Presidential Leadership and Race Relations: A Ranking the Modern Presidents

• In Event: The US Presidency through the Lens of Race Relations

Abstract

Since the middle of the twentieth century, political scientists and historians have conducted surveys of experts to establish rankings of U.S. presidents based on the leadership that they provided during their terms in office. Most of these extant rankings were based on samples that either excluded or undercounted scholars from diverse backgrounds. These same studies have also tended to overlook the importance of presidential leadership in the field of race relations. The article corrects both of these oversights by surveying a diverse set of experts on race relations about the leadership abilities of the modern presidents. We find that the evaluations produced by our expert panel differ markedly from previous rankings of presidential leadership.

Authors

• Christina M. Greer, Fordham University

• Alvin B. Tillery, Northwestern University