Fear of black lawlessness drove the US prison-state expansion

Evidence

Through the 1970s and 1980s, concerns over black lawlessness helped morph the United States into the prison state it has become, as draconian laws swelled prison populations throughout the country. Fears about substance abuse and related violence were exploited by politicians and led to a declaration of a war on drugs. The epidemic of crack cocaine, a drug associated with poor black neighborhoods, drove that war into a heated frenzy. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 211