The symbolic importance of Barack Obama's election is without question. But beyond symbolism, does the election of African-American politicians matter? Grose argues that it does and presents a unified theory of representation. Electing African-American legislators yields more federal dollars and congressional attention directed toward African-American voters. However, race and affirmative action gerrymandering have no impact on public policy passed in Congress. Grose is the first to examine a natural experiment and exceptional moment in history in which black legislators – especially in the U.S. South – represented districts with a majority of white constituents. This is the first systematic examination of the effect of a legislator's race above and beyond the effect of constituency racial characteristics. Grose offers policy prescriptions, including the suggestion that voting rights advocates, the courts, and redistricters draw “black decisive districts,” electorally competitive districts that are likely to elect African Americans. "Congress in Black and White is a timely and must-read for scholars serious about studying the political representation of underrepresented groups and for policymakers evaluating the efficacy of majority black and influence districts." -Michael Minta, Perspectives on Politics "[M]akes a compelling case that indeed race does matter for substantive outcomes." -Cindy Simon Rosenthal, Legislative Studies Book Notes . "This is an important book, and it will be widely read and recognized....I advise those with an interest in the historical evolution of voting rights law, in the impact of roll call voting, in a review of the multi-layered literature on the growing participation of African-Americans in national legislative representation and issues of substantive representation, in the complex debates about the appropriate strategies for racial redistricting and in the impact of majority-minority districts, to read this book." -Dianne Pinderhughes, Congress & the Presidency Provides the first systematic examination of the effect of a legislator's race above and beyond the effect of constituency racial characteristics. Christian Grose is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Southern California, where he has served on the faculty since 2010. He previously taught at Vanderbilt University and Lawrence University. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of Rochester and received his BA from Duke University. His research has focused on American political institutions (Congress and the Presidency), legislative representation, distributive public policy, voting rights and racial politics. In addition to this book, he has published or has forthcoming 16 articles in scholarly journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Polity and Presidential Studies Quarterly. Christian received the 2010 CQ Press award for the best paper on legislative studies presented at the American Political Science Association meeting. He is also a previous recipient of the Carl Albert award for the best dissertation in legislative politics from the American Political Science Association. In addition to his scholarly work, he is a commentator on politics and public affairs in the media. Used Book in Good Condition