Crack in Los Angeles: Crisis, Militarization, and Black Response to the Late Twentieth-Century War on Drugs

• Published in: The Journal of American history (Bloomington, Ind.) Vol. 102; no. 1; pp. 162 - 173
• Main Author: Murch, Donna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Organization of American Historians 01.06.2015
• Subjects: 20th century; African Americans; American history; Civil rights movements; Drug policy; Drugs; Illegal drug operations; Politics; Reinforcement; War; Los Angeles California; United States > US

Here, Murch provides the first historical analysis of the "crack crisis" at the epicenter of the war on drugs in the 1980s. She examines how diverse communities in Los Angeles came to define drugs as a transformative social crisis that demanded an unyielding carceral response. In particula...