The study of Black representation has focused largely on the relationship between formal congruence between having a descriptive representative and their commitments with respect to serving Black interests. But because the suite of tools that any individual Congressman has at their disposal are so often tied to factors beyond their control, the field has usually measured the quality of representation through formal measures such as roll-call votes and agenda setting rather than in terms of material outcomes. This dissertation attempts to re- center the study of material outcomes for understanding the impact of Black representation by looking at major changes in the institution of Congress and within the polity. In Chapter 1, the history of representation in the Courts is discussed to illuminate how the contempo- rary epistemological understanding of representation within political science was established, which is termed the comparative framework of representation. In Chapter 2, it is argued that the dynamics of the Congressional policymaking process have shifted the focus of Black lawmakers from being primarily concerned with legislating around issues chiefly relevant to Black communities and more so concerned with being party loyalists. Building on that, it is then argued that the nature of contemporary political science has shifted away from analysis of institutions and, in doing so, obscures the ways in which incentives of members across racial lines are circumscribed in ways that hamper the chances for substantive policies benefiting Black people to pass, a phenomenon called “anti-Black governance”. In Chapter 3, federal award funding sent home by Members of Congress is used to argue that Black members compensate for their legislative constraints through disproportionate effort in non- legislative activity, a strategy called representational triage. Finally, in Chapter 4, the desire for descriptive representation within Black communities is discussed as a counterweight to a more critical vision that would call for its elimination as a political tool.