a swath of land that was named for its soil. The largest plantations were concentrated there, and many freed slaves hung on as sharecroppers after the Civil War.
In his race with former judge Roy Moore, Jones won only one of the exit poll's four regions, Birmingham and South Central, the latter being roughly analogous to the Black Belt — the buckle of which is Dallas County, where the seat is Selma, epicenter of the battle for the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Black turnout was also important. African-Americans make up 26 percent of Alabama's population, but the exit poll determined that they made up 30 percent of the vote yesterday.
Alabama is the ninth most rural state, with 41 percent of the population living in rural areas, but it's becoming more urban.
from The Rural Blog http://ift.tt/2AjilPo Race meant more in Alabama's election than the rural-urban divide, which the result bridged - Entrepreneur Generations
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