The First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America

Studies in Postwar American Political Development

by Naomi Murakawa

The explosive rise in the U.S. incarceration rate in the second half of the 20th century, and the racial transformation of the prison population from mostly white at mid-century to 65% black and Latino in the present day, is a trend that cannot easily be ignored. Many believe this shift began with the "tough on crime" policies advocated by Republicans and southern Democrats beginning in the late 1960s, which sought longer prison sentences, more frequent use of the death penalty, and the explicit or implicit targeting of politically marginalized people.

In The First Civil Right, Naomi Murakawa inverts the conventional wisdom by arguing that the expansion of the federal carceral state--a system that disproportionately imprisons blacks and Latinos--was, in fact, rooted in the civil-rights liberalism of the 1940s and early 1960s, not in the period after.

Murakawa traces the development of the modern American prison system through several presidencies, both Republican and Democrat. Responding to calls to end the lawlessness and violence against blacks at the state and local levels, the Truman administration expanded the scope of what was previously a weak federal system. Later administrations from Johnson to Clinton expanded the federal presence even more.

Ironically, these steps laid the groundwork for the creation of the vast penal archipelago that now exists in the United States. What began as a liberal initiative to curb the mob violence and police brutality that had deprived racial minorities of their 'first civil right'--physical safety--eventually evolved into the federal correctional system that now deprives them, in unjustly large numbers, of another important right: freedom.

The First Civil Right is a groundbreaking analysis of root of the conflicts that lie at the intersection of race and the legal system in America.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Race, Social Justice, Law, American History

280 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Allee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be required reading for anyone working in racial justice or criminal justice reform. Murakawa traces a number of ways that ostensibly well-meaning liberals have actually expanded the carceral state. The liberal response to police brutality is to 'professionalize police' aka give them more money for more training, new and better equipment. The liberal response to racially disparate sentences is to set sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimums. The liberal response to racial violence like lynchings is to position the state as the answer with harsher penalties. The liberal response to the death penalty is to make sure that it is as procedurally 'fair' as possible. None of these 'reforms' actually interrogate the role of the criminal justice system, the definition of crime, or structural racism; instead they expand and calcify a racist system and cloak it in supposed race-neutral procedural safeguards.

Unfortunately, Murakawa's prose is really dense and academic, so even though it should be required reading, I think the text would ward off all but the most ambitious. I struggled to get through it myself.

[Alan Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compelling argument that the usual way of looking at law and order (GOP is tough on crime, demos are soft on crime), is wrong. Instead, the rise in mass incarceration is ultimately laid at the feet of liberals as much as conservatives.

Specifically, the author argues that liberals have looked at "law and order" (a/k/a the carceral state) as a solution to lawlessness...whether it be lawless lynchings, riots, or "black on black crime." By focusing on procedural reforms, liberals, like conservatives, have allowed to go unchallenged the fundamental assumption that incarceration, and more broadly state violence/coercion, is the solution to societal problems and/or is the proper role of the state.

Fascinating read.

[Alex MacMillan · Rating 1 out of 5]

In response to state sanctioned lynchings and race riots, liberals reformed the criminal justice system to secure due process for all, seeking impartial procedures and professionalized enforcement. The author relies upon a specious postmodern analysis to not only claim that these reforms were somehow racist, but also to avoid having to propose a clear and workable alternative to the present system. You can support sentencing reform without throwing out the baby with the bath water.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible. It is quite dense with scholarship, footnotes, tables, and references, but all that smarty stuff is my jam so I absolutely LOVED it. I won't even try to go over all the nuances, as that would be a major disservice to Murakawa's work.
Simple summary: White Supremacist America has no specific party affiliation. Both Republicans and Democrats, conservatives, moderates, centrists, liberals, far-right, far-left, and anywhere else in between have built, strengthened, and justified a massive, structurally racist Prison-Industrial Complex and Law-And-Order system that criminalizes being Black in America. Slavery was just the beginning of legally ruining the lives of Black Americans. The White Supremacist State has just increased its willingness to void the lives of Black Americans to maintain power.
This book should be read by anyone interested in multiple aspects of the carceral state - its creation, growth, and justification - and anyone interested in the racist underpinnings of the US government and its criminal "justice" machinery.
Also of note: Joe Biden is MASSIVELY racist, as the book shows quite clearly. So anyone believing his rhetoric in 2020 should not forget how he had a powerful hand in destroying the lives of Black Americans just to hold office and strengthen the Democrat's hold in Congress and the Presidency back in the 80's and 90's.
Bill Clinton? Also a huge racist. Ugh.

[Viral · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been meaning to read this book for ages, and I'm glad I finally got around to it!

This book is a very critical intervention that more folks need to read as PIC abolition becomes a more core feature of the radical left. Naomi Murakawa does a great job of skewering the classic simple tale of New Deal liberals getting caught off guard by tough-on-crime law-and-order conservatives and valiantly fighting to stop the neoliberal mass incarceration that followed the end of the New Deal order. Instead, she very clearly shows that the post WWII liberal order was predicated on a commitment to expanding state engagement in violence as a liberal way of rectifying the harms of Jim Crow. For instance, the crisis of lynching was not understood as the most egregious manifestation of white supremacy; it was the result of "lawlessness", and could be reined in with prosecutorial oversight, sentencing guidelines, and a formalization of execution practices (all which would become core to the "new Jim Crow"). The list goes on, and the core of the book is showing how many New Deal liberals created the legal frameworks and architecture that law-and-order conservatives would seize and exploit, making them an important if forgotten component of the story. Reform is often just "re-form".

A very thorough and precise piece of scholarship, and very needed in this moment.

[Michael Steffan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was wavering between a 2 and 3 before the last 5 pages. Parts of the book are disorganized and redundant. There are moments where facts have been weakly threaded to what seems like the authors already preconceived conclusions. There are also a few mathematically incorrect statements based on her graphs. I know that's potentially pedantic, but hey, I'm a former math teacher. :-)

All that being said, this book was very well researched and very thoughtful. It really provides a pertinent narrative of the evolution of the carceral system that must be appreciated. I wish a larger proportion of the book was spent on the discussion of what changes she views as necessary as opposed to just thoroughly reprimanding both parties. But I suppose that book would have a different title.

[Unreasonably · Rating 3 out of 5]

Incredible amount of information in this book, but the limited scope and deliberately cautious conclusions drawn drags it down. It's thoroughly academic, and too self-conscious about the potentially radical implications of its findings to do much but appease scholarly nitpickers (many of whom will be liberals convinced of their own good intentions regardless).

It does exhaustively prove that mid-to-late 20th Century liberal politicians accepted the implicit premises (and false promises) of the American criminal justice system, which led to racist outcomes -- regardless of intent. I don't doubt that's still up for debate in some quarters, but I'm skeptical that Murakawa's intervention will convince people who weren't already on board.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though imperfect, this book engages in some important critical analysis of how liberal policies have damaged anti-racist progression in the United States. This is a well-researched journey that examines how the political volley between Republicans and Democrats through history has escalated state-sanctioned violence and redirected progressive efforts into pedantic, palatable administrative changes that ultimately just excuse broken systems. Though I sometimes struggled with what the author is suggesting should have been done instead (the biggest and possible only organizational flaw), this book gave me a new perspective on liberal political history that I find invaluable in navigating our current political climate. This is a read that takes dedication to get through if you’re not accustomed to reading straight academic text, but it’s ultimately worth it. Edited to 5 stars because I can’t stop thinking about it.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Murakawa traces Democratic policy making around policing in the second half of the 20th c. She argues that Democrats focused on a carceral state that was “rights laden, rule bound, and rational.” Through professionalization policing could be hardened to attack against racism while not making it less violent but merely proscribing how it could be violent.

[Jane K · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. This book is excellent for anyone interested in understanding the political origins of the modern carceral state. Murakawa's writing style is engaging in a way that keeps what easily could have been an incredibly dry and dull read captivating.

[Zoe Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

The topic, methodology, and analysis that Murakawa bring with this short book are all fantastic. I great no-bullshit study that demonstrates the liberal fatalism that is the carceral state.

[Sandeep · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rigorously defended and important thesis.

[Nunyabeeswax · Rating 5 out of 5]

necessary read about the complicity of liberals in building mass incarceration, complicating the backlash thesis of the nixon & reagan era in important and productive ways

[Clare · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the understanding and conceptual framework of seeing the problem of racial justice through the state apparatus, the author proposes that the laws that have been created to build out the current carceral punishment complex, also known as the prison industrial complex, are a part of a liberal law-and-order agenda. This liberal law-and-order agenda has used as decades have past all sorts of societal issues but specifically the "racial tension" or white violence that this country has been built upon since its inception. This white violence has been taken and regurgitated into black criminology which has been inverted from the actions of black people as a group fighting for their "civil rights". In black folks fighting for their rights and whites enacting violent resistance against that, the government stepped in to not just narrowly hold a monopoly on that violence but to administer it in a way that validates and sanctions it because of its perceived neutrality via explicit, concise, and accurate execution of carceral punishment.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am very glad I read this book. It was not an easy read, but a very necessary one. The author’s analysis of how we have come to live in such a “prison America” is quite nuanced and thought provoking. The author makes a compelling case for politicians trying out gun (so to speak) each other on proving how tough they are on crime - and damn the consequences to the real people who end up incarcerated. This is a brilliant, thoughtful, analysis of how we have come to this point that makes one aware of the real challenges for things to get better.

[Kevin Lykins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good read

Good read. Easy to follow and does an excellent job relating history with present issues. Read for a class and finished the book with a full understanding of it's purpose.

[Chance Grable · Rating 3 out of 5]

An important intervention in literature on the emergence of the carceral state. Not the most expansive or accessible book, but opens up the discussion on how liberals and liberalisms distinctly contributed to the building of a racialized carceral state.

[Victoria Tankersley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. Murakawa reveals how the rhetoric of the Civil Rights movement actually created an environment in which naturalized, 'objective' racism could occur.

[Zack]

This book was dope as fuck. You should probably read it.