How the black vote became a political monolith

Theodore R Johnson's rationale for voting for the first time in 2008 was much like his father’s two decades earlier  — he was not going to stand idly by if there was a chance to put a black man in those rooms

Scenes of elation at the Democrat's after-party in Seattle, Washington State, as results are announced and it becomes clear Barak Obama will become the next president of the United States. Picture: iStock

In the autumn of 2008, just a few weeks after my 33rd birthday, I cast a ballot for the first time. 

Up to that point, serving in the military seemed like more than sufficient civic engagement and provided a ready excuse for voluntarily opting out of several elections. By the time Barack Obama won the Democratic primary, I was an officer who’d spent more than a decade in the navy and not a second in a voting booth.