In an era when “Black lives matter” has become a crucial rallying cry across the country and when African-American concern for racial inequality and discrimination hovers at extraordinary levels, it can be difficult to assess the political significance of a group as marginal as black Republicans. Only 11 percent of black people identify as or…

On a Saturday evening in February of 1966, over a thousand mostly white Republican men and women crowded into a Cleveland hotel banquet hall, eager to hear Jackie Robinson’s opening keynote for the annual Ohio Republican Conference. The baseball icon-turned-political activist did not disappoint. “I am not what is known as a good Republican,” Robinson…

“Get him the hell out of here,” said Donald Trump. Later, Trump’s supporters shouted, “Go home, n—ger.” That’s the claim by Mercutio Southall, co-founder of the Birmingham, Ala., chapter of Black Lives Matter. Video footage of the incident, which has gone viral, shows white Trump supporters shoving, punching and kicking the black activist in response…