When Crack Was King

Sourced Donovan Ramsey

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— Kait Rokowski (via lunamonchtuna)

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"The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the anti-war left and Black people. We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." -interview w/ John Ehrlichmann, counsel and assistant to Nixon for domestic affairs (1994)

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Recommendations of the Kerner Report: federal jobs program to increase black employment, diversifying police forces nationally, and investment in housing programs to break up residential segregation in the North and South

"White society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain it, and white society condones it."

"The commission's report is a physician's warning of approaching death, with a prescription for life. The duty of every American is to administer the remedy without regard for the cost and without delay." -MLK Jr

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July 28, 1967-11 person commission (Kerner commission) formed to investigate the cause of the riots and give recommendations to prevent future unrest

February 29, 1968-Kerner Report: "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one Black, one white-separate and unequal"

 Claims riots resulted from Black frustration w/ lack of economic opportunity and access to mainstream American life

Called out failures in housing, education, and social services that went unaddressed by federal and state governments

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1967-Stokely Carmichael (former chairman of the SNCC) joins the Black Panther Party and coins the phrase black power. "This is the twenty-seventh time I have been arrested and I ain't going to jail no more! The only way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin' us is to take over. What we gonna start sayin' now is Black Power!"

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October 1966-Black Panther Party for Self-Defense founded by Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, CA-political organization that believed in Black independence and armed resistance to state violence

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Aug 6, 1965-Voting Rights Act prohibits racial discrimination in voting

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July 2, 1964-Civil Rights Act outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin

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June 11, 1963-"100 years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free." -John F. Kennedy

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April 4, 1968-MLK Jr Assassination

Riots began again until April 14, 1968

"When white America killed Dr. King last night, she declared war on us."-Stokely Carmichael

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1967-Riots conclude w/ "civil disorders" and violent protests in 128 cities; 83 killed, many more injured, incalculable damage done

MLK Jr deems the riots the "language of the unheard"-"And what is it that America has failed to hear?...the economic plight of the Negro has worsened"

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August 11-16, 1965-Beating and arrest of 21 yr old Marquette Frye sets off the Watts riots

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Summer 1964-Riots across several major American cities including NYC, Rochester, Philly, Jersey City, Paterson, Elizabeth, Chicago

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August 28, 1963-March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC-MLK Jr delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech

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May 2, 1963- The Children’s Crusade made up of 1,000+ Black school children marches through Birmingham leading to an agreement in Birmingham to improve hiring opportunities for Black people and desegregate lunch counters, business, and restrooms

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May 4, 1961 - September 1961-Freedom Riders ride into the segregated South to challenge segregation laws

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November 14, 1960-Ruby Bridges becomes the first student to integrate William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans