Document Type

Undergraduate Research Paper

Publication Date

2025

Paper Status

Winner

Abstract

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson declared a war on poverty during his first State of the Union address. The policies that followed were designed to support the most economically vulnerable citizens and promote integration and equality. In spite of this progress, civil unrest throughout the 1960s had the effect of shifting the feelings of White people from supportive to fearful. Riots and protests across the country demanding equality, rather than garner sympathy for their cause, generated renewed calls for law and order. Only a year after announcing his War on Poverty, Johnson pivoted and declared a War on Crime, greatly expanding police powers and resources. By laying this groundwork, Johnson unwittingly set in motion the carceral crisis we still observe today. Through my research, I sought to uncover how the relationship between criminality, skin color, and White fears evolved during the Johnson administration. Why was criminality assigned to and constructed within the characteristic of being Black? What pressure was Johnson under that caused him to change his strategy? To answer these questions, I drew on the work of other sociolegal scholars, historians, theoreticians of presidential power, specific laws passed during the 1960s, and statistics regarding rates of incarceration.

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