Impact of Marion Barry on Political Perceptions in Washington D.C.

Baltimore city had a strong economy, and it was among the top prosperous cities in the United States (U.S)leadingin wages, jobs, and industries up until the 1950s. Since the 1960s, however, the city has seen a decline in its economy as a result of systematic governance failures. Recently, Baltimore has been experiencing an increase in homicide unlike prior years, and in fact, by the end of 2015, various law enforcement organizations predict the city will break its homicide record. As a citizen, Baltimore’s murder rate is a crucial issue to tackle than police brutality because it is symptom indicative of larger issues that need to be addressed and solved in the black community. Three major issues often talked about in Baltimore

As a legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, blatant racism is no longer viewed as acceptable social behavior. However, the absence of blatant individual racism cannot be equated to the absence of structural racial discrimination. With the Thirteenth Amendment preserving slavery as punishment in the prison system, criminality is being manipulated by the media to be associated with race. We see the full effects of the overrepresentation with War on Drugs legislation, which are policies that categorized drug use as a crime instead of health issue pushed forward by the Reagan administration. The master narrative of the criminality painted the legislation as colorblind, or nondiscriminatory, policies that will benefit all citizens and created

Racial prejudice against McMillian is shown when the case was moved to a predominantly white county, therefore excluding other African-Americans from participating in the trail. Another example of racial prejudice against McMillian is shown when the court determines him to be guilty, despite hundreds of alibis proving his innocence and faulty allegations (Stevenson, 2014, p. 49-52, 66). These two examples show how racism plagues the American criminal

Michelle Obama is the topic of this research for she is a role model and inspiration to Americans across the nation. Michelle’s life has shown nothing but mere dedication, outstanding perseverance, a willingness to learn, affect change and be a leader to those who believe and admire her work. Raised on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, Obama is the daughter of Fraser Robinson III, a city water plant employee and Democratic precinct captain (Slevin, 2015). During her early years, Michelle has seen the detrimental effects segregation can have on a community, which was later reflected on her fight against inequality. Being raised on the

Former President Clinton called for a national crackdown on racial profiling and ordered federal law enforcement authorities to begin an investigation. (1) Vice President Al Gore promised the NAACP that should he become president eliminating the practice of racial profiling by the nation's police departments would be a top priority. (2) New Jersey Governor Christy Whitman fired Police Superintendent Carl Williams after the 35-year veteran trooper said in an interview that minorities are more likely to be involved in drug trafficking. (3)

Tulia, a small town in Texas of just under five-thousand people, is a frightening example of how the judicial system is governed solely by racism as well as one corrupt man’s word. In 1999, nearly ten percent of the town’s African American population was arrested in a single drug bust. Of the forty-six people arrested, thirty-eight were African-American, furthermore all were convicted. The remaining seven arrested where know to associate more with the black community than the white in Tulia as well. With the towns income levels averaging at or below the poverty line, most arrested could not afford to hire a good attorney that cared or had the time to care, left therefore with one provided by the state. Consequently, convictions were up to ninety years in jail for allegedly selling three and a half grams, more commonly known as an eight ball, of cocaine in drug-free zones. In was only on appeals, that the convictions where revoked on insubstantial evidence.

Recent sociological studies have focused on pressing social issues such as urban crime and mass incarceration, and examining the invisible link between urban crime, poverty and race. Research indicates that mass incarceration has always worked to the detriment of African Americans, especially the low-income earners (Western, 2006). The aftermath of this trend is that the employment prospects of former felons are significantly diminished (Pager, 2007). Felon disfranchisement in turn distorts the local and national politics of the county (Uggen, 2006). This paper focuses on addressing the contemporary trends and ramifications of mass incarceration of African Americans, and elucidating on the criminal justice policy and the factors contributing to the intangible but real racial divide.

Mass incarceration has recently become a major problem within the United States. Although crime rates have dropped since the 1990s, incarceration rates have soared. This trend is largely associated with increased enforcement of drug-related crimes. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, this problem involves racial discrepancies when regarding these mass incarcerations. Incarcerations appear to be the most prominent throughout urban areas and the south, which happen to be the areas where African American males often reside or where racial politics are known to be apparent. In turn, this leads to disproportionate imprisonments. This problem requires immediate attention, but aspects of state and local politics have intensified incarcerations due a variety of factors, which include the state’s focus on the financial incentives that the federal war on drugs has created, the “tough on crime” stance that many politicians posses (largely republican), and the lack of rehabilitation services.

Washington, D.C., is the nation’s only majority-black jurisdiction that controls sentencing policy yet, despite these external forces, local black elected officials exert considerable power over crime policy and have the ability to push back against federal actors.

Kelefa goes on to bring in important information regarding how African American lead political figures weighed in on laws for harsher crime penalties. A. Philip Rudolph, for example, was a civil rights activist, and pushed for a lifetime sentence without parole for using narcotics. Hulan Jack, a leader in Harlem, advocated for life imprisonment for mugging and thought the mass incarceration of the time was not mass enough. Groups of African Americans were created to push for the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Only once the laws were about to be voted on was the concern about police brutality brought up. By then support favored the drug laws and it was too late. It was black politicians who helped to raise awareness to drug crimes in the beginning.

Though Marion Barry faced many obstacles, he was able to change the black community in several ways. Even though many people judged him for previous mishaps, he had many hopes and concerns for African Americans.

Although tensions existed between both blocs, Harold Washington was able to prove that African American, like whites, could effectively run politics. The Mayor was able to renew the face of Chicago politics through a “rainbow coalition” that entailed the inclusion to high positions in the city government of “minorities, women, progressive whites and gays”. City agencies were more accountable, funds for social services were now given “to churches, social service organizations, and community organizations” so in this way there was not a patronage system been execute. He provided to many different communities the power needed to progress, a vision never seen before in Chicago. However, the City Council Wars saw an increased in the number committees going from 29 to 37 benefiting the “majority bloc supporters with chairmanships” and the budget for more council staff also grew. The end of Council Wars occurred when elections for aldermen took place in seven wards where racial inequality existed in Byrne’s remapping (CH7).

Seemingly dormant in its political formation, the mass amount of conservatives began to fear the apparent ramifications of an African-American man succeeding office. Surprisingly, Bradley's statistics were auspicious, leading the citywide vote and progressing to the runoff election to confront his opponent, Yorty (Kaufmann 2004, 69). Yorty, a conservative Democrat, realized that his political career was nearing its termination, and decided to take it upon himself to singlehandedly sway the perception of the gullible people, tainted by historical and contextual

More studied than the effect of felon disenfranchisement on individuals is the effect on the wider community. These laws diminish the voice of the Black community in multiple ways. First, they generally dilute the power of the Black vote, particularly because the disenfranchised population of a city tends to be concentrated in relatively few neighborhoods. For example, a 1992 study “showed that 72% of all of New York State's prisoners came from only 7 of New York City's 55 community board districts,” and a 2003 study showed that “53% of Illinois prisoners released in 2001 returned to Chicago, and 34% of those releases were concentrated in 6 of 77 Chicago communities.” This is problematic because, as law professor Debra Parkes summarizes: “When the views of one group are systematically cut out of the political process, the public debate will be skewed.” When the disenfranchised are concentrated in few neighborhoods, the political power of those neighborhoods is reduced.

The election of President Obama marks the most noteworthy political accomplishment for African Americans in the United States during the post-civil rights revolution, thus bringing about a change in the country’s social and political landscape that was steeped in racial discrimination since the founding of this great nation. Because social and political conditions are subject to constant change, President Obama’s