Poll Finds Reagan Gains Among Blacks
More black Americans approve of President Reagan’s performance than in 1983, but a majority of them believes the President a racist, according to a poll released Friday.
Blacks are also optimistic about the future, according to the ABC News-Washington Post poll, taken Jan. 7-14.
Fifty-six percent of the blacks questioned said they thought Reagan was a racist, 31% did not and 13% had no opinion.
Twenty-three percent said they approved of Reagan’s handling of the presidency, 63% disapproved and 14% had no opinion.
This compares with an August, 1983, ABC News-Washington Post poll of blacks in which 9% said they approved of Reagan’s performance and 86% disapproved.
Fifty-seven percent of respondents in the latest poll said they thought that life for blacks in this country would be better in the future. Twenty-three percent said it would be about the same, 15% said it would be worse and 5% said they had no opinion.
ABC said 1,022 blacks were interviewed nationwide by telephone, and the poll had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.
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