Contents -- Part I: Black Mayors and the Quest for Democracy -- 1 Introduction: Black Mayors and Social Change -- Transformative Black Politics: A Third Wave -- Is Empowerment Possible? -- Power and Deep Pluralism -- Gear Shifting: The Strategic Use of Civil Power in Building Coalitions -- From Coalitions to Alliances -- 2 "The Dirty Little Secret" of Black Politics -- Accountability as a Political Imperative for Black Mayors -- "They May Be Vulnerable Themselves": The Logic of Demobilization of the Black Community -- Resources for Mobilization: Old and New Forms of Patronage -- Does the Institutionalization of Black Politics Preclude Disruptive Politics? -- 3 Acquiring, Building, and Sustaining Power: Black CivicOrganizations in Urban Democracy -- Contours and Divides in Black Political Thought -- Popular Support for Differing Black Political Strategies -- Trends in Black Civic Participation and Capacity -- Community-Based Organizations -- Trade Unions -- Black Churches -- Black Coalitions -- Recent National Coalition Efforts -- Black Mayors and Black Coalitions -- Community Capacity for Pluralism -- 4 Race and Interracial Coalitions -- Ideal and Less-than-Ideal Biracial Coalitions -- Black Mayoral Politics -- Black/White Racial Dialogue -- Intraminority Coalitions -- Black Mayors and Interracial Solidarity -- Racial Solidarity in Oakland -- Part II: The Dinkins Experience -- 5 "Cursed by Factions and Feuds": Black Factionalism and the Structure of New York City Government -- Black Political Beginnings in New York City -- The New Deal-World War II Era -- Post-New Deal Stagnation in Racial Progress -- New York's Political Structure and Its Effect on Black Politics -- Black Electoral Politics in Manhattan -- Black Politics in Brooklyn -- Black Machine Politics in Queens -- Fighting Puerto Ricans in the Bronx.

Attempts to Build Citywide Black Coalitions in the 1980s -- The 1984 Jackson Presidential Campaign in New York City -- The Coalition for a Just New York (CJNY) -- The Third Attempt: The 1988 Jackson Campaign -- Why a Black Coalition Emerged During Dinkins's Campaign for Mayor -- 6 "Set Up a Think Tank": A Black Mayor's Accountability to the Black Community: The Case of David Dinkins -- Pressures to Conform -- Shift in Political Strategy: Community Mobilization and Power -- Promise and Pitfalls in Using Administrative Power to Organize the Black Community -- 7 Race, Class, and Ideology in a New York Mayoral Election -- Conservative White Mobilization and Resurgent Black Nationalism -- "Go Black" or "Go White": A Mayor's Impossible Choice -- From Black Nationalism to Multiracial Coalition Building -- Race and Ideological Polarization in New York -- Summing-Up: Race and Political Change in New York City -- 8 Conclusion: From Con.ict to Transformation -- Deepening Black Pluralism and Counterarguments in Other Cities -- Arguments for Regionalism -- Notes -- References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.