Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America

Chapter 1 focuses on Black leaders’ support for the War on Drugs. The policy is often connected with President Richard Nixon, who announced “a new, all-out offensive” against drugs in 1971 (20). Nixon’s policies were aimed primarily at hard drugs. By contrast, police departments across the nation grew increasingly aggressive in their enforcement of marijuana laws, including DC’s Metropolitan Police Department (MPD). A predominantly Black city, Washington, DC, elected its first Black mayor in 100 years in 1974 (19). David Clarke, a white lawyer educated at Howard University (a historically Black school), was elected to the city council the following year. Clarke’s election coincided with a national move to decriminalize marijuana, a stance he supported. Decriminalization gained traction in the US after the release of a 1972 report by the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, which concluded that “experimental or intermittent use of [marijuana] carries minimal risk to public health” (21). Despite national developments, police in DC continued to pursue marijuana offenders, focusing their efforts on Black neighborhoods. As head of the city council’s Judiciary Committee, Clarke pushed back against the aggressive policing of marijuana laws. In 1975, he unveiled a bill to eliminate prison as a penalty for marijuana possession, replacing it with a monetary fine of $100.