Willie Horton Ad Deploys Racial Fear in Presidential Campaign

Lee Atwater's political action committee airs the Willie Horton attack ad against Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis, featuring a menacing mug shot of Willie Horton, a Black man who committed assault while on a Massachusetts furlough program. Atwater later admits the ad was designed to use race as a wedge. Political scientists cite it as a defining moment in the use of racial coding in modern electoral politics.