Democracy's Capital: Black Political Power in Washington, D.C., 1960s–1970s by Lauren Pearlman [Book Review]

Abstract

Lauren Pearlman uses black activists' fight for home rule in the nation's capital as a lens through which to investigate a multitude of issues in modern black history. These issues include the tensions between national civil rights organizations and local campaigns, the incorporation of black moderates into governing coalitions and the concomitant marginalization of radical politics, and most centrally, the transformations of the welfare state and the carceral state on the municipal level. In sum, Pearlman compellingly reveals how the federal government weaponized racist crime discourses to undermine black Washingtonians' fight for self-determination.

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