Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Keywords
race, segregation, Jim Crow, new Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander, incarceration
Abstract
This article revisits the claim that mass incarceration constitutes a new form of racial segregation, or JimCrow. Drawing from historical sources, it demonstrates that proponents of the analogy miss an important commonality between the two phenomena, namely the debt that each owe to progressive and/or liberal politics. Though generally associated with repression and discrimination, both Jim Crow and massincarceration owe their existence in part to enlightened reforms aimed at promoting black interests; albeit with perverse results. Recognizing the aspirational origins of systematic discrimination marks an important facet of comprehending the persistence of racial inequality in the United States.
Recommended Citation
Walker, Anders, The New Jim Crow? Recovering the Progressive Origins of Mass Incarceration (March 6, 2014). Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.