Until recently African American intellectuals were assumed to be liberal and aligned with the Democratic Party. The 1980s witnessed the emergence of black intellectuals Thomas Sowell, Shelby Steele and Stephen Carter, among others, who questioned the value of what they described as the civil rights consensus. They were joined in this position by former activists, like ex-Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver, and CORE national director, Roy Innis, who shifted to the right. No longer dismissed as representatives of an outlandish strain of conservatism among a small minority of African Americans, these intellectuals are now an elite representing a middle class that has undergone a political shift to the right at least with regard to economic issues. Their success was embodied in the elevation of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and in the support found in the ranks of the Republican Party for black talk-show hosts Alan Keyes and Ken Hamblin.

Black conservatives contend that federal welfare programs have contributed to dependency among the poor, and that self-help programs reminiscent of Booker T. Washington are more appropriate remedies for urban deprivation. Further, in a return to the ideas of E. Franklin Frazier and the Moynihan Report, they have stressed the need to focus on the problems associated with African American men, arguing that the lack of male role models in families has created men unable to work for a living and prone to the influences of drugs and crime. Their appeal among African American feminist intellectuals has, not surprisingly been weak. Further, while many of them object to Louis Farrakhan, many agreed with the underlying objectives of the Million Man March.