The crack epidemic devastates Black cities

Cheap crack cocaine floods urban neighborhoods, met with mass arrests rather than treatment.

Resources

Documentary tracing the 13th Amendment loophole to mass incarceration.

Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.

connects to (incoming)·Event
Gary Webb's "Dark Alliance"
Gary Webb traced a cocaine pipeline from CIA-backed Contras into Los Angeles — the supply that helped ignite the crack epidemic.
led to·Event
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986
Public panic over crack drove Congress to pass mandatory minimums within a year.

Gary Webb traced a cocaine pipeline from CIA-backed Contras into Los Angeles — the supply that helped ignite the crack epidemic.

Public panic over crack drove Congress to pass mandatory minimums within a year.