Recommended reading: In the Balance of Power

Independent Black Politics and Third-Party Movements in the United States
By Omar H. Ali
Ohio University Press and Swallow Press
Foreword by Eric Foner
With the presidential election looming, the “black vote” has been deemed a crucial portion of the electorate. Historically, most black voters have aligned themselves with one of the two major parties—the Republican Party from the time of the Civil War to the New Deal; and, since the New Deal, and especially since the height of the modern civil rights movement, the Democratic Party.However, as In the Balance of Power convincingly demonstrates, African Americans have long been part of independent political movements...