Criminal Justice
“All that’s left of the ‘black community’…is deviant, delinquent and criminal adults…” -John DiIulio, American Scholar 1994
The criminal justice system was an effective deterrent to the Civil Rights Movement. In 1956, the grand jury indicted 89 Montgomery bus boycott leaders. By 1961, 8 million blacks were incarcerated across the globe. The U.S. alone had 300,000 in 1972.
The issues of the past, however, continued to drive these sentences. ”A presumption of guilt and dangerousness has been assigned to African Americans” and in most cases they did not receive a trial. Unfortunately, African Americans were also used as scapegoats for white crime or even political movements. The War on Drug, for example, was done with the intent to "criminalize black people." In addition, the Supreme Court would also pass legislative laws in support of segregation (See bottom of Segregation).
"Did we know we were lying about drugs? of course we did." - John Ehrlichman, Domestic Policy Chief to Richard Nixon 1994
Excessive punishment to the extent of lynching was also a terrifying reality. "For every 10 people sentenced for death, 1 was innocent and released." In resistance to racial terror, the NAACP and anti-lynching advocates displayed flag outside their headquarters for each lynching report. The flag symbolized growing resistance to racial terrorism in America.
Today over 2 million African Americans are imprisoned in the USA. Statistics show that "⅓ black baby boys are expected to end up in jail or prison." In addition, 13 states do not have a minimum age for trying children as adults. With racial injustice still having its hold in the world, this could become a problem and try to target against all the work done to get to where our nation is today.