Relations between blacks and Latinos in American politics and society have become an increasingly relevant concern, arguably growing more important and complex over time. Though these matters have been studied extensively, virtually absent in the research is a systematic assessment of minority intergroup relations at the national level. Nearly all the research on such relations in governmental decision-making institutions has focused on urban/local politics, while another body of research has focused on mass attitudes (cf., for example, Browning, Marshall, and Tabb 1984; Telles et al. 2011; Nelson and Lavariega Monforti 2005, along with many other studies, a number of which are examined in Chapter 2). This book examines black-Latino relations in national politics with the central goal of describing and assessing them, and seeking to better understand their nature – specifically, whether those relations are most often characterized by conflict, independence, cooperation, or something else. To study this question, we examine an array of evidence that provides a firm basis for assessing black-Latino relations at the national level, which is essential if we are also to consider what might explain those relations. But, again, as things stand, because the existing research generally focuses on local politics or other dimensions of black-Latino relations, there has been little to no adequate evidence on which to base either empirical assessments or the theoretical understanding of black-Latino relations in national politics.