Reimagining Black Conservatism: The Invisible Black Community and the Forgotten War on “Black-on-Black Crime” during the Post–World War II Urban Crisis (1970s-1980s)

Abstract

This article examines how the post–World War II urban crisis of “Black-on-Black crime” provides a case study for understanding the nuances of modern Black conservatism during the 1970s. It complicates how Black conservatism is commonly understood through a Republican lens by looking at mostly working- and middle-class Democrats in urban communities who remained loyal to the party while adopting conservative views about crime in their neighborhoods. Against the backdrop of civil rights and Black Power militancy, an invisible Black community of anticrime advocates adopted socially conservative views on crime that addressed their racialized, gendered, and socioeconomic experiences in postwar Black America. Their political ideology broadens the definition of Black conservatism to include race, gender, class, and local issues—especially crime—demonstrating its saliency among a wider swathe of the community that extends beyond Black Republicans or self-described conservatives.