“The rhetoric of “law and order” was first mobilized in the late 1950s as Southern governors and law enforcement officials attempted to generate and mobilize white opposition to the Civil Rights Movement. In the years following Brown v. Board of Education, civil rights activists used direct-action tactics in an effort to force reluctant Southern states to desegregate public facilities. Southern governors and law enforcement officials often characterized these tactics as criminal and argued that the rise of the Civil Rights Movement was indicative of a breakdown of law and order. Support of civil rights legislation was derided by Southern conservatives as merely “rewarding lawbreakers.” ...”
The New Jim Crow: Mapping the Parallels
The New Jim Crow: Mapping the Parallels “Those cycling in and out of prisons today are members of America’s new racial undercaste. ...”
The racial dimension of mass incarceration is its most striking feature . . .
“The racial dimension of mass incarceration is its most striking feature. No other country imprisons so many of its racial or ethnic minorities. The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., it is estimated that three out of four young... Continue Reading →