ABSTRACT
Despite the end of Jim Crow, bias in the criminal justice system remains a major issue. The norms of distrust of black males, a product of the Jim Crow era, continue to be invoked by the police. Enacted in 1994, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act not only authorized the Department of Justice to go after police departments engaging in unconstitutional practices but sharply increased sanctions for criminal offenders and financed building new prisons. The crime rate in 1968 was very high compared to the relatively low rate in 2017. The courts and Congress are starting to look at the damage done during the last twenty years of getting tough on those who commit crimes. By the 1980s, many of the district attorneys in big cities were African Americans who sought to protect the civil rights of black communities by seeking harsh sentencing for minor crimes.
